Arnold Deutsch
Encyclopedia
Dr. Arnold Deutsch variously described as Austrian, Czech
, or Hungarian, was an academic who worked as a Soviet spy
, most well known for having recruited Kim Philby
. Much of his life remains unknown or disputed.
, the millionaire proprietor of the Odeon Cinemas
chain. Though he claimed to be an observant Jew to disguise his role as a Communist agent, Deutsch was in fact lapsed in his religious beliefs.
At the age of 24, Deutsch received with distinction his PhD
in political science
, from the University of Vienna
. He was also a sexologist, a follower of Wilhelm Reich
and his "SexPol" movement.
His remarkable academic record opened opportunities to penetrate the highest institutions in many Western countries.
, the International Liaison Department of the Comintern
. A co-worker of his there was Edith Suschitzky
, whom he met at 1926 in Vienna
and who would be instrumental in his later espionage career.
In 1933, Deutsch was arrested by the Nazi authorities in Germany
, but was freed from custody with the help of Willi Lehmann
, the highly-placed Soviet agent within the Gestapo.
Deutsch then travelled to Britain under his real name, so that his university credentials would be valid. Upon arriving in England, Deutsch studied psychology
at the graduate level at the University of London
, as his cover for espionage
work in England.
The writer Nigel West asserts, based on the information provided in 1940 by Soviet defector Walter Krivitsky
, that Deutsch had been an assistant of the Latvian-born senior Soviet spy Adam Purpis
, who according to the same source was between 1931 and 1934 the NKVD Illegal Rezident (i.e. agent operating outside the embassy) in the UK.
When Litzi Friedmann
and Kim Philby
, who had just married in Vienna
, arrived in London from Vienna in 1934, Edith Suschitzky
suggested to Deutsch that the NKVD
should recruit Friedmann and Philby as agents.
Deutsch was indeed the NKVD
operative who recruited Kim Philby
in Regent's Park
, London
, on 1 July 1934. Using the code name Otto, Deutsch was the controller for the Cambridge Five
spy ring from 1933 to 1937, when he was replaced by Theodore Maly
.
During his time in the United Kingdom
, Deutsch was given the task of evaluating an American recruit, Michael Straight
, who did not impress him. Deutsch's evaluation of Straight was to be borne out almost thirty years later, in 1963, when Straight decided to voluntarily inform Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., a family friend, about his communist connections from his student days at Cambridge University, a confession which led directly to the exposure of Anthony Blunt
as a recruiter and member of the Cambridge Five spy ring.
In September 1937, in the midst of Stalin's widespread and deadly Moscow purge trials, Deutsch was recalled to Moscow
. At that time, Deutsch was at great risk of being discovered in western Europe, because of the defections of the highly-placed Soviet operatives Ignace Reiss and Walter Krivitsky
; he had been familiar with some elements of their operations.
Back in Moscow, Deutsch was extensively debriefed, and managed to escape execution - which, at the time, was the fate of many completely loyal Communists. He was employed as an expert on forgery and handwriting, and was not allowed to go abroad again until the early 1940s.
; or as having drowned when his ship was sunk by a U-boat
while en route to New York
, where he was supposed to work with NKVD recruits.
Kim Philby's fourth and last wife, Rufina
, cites the drowning story, but says that the Russia
n sources are divided on where Deutsch was headed when his ship, the Donbass
, was sunk on its way to the United States. She says that Volume 3 of the KGB
History states that Deutsch's eventual destination was Latin America
, but then says that Allen Weinstein
and Alexander Vasilliev, citing KGB files, write, in Haunted Wood, that Deutsch was headed to the New York
residency to expand its operations.
, Deutsch was portrayed in the first two episodes by Marcel Iures
.
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
, or Hungarian, was an academic who worked as a Soviet spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
, most well known for having recruited Kim Philby
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
. Much of his life remains unknown or disputed.
Early life
He was a cousin of Oscar DeutschOscar Deutsch
Oscar Deutsch was the founder of the Odeon Cinemas chain in the United Kingdom.-Life and career:Deutsch was born in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, England, the son of Leopold Deutsch, a successful Hungarian Jewish scrap metal merchant. After attending King Edward VI Five Ways, he opened his first...
, the millionaire proprietor of the Odeon Cinemas
Odeon Cinemas
Odeon Cinemas is a British chain of cinemas, one of the largest in Europe. It is owned by Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group whose ultimate parent is Terra Firma Capital Partners.-History:Odeon Cinemas was created in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch...
chain. Though he claimed to be an observant Jew to disguise his role as a Communist agent, Deutsch was in fact lapsed in his religious beliefs.
At the age of 24, Deutsch received with distinction his PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
, from the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
. He was also a sexologist, a follower of Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
and his "SexPol" movement.
His remarkable academic record opened opportunities to penetrate the highest institutions in many Western countries.
Espionage career
At the same time, Deutsch embarked on his lifelong involvement with Communism and the Soviet Union. In the 1920s he was working for the OMSOtdel mezhdonarodnoi sviazi (OMS)
The International Liaison Department , or OMS , was one of the most secret departments of the Comintern. It was founded at the Third Congress of the Comintern in July 1921. It mission was to provide support, guidance, and funding to Communist parties outside Russia.The head of the OMS was Osip...
, the International Liaison Department of the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
. A co-worker of his there was Edith Suschitzky
Edith Tudor-Hart
Edith Tudor Hart , an Austrian-British photographer, communist-sympathiser and spy for the Soviet Union. Some of her work is in the National Gallery in London.-Early life and education:...
, whom he met at 1926 in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and who would be instrumental in his later espionage career.
In 1933, Deutsch was arrested by the Nazi authorities in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, but was freed from custody with the help of Willi Lehmann
Willi Lehmann
Willi Lehmann was a police official and Soviet agent in Nazi Germany.Lehmann was a criminal inspector and SS-Hauptsturmführer , alias Agent A-201/Breitenbach. During World War II Lehmann was one of the most valuable sources for the NKVD in Germany.Lehrmann joined the Berlin police force in 1911...
, the highly-placed Soviet agent within the Gestapo.
Deutsch then travelled to Britain under his real name, so that his university credentials would be valid. Upon arriving in England, Deutsch studied psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
at the graduate level at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, as his cover for espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
work in England.
The writer Nigel West asserts, based on the information provided in 1940 by Soviet defector Walter Krivitsky
Walter Krivitsky
Walter Germanovich Krivitsky was a Soviet intelligence officer who revealed plans of signing Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact before defecting weeks before the outbreak of World War II....
, that Deutsch had been an assistant of the Latvian-born senior Soviet spy Adam Purpis
Adam Purpis
Adam Purpis , a Latvian, was a Soviet intelligence agent. He sometimes travelled on a Honduras passport...
, who according to the same source was between 1931 and 1934 the NKVD Illegal Rezident (i.e. agent operating outside the embassy) in the UK.
When Litzi Friedmann
Litzi Friedmann
Litzi Friedmann, born Alice Kohlmann , was an Austrian Communist of Jewish origins who was the first wife of Kim Philby....
and Kim Philby
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
, who had just married in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, arrived in London from Vienna in 1934, Edith Suschitzky
Edith Tudor-Hart
Edith Tudor Hart , an Austrian-British photographer, communist-sympathiser and spy for the Soviet Union. Some of her work is in the National Gallery in London.-Early life and education:...
suggested to Deutsch that the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
should recruit Friedmann and Philby as agents.
Deutsch was indeed the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
operative who recruited Kim Philby
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
in Regent's Park
Regent's Park
Regent's Park is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the north-western part of central London, partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the London Borough of Camden...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, on 1 July 1934. Using the code name Otto, Deutsch was the controller for the Cambridge Five
Cambridge Five
The Cambridge Five was a ring of spies, recruited in part by Russian talent spotter Arnold Deutsch in the United Kingdom, who passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and at least into the early 1950s...
spy ring from 1933 to 1937, when he was replaced by Theodore Maly
Theodore Maly
Theodore Maly was an undercover Soviet intelligence officer who recruited and controlled spies in the 1930s. He lived illegally in the countries where he worked and was one of Russia’s most effective illegal recruiters and controllers...
.
During his time in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Deutsch was given the task of evaluating an American recruit, Michael Straight
Michael Whitney Straight
Michael Whitney Straight, was an American magazine publisher, novelist, patron of the arts, a member of the prominent Whitney family, and a confessed spy for the KGB.-Biography:...
, who did not impress him. Deutsch's evaluation of Straight was to be borne out almost thirty years later, in 1963, when Straight decided to voluntarily inform Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., a family friend, about his communist connections from his student days at Cambridge University, a confession which led directly to the exposure of Anthony Blunt
Anthony Blunt
Anthony Frederick Blunt , was a British art historian who was exposed as a Soviet spy late in his life.Blunt was Professor of the History of Art at the University of London, director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, Surveyor of the King's Pictures and London...
as a recruiter and member of the Cambridge Five spy ring.
In September 1937, in the midst of Stalin's widespread and deadly Moscow purge trials, Deutsch was recalled to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. At that time, Deutsch was at great risk of being discovered in western Europe, because of the defections of the highly-placed Soviet operatives Ignace Reiss and Walter Krivitsky
Walter Krivitsky
Walter Germanovich Krivitsky was a Soviet intelligence officer who revealed plans of signing Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact before defecting weeks before the outbreak of World War II....
; he had been familiar with some elements of their operations.
Back in Moscow, Deutsch was extensively debriefed, and managed to escape execution - which, at the time, was the fate of many completely loyal Communists. He was employed as an expert on forgery and handwriting, and was not allowed to go abroad again until the early 1940s.
Fate unknown
Deutsch's final fate is uncertain. Among theories which have been proposed by various authors, Deutsch was said to have been captured and shot by the Nazis after parachuting into AustriaAustria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
; or as having drowned when his ship was sunk by a U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
while en route to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, where he was supposed to work with NKVD recruits.
Kim Philby's fourth and last wife, Rufina
Rufina Ivanova Pukhova
Rufina Ivanovna Pukhova is a Russian writer. She was the last wife of Kim Philby, whom she met through George Blake and whom she married in 1971. She is the author of The Private Life of Kim Philby: The Moscow Years . Pukhova was born in Moscow to a Russian father and a Polish mother.-References:...
, cites the drowning story, but says that the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n sources are divided on where Deutsch was headed when his ship, the Donbass
Donbass (ship)
The Donbass was a Soviet ship sunk by a German U-boat in 1942, when it was on its way to the United States.The case aroused considerable later interest due to the widely-held assertion that the Soviet spy Arnold Deutsch was among the passengers killed in the attack, and that he was at the time...
, was sunk on its way to the United States. She says that Volume 3 of the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
History states that Deutsch's eventual destination was Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, but then says that Allen Weinstein
Allen Weinstein
Allen Weinstein is an American historian, educator, and federal official who has served in several different offices. He served as the Archivist of the United States from February 16, 2005 until his resignation on December 19, 2008...
and Alexander Vasilliev, citing KGB files, write, in Haunted Wood, that Deutsch was headed to the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
residency to expand its operations.
Portrayal in Fiction
In the 2003 four-part BBC television drama about the Cambridge SpiesCambridge Spies
Cambridge Spies is a 2003 four-part BBC television drama concerning the lives of the best-known quartet of the Cambridge Five Soviet spies from 1934 to the 1951 defection of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean to the Soviet Union...
, Deutsch was portrayed in the first two episodes by Marcel Iures
Marcel Iures
Marcel Iureş is a Romanian stage and screen actor.Iureş was born 2 August 1951 in Băileşti, Romania and is one of Romania's most acclaimed stage and film actors. Iureş entered the Institutul de Arta Teatrala si Cinematografica in Bucharest in 1974 and graduated in 1978...
.