The Great Game

The Great Game: Memoirs of the Spy Hitler Couldn’t Silence

This book recounts one of the most poignant portrayal of the incredible bravery of the people who fought fascism during the 30s and 40s.

Trepper tells the story of his participation in a particular episode of the Second World War — the history of the Red Orchestra – at the same time as he relates his journey as a militant to an exceptional destiny and role. This work, rich in analysis about the actors and events of the historical period that it covers (from the end of the First World War to the death of Stalin), also bears witness to the struggle conducted by a whole generation of revolutionaries.

For Leopold Trepper, a Polish Jew who emigrated to Israel during the 1920s only to be expelled by David Ben Gurion, operated not only under the noses of the Nazis, but also under constant threat of Stalin, who was busy purging the Red Army even as the Nazi Germany was arming itself, and likewise sent spies to spy on his spies, thus endangering the Red Orchestra’s delicate operations.

Mr. Trepper offers in his book an incredible but real account of his own experience as head of a Russian spy network in occupied France.

431 pages