LEON GROSSVOGEL.
Leon Grossvogel, alias PIEPER, ANDRE (to the Jeffremov group), LEO (to the Gurevich Group), XAVIER and Andre Grosser (in France)
The date of Grossvogel's recruitment by the GRU is not clear, but is probably not later than 1937, when Trepper visited him in Brussels and when he became travelling inspector for the Excellent Raincoat Co. the second of which occurences may have been a result of the first.
By the Spring of 1939, Grossvogel's business was being exploited for Trepper's purpose and from then onwards Grossvogel was certainly a conscious agent of the R.U. under trepper, first in Belgium and subsequently in France.
Procured 2 Syrian visas in 1934 or 1935 for Polish passports from Rajchmann in Brussels.
Was visited in Brussels by Trepper in 1937. Became travelling inspector of the Excellent Raincoat Co.
Obtained 2 Polish passports through Rajchmann in circa 1937.
Established the Foreign Excellent Raincoat Co. in 1938, subsidiary firm to the Excellent Raincoat Co. in Brussels, for the export of goods to Scandinavian countries, with Trepper's backing and no doubt intended to provide cover in those countries for Trepper's projected operations against the UK.
Utilised Rajchmann's services on Trepper's behalf and arranged a meeting between Rajchmann, Trepper and Marakov in 1939.
Under Trepper's directions, established Marakov as manager of the Ostende branch of the Foreign Excellent raincoat Co. in the spring of 1939.
Visited Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway seeking openings for Raincoat Co. in each country. An office was opened in Stockholm under the agency of a Belgian named Boellens.
After the outbreak of war and abandonment of Trepper's plan of campaign against the UK, Grossvogel probably ceased working for the expansion of the Raincoat Co's overseas business.
Arranged through a Bulgarian friend Petroff, for a car of the Bulgarian Consulate in Brussels to be available for Trepper and himself to tour the Excellent Raincoat branches throughout Belgium in May 1940.
Retreated with Trepper through Paris to unoccupied France in July 1940, where they remained until the Autumn, when they returned to Paris.
Espionage.
Grossvogel laid foundations of SIMEX in Paris in the Autumn of 1940.
In December 1940 he visited Gurevich in Brussels.
After SIMEX was well established in 1941, Grossvogel began to withdraw, handing over management to Alfred Corbin.
Put by Trepper in charge of Communications; his assistants included Germaine Schneider, the Sokols, Otto Schumacher, Escudero and the Girauds. His mistress, Simone Pheter, used the mail of the Belgian Chamber of Commerce, in which she was employed, for communications between Paris and Gurevich in Brussels.
Contact established between Grossvogel in Paris and Jeffremov and Wenzel in Brussels in June 1942.
Grossvogel began to use French Communist Party WT links with Moscow through Duval in July 1942.
He visited Rajchmann in Brussels in August 1942 to procure false identity cards for Germaine Schneider and another agent of the group.
Following German penetration of the Belgian group and the arrest of Rajchmann, Grossvogel himself was captured at a rendezvous with Rajchmann, Malvina Gruber and Mme. Griotto in the Cafe de la Paix, bd Hausmann, Paris in December 1942.
During 1943, cross-examined by the Gestapo and possibly used for further penetration of French groups.
Addresses.
From 21-11-1926 until 02-04-1928: Rue des Champs 16, gand, Belgium.
From 20-04-1928 until 21-05-1928: In Differdange, Luxembourg.
From 21-05-1928 until 18-05-1929: Rue Gaucheret 106, Schaerbeek, Belgium.
From 18-05-1929 until 17-09-1929: Rue Gennart 51, Molenbeek, St. Jean.
From 17-09-1929 until 20-08-1930: Boulevard du Midi 43, Brussels.
From 20-08-1930 until ?? : Rue des Croisades 17, St. Josse ten Noode.
June 1934 June 1935 : Leuvenschestraat 5, Vilvorde.
June 1935 until 1940 : Avenue Prudent Bois 117, Brussels.
1940 until 1941 : Villa de Madrid 14 bis, Neuilly, Paris.
1941 until 1942 : Rue de Varenne 94/96, Paris (with Trepper)
Avenue Wagram 78, Paris.
Personal particulars.
Nationality: French Jew, of Polish origin.
Date of birth: 27-11-1904 in Lodz, Poland.
Document: French passport No. 3443, issued in Strasbourg on 09-03-1924.
Description: Height circa 6' 0" slim build; black hair brushed straight back; brown eyes; low forehead; wide mouth with
thick lips; sallow complexion; flat footed; well-dressed; spectacles for reading.
Relatives: Married to Johanna nee Pesant. Son of Asias Grossvogel, born 25-12-1976 in Konskavolia, frenchman of
Russian origin and Amelia nee Wisnia, born 04-05-1873 in Pulsuk. Brother of Sarah Kapelovitz.
Simone Pheter's lover in 1939 - 1942.
Occupation: Electrician and business manager.
History.
Entered Belgium from Strasbourg in 1926.
Sentenced by the Belgian Police for a civil offence in 1928.
Known in Belgium as a active Communist in 1929.
Employed in the Excellent Raincoat Co's business "Au Roi du Caoutchouc", boulevard Adolphe Max in Brussels between 1929 and 1934.
General manager of the Excellent Raincoat Co. between 1935 and 1937.
Appointed travelling inspector for the company in 1937.
Became managing director of the Foreign Excellent Raincoat Co. in 1938.
During the Spring and Summer of 1939 visited Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
At time of the Allied invasion was probably held by the Gestapo in Paris at Boulevard Victor Hugo 40. May have been evacuated in July 1944 to Germany or executed in the Fresnes Prison at the end of July.
By the end of 1946, according to an unconfirmed statement by Renee Barro, Grossvogel was still alive, somewhere in France.
Source: KV3/350.
Leon Grossvogel (born 27 November 1904 in Lódz; likely died 1944-1945) was a Polish-French Jewish businessman, Comintern official, resistance fighter, communist agitator and one of the organizers of a Soviet intelligence network in Belgium and France, that was later called the Red Orchestra ("Rote Kapelle") by the Abwehr. Grossvogel used the following code names to disguise his identity: Pieper, Grosser, and Andre. In the autumn of 1938, Grossvogel became associated with Leopold Trepper, a Soviet intelligence agent who would later run a large espionage network in Europe. Grossvogel established two cover companies, the Foreign Excellent Raincoat Company and later Simexco that would be used by Trepper as a cover and funding for his espionage network. Grossvogel who organised funding for the companies, would later become an assistant to Trepper, organising safehouses, couriers, cutouts and agents.
His father was Osias Grossvogel, who was a Jewish religious scholar. In 1926, Grossvogel and his sister, moved to Belgium via Strasbourg, initially staying in Ghent. In 1929, he became a member of the Belgian Communist Party.
In May 1938, Grossvogel married Jeanne Fernande Pesant at Holborn Registry Office in London. Jeanne Grossvogel ran the Ostend branch of Le Roi du Caoutchouc. The couple gave birth to a daughter, Nicole Germaine Grossvogel, in October 1942.
Grossvogel ran a small Brussels business called Le Roi du Caoutchouc or The Raincoat King on behalf of its owners. His sister Sarah Kapolowitz was married to one of the directors, his brother-in-law Louis Kapolowitz. He had been employed by the firm as an employee since 1929 and became the manager of its foreign subsidiary The Excellent Raincoat Company in 1935. In 1937, his job position changed when he became the travelling inspector for the company. Although Grossvogel was related to one of the owners by marriage and who recognised him as a good worker, he had become unpopular with his employees due to his communist sympathies and his errant behaviour during a strike at their Brussels plant in 1938.
Grossvogel played a central role in the Red Orchestra espionage network in Belgium and France
In the autumn of 1938, Polish Communist and agent of the Red Army Intelligence agent, Leopold Trepper made contact with Grossvogel, whom he had known while he was in Palestine in the 1920s. He travelled under the alias Adam Mikler, a wealthy Canadian businessman, and had a plan to create a business that would be the export division of The Raincoat King and agreed with Grossvogel the plan to create a new business, without telling Grossvogel of his own intelligence mission. It would be the ideal cover for espionage network. Trepper financed Grossvogel to the sum of $8,000 to create the new business, that was given an unidiomatic name of Foreign Excellent Raincoat Company.
In December 1938, Grossvogel formed the new company, that would export raincoats. Grossvogel became manager of the new firm. As a representative of the company, he made trips to Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, and Finland, in the spring and summer of 1939, i.e. the places Trepper planned to establish bases for operations against the United Kingdom.
In March 1939, Under a plan created by Trepper, Grossvogel arranged for Red Army Intelligence agent Mikhail Makarov to become manager of a branch of the raincoat company in Ostend, replacing Grossvogel's wife. Makarov planned to put a transmitter in the city, to establish communication with agent in England.
After the start of World War II, Trepper abandoned the idea of trying to expand the raincoat company overseas, stopping intelligence activities against Britain. In July 1940, he decided to move to Paris, France to avoid capture by the advancing German front and Grossvogel went with him.
In the autumn of 1940, Grossvogel efforts led to the establishment of the Simex firm in Paris firm, becoming its managing director. The companies name was a metonym for S for Societe, IM for Import, EX for Export and was established as a large company, offering military engineering contract services for Nazi German contracts resulting from the occupation. Grossvogel's task was to grow the business, while Trepper used the business to mask his clandestine activities unnoticed. In 1941, French commercial director Alfred Corbin became managing director of Simex leaving Grossvogel acting in the role of assistant, carrying out Trepper's instructions as he met with businessmen and industrialists.
As the year changed into 1942, Grossvogel's role changed as he became Trepper main assistant, becoming more involved in the daily operation of the espionage network. One of his main tasks was the establishment of a reliable communications line and the supervision of agents who uses it. Grossvogel would also train radio operators.
Grossvogel was paid a retainer by Russian intelligence, at 175 dollars per months. After the start of the war, this was increased to 225 dollars per month.
In December 1942, Grossvogel was arrested, while waiting for a rendezvous with the forger and criminal, Abraham Rajchmann, at the Café de la Paix in Paris, He was betrayed by Trepper. He was imprisoned in Fresnes Prison and tortured by the Gestapo, as they had been told by captured Soviet agent, Anatoly Gurevich, that he knew the code that was used to encrypt communications between the espionage group and Soviet intelligence. However, he refused to divulge the secret.
It is unknown whether Grossvogel was executed as other members of the Red Orchestra were, or that he survived the war (sources vary). It was likely he was still alive during the allied invasion however it is equally likely he was secretly tried and convicted by a Luftwaffe court and then executed, either in Fresnes prison, or more likely taken to Germany in 1944 or 1945. His wife, Jeanne Grossvogel, was arrested on 25 November 1942 and executed in July 1943 in Plötzensee Prison.
Source: Wikipedia.
The date of Grossvogel's recruitment by the GRU is not clear, but is probably not later than 1937, when Trepper visited him in Brussels and when he became travelling inspector for the Excellent Raincoat Co. the second of which occurences may have been a result of the first.
By the Spring of 1939, Grossvogel's business was being exploited for Trepper's purpose and from then onwards Grossvogel was certainly a conscious agent of the R.U. under trepper, first in Belgium and subsequently in France.
Procured 2 Syrian visas in 1934 or 1935 for Polish passports from Rajchmann in Brussels.
Was visited in Brussels by Trepper in 1937. Became travelling inspector of the Excellent Raincoat Co.
Obtained 2 Polish passports through Rajchmann in circa 1937.
Established the Foreign Excellent Raincoat Co. in 1938, subsidiary firm to the Excellent Raincoat Co. in Brussels, for the export of goods to Scandinavian countries, with Trepper's backing and no doubt intended to provide cover in those countries for Trepper's projected operations against the UK.
Utilised Rajchmann's services on Trepper's behalf and arranged a meeting between Rajchmann, Trepper and Marakov in 1939.
Under Trepper's directions, established Marakov as manager of the Ostende branch of the Foreign Excellent raincoat Co. in the spring of 1939.
Visited Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway seeking openings for Raincoat Co. in each country. An office was opened in Stockholm under the agency of a Belgian named Boellens.
After the outbreak of war and abandonment of Trepper's plan of campaign against the UK, Grossvogel probably ceased working for the expansion of the Raincoat Co's overseas business.
Arranged through a Bulgarian friend Petroff, for a car of the Bulgarian Consulate in Brussels to be available for Trepper and himself to tour the Excellent Raincoat branches throughout Belgium in May 1940.
Retreated with Trepper through Paris to unoccupied France in July 1940, where they remained until the Autumn, when they returned to Paris.
Espionage.
Grossvogel laid foundations of SIMEX in Paris in the Autumn of 1940.
In December 1940 he visited Gurevich in Brussels.
After SIMEX was well established in 1941, Grossvogel began to withdraw, handing over management to Alfred Corbin.
Put by Trepper in charge of Communications; his assistants included Germaine Schneider, the Sokols, Otto Schumacher, Escudero and the Girauds. His mistress, Simone Pheter, used the mail of the Belgian Chamber of Commerce, in which she was employed, for communications between Paris and Gurevich in Brussels.
Contact established between Grossvogel in Paris and Jeffremov and Wenzel in Brussels in June 1942.
Grossvogel began to use French Communist Party WT links with Moscow through Duval in July 1942.
He visited Rajchmann in Brussels in August 1942 to procure false identity cards for Germaine Schneider and another agent of the group.
Following German penetration of the Belgian group and the arrest of Rajchmann, Grossvogel himself was captured at a rendezvous with Rajchmann, Malvina Gruber and Mme. Griotto in the Cafe de la Paix, bd Hausmann, Paris in December 1942.
During 1943, cross-examined by the Gestapo and possibly used for further penetration of French groups.
Addresses.
From 21-11-1926 until 02-04-1928: Rue des Champs 16, gand, Belgium.
From 20-04-1928 until 21-05-1928: In Differdange, Luxembourg.
From 21-05-1928 until 18-05-1929: Rue Gaucheret 106, Schaerbeek, Belgium.
From 18-05-1929 until 17-09-1929: Rue Gennart 51, Molenbeek, St. Jean.
From 17-09-1929 until 20-08-1930: Boulevard du Midi 43, Brussels.
From 20-08-1930 until ?? : Rue des Croisades 17, St. Josse ten Noode.
June 1934 June 1935 : Leuvenschestraat 5, Vilvorde.
June 1935 until 1940 : Avenue Prudent Bois 117, Brussels.
1940 until 1941 : Villa de Madrid 14 bis, Neuilly, Paris.
1941 until 1942 : Rue de Varenne 94/96, Paris (with Trepper)
Avenue Wagram 78, Paris.
Personal particulars.
Nationality: French Jew, of Polish origin.
Date of birth: 27-11-1904 in Lodz, Poland.
Document: French passport No. 3443, issued in Strasbourg on 09-03-1924.
Description: Height circa 6' 0" slim build; black hair brushed straight back; brown eyes; low forehead; wide mouth with
thick lips; sallow complexion; flat footed; well-dressed; spectacles for reading.
Relatives: Married to Johanna nee Pesant. Son of Asias Grossvogel, born 25-12-1976 in Konskavolia, frenchman of
Russian origin and Amelia nee Wisnia, born 04-05-1873 in Pulsuk. Brother of Sarah Kapelovitz.
Simone Pheter's lover in 1939 - 1942.
Occupation: Electrician and business manager.
History.
Entered Belgium from Strasbourg in 1926.
Sentenced by the Belgian Police for a civil offence in 1928.
Known in Belgium as a active Communist in 1929.
Employed in the Excellent Raincoat Co's business "Au Roi du Caoutchouc", boulevard Adolphe Max in Brussels between 1929 and 1934.
General manager of the Excellent Raincoat Co. between 1935 and 1937.
Appointed travelling inspector for the company in 1937.
Became managing director of the Foreign Excellent Raincoat Co. in 1938.
During the Spring and Summer of 1939 visited Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
At time of the Allied invasion was probably held by the Gestapo in Paris at Boulevard Victor Hugo 40. May have been evacuated in July 1944 to Germany or executed in the Fresnes Prison at the end of July.
By the end of 1946, according to an unconfirmed statement by Renee Barro, Grossvogel was still alive, somewhere in France.
Source: KV3/350.
Leon Grossvogel (born 27 November 1904 in Lódz; likely died 1944-1945) was a Polish-French Jewish businessman, Comintern official, resistance fighter, communist agitator and one of the organizers of a Soviet intelligence network in Belgium and France, that was later called the Red Orchestra ("Rote Kapelle") by the Abwehr. Grossvogel used the following code names to disguise his identity: Pieper, Grosser, and Andre. In the autumn of 1938, Grossvogel became associated with Leopold Trepper, a Soviet intelligence agent who would later run a large espionage network in Europe. Grossvogel established two cover companies, the Foreign Excellent Raincoat Company and later Simexco that would be used by Trepper as a cover and funding for his espionage network. Grossvogel who organised funding for the companies, would later become an assistant to Trepper, organising safehouses, couriers, cutouts and agents.
His father was Osias Grossvogel, who was a Jewish religious scholar. In 1926, Grossvogel and his sister, moved to Belgium via Strasbourg, initially staying in Ghent. In 1929, he became a member of the Belgian Communist Party.
In May 1938, Grossvogel married Jeanne Fernande Pesant at Holborn Registry Office in London. Jeanne Grossvogel ran the Ostend branch of Le Roi du Caoutchouc. The couple gave birth to a daughter, Nicole Germaine Grossvogel, in October 1942.
Grossvogel ran a small Brussels business called Le Roi du Caoutchouc or The Raincoat King on behalf of its owners. His sister Sarah Kapolowitz was married to one of the directors, his brother-in-law Louis Kapolowitz. He had been employed by the firm as an employee since 1929 and became the manager of its foreign subsidiary The Excellent Raincoat Company in 1935. In 1937, his job position changed when he became the travelling inspector for the company. Although Grossvogel was related to one of the owners by marriage and who recognised him as a good worker, he had become unpopular with his employees due to his communist sympathies and his errant behaviour during a strike at their Brussels plant in 1938.
Grossvogel played a central role in the Red Orchestra espionage network in Belgium and France
In the autumn of 1938, Polish Communist and agent of the Red Army Intelligence agent, Leopold Trepper made contact with Grossvogel, whom he had known while he was in Palestine in the 1920s. He travelled under the alias Adam Mikler, a wealthy Canadian businessman, and had a plan to create a business that would be the export division of The Raincoat King and agreed with Grossvogel the plan to create a new business, without telling Grossvogel of his own intelligence mission. It would be the ideal cover for espionage network. Trepper financed Grossvogel to the sum of $8,000 to create the new business, that was given an unidiomatic name of Foreign Excellent Raincoat Company.
In December 1938, Grossvogel formed the new company, that would export raincoats. Grossvogel became manager of the new firm. As a representative of the company, he made trips to Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, and Finland, in the spring and summer of 1939, i.e. the places Trepper planned to establish bases for operations against the United Kingdom.
In March 1939, Under a plan created by Trepper, Grossvogel arranged for Red Army Intelligence agent Mikhail Makarov to become manager of a branch of the raincoat company in Ostend, replacing Grossvogel's wife. Makarov planned to put a transmitter in the city, to establish communication with agent in England.
After the start of World War II, Trepper abandoned the idea of trying to expand the raincoat company overseas, stopping intelligence activities against Britain. In July 1940, he decided to move to Paris, France to avoid capture by the advancing German front and Grossvogel went with him.
In the autumn of 1940, Grossvogel efforts led to the establishment of the Simex firm in Paris firm, becoming its managing director. The companies name was a metonym for S for Societe, IM for Import, EX for Export and was established as a large company, offering military engineering contract services for Nazi German contracts resulting from the occupation. Grossvogel's task was to grow the business, while Trepper used the business to mask his clandestine activities unnoticed. In 1941, French commercial director Alfred Corbin became managing director of Simex leaving Grossvogel acting in the role of assistant, carrying out Trepper's instructions as he met with businessmen and industrialists.
As the year changed into 1942, Grossvogel's role changed as he became Trepper main assistant, becoming more involved in the daily operation of the espionage network. One of his main tasks was the establishment of a reliable communications line and the supervision of agents who uses it. Grossvogel would also train radio operators.
Grossvogel was paid a retainer by Russian intelligence, at 175 dollars per months. After the start of the war, this was increased to 225 dollars per month.
In December 1942, Grossvogel was arrested, while waiting for a rendezvous with the forger and criminal, Abraham Rajchmann, at the Café de la Paix in Paris, He was betrayed by Trepper. He was imprisoned in Fresnes Prison and tortured by the Gestapo, as they had been told by captured Soviet agent, Anatoly Gurevich, that he knew the code that was used to encrypt communications between the espionage group and Soviet intelligence. However, he refused to divulge the secret.
It is unknown whether Grossvogel was executed as other members of the Red Orchestra were, or that he survived the war (sources vary). It was likely he was still alive during the allied invasion however it is equally likely he was secretly tried and convicted by a Luftwaffe court and then executed, either in Fresnes prison, or more likely taken to Germany in 1944 or 1945. His wife, Jeanne Grossvogel, was arrested on 25 November 1942 and executed in July 1943 in Plötzensee Prison.
Source: Wikipedia.