Rachel Dübendorfer ( Hepner; 18 July 1900 – 3 March 1973) was an anti-Nazi

resistance fighter A resistance movement is an organized group of people that tries to resist or try to overthrow a government or an occupying power, causing disruption and unrest in civil order and stability. Such a movement may seek to achieve its goals through ei ...

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, her codename was Sissy, and she was in a section of the Red Three Swiss resistance movement.

Personal life

Dübendorfer was born in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in 1900. She was the daughter of Adolf Hepner, and was Jewish. She moved to Germany in the 1920s and moved to

Nürensdorf Nürensdorf is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Bülach (district), Bülach in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zurich (canton), Zürich in Switzerland. History Nürensdorf is first mentioned around 1150 as '' ...

, Switzerland in 1933. She was married twice: first to German lawyer Kurt Caspary around 1921, then to Swissman Henri Dübendorfer, which allowed her to gain Swiss citizenship, in 1934. This marriage ended in divorce in 1946. She became the lover of Paul Böttcher. She died in 1973 in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

Career

In 1918, Dübendorfer joined the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...

. In 1927, she joined the Soviet

Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) Main Intelligence Directorate ( rus, Главное разведывательное управление, Glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye, ˈglavnəjə rɐzˈvʲɛdɨvətʲɪlʲnəjə ʊprɐˈvlʲenʲɪjə), abbreviated GRU ( rus, ГР ...

, where she worked alongside Paul Böttcher. At the start of the

, she worked as a secretary at the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...

and also led a group of Swiss communist informants in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, Switzerland. Dübendorfer began receiving sensitive information from sources in the organisation. She received intelligence reports from German refugee

Rudolf Roessler Rudolf Roessler (German: ''Rößler''; 22 November 1897 – 11 December 1958) was a Protestant Germany, German and a dedicated German resistance to Nazism, anti-Nazi. During the interwar period, Roessler was a lively cultural journalist, with a ...

(nicknamed Lucy) in return for not revealing his identity. Their operation was known as the

Lucy spy ring The Lucy spy ring () was an anti-Nazi World War II espionage operation headquartered in Switzerland and run by Rudolf Roessler, a German refugee. Its story was only published in 1966, and very little is clear about the ring, Roessler, or the effo ...

In May 1941, Dübendorfer met

Alexander Radó Alexander Radó (also ''Alexander Radolfi'', ''Sándor Kálmán Reich'', ''Alexander Rado''; born Sándor Radó, ; 5 November 1899 – 20 August 1981) was a Hungarian cartographer who later became a Soviet Union, Soviet military Intelligence (i ...

for the first time. In 1942, she was in a section of Rado's Red Three resistance movement. Others in the movement included Georges Blun and Otto Pünter. In 1942, Dübendorfer received German military information about the planned

Case Blue Case Blue (German: ''Fall Blau'') was the ''Wehrmacht'' plan for the 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and 24 November 1942, during World War II. The objective was to capture the oil fields of Baku ( Azerb ...

invasion of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

(USSR), which was eventually transmitted to the Soviet Union. Initially, Dübendorfer did not mention to Radó the name of Roessler, her most important informant. In November 1943, Dübendorfer became the lone Red Three member after leaders, including Radó, were arrested and imprisoned. Dübendorfer tried unsuccessfully to contact Moscow through Hermina Rabinovitch, a friend who lived in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada. Afterward, Dübendorfer refused to co-operate with Soviet leader

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

and did not want to send information back to Moscow. She provided information to

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

officers in Switzerland, under the proviso that this information was not shared with Moscow. In April 1944, Dübendorfer and Böttcher were captured. She was imprisoned in the USSR and later

from 1946 until 1956 and so she never became a leader.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dubendorfer, Rachel 1900 births 1973 deaths Jews in the German resistance Polish resistance members of World War II Red Orchestra (espionage) Polish emigrants to Switzerland Communist Party of Germany members Polish spies for the Soviet Union Female wartime spies World War II spies for the Soviet Union World War II spies for the United Kingdom Swiss spies Polish emigrants to East Germany