Rote Kappelle/Red Orchestra

The name Rote Kappelle is composed of three main branches: the first is the network in France, Belgium and Holland, the second is the Berlin network and the third is the grouping Switzerland. Rote Kappelle or more commonly known, as the Red Orchestra was the Schulze-Boysen/ Harnack assembly that moves against the Hitler headed Germany during the time when Nazi tries to occupy Europe. Rote Kappelle was the name given by Gestapo to refer to the group during the World War II. The Red Orchestra has international connections to countries like the United States of America, Soviet Union and the other Allied forces.

Aside form the Schulze-Boysen/ Harnack group; Gestapo also used the name Rote Kappelle to the Communists spies, which includes the soviet NKVD that is controlled by the Trepper spy group. This group was mostly operated by the Soviet Union in resistance also to the forces of the Nazi. From the records, the name Rote Kappelle or the red Orchestra came from the practice of the German counterintelligence as calling their agents as “musicians” and their spies’ radio transmitters as their “music box”.With this, the counterintelligence forces of the Germans called the Soviet network as die Rote Kappelle or the “Red Orchestra”; with the word “red” standing for communism. The Trepper Group The Trepper group was one of the two forces that were called by Gestapo as the Red Orchestra. The Trepper group was a definite Soviet espionage group.

A then-NKVD agent named Leopold Trepper, Anatoli Gurewitsch who is known as KENT and also an agent of the Trepper's network, organized this group.They went to Berlin on the 29th of October in 1941 in order to try to find a connection with the Schulze-Boysen / Harnack group, which is also a resistance movement in Germany. The Trepper group participated in the Second World War by making reports to the Soviet Union about German troops and their concentrations in occupied areas at Soviet Union, air attacks, the aircraft production of Germany, and its fuel shipments. They also worked as underground French Communist Party in France.In the spring of 1943, the operations of the Trepper group have been eliminated with the execution of most of the members of the Red Orchestra, which includes Suzane Spaak.

1 Schulze-Boysen/ Harnack Resistance The Schulze-Boysen/ Harnack Group were also another group that was named Red Orchestra during the Second World War. This group was aimed at pure resistance to the Nazi force in Germany. The Trepper group has included members of the high ranking officials of the Air Ministry of Germany such as Harro Schulze-Boysen and members from the Ministry of Economics of Germany Arvid Harnack.The group was composed mainly of German political conservatives, Catholics, Jews and atheists that were united as one group against the Nazi in Germany and their violations in the human rights. What is unusual of this group is that its women members constitute the forty percent of the totality of its members and are working together with the men.

During the time of its arrest, the oldest was recorded was eighty six years old and the youngest was sixteen.This group participated mainly in the gathering of data about the violence and mayhem caused by the Nazi and dispensing leaflets and paraphernalia against the works of Hitler and the Nazi. The group was also giving out information about the secrets of the Nazi regime to foreign countries such as the United States of America and the Soviet Union. Lucy Ring The Lucy Ring was also one of the remarkable groups that are against the Nazi regime in Germany. This group is consists of Berlin-based red Orchestra agents who work in a safety area in Switzerland which is then a neutral country.

The works of the Lucy ring included communications with the Soviet leader Josef Stalin giving them the most accurate information about the operations of the German Army in the Nazi concentration camps in the Soviet Union. 2 Fall of The Red Orchestra The fall of the Trepper Group started when the Abwehr has discovered the radio transmissions of Johann Wenzel who is an agent of the Trepper organization. Wenzel was arrested in Belgium and pursued his espionage as double agent for the Nazi and handed out information about the network of the resistance groups.Due to the information that was given by the once anti-Nazi agent, the German counterespionage agents have also deciphered the Morse transmission during in 1941. this has caused the arrest of Schulze-Boysen and his wife on the 30th of August in 1942. Also, during the same year, Arvid Harnack and his wife were captured with over a hundred other resisters.

All the arrest personnel have undergone severe torture and are believed to have been sentenced to death and were readily executed. However, Trepper has managed to escape his arrest by convincing his captors of serving a policy of a peace settlement between the Germany and USSR.After his release, he joined the underground group in France and worked there until Paris was liberated. When he returned to the USSR, he was again arrested and remained in the prison until he was rehabilitated under Khrushchev.

With the lost of the most of its members and leaders, the operations of the Trepper group ended in the spring of 1943. On the other hand, the fall of the Schulze-Boysen / Harnack organization started when Soviet agents aside from the Kent were also parachuted to into Germany for the communication with the resisters. The Gestapo has observed and reported their arrival.As part of their justification of their persecution of the anti-Nazi Germans, the German intelligence labeled the organization as part of the Red Orchestra.

After their arrest, members of the Harnack and Schulze-Boysen group were executed along with Rudolf von Scheliha in the 22nd of December. Scheliha was assigned to counter the press reports of the foreign countries about Nazi violence at the German Foreign Office. Due to his bothering request of the details of the actual violence that is being practiced by the Nazi, he was made target of annihilation.In 1941, the Nazi began searching and capturing members of the Red Orchestra. And during the spring of 1941, the Nazi’s have their first score against the red Orchestra.

They have captured their first group of resisters. The Nazi forces continue to arrest members of the Red Orchestra. They began to raid Paris, Brussels and Germany and in less than two years, almost a thousand of the members of the resistance were captured. During the primary arrests in Brussels, both Schulze-Boysen and von Harnack who had been doing their espionage in Brussels were captured.After that, still dozens of arrests were done by the Nazi for putting up a total to the resisters.

From the information gathered from the captives, the Nazi’s have known that the Soviet forces have almost recruited high ranking officers of Germany. They were surprised that main members of the Red Orchestra wee mainly from their country and are a part of the government of Germany. They have arrested mainly officers of the German military, officers and members from the German’s different ministries and even employees of their military intelligence.With the arrests, the Germans were surprised that the resistors have almost involved most of the officers and leaders of their government. Intense interrogations were implemented by the German officers and army to the captives.

And most of the proven members of the Red Orchestra were either subjected to torture or sentenced to death or long imprisonment. As a result of the arrests and death sentences, most of the members of the resistance to the Nazi were eradicated out of Belgium, Germany and Holland.Referencehttp://www.espionageinfo.com/Pr-Re/Red-Orchestra.html.