Erica Wallach

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Erica Glaser-Wallach, 1991, Berlin

Erica Glaser-Wallach (born February 19, 1922 in Schlawe , Pomerania ; † December 21, 1993 in Warrenton , Virginia ) was a German-American teacher , editor and translator . She was a victim of Stalinism .

Life

Erica Glaser was the daughter of a doctor. In 1936 her parents emigrated to Spain . During the Spanish Civil War she worked as a nurse in a hospital. After the victory of Franco's troops, she was interned in the French camp Le Boulou in 1939 , where she became seriously ill. While visiting a League of Nations commission , she fled with her mother, who placed her in the care of Herta and Noel Field . The two brought Erica to Switzerland and later adopt her.

During her studies in Zurich she came into contact with German emigrants, members of the banned Communist Party of Germany . From then on she was involved in the anti-fascist resistance in Switzerland, at the same time she worked for the US intelligence service OSS until its dissolution in 1945 . In 1945 Glaser became a party member himself; At the end of 1948 she left the KPD.

In July 1948 she married the US officer and banker Robert R. Wallach. The marriage had two children.

In 1949 her adoptive parents Herta and Noel Field were arrested in Prague on charges of espionage and deported to Hungary . In 1950 she traveled to East Berlin to research the whereabouts of her adoptive parents. Here she was arrested in August 1950, and she was also accused of espionage and cooperation with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). She was first taken to the remand prison of the GDR State Security Service in Berlin's Albrechtstrasse and in April 1951 to the central Soviet remand prison in Berlin-Karlshorst . In August 1951 she was transferred to Berlin-Hohenschönhausen (now the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial ), where she was in solitary confinement for over a year and was interrogated by Erich Mielke, among others . In September 1952 she was brought back to Karlshorst. In order to force her to make incriminating statements, she was tortured during her detention, including sleep deprivation, cold weather, and beatings.

On December 24, 1952, the Soviet Military Tribunal (SMT) in Berlin-Lichtenberg sentenced her to death for espionage. She was then taken to Moscow's Butyrka Prison, where she spent six months on death row. After Stalin's death, in July 1953 she was “pardoned” for 15 years in the camp , which she had to spend in the Vorkuta prison camp region, among other things as a forced laborer in the construction of the railway. In 1955, the Soviet authorities overturned the sentence and was denied compensation. From Moscow she was brought to East Berlin and then deported to West Berlin .

At first she was not allowed to return to the USA because she was seen as a Soviet spy. After interrogation by the CIA and a testimony before the Committee on Un-American Activities , she was finally allowed back to see her family in 1958. She worked as a teacher in Warrenton until her death.

Fonts (selection)

literature

  • Bernd-Rainer Barth (Ed.), Werner Schweizer: The case of Noel Field. Key figure in the show trials in Eastern Europe 1948–1957 . Vol. 1, BasisDruck, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86163-038-8 , pp. 610–630 and 659–663.
  • Bernd-Rainer Barth: The Fall Field after 50 years , in: Bernd-Rainer Barth (Hrsg.), Werner Schweizer (Hrsg.) In connection with Thomas Grimm : The Case Noel Field. Key figure in the show trials in Eastern Europe , Vol. 2: Asylum in Hungary 1954–1957 , Basisdruck, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3861631326 , pp. 353–397
  • Thomas Grimm : Damn liar. In: Left Fatherland Journeyman. Socialists, anarchists, communists, ruffians, and other non-conformists. Parthas Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-932529-39-1 , pp. 9-49.

Movie

  • Thomas Grimm and Werner Schweizer (interviewer): Erica Glaser-Wallach , Germany 1991, 153 minutes
  • Thomas Grimm, Werner Schweizer, René A. Zumbühl: Damned Liar or My Career as a Naked Dancer. An encounter with the German-American Erica Glaser-Wallach, born in 1922. Germany 1993, 29 minutes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Summary of the interview ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the 1993 movie  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zeitzeugen-tv.com
  2. ^ The Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives: The Erica Wallach story , Report. Eighty-fifth Congress, second session, Washington, March 21, 1958, abstract in the Committee on Un-American Activities Annual report for the year 1958, Internet Archive
  3. ^ Entry in the film database of the DEFA Foundation
  4. ^ Entry in the film database of the DEFA Foundation
personal data
SURNAME Wallach, Erica
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Glaser Wallach, Erica (full name); Glaser Erica (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American teacher, editor and translator
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Schlawe , Pomerania
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1993
Place of death Warrenton , Virginia , USA