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Abraham Rajchmann (born 24 September 1902 in Dziurków,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
) was a Jewish Polish career criminal and revolutionary militant, expert forger and engraver who worked for Soviet intelligence from 1934. Through his contact with
Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
official
Léon Grossvogel Leon Grossvogel (born 27 November 1904 in Łódź; likely died 1944-1945) was a Polish-French Jewish businessman, Comintern official, resistance fighter, communist agitator and one of the organizers of a Soviet intelligence network in Belgium ...
, he was recruited into a Soviet espionage group initially in Belgium that was being run by
Leopold Trepper Leopold Zakharovich Trepper (23 February 1904 – 10 January 1982) was a Polish Communist and career Soviet agent of the Red Army Intelligence. With the code name Otto'','' Trepper had worked with the Red Army since 1930. He was also a resistance ...
, that would later be called the Red Orchestra ("Rote Kapelle") by the
Abwehr The ''Abwehr'' (German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. A ...
, during the
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
period. Rajchmann used a number of aliases to disguise his identity, including Adam Blanssi, Arthur Roussel, Katenmann, Fabrikant and Max.


Communist

Rajchmann was a member of the
Communist International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
(Comintern) '' Pass-Apparat'', an industrial scale identity document forging operation, that was started in Berlin in 1919–1920 and eventually had offices all over Europe. For much of the 1930s, Rajchmann worked as an agent for Comintern. In 1937, Rajchmann was contacted by
Léon Grossvogel Leon Grossvogel (born 27 November 1904 in Łódź; likely died 1944-1945) was a Polish-French Jewish businessman, Comintern official, resistance fighter, communist agitator and one of the organizers of a Soviet intelligence network in Belgium ...
, to request he obtain several Polish passports and to accompany several Jewish refugees to the consulate to act as interpreter, in their application for passports.


Trepper network

In the spring 1939, Rajchmann was recruited by Grossvogel into working for a resistance group in Brussels, that was in reality a Soviet espionage group that was being that was run by Soviet agent
Leopold Trepper Leopold Zakharovich Trepper (23 February 1904 – 10 January 1982) was a Polish Communist and career Soviet agent of the Red Army Intelligence. With the code name Otto'','' Trepper had worked with the Red Army since 1930. He was also a resistance ...
. Rajchmann was introduced to Trepper, who used a codename to disguise his identity. Trepper informed him that his main function would be to act as an expert on the validity of certain documents and that a liaison would be arranged between himself and Rajchmann, that would be arranged through Soviet
GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...
officer Mikhail Makarov. When Rajchmann was recruited, Makarov was relieved of the responsibility of producing forged documents. On 16 September 1939, Rajchmann was arrested and interned in Saint-Gilles prison. Released in October, he contacted Trepper who reprimanded him for being interned and ordered him to prepare a new identity. Trepper had high regard for Rajchmann, the forger, but little regard for Rajchmann, the man. He felt that Rajchmann was conceited, foolhardy, and too quick to show contempt. Rajchmann told Trepper that he was relatively well known in Brussels, so a new identity would be useless. They both agreed that Rajchmann should hide in a quiet house with a garden where the Soviet agents could visit him, in private. For the next six months, Rajchmann worked for Trepper organising passports and visas. Toward the spring of 1940, Trepper admitted to Rajchmann that he worked for Soviet intelligence and the work was directed against Germany. For Rajchmann, whose entire family had been killed during the
Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
, in September–October 1939, it was welcome news, as it enabled him to strike back at the Germans.


Escape

At the start of the German invasion of Belgium on 10 May 1940, Rajchmann went into hiding with a friend. After advising his wife who was staying at her parents house at 32 Avenue Jean Volders in Saint-Gilles to flee to France, Rajchmann took a train with his father-in-law and brother-in-law out of Belgium. His brother alighted at
Tournai Tournai or Tournay ( ; ; nl, Doornik ; pcd, Tornai; wa, Tornè ; la, Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt. Tournai is part of Euromet ...
, while they both continued travelling to
Montréjeau Montréjeau (; oc-gsc, Montrejau) is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. Montréjeau-Gourdan-Polignan station has rail connections to Toulouse, Pau, Bayonne and Tarbes. History Montréjeau was the site of one of ...
. When Rajchmann arrived in Montréjeau, he was interned at the Saint-Cyprien internment camp. His father, who was not arrested, went to stay in Revel in
Haute-Garonne Haute-Garonne (; oc, Nauta Garona, ; en, Upper Garonne) is a department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. Named after the river Garonne, which flows through the department. Its prefecture and main city is Toulouse, the country's ...
. The Saint-Cyprien internment camp was established on the 8 February 1939 at Saint-Cyprien coastal strip in
Rosellón Roussillon ( , , ; ca, Rosselló ; oc, Rosselhon ) is a historical province of France that largely corresponded to the County of Roussillon and part of the County of Cerdagne of the former Principality of Catalonia. It is part of the reg ...
along with several other internment camps in the same location. Its main purpose was the hold Republican prisoners who were fleeing the Republican defeat at Barcelona on 26 January 1939. By March 1939, it held 90000 prisoners. After the French armistice of 22 June 1940, Rajchmann went through processing and was released in July–August 1940 and later met his father in Revel. In August 1940 he was contacted by Trepper who ordered him to travel to
Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
where he would meet
Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
agent and courier
Malvina Gruber Malvina Gruber, née Hofstadterova (born 6 December 1900 in Jamborkretz, Czechoslovakia) was a Jewish Communist International, Comintern agent, who was part of a Soviet intelligence network in Belgium and France, that was later called the Red O ...
, who would escort him back to Brussels to continue to provide documentation support to the Soviet espionage group there. In September or October 1940, Rajchmann met Gruber and they crossed the
demarcation line {{Refimprove, date=January 2008 A political demarcation line is a geopolitical border, often agreed upon as part of an armistice or ceasefire. Africa * Moroccan Wall, delimiting the Moroccan-controlled part of Western Sahara from the Sahrawi- ...
in
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
. Rajchmann left Gruber to meet his wife in Paris at the Caron Hotel in
The Marais The Marais (Le Marais ; "the marsh") is a historic district in Paris, France. Having once been an aristocratic district, it is home to many buildings of historic and architectural importance. It spreads across parts of the 3rd and 4th arr ...
. At the hotel, Rajchmann met up with Bob Isbutzki (Hermann Isbutzki), who arranged for Rajchmann to meet Trepper, who ordered him to travel back to Brussels to continue his work providing identity documents for the group.


Sukolov network

In April 1941 in Brussels, Rajchmann was met by Makarov who told him that point onwards he would be expected to take part in the fight against the Germans. In September or October 1941, Trepper ordered Rajchmann to join Soviet agent
Anatoly Gurevich Anatoly Markovich Gurevich (russian: Анатолий Маркович Гуревич; 7 November 1913 – 2 January 2009) was a Soviet intelligence officer. He was an officer in the GRU operating as "разведчик-нелегал" (''razve ...
, who operated from a safehouse located at 101 Rue des Atrébates in Brussels. Gurevich used Makarov as his wireless radio operator, Sophia Poznańska as his cipher clerk,
Rita Arnould Rita Arnould ( – 20 August 1943) was a housekeeper and courier of the Red Orchestra resistance group in Belgium during World War II. She was captured when the Funkabwehr raided an apartment at 101 Rue des Atrébates in Brussels on 12 December 1 ...
as a courier and housekeeper, and Isidor Springer, who worked as a courier between Gurevich and Trepper and as a recruiter. Rajchmann supplied identity documents for Makarov as well as a list of people who were wanted by the German authorities. Rajchmann contacted Chief Inspector Charles Mathieu of the Belgian Police Judiciaire des Parquets to obtain the list. Unknown to Rajchmann, Mathieu was a penetration agent, who were known in Germany as a ''V-Mann'' that was short for ''Vertrauens-mann''. (German: V-Mann, plural V-Leute). They were generally prisoners who agreed to work as undercover agents on pain of death, should they have refused. Mathieu reported the request to Abwehr officer Harry Piepe.


Discovery

On 26 June 1941, the
Funkabwehr Funkabwehr, or ''Radio Defense Corps'' was a radio counterintelligence organization created in 1940 by Hans Kopp of the German Nazi Party High Command during World War II. It acted as the principal organization for radio Counterintelligence, i.e. ...
intercepted a number of radio messages. It took some months of work for the Funkabwehr to identify where the transmitter was located, but on 30 November 1941 the close range direction-finding teams moved into Brussels and almost immediately found three transmitter signals. The
Abwehr The ''Abwehr'' (German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. A ...
choose a location at 101 Rue des Atrébates, that provided the strongest signal and on 12 December 1941 at 2 pm, the house was raided by the Abwehr. Everybody inside the house was arrested. By chance Rajchmann was absent from the apartment, when it was raided. The Funkabwehr found the secret room that Rajchmann used to forge documents, that contained blank passports and inks. Trepper happened to be in Brussels at the time, found out and warned Gurevich of the raid, managing to evade arrest. In late December 1941, or early 1941, Rajchmann again met Bob Isbutzki, who introduced him to Gurevich. Gurevich arranged travel documents with Rajchmann for Gurvich's wife Greta Barcza and his son, so they could flee Belgium. Rajchmann arranged for
Malvina Gruber Malvina Gruber, née Hofstadterova (born 6 December 1900 in Jamborkretz, Czechoslovakia) was a Jewish Communist International, Comintern agent, who was part of a Soviet intelligence network in Belgium and France, that was later called the Red O ...
to escort Barcza and her son to Paris, where they were then escorted by another courier to the non-occupied zone. Gurevich also requested that Rajchmann find a hiding place for the radio transmitter the group had been using at the apartment. Rajchmann suggest using the home of Chief Inspector Mathieu on 65 Avenue des Tilleuls in Brussels; the transfer was arranged in January 1942, via Bob Isbutzki. During a further meeting with Isbutzki, it was arranged that Rajchmann should meet Trepper in Paris, either in the Cafe Boule d'Or or Boule d'Argent, located close to the Saint-Michel metro station. In the meeting Rajchmann was informed that
Konstantin Jeffremov Konstantin Lukitsch Jeffremov (born 15 May 1910), also known as Konstantin Yeffremov, was a Soviet GRU intelligence officer, known as a ''scout'' in Soviet intelligence parlance, with the rank of captain. Jeffremov, an anti-Semite. was an expert ...
would be his new direct superior.


Jeffremov network

Rajchmann's first operation was to create a new identity for Trepper under the name of ''Gilbert''. Trepper insisted the seals should be authentic, so Rajchmann met a contact in
Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,
who provided the seals as well as certificates of good conduct. For the next year, Rajchmann provided documents for a number of people in the group. On 30 July 1942, the Funkabwehr identified a second safehouse at 12 Rue de Namur, Brussels that was being used by Jeffremov's group and several members of the group were arrested. Trepper managed to warn Jeffremov who managed to escape and went into hiding. Trepper instructed him to create a new identity for himself, so Jeffremov turned to Rajchmann who used his contact, Mathieu to source blank identity cards. The process that Mathieu used was to send a formal written request to a local administration that had been bombed or destroyed and would request the name of a certain person at a certain address. The administration would answer back that the records were unavailable, except to inform Mathieu that the address still existed. Mathieu would then be able to deliver a blank identity card that would be filled in with that address. Mathieu reported the matter to the Abwehr. Rajchmann arranged with Jeffremov to pick the new identity cards up from Mathieu on 30 July 1942, at the middle of the bridge overhanging the
Botanical Garden of Brussels The Botanical Garden of Brussels (french: Jardin botanique de Bruxelles, nl, Kruidtuin van Brussel) is a former botanical garden in Brussels, Belgium. It was created in 1826 and stood on the Rue Royale/Koningsstraat in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, ...
in Brussels. Jeffremov was arrested by the Gestapo.


Arrest

On 2 September 1942, Rajchmann had a meeting with Mathieu at the Cafe Isy, Avenue de la Porte de Hal, in Brussels to obtain the forged
identity papers An identity document (also called ID or colloquially as papers) is any document that may be used to prove a person's identity. If issued in a small, standard credit card size form, it is usually called an identity card (IC, ID card, citizen ca ...
for himself and was arrested by Piepe. He was taken to
Fort Breendonk Fort Breendonk ( nl, Fort van Breendonk, french: Fort de Breendonk) is a former military installation at Breendonk, near Mechelen, in Belgium which served as a Nazi prison camp (''Auffanglager'') during the German occupation of Belgium during Wo ...
where he was tortured for three days. He decided to cooperate with the Abwehr resulting in his betrayal of his mistress,
Malvina Gruber Malvina Gruber, née Hofstadterova (born 6 December 1900 in Jamborkretz, Czechoslovakia) was a Jewish Communist International, Comintern agent, who was part of a Soviet intelligence network in Belgium and France, that was later called the Red O ...
, who was arrested on 12 October 1942. On 28 October 1942, Rajchmann was taken back to Brussels where he met
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
officer Karl Giering, who led the
Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle was a German special commission that was created by German High Command in November 1942, in response to the capture of two leading members of a Soviet espionage group that operated in Europe, that was called the Red ...
, a special commission established by the Gestapo and the Abwehr to capture members of the Red Orchestra. Rajchmann was informed he would be allowed free movement but would still be considered a prisoner. After signing a statement saying he would cooperate, he was released on
parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
to return home.


Paris

Piepe and Giering agreed that Rajchmann would be the best person to take to Paris to find Trepper. once the Belgian investigation of the Red Orochestra by the Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle was completed. In January or February 1943, Rajchmann and Gruber were told that they would be moving to Paris. When they arrived, Giering sent Rajchmann out to visit all the dead letterboxes that he knew about, while leaving a message to Trepper to contact him. However, Trepper never showed up.


After the war

On the 26 July 1946, Rajchmann was arrested by Belgian police and tried by a
Military tribunal Military justice (also military law) is the legal system (bodies of law and procedure) that governs the conduct of the active-duty personnel of the armed forces of a country. In some nation-states, civil law and military law are distinct bodie ...
who sentenced him to twelve years in prison for espionage. He was released on 7 June 1956. In 1960, a report was created by a NATO Special Committee that stated that Rajchmann was living at 32 Avenue Jean Voiders, St Gilles, Belgium.


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rajchmann, Abraham 1902 births Year of death unknown Red Orchestra (espionage) Polish engravers People from Lipsko County