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Alexander Weissberg-Cybulski (born October 8, 1901 – April 4, 1964) was a Polish-Austrian physicist, writer and businessman of Jewish descent. His testimony in the trial David Rousset vs. ''Les Lettres francaises'' and his book ''The Accused'' contributed significantly to spreading knowledge about Stalinist terror and show trials in Western Europe.


Biography

Weissberg was born in 1901 in
Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 159 ...
, to a Jewish family. His father was a businessman. The family moved to Vienna, where Weissberg studied and worked as a physicist.Weißberg-Cybulski, Alexander
''Biographische Angaben aus dem Handbuch der Deutschen Kommunisten'' (accessed 7 June 2022)
Weissberg emigrated to the Soviet Union in 1931 to work as a physicist. He founded the ''Soviet Journal of Physics''. In doing so he came to know
Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...
. It was this relationship with Bukharin that was later to become central to the regime's attempt to frame Weissberg as part of a conspiracy to assassinate Stalin. He was imprisoned for four years in the Soviet Union. Weissberg was handed over to the
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one or ...
by Stalin as part of the prisoner exchange in the Nazi–Soviet pact (also known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) in 1939. Koestler's preface explains how the advocacy of fellow physicist
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...
was instrumental in securing the Nazi release of Weissberg. During World War II he changed his surname to Weissberg-Cybulski, taking the name of Graf Cybulski, his wife's first husband.Weissberg-Cybulski, Alexander, 1901-1964
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...
(accessed 7 June 2022)
He died on April 4, 1964;Weissberg Cybulski, Alexander (1901-1964)
BnF (accessed 7 June 2022)
his place of death is stated as either Paris or London.Weissberg-Cybulski, Alexander
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...
(accessed 7 June 2022)


Writings


''The Accused'' or ''Conspiracy of Silence''

His book ''The Accused'' (1951) is also published under the title ''Conspiracy of Silence'' (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1952). The preface is by Weissberg's friend
Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...
(awarded the Sonning Prize in 1968 for contribution to European culture). The book also included copies of letters which Einstein and Joliot-Curie sent to Stalin, requesting his release.Books—Authors. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' 19 June 1951, p. 27
The book is both a personal narrative and forensic analysis of the methods employed by Stalin and the G.P.U. during the Great Purge from the middle of 1936 to the end of 1938. It is the exploration of the systematic imprisonment, interrogation and extraction of false confessions from millions of people that is extraordinary. Weissberg explains how victims of the state police were forced to make confessions incriminating not only themselves but also co-conspirators. This practice was aimed at destroying the relations of trust between those who were responsible for the Russian revolution. Those who were not killed in camps in the Soviet Arctic were divided and conquered. The central thesis in the book is that the Russian revolution and communism in the Soviet Union were irrevocably destroyed and ended in the 1930s during the terror of the Stalinist purges.


''Advocate for the Dead''

Weissberg also wrote a book titled ''Advocate for the Dead'' (Andre Deutsch, 1959). This book tells the story of
Joel Brand Joel Brand ( hu, Brand Jenő; 25 April 1906 – 13 July 1964) was a member of the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee (''Va'adat ha-Ezra ve-ha-Hatzala be-Budapest'' or ''Va'ada''), an underground Zionist group in Budapest, Hungary, that smuggled ...
and examines the working of the Jewish underground movement in Hungary and other places during the Second World War.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weissberg-Cybulski, Alexander 1901 births 1964 deaths 20th-century Polish physicists Soviet physicists Polish male writers 20th-century Polish Jews Scientists from Kraków Jewish physicists People associated with the magazine "Kultura"