Mrs. Elisabeth Trepper, wife of Leopold Trepper who was the head of the “Red Orchestra,” the Soviet spy network in Western Europe during World War II, has been permitted to leave Poland to visit her sons in Denmark and Israel, according to unconfirmed reports here. The reports said that her whereabouts are being kept secret for the time being because she is in poor health and unable to meet the press.
The Trepper couple have been trying unsuccessfully to leave Poland for Israel for years but have been denied exit visas on grounds that Trepper possesses sensitive information. They have a son in Israel and another in Copenhagen and two others living in Western countries. The sons recently launched a world-wide campaign to force the Polish authorities to allow their parents to emigrate.
Mrs. Trepper, who is in her 60s, was last reported from Warsaw to be suffering from a nervous breakdown and a heart ailment. According to the reports she was permitted to leave Poland to visit her family with the proviso that she will be allowed to return to rejoin her husband in Warsaw. A French television team which met with the Treppers last month, said that Mrs. Trepper looked “seriously ill” and that her husband was pressing her to leave Poland to visit her family abroad and obtain medical treatment.
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.
