Harry Gold

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Harry Gold after his arrest by the FBI

Harry Gold (born December 12, 1911 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † August 28, 1972 ibid) was an American chemical laboratory technician who, because of his courier work for the Soviet Union , where, among other things, he provided information about the American-British-Canadian nuclear program ( Manhattan Project ) was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Since Gold's activities took place in the espionage sector, which is fixed on secrecy, all information on these activities must be viewed with caution and, despite numerous revelations, still partly controversial.

Life

Harry Gold was born in Philadelphia to poor Russian Jewish immigrants. As a young man he was enthusiastic about socialism, which brought him into contact with communism. However, by his own admission, he was a Democratic voter throughout his life and was rather repelled by the Communist Party .

After graduating from high school, he worked as a laboratory assistant for the Pennsylvania Sugar Company. In the wake of the great global economic crisis , he initially lost his job in 1932, but returned to it later. After various subordinate activities, he studied chemical engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia from 1934 to 1936 . Here in 1935 the Soviet industrial spy Thomas Lessing Black , who was later to be exposed in the VENONA project , recruited him for espionage activities. After graduating, he found a job with Brothman Associates. In 1940 he was activated for Soviet espionage by Jacob Golos , but initially not as an agent of the "rezidentura", the branch for the Soviet secret services NKVD and the military secret service (GRU). Later in 1940 he was taken over by the control officer and Soviet spy Semyon Semenov and was formally listed as a Soviet agent under the code name GUS or GOOSE until March 1944.

Gold created several imaginary identities for himself during his espionage work and in some cases before. For example, he claimed to his employer Albert Brothman that he had been a father of two for years, although Gold remained a bachelor throughout his life. During his testimony in the Brothman-Moskowitz-Gold case, he himself summed up his involvement in various lies as follows: "It is a wonder steam didn't come out of my ears at times."

On September 5, 1945, Igor Gusenko , employed at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, contacted the Canadian authorities and gave them documents showing that several Canadians and foreigners were involved in espionage activities for the Soviet Union. However, these people only appeared in the documents under aliases, and Gusenko could only partially assign them to people. Based on his information, 26 people were accused of espionage by a Canadian special commission. Of these 26 accused, only a few were actually convicted in the ordinary trials, including Dr. Allen Nunn May . Although the unmasking of nuclear spies Klaus Fuchs , Harry Gold and David Greenglass was partly attributed to Gusenko's revelations, it is mainly based on the work of the VENONA project, with which the Americans were able to decipher encrypted Soviet messages from 1946 onwards. Due to the secrecy of the American government, the actual condemnations that arose from this success were very shaky. In addition, the prosecutors, the courts and the FBI used very questionable methods to force the convictions without endangering the VENONA project. The convictions of the confessing Fuchs, Gold and Greenglass came at the height of the Cold War , in the middle of the McCarthy era , and are still controversial.

When Klaus Fuchs was arrested in England for atomic espionage in 1950, he confessed to having passed on information about the construction of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union during the Second World War during his time in the USA, but at the same time denied any contact with Soviet spies with the exception of a courier for that he gathered information. Fuchs initially denied recognizing Harry Gold when he presented photos, but corrected himself during further interrogations without clearly identifying Gold. During interrogation, Harry Gold confessed to having carried out espionage activity since 1934 and to having helped Fuchs to pass on information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union through the Soviet Consul General Anatoli Yakovlev ( Anatoli Jazkow ).

Gold's confession led to the arrest of David Greenglass . Greenglass' testimony resulted in the arrest and, in a subsequent controversial trial, the conviction and execution of his brother-in-law and sister Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and the sentencing of Morton Sobell to 30 years in prison. Harry Gold himself never claimed to have had contact with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and was therefore not cross-examined by their lawyers during the trial. Unlike Gold and Greenglass, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and Morton Sobell have never admitted espionage activities. Well-known US lawyers have expressed serious doubts about the fairness of the Rosenberg Trial, which took place in the so-called McCarthy era . In addition to the severity of the sentence and the questionable methods of the public prosecutor's office, the conviction of Ethel Rosenberg is still controversial, as the VENONA documents that have since been published do not say anything about her person, whereas the VENONA documents describe Julius as a spy . In any case, Ethel was only accused during the trial of having typed up her husband's notes.

Harry Gold was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 1951 and was released in 1966 after serving half his sentence.

literature

  • Sam Roberts: The Brother, The untold story of atomic spy David Greenglass and how he sent his sister, Ethel Rosenberg, to the electric chair, ISBN 0375500138
  • Alexander Feklisov and Sergei Kostin: The Man Behind the Rosenbergs 2001, ISBN 1-929631-08-1
  • John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr: Venona. Docoding Soviet Espionage in America 1999, ISBN 0-300-07771-8
  • Willam A. Reuben: The Atom Spy Hoax 1955
  • Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton: The Rosenberg File 1997, ISBN 0-300-07205-8
  • Walter and Miriam Schneir: Invitation to an Inquest 1973, ISBN 978-0394714967

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gold, Harry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemical laboratory technician and spy
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH August 28, 1972
Place of death Philadelphia , Pennsylvania