Leopold Trepper, the former World War II spy who infiltrated the Gestapo, said yesterday that people are making a great mistake in not adequately fighting Nazi propaganda among German youth and anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, both of which he feels are widespread. Trepper spoke at a press conference at the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith announcing the publication here of his memoirs, “The Great Game.”
He added: “In place of Stalinism we now have Brezhnevism…and in the place of Nazism in Germany there are now thousands and thousands of people coming back to ‘Mein Kampf.’ The struggle must begin all over again.”
Speaking in French with the aid of an interpreter, Trepper, at one point, made an impassioned plea on behalf of Soviet Jewry: “Their faith depends on us. And everything depends on public opinion. This gentleman who now directs the Soviet Union (Brezhnev) responds only to things which are clear and direct…It is our responsibility to act forcefully to arouse public opinion.”
Trepper was the head of the Soviet anti-Nazi espionage network which was called “The Red Orchestra” by the Gestapo. The “great game” was “to counter-attack against the plan of the Gestapo,” by giving information to the Russians, Trepper said. After the war he was imprisoned by Stalin for nearly 10 years and later lived in Poland under house arrest. He came to Israel in 1974 after a world-wide publicity campaign to secure his release.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
