New efforts in support of World War II master spy Leopold Trepper’s attempts to get an exit visa from Polish authorities so that he can settle in Israel will be made here next month when Edward Gierek, chief of Poland’s Communist Party, visits Paris. Soulez Lariviere. Trepper’s French attorney, said yesterday that the local Trepper Committee would organize a hunger strike to coincide with Gierek’s visit Oct. 2-6.
Gilles Perrault, a French writer, disclosed at a press conference yesterday that he met Trepper in East Berlin last month where he reaffirmed his wish to live in Israel. Perrault said that Trepper, who lives in Warsaw, was invited to the East German capital to help prepare ceremonies honoring members of Trepper’s spy ring, the “Red Orchestra,” who were executed by the Nazis. The ceremonies are scheduled for Nov.-Dec.
Trepper was received in East Berlin with “all the honors of a visiting dignitary,” Perrault said, He said the invitation by East German authorities originated in Moscow where there is a desire to find some solution to the embarrassing Trepper affair. Meanwhile, Trepper has filed a libel suit against Jean Rochet, chief of French counter-intelligence, who accused him publicly of collaborating with the Gestapo during the war. The trial opens here Oct, 26.
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.
