 At the end of February 1933 the Reichstag fire was instantly blamed on the Communists, and in March 1933.By this time persecution and arrests of Communist parliamentarians had already started, and following reconfiguration, at the Bürgerschaft session of 8 March 1933 Communist members no longer took part.More than fifty years later she disclosed that a couple of weeks before the party's exclusion from the Hamburg parliament Magda Kelms had collected from the city hall 2,000 Marks in attendance allowances for the Communist Party members, which would be used for the support of comrades continuing to work (now illegally) for the party.