Franz Schneider (born 19 February 1900 in Basel, Switzerland) was a Swiss militant communist and Communist International (Comintern) intelligence agent, who worked as a courier for a Soviet espionage organisation operating in France and Belgium during the interbellum and World War II, that was later known as the Red Orchestra. [1] [2] Schneider was arrested and sentenced to death in 1943 but pardoned due his Swiss citzenship. [3]
In June 1920, Schneider migrated to Belgium, settling in Brussels in 1922. [2] In the same year, Schneider was appointed as a travelling salesmen for the Societé Naturelle company in Antwerp. [1] In January 1925, he married the Belgian national Germaine Schneider née Clais. The couple had a long honeymoon in Switzerland. [4] In Switzerland, the couple were approached by the communist trade unionist Léon Nicole. [5] [1] and recruited into the Comintern. They also met Swiss communist leader Cigy Bammater who introduced them to Henry Robinson, a Soviet espionage agent who also worked for the Comintern. [2] When they returned to Belgium two months later [4] they initially settled in Liege before moving to Brussels in 1926. Upon his return Schneider found work with Natural Le Coultre, a Geneva based company specialising in the storage and transportation of fine art. [2] Between 1925 and 1929, Schneider and his wife provided help to the Communist Party of Belgium and offered their apartment as a safehouse for travellers who were members of the Comintern. As Schneider was working, he had limited participation in his wifes work during this period. [6] In February 1929, the couple was deported from Belgium as communist agitators. [1] His wife made a clandestine return to the country after a short period, [6] while he managed to remain in Belgium. In the same year, Schneider began working for the British Lever brothers company as a travelling soap salesman, [2] eventually becoming department head. [7]
In 1930, he returned to Zurich for a year, before returning to Brussels. In March 1931, the expulsion order was rescinded, enabling the couple to stay in Belgium legally. [1] Between 1929 and 1936, the couple lived a quiet live to avoid both party politics and all activities that involved the Comintern. [2]
In 1936, while the couple were living in Brussels, they were recruited as Soviet agents [8] to work as couriers. In 1938, Schneider visited the courier Klara Schabbel , [9] the lover of Henry Robinson in Berlin. [a] [1] In early 1938, [10] [b] the German GRU agent and radio operator Johann Wenzel moved to Belgium and resided with the couple [10] to train Germaine in Wireless Telegraphy techniques. [13] In 1939, the couple had been recruited into an espionage network Belgium and the Low Countries that was run by Soviet GRU intelligence officer Konstantin Jeffremov. [2] Germaine Schneider was the most important of the two, working as a courier that involved extensive travel across Europe and was Henry Robinson's contact to Soviet agents in Great Britain. [13] While she worked for Jeffremov, she couriered between Brussels and Paris. [13] Franz Schneider was also a courier, but generally only between Brussels and Geneva, although he did visit the United Kingdom once. [1] In August 1939, Schneider undertook his first courier work for Jeffremov group. As a travelling salesman for the Lever Brothers, he visited London and made contact with an intelligence source. [14]
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By the spring of 1947, Schneider was living with Belgian communist and lawyer Elizabeth Depelsenaire in Anderlecht, Belgium. Depelsenaire formely provided accommodation and safehouses for members of the Soviet espionage group that was associated with Jeffremov. [8] Due to work, Depelsenaire eventually moved to Switzerland. In June 1947, Schneider left Belgium to join her in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The couple were married on 2 August 1947. [8] [15] The couple lived in Switzerland for eight years, working as lawyers, but eventually separated and she returned to Belgium. [15] By October 1948, Schneider was living in Zurich. [8]
Leopold Zakharovich Trepper was a Polish-Israeli 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 fighter and journalist.
The Red Orchestra was the name given by the Abwehr Section III.F to anti-Nazi resistance workers in Germany in August 1941. It primarily referred to a loose network of resistance groups, connected through personal contacts, uniting hundreds of opponents of the Nazi regime. These included groups of friends who held discussions that were centred on Harro Schulze-Boysen, Adam Kuckhoff and Arvid Harnack in Berlin, alongside many others. They printed and distributed prohibited leaflets, posters, and stickers, hoping to incite civil disobedience. They aided Jews and resistance to escape the regime, documented the atrocities of the Nazis, and transmitted military intelligence to the Allies. Contrary to history, modern anti-communist nationalists prefer to believe that the Red Orchestra was neither directed by Soviet communists nor under a single leadership. It was a network of groups and individuals, often operating independently. To date, about 400 members are known by name.
Henry Robinson, sometimes known as Henri Robinson, was a Belgian Communist and later intelligence agent of the Communist International (Comintern). Robinson was a leading member of the Red Orchestra, a Soviet espionage group based in Paris. Robinson used a number of code names and aliases.
Anatoly Markovich Gurevich was a Soviet intelligence officer. He was an officer in the GRU operating as "разведчик-нелегал" in Soviet intelligence parlance. Gurevich was a central figure in the anti-Nazi Red Orchestra in France and Belgium during World War II.
Johann Wenzel was a German Communist, highly professional GRU agent and radio operator of the espionage group that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Abwehr in Belgium and the Netherlands. His aliases were Professor, Charles, Bergmann, Hans, and Hermann. Wenzel was most notable as the person who exposed the Red Orchestra after his transmissions were discovered by the Funkabwehr, later leading to his capture by the Gestapo on 29–30 June 1942.
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 Orchestra by the Abwehr. The Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle was an internal counter-intelligence operation run by the Abwehr and the Gestapo. It consisted of a small independent Gestapo unit that was commanded by SS-Obersturmbannführer Friedrich Panzinger and its chief investigator was Gestapo officer Karl Giering. Its remit was to discover and arrest members of the Red Orchestra in Germany, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy during World War II.
Leon Grossvogel was a Polish-French Jewish businessman, Comintern official, resistance fighter, communist agitator and one of the organizers of a Soviet intelligence network in Belgium and France, that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Abwehr. Grossvogel used the following code names to disguise his identity: Pieper, Grosser, and Andre. In the autumn of 1938, Grossvogel became associated with Leopold Trepper, a Soviet intelligence agent who would later run a large espionage network in Europe. Grossvogel established two cover companies, the Foreign Excellent Raincoat Company and later Simexco that would be used by Trepper as a cover and funding for his espionage network. Grossvogel who organised funding for the companies, would later become an assistant to Trepper, organising safehouses, couriers, cutouts and agents.
Simexco and Simex were the names of two black market trading companies that were created in 1940 and 1941, respectively in Brussels and Paris on the orders of Red Army Intelligence officer Leopold Trepper, for the express purpose of acting as cover for a Soviet espionage group that operated in Europe, and was later called the Red Orchestra by the Abwehr.
Mikhail Varfolomeevich Makarov was a Russian national and career Soviet GRU officer with rank of lieutenant, who was one of the organizers of a Soviet intelligence network in Belgium and Netherlands, that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Abwehr. His aliases were Alamo, Carlos Alamo and Chemnitz. In March 1939, Makarov became associated with Leopold Trepper, a Soviet intelligence agent who would later run a large espionage network in Europe. Makarov was captured on the 13 December 1941 by the Abwehr and later executed in Plötzensee Prison in 1942.
Karl Giering was SS-Hauptsturmführer and Criminal Councillor in the Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt Berlin (Gestapo) and later Head of Department IV A 2 in the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA). Giering is regarded as one of the most dangerous persecutors of the communist resistance against the Nazi regime. He commanded the Gestapo to smash the apparatus of the Betriebsberichterstattung (BB) of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and conducted investigations against the Soviet espionage network known as the Red Orchestra while part of the Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle.
Konstantin Lukitsch Jeffremov, 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 was an expert in chemical warfare. Jeffremov used the aliases Pascal and Eric Jernstroem to disguise his identity in messages He had been working for Soviet intelligence since 1936. and the alias Bordo. Jeffremov has been labeled an anti-Semite, as he expressed resentment towards being subordinate to the Jews who dominated the GRU. He was the organizer of a Soviet espionage network in the Netherlands and the Low Countries In 1942, Jeffremov took over the running of a number of networks in Belgium and the Netherlands, that had been damaged in the months prior, after several members were arrested by the Abwehr. These networks was later given the moniker, the Red Orchestra by the Abwehr. Jeffremov was arrested in July 1942 and agreed to work for the Abwehr in a Funkspiel operation, after being tortured.
Malvina Gruber, née Hofstadterova was a Jewish Comintern agent, who was part of a Soviet intelligence network in Belgium and France, that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Abwehr, during Nazi regime. Gruber worked as a cutout, but her specialism was couriering people across borders. From 1938 to 1942, Gruber worked as assistant to Soviet agent Abraham Rajchmann, a forger, who provided identity papers, e.g. the Kennkarte, Carte d'identité and travel permits, for the espionage group. At the beginning of 1942, she was arrested in Brussels by the Abwehr.
Abraham Rajchmann 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 official Léon Grossvogel, he was recruited into a Soviet espionage group initially in Belgium that was being run by Leopold Trepper, that would later be called the Red Orchestra by the Abwehr, during the Nazi period. Rajchmann used a number of aliases to disguise his identity, including Adam Blanssi, Arthur Roussel, Katenmann, Fabrikant and Max.
Isidore Springer was a Belgian diamond dealer and communist who became an important member of the Red Orchestra organisation in Belgium and later France during World War II. Springer worked as a recruiter and courier between Leopold Trepper, a Soviet agent who was the technical director of Soviet espionage in Western Europe, and Anatoly Gurevich, also a Soviet agent, in Belgium. He would later run the 6th network of Trepper's seven espionage networks in France, providing intelligence from US and Belgian diplomats. His aliases were Romeo, Verlaine, Walter van Vliet, Fred and Sabor.
Anton Winterink was a Dutch Communist. and a member of the Communist Party of the Netherlands. Winterink was a core member of an anti-Nazi Soviet espionage group in Belgium that came to be known as the Red Orchestra by the Abwehr. He worked as a radio operator for the Soviet espionage group's that was associated with the Soviet GRU officer, Konstantin Jeffremov, in 1940. Winterink used the alias Tino to disguise his identity. In late 1940, Winterink established an espionage organisation based in Amsterdam, that became known as Group Hilda that operated until early 1943. Winterink was arrested on 18 August 1942 by the Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle in Amsterdam. After being interrogated and involved in an attempt at Funkspiel, he was shot four months later at the Tir national military firing-range in Brussels.
Elizabeth "Betty" Depelsenaire was a Belgian communist, lawyer and feminist. During World War II, Depelsenaire was a member of the anti-Nazi Red Orchestra in Belgium, providing accommodation and safehouses for members of the Soviet espionage group that was associated with Konstantin Jeffremov. Depelsenaire was arrested several times during the war, due to her activities and was finally imprisoned at Bützow, Germany. She survived the war and returned to work as a lawyer in Belgium. In 1946, she wrote about both her 's imprisonment in Fort Breendonk.
Germaine Schneider was a Belgian communist and Communist International (Comintern) agent. During the latter half of the 1920s, Schneider worked predominantly for the Communist Party of Belgium. During the interwar period and early World War II, Schneider was a core member of a Soviet espionage group. She worked as a principal courier for the groups that were associated with the Comintern agent, Henry Robinson in the late 1930s in France and later the Soviet GRU officer, Konstantin Jeffremov in Belgium and the Low Countries, in the early 1940s. These groups were later identified by the Abwehr under the moniker the Red Orchestra. Schneider used the aliases Clais, Pauline, Odette, Papillon and Butterfly (Schmetterling) to disguise her identity.
Maurice Emile Aenishanslin was a committed French communist who was a member of the Communist Party of Switzerland and later a member of the Communist International (Comintern). Aenishanslin first worked as an engineer, later became a commercial director of the Paris-based company Unipectine-France, the branch office of a food preservation company that was based in Zurich called Unipectine. During World War II, Aenishanslin main business was interposed with clandestine work as a courier for the Paris-based Soviet espionage network run by Comintern agent Henry Robinson. Aenishanslin survived the war and was still active as a communist.
Erna Frida Eifler was a German steno typist secretary who became a communist, resistance fighter, Soviet GRU agent and courier.
Medardo Griotto was an Italian militant communist activist and member of the Italian Communist Party. Trained as a engraver, Griotto became an expert forger, who became an important member in the espionage network run by Communist International (Comintern) intelligence agent Henry Robinson. Griotto was betrayed by Leopold Trepper, arrested and executed by guillotine at Plötzensee Prison.
