Blacklisted

I just completed reading Blacklisted by Larry Dane Brimner. 
Amazing background to an event that I witnessed on TV in the black and white days. Some of the hearings were telecast. 
It also explains why my mother could no longer keep in contact with our German relatives -- because they were unfortunately situated in the half of Germany that the Russians took over and put up a wall. 
I wasn't even to talk about them because my parents were afraid they'd be arrested and my father fired from his job because the authorities were still scouting to dig out anyone connected to Communists. (even though our relatives were not communists. They were just unfortunate about where they lived during and after WW2) So now I don't even know who they are or where exactly they live.