The Red Three () was the Switzerland section of the so-called Red Orchestra. It was established and maintained by Soviet Military Intelligence Staff Division 4.

Name history, and activities

The terms ''Red Three'', and ''Red Orchestra'' respectively, were invented by the

Reichssicherheitshauptamt The Reich Security Main Office ( , RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and , the head of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The organization's stat ...

(RSHA), the counter-espionage arm of the SS. As an essential part of the ''Red Orchestra'', the ''Red Three (

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

s)'' (de: die ''Roten Drei (Funkstellen)'') were outside the reach of German security forces, located in Switzerland. It was headed by

Alexander Radó Alexander Radó (also ''Alexander Radolfi'', ''Sándor Kálmán Reich'', ''Alexander Rado''; born Sándor Radó, ; 5 November 1899 – 20 August 1981) was a Hungarian cartographer who later became a Soviet Union, Soviet military Intelligence (i ...

(code name: DORA), a Hungarian émigré, Communist, and

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

. The ''Red Three'' was founded in 1936, when ''Radó'' arrived in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

. By April 1942, the organization had been established with ''Radó'' as group leader, and also had three subgroup leaders:

Rachel Dübendorfer Rachel Dübendorfer ( Hepner; 18 July 1900 – 3 March 1973) was an anti-Nazi resistance fighter. During the Second World War, her codename was Sissy, and she was in a section of the Red Three (espionage), Red Three Swiss resistance movement. ...

(code name: SISSY),

Georges Blun Georges Blun (1 June 1893 – 1999) was a French journalist and intelligence agent who was the Berlin correspondent of the ''Journal de Paris''. Early life, World War I and the interwar years Georges Blun was born to a French family on 1 Jun ...

(code name: LONG), and

Otto Pünter Otto Pünter (4 April 1900 – 13 October 1988) was a Swiss journalist and anti-Nazi resistance fighter. During the Second World War, his codename was Pakbo, and he was a member of the Rote Drei. Personal life Pünter was born in Bern, S ...

(code name: PAKBO). After the imprisonment of

Leopold Trepper Leopold Zakharovich Trepper (23 February 1904 – 19 January 1982) was a Polish- Israeli Communist, career Soviet military intelligence officer of the Red Army Intelligence and resistance fighter. With the code name Otto, Trepper had worked wi ...

(code name: GRAND CHEF) 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 ...

in 1942, ''Radó's'' group became the most effective part of the ''Red Orchestra'' espionage network. It collected useful information in Switzerland and had some contacts inside Germany. Perhaps most importantly, ''Radó'' was also in touch with the

Lucy spy ring The Lucy spy ring () was an anti-Nazi World War II espionage operation headquartered in Switzerland and run by Rudolf Roessler, a German refugee. Its story was only published in 1966, and very little is clear about the ring, Roessler, or the effo ...

, which had very valuable contacts inside Germany, and was linked to

British intelligence The Government of the United Kingdom maintains several intelligence agencies that deal with secret intelligence. These agencies are responsible for collecting, analysing and exploiting foreign and domestic intelligence, providing military intell ...

. Some people have speculated that the ''Lucy ring'' was used by

to pass

Ultra Ultra may refer to: Science and technology * Ultra (cryptography), the codename for cryptographic intelligence obtained from signal traffic in World War II * Adobe Ultra, a vector-keying application * Sun Ultra series, a brand of computer work ...

information to

Soviet intelligence This is a list of historical secret police organizations. In most cases they are no longer current because the regime that ran them was overthrown or changed, or they changed their names. Few still exist under the same name as legitimate police fo ...

without revealing the codebreaking operation that was its source, but most historians do not agree with this theory. In 1944–1945, ''Radó'' was recalled to the USSR and charged with spying for Britain and the U.S. He was imprisoned for eight years, but was released and rehabilitated after

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's death.

Roessler's sources in World War II

Bibliography

References

*Trepper, Leopold (1977). ''The Great Game'' McGraw–Hill, Inc. *Brysac, Shareen Blair (2000) ''Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra'' Oxford University Press.

External links

Plötzensee Memorial Centre

BFCentral

on Sophia Poznanska

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

website. Retrieved April 7, 2010 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Red Three (Espionage) World War II resistance movements World War II espionage German resistance to Nazism Spy rings

Name history, and activities

Roessler's sources in World War II

Bibliography

See also

References

External links