Richard Julius Hermann Krebs (December 17, 1905 - January 1, 1951), better known by his alias Jan Valtin, was a German writer during the interwar period. He settled in the United States in 1938, and in 1940 (as Valtin) wrote his bestselling book ''Out of the Night''.

Background

Krebs became active in the Communist movement as a boy, when his father was involved in the naval mutiny that heralded the

German Revolution of 1918–19 German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Career

In the second week of May 1923, Valtin joined the

German Communist Party The German Communist Party (, ) is a communist party in Germany. The DKP supports far-left positions and was an observer member of the European Left before leaving in February 2016. History The DKP considered itself a reconstitution of the C ...

, and participated in the

Hamburg Uprising The Hamburg Uprising () was a communist insurrection that occurred in Hamburg in Weimar Germany on 23 October 1923. A militant section of the Hamburg Communist Party of Germany launched an uprising as part of the so-called German October. R ...

. Valtin stated, "I learned well the Party principle that the heart of the

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

...must consist of an inner organization of men and women whose one and only aim in life is to work for the revolution; who are ready for any personal sacrifice the Party should demand, who are pledged to unreserved obedience to their Central Committee and utmost unity of aims." Valtin was selected to attend the Leningrad Communist University. Subjects ranged according to Valtin, "from "

Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

's ' theory of surplus value' to the 'application of

Clausewitz Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz ( , ; born Carl Philipp Gottlieb Clauswitz; 1 July 1780 – 16 November 1831) was a Prussian general and military theorist who stressed the "moral" (in modern terms meaning psychological) and political aspe ...

's Rules of Warfare in the conduct of strikes,' from 'revolutionary defeatism and the transformation of an imperialist war into a civil war' to 'mass psychology and propaganda'."

Arrest

In 1926, working as a courier, he

stowaway A stowaway or clandestine traveller is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as a ship, an aircraft, a train, cargo truck or bus. Sometimes, the purpose is to get from one place to another without paying for transportation. In other c ...

ed to

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

and then hitch hiked to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and made contact with the

. Valtin was assigned to execute someone in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, but failed in the attempt, was caught, and sentenced to

San Quentin State Prison San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQ), formerly known as San Quentin State Prison, is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated area, unincorporated place ...

. During the 1000 days he spent there, he studied

Bowditch's American Practical Navigator ''The American Practical Navigator'' (colloquially often referred to as ''Bowditch''), originally written by Nathaniel Bowditch, is an encyclopedia of navigation. It serves as a valuable handbook on oceanography and meteorology, and contains use ...

, astronomy, journalism, map making, English, French, and Spanish. After being released in December 1929, he returned to Europe. In January 1931, while in Germany, he participated in the "United action of the Communist Party and the Hitler movement to accelerate the disintegration of the crumbling democratic bloc which governs Germany." After graduating with a navigator's certificate, he was assigned as the Soviet skipper transporting the ''Pioner'' from the

Bremer Vulkan Bremer Vulkan AG was a prominent German shipbuilding company located at the Weser river in Bremen-Vegesack. It was founded in 1893 and closed in 1997 because of financial problems and mismanagement. All together Bremer Vulkan built about 1100 s ...

shipyard to

Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...

''Out of the Night''

In February 1933, Valtin states, "We in the upper ranks of the Party had no illusions as to the terror that would soon be unleashed against us by the Hitler movement. Our wild general strike call was a God-send to Hitler. It enabled him to proceed to the crushing even of liberal anti-Nazi forces under the cry, 'Save Germany from Bolshevism and Civil War!'." On 30 November 1933, Valtin was arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...

. Held at Concentration Camp Fuhlsbuettel, Valtin states, "I had thought much about the black, humiliating defeat of the Communist Party of Germany, and I could not find a satisfying answer. The Geastapo broke me on March 11, 1934." On 29 September 1936, still a prisoner of the Gestapo, Valtin was told by the Comintern to seek undercover work within the Gestapo organization. On 17 February 1937, he pledged "...my willingness to accept and execute to the best of my abilities all and any orders issued to me by the Secret State Police of Germany (Gestapo)." By May 1937, he departed Germany as ordered to establish contact with the Comintern in Copenhagen. By September, Valtin states, "I accused myself of allowing my love for my wife and child to make me waver in my life-long commitment to Stalin's cause...I began to hate the movement I served, hate its hypocrisy, hate the brigands who led it." Severing ties with the Gestapo, Valtin was arrested by the G.P.U. in Copenhagen. However, in January 1938, Valtin was able to escape. In December, he received word that his wife Firelei had perished in Fuhlsbuettel. In 1938, he returned to the United States to settle, this time under his most famous alias, Jan Valtin - where he published the highly publicized autobiography ''Out of the Night''. In the book he described in detail the actions he supposedly had carried on as a secret agent of the Soviet

State Political Directorate The State Political Directorate (), abbreviated as GPU (), was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from February 1922 to November 1923. It was the immediate successor of the Cheka, and was replaced by the Joint ...

, or GPU. The 1926 attempted murder was described by Krebs/Valtin as a GPU operation. The book received great critical acclaim. A 1940 review for the ''Saturday Review of Literature'' reads: "No other books more clearly reveals the aid which Stalin gave to Hitler before he won power".

Congressional testimony

Valtin/Krebs was invited to testify before the Dies Committee as regards Soviet secret activities in Europe. On May 26, 1941, Richard Julius Krebs testified before the House of Representatives' Subcommittee of the Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities (the "Dies Committee") that he had worked for the

for the

. Research director J.B. Matthews had

Sender Garlin Sender Garlin (April 4, 1902 – December 6, 1999) was an American journalist, pamphleteer, and writer. Career Background Sender Garlin was born in Bialystok, Poland, on April 4, 1902. His family left the country in 1906 to escape pogroms. A ...

had reviewed ''Out of the Night'' unfavorably in the ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...

'' newspaper of January 21, 1941. Garlin claimed no "Jan Valtin" existed and that the book's authors were Isaac Don Levine,

Walter Krivitsky Walter Germanovich Krivitsky (Ва́льтер Ге́рманович Криви́цкий; birth name ''Samuel Gershevich Ginsberg,'' Самуил Гершевич Гинзберг, June 28, 1899 – February 10, 1941) was a Soviet military i ...

, and

Freda Utley Winifred Utley (23 January 1898 – 21 January 1978), commonly known as Freda Utley, was an English scholar, political activist and best-selling author. After visiting the Soviet Union in 1927 as a trade union activist, she joined the Communist P ...

(known ex- or anti-communists). Krebs said he had defected in December 1937 - January 1938.

Arrest

In November 1942, Krebs was also indicted as a

agent. He was arrested in December 1942 and found innocent in May 1943. The Los Angeles court record revealed that the 1926 crime had no political purpose. This event marked the end of Krebs/Valtin's career as a "Soviet expert". The ''New York Mirror'' said about his book ''Out of the Night'': "In effect, the decision means he perpetrated a huge literary hoax."

US war service

In August 1943, Krebs was drafted as an infantryman and deployed in February 1944 to the Philippines in fighting the Japanese in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

. In 1946, his book ''Children of Yesterday'', an anecdotal history of the 24th Infantry Division was published, describing in graphic detail the horrors of the fighting and everyday life of the division's troops. He was granted citizenship in 1947.

Personal life and death

On 27 September 1932, Jan's first wife Firelei, gave birth to their son Jan. According to elder Jan, "On the wall above the bed was a picture showing Lenin in a pensive pose. A Party physician and a nurse from the corps of communist Samaritans attended." Valtin/Krebs married again, before 1941, to Abigail Harris, an American. At the time of his death The Evening Star newspaper reported that he had been married three times, his third wife being Clara Medders of Chestertown, Md., and that he had three sons from his previous marriages.The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) - January 2, 1951. p. 16 Richard Krebs died at the Kent-Queen Anne's Hospital on the evening of January 1, 1951 from lobar pneumonia. Prior to his death he had resided in Betterton, Md. for about six years. The

Board of Immigration Appeals The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) is an administrative appellate court, appellate body within the Executive Office for Immigration Review of the United States Department of Justice responsible for reviewing decisions of the U.S. immigration ...

declared:

His life has been so marked with violence, intrigue and treachery that it would be difficult, if not wholly unwarranted, to conclude that his present reliability and good character have been established. ..Within the past five years the subject has been considered an agent of Nazi Germany. On the record before us it appears he has been completely untrustworthy and amoral."

The truth, however, is more complex. After he served his time in custody as ordered by US immigration authorities, he led a useful life putting the allegations of amorality and untrustworthiness to the lie. Then, late in life, Richard Krebs came to the service of his country in the clandestine anti-communist efforts launched by the US intelligence agencies still operating in Europe in the early years of the Cold War. To understand this view see SPYWRITER: Richard Krebs’ Astonishing Journey from German Communist Conspirator to American Combat Hero.

Works

* ''Out of the Night'' (1940) * ''Bend in the River'' (1942) * ''Children of Yesterday'' (1946) * ''Castle in the Sand'' (1947) * ''Wintertime'' (1950)

References

External links

*
John G. Wright ''Jan Valtin: Out of the Fight''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valtin, Jan 1905 births 1951 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in Maryland Emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States German autobiographers German male non-fiction writers German people convicted of attempted murder Gestapo agents People deported from the United States Prisoners and detainees of California United States Army personnel of World War II