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His friend<ref>{{cite book |title=The undiscovered Paul Robeson: an artist's journey, 1898-1939 |last=Robeson |first=Paul |year=2001 |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |location=Hoboken, N.J. |isbn=0471242659 |page=329 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=H0k2fhNWzwAC |accessdate=24 August 2010}}</ref> Herbert Marshall would write after Robeson's death in 1976 that Pera Attasheva, widow of Soviet propaganda-film director Sergei Eisenstein, told him that for his meeting with Robeson, Pfeffer “had actually been brought from the Lubyanka prison. Pfeffer had been specially groomed and dressed and warned to behave properly, to pretend that everything was normal. He had, and then he was taken back to the KGB prison. Some time later he was executed, as one of a host of Yiddish intellectuals who were liquidated at the same time.”<ref>Herbert Marshall, "Obituary: Paul Robeson (1898-1976)," [http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=15&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies, No. 17] (Southern Illinois University Carbondale), (Spring 1976), p. 4</ref>

His friend<ref>{{cite book |title=The undiscovered Paul Robeson: an artist's journey, 1898-1939 |last=Robeson |first=Paul |year=2001 |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |location=Hoboken, N.J. |isbn=0471242659 |page=329 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=H0k2fhNWzwAC |accessdate=24 August 2010}}</ref> Herbert Marshall would write after Robeson's death in 1976 that Pera Attasheva, widow of Soviet propaganda-film director Sergei Eisenstein, told him that for his meeting with Robeson, Pfeffer “had actually been brought from the Lubyanka prison. Pfeffer had been specially groomed and dressed and warned to behave properly, to pretend that everything was normal. He had, and then he was taken back to the KGB prison. Some time later he was executed, as one of a host of Yiddish intellectuals who were liquidated at the same time.”<ref>Herbert Marshall, "Obituary: Paul Robeson (1898-1976)," [http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=15&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies, No. 17] (Southern Illinois University Carbondale), (Spring 1976), p. 4</ref>

Robeson's son vociferously denied this story, writing to Marshall, “Your description of events that supposedly occurred during two of Paul Robeson's post-war visits to the U.S.S.R. are wholly false according to my father's personal recounting of these events to me.”<ref>Letter from Paul Robeson, Jr. to Herbert Marshall, April 29, 1976, reprinted in Herbert Marshall, "Paul Robeson's Obituary&mdash;The Aftermath]," [http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=16&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies, No. 18] (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) (Fall 1976), p. 1</ref> But two decades years later, Robeson, Jr., would admit that Attasheva's story actually was true. “Pfeffer had disappeared, nobody knew where he was,” he said. “He had been arrested, he was sitting in the Lubyanka Prison.” According to Mikhoels' daughter, “There were rumors that during the third-degree they tore his [Pfeffer's] finger nails out.”<ref>“Ходили слухи, что на допросах у Фефера вырвали ногти.” Наталия Михоэлс-Вовси, "Убийство Михоэлса," [http://www.belousenko.com/vremya_i_my/vremya_i_my_3.pdf ''Время и Мы: журнал литературы и общественных проблем'', No. 3] (Январь 1976), Тель-Авив (Natalya Mikhoels-Vovsi, "The Assassination of Mikhoels," ''Time and We: the journal of literature and public problems'', No. 3 [January 1976], pp. 173-197 [PDF 88-100]) Quote appears on p. 190 (PDF p. 97). The English translation used here is from Herbert Marshall, "Paul Robeson's Obituary&mdash;The Aftermath]," [http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=16&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies No. 18] (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) (Fall 1976), p. 4</ref> After Robeson asked to see him, said his son, the NKVD “gathered him [Pfeffer] up, sent him home, dressed him up, gave him a meal and turned him loose in the lobby of the hotel, he couldn't run anywhere...”<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-6/robeson2.html Interview with Paul Robeson, Jnr. (Part 2)] (Episode 6: Reds, [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/ Interview transcripts], “Cold War,” [http://www.cnn.com/ CNN]), [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ National Security Archive], [http://www.gwu.edu/ The George Washington University].</ref>

Robeson's son vociferously denied this story, writing to Marshall, “Your description of events that supposedly occurred during two of Paul Robeson's post-war visits to the U.S.S.R. are wholly false according to my father's personal recounting of these events to me.”<ref>Letter from Paul Robeson, Jr. to Herbert Marshall, April 29, 1976, reprinted in Herbert Marshall, "Paul Robeson's Obituary&mdash;The Aftermath," [http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=16&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies, No. 18] (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) (Fall 1976), p. 1</ref> But two decades years later, Robeson, Jr., would admit that Attasheva's story actually was true. “Pfeffer had disappeared, nobody knew where he was,” he said. “He had been arrested, he was sitting in the Lubyanka Prison.” According to Mikhoels' daughter, “There were rumors that during the third-degree they tore his [Pfeffer's] finger nails out.”<ref>“Ходили слухи, что на допросах у Фефера вырвали ногти.” Наталия Михоэлс-Вовси, "Убийство Михоэлса," [http://www.belousenko.com/vremya_i_my/vremya_i_my_3.pdf ''Время и Мы: журнал литературы и общественных проблем'', No. 3] (Январь 1976), Тель-Авив (Natalya Mikhoels-Vovsi, "The Assassination of Mikhoels," ''Time and We: the journal of literature and public problems'', No. 3 [January 1976], pp. 173-197 [PDF 88-100]) Quote appears on p. 190 (PDF p. 97). The English translation used here is from Herbert Marshall, "Paul Robeson's Obituary&mdash;The Aftermath," [http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=16&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies No. 18] (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) (Fall 1976), p. 4</ref> After Robeson asked to see him, said his son, the NKVD “gathered him [Pfeffer] up, sent him home, dressed him up, gave him a meal and turned him loose in the lobby of the hotel, he couldn't run anywhere...”<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-6/robeson2.html Interview with Paul Robeson, Jnr. (Part 2)] (Episode 6: Reds, [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/ Interview transcripts], “Cold War,” [http://www.cnn.com/ CNN]), [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ National Security Archive], [http://www.gwu.edu/ The George Washington University].</ref>

After “Feffer [sic] indicated with gestures that the hotel suite was bugged,” he made small talk while “using sign language and notes on scrap paper,” to tell Robeson about “Stalin's 1948 purge of the leading Jewish intellectuals.” Feffer “peered through the spread fingers of his hands to indicate he was in prison.” Robeson “handed Feffer a one-word note: 'Mikhoels?' Feffer wrote, 'Murdered on Stalin's order.'”<ref>{{cite book |title=The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: Quest for Freedom, 1939-1976 |last=Robeson, Jr. |first=Paul |year=2010 |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |location=Hoboken, N.J. |isbn=0471409731 |page=153 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=H0k2fhNWzwAC |accessdate=24 August 2010}}</ref> According to Robeson's son, “dad asked him, well what's going to happen to you and some of his friends who had also disappeared, others. So Pfeffer told a funny joke as he drew his finger cross his throat, meaning that they're going to shoot us.”<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-6/robeson2.html Interview with Paul Robeson, Jnr. (Part 2)] (Episode 6: Reds, [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/ Interview transcripts], “Cold War,” [http://www.cnn.com/ CNN]), [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ National Security Archive], [http://www.gwu.edu/ The George Washington University].</ref> Pfeffer begged Robeson to tell the world the truth, pleading, "''They're going to kill us. When you return to America, you must speak out and save us''."<ref>Tim Tzouliadis, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FeR9R-cpFRsC The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia]'' (Penguin Group, 2008) ISBN 1594201684, p. 268</ref> (Italics in original.)  

After “Feffer [sic] indicated with gestures that the hotel suite was bugged,” he made small talk while “using sign language and notes on scrap paper,” to tell Robeson about “Stalin's 1948 purge of the leading Jewish intellectuals.” Feffer “peered through the spread fingers of his hands to indicate he was in prison.” Robeson “handed Feffer a one-word note: 'Mikhoels?' Feffer wrote, 'Murdered on Stalin's order.'”<ref>{{cite book |title=The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: Quest for Freedom, 1939-1976 |last=Robeson, Jr. |first=Paul |year=2010 |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |location=Hoboken, N.J. |isbn=0471409731 |page=153 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=H0k2fhNWzwAC |accessdate=24 August 2010}}</ref> According to Robeson's son, “dad asked him, well what's going to happen to you and some of his friends who had also disappeared, others. So Pfeffer told a funny joke as he drew his finger cross his throat, meaning that they're going to shoot us.”<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-6/robeson2.html Interview with Paul Robeson, Jnr. (Part 2)] (Episode 6: Reds, [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/ Interview transcripts], “Cold War,” [http://www.cnn.com/ CNN]), [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ National Security Archive], [http://www.gwu.edu/ The George Washington University].</ref> Pfeffer begged Robeson to tell the world the truth, pleading, "''They're going to kill us. When you return to America, you must speak out and save us''."<ref>Tim Tzouliadis, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FeR9R-cpFRsC The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia]'' (Penguin Group, 2008) ISBN 1594201684, p. 268</ref> (Italics in original.)