Leopold Trepper Dead At 77, Jan. 21, 1982.

Leopold (Leib) Trepper, conductor of the famous “Red Orchestra” — the Soviet-backed Communist intelligence network which operated under the noses of the Nazis during World War II and which Nazi intelligence officials said was responsible for the deaths of over 200,000 German soldiers — died yesterday in Jerusalem at the age of 77. Funeral services were held today.

It was Trepper’s spy ring, dubbed by the Nazis as the “Red Orchestra,” which reportedly warned the Kremlin of Hitler’s plan to invade the Soviet Union. But these reports were discounted by Stalin.

The “Red Orchestra,” of nearly 300 agents, including a large number of Jews, was active throughout France, Germany, Holland and Belgium. Only 77 of its members survived the war. The “Orchestra” was broken when Trepper was betrayed and arrested by the Gestapo. He escaped and became active in the French resistance movement until the liberation of Paris. On his return to the Soviet Union after the war, he was arrested and kept in prison until Stalin’s death in 1953.

Had A Militant Background

Trepper was born in Poland where, orphaned at a young age, he became a labor organizer as well as a leader of the Socialist-Zionist Hashomer Hatzair. Harassed by the authorities for his activities, he emigrated to Palestine at the age of 20, became a member of the Palestine Communist Party and was imprisoned by the British Mandatory authorities.

Upon his release and expulsion from Palestine, Trepper went to Europe and then to the Soviet Union where he was trained at a military espionage school. After completing his training he was sent to Paris in the late 1930’s with instructions to establish a spy network in preparation for the coming year.

When Trepper was finally released from a Moscow prison (Trepper’s family believed he was dead) he returned to Poland, but with the rise of anti-Semitism there he began a long struggle for permission to emigrate to Israel. He was finally allowed to leave in 1974 and joined his family in Jerusalem.