The name “Red Orchestra” was given by the Gestapo, the Nazi political police, to a group of Soviet intelligence networks. Among these groups was the network organized by Leopold Trepper and Anatoli Gourevitch in Paris and Brussels.
In the jargon of the German intelligence services, the head of a network is like a conductor who coordinates all the information using Morse code.
The Berlin branch of the “Red Orchestra” spy network, formed in the 1930s, brought together German pacifists, communists, and artists who opposed Hitler and were very active in the anti-Nazi struggle.
In France and Belgium, the espionage network was led by Léopold Trepper and Anatoli Gourevitch, at the initiative of the Red Army’s intelligence service. The network’s headquarters were established in Brussels. It used various commercial companies based in Europe as fronts. During the war, Léopold Trepper recruited spies from various Resistance movements. All members of the Red Orchestra—whether communists or sympathizers, and often Jews—were staunch anti-Nazi activists. During the war, the Franco-Belgian network gathered important intelligence on German troop movements.
The network’s radio transmitter was located by German counterintelligence, which, on August 26, 1942, decoded a Soviet message containing, in particular, names and addresses. Two hundred Resistance fighters were (or would be) arrested by June 1943. The Nazis sentenced about sixty members of the network—both men and women—to death by hanging.
Léopold Trepper, who had evaded arrest, fled to Paris, where he was apprehended in November 1942. He then became a double agent and was believed to be working for the Germans. He took advantage of a transfer by car to escape and informed the Soviets of the Nazi secret service’s plans.
Trepper went into hiding in the French countryside until the Liberation and arrived in Moscow in January 1945; he was then imprisoned by Stalin and was not rehabilitated until 1954.
Léopold Trepper presents himself as a savior, although his actual role in the network is controversial. In particular, some historians accuse him of having “handed over” members of the Red Orchestra to the Nazi authorities.
References:
– Trepper, Léopold, 1975, *The Great Game: Memoirs of the Leader of the Red Orchestra*, Paris, Albin Michel.
– Gilles Perrault, 1989, *The Red Orchestra*, Fayard.
– Guillaume Bourgeois, 2015, The True Story of the Red Orchestra. Nouveau Monde
