232:. A skilled conspirator, Koffler, despite having close relations with the PCdR's leaders for years, never drew the attention of the Siguranța, which never suspected him of being a communist or anything but a casual acquaintance of the known party leaders. In 1943, when a lover of his was arrested, he too was detained when his name was found on a report in her purse. The police assumed he was not involved in subversive activities; an investigation turned up nothing, and neither was his name found in the files, so he was released the next day.
341:, whose instructions came from Gheorghiu-Dej. Eventually, he began to appear insane, with some doctors believing he was dissimulating in order to avoid the need to incriminate other party members, while others thought he had truly become schizophrenic under torture. He retracted his earlier admission of guilt and steadfastly declared himself innocent, which pushed Gheorghiu-Dej to opt for his execution, as opposed to the case of
326:, who would charge that his December 1943 arrest involved Koffler as a police provocateur. Despite his relative obscurity, he was thus ensnared in the trial being prepared for Pătrășcanu, another rival of Gheorghiu-Dej's. Second, because Koffler was a highly inconvenient witness to the bitter factional struggles for control of the party that took place from 1940 to 1944, and stood in the way of the eventual victor,
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Between 1932 and 1935, he lived in a single room with his wife and daughter, sharing meals with his in-laws. The same room hosted communist meetings organized by Pătrășcanu. Also during this period, he persuaded his wife to enact a fantasy to which he had masturbated: of her having sexual intercourse
174:
created a dynamic atmosphere, with
Koffler partaking in street movements, demonstrations and campaigns. In 1930, he formally joined the KPD, returning to Romania in 1932 after being called home by his father, again without completing his studies. He worked in his father's firm but quit following an
333:
Third, because as head of the CCF, he knew precisely the source of party funds and their destination, which included some of the most prominent PCR leaders. Fourth, because
Gheorghiu-Dej wanted revenge, personally ordering a harsh interrogation regime that, according to a witness speaking in 1967,
321:
suggests four reasons why he ended up being executed. First, because he was the closest collaborator of Foriș, already killed in prison, and had thus been an accomplice of a man publicly accused of treason and collaboration with the
Siguranța. The suspicions of collaboration were bolstered by
248:, also contacts of Koffler's. In 1936, he set up the party's finance committee (CCF), with his role being to collect funds, and held this post until September 1944, when he was dismissed. For eight years, a remarkably stable record in the communist underground, his assistants included
272:. It helped keep the party alive, funding safe houses, salaries, overhead, aid to several hundred prisoners and their families, lawyers and bribes for judges, policemen, prison wardens and guards. Nevertheless, the Comintern was critical of its involvement in business affairs, with
68:
Blatt) was a merchant's daughter and died in 1920. His father was an authoritarian figure whose arguments with his wife left a lasting impression on
Koffler. Although the family was Jewish, Koffler was baptized, and attended a Catholic followed by a Lutheran school.
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with other men. First, a barber visited four times, followed by a mechanic once and the brother of her brother-in-law, also once. During each session, Koffler would watch unseen and masturbate, and would then have intercourse with his wife after the other man left.
345:, who saved his life by cooperating. Koffler was tried for crimes against peace and high treason in April 1954. He was sentenced to death and, aged 52, shot in the back of the neck at 3 a.m. on the 17th, the same night Pătrășcanu was executed, at
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included an officer pulling out over a third of his white hair during one session. Tortured, psychologically pressured and blackmailed, he suffered a heart attack. Once he returned to prison, he was severely beaten upon the orders of
126:
Koffler married in the early 1920s; his daughter was born in 1925. The same year, at the insistence of his father, who soon went bankrupt, he returned to
Romania without having graduated. In Bucharest, he met communist activist
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lost interest in the
Comintern and largely left the various communist parties to raise their own revenues, while at the same time, supply routes from Moscow to Bucharest were becoming ever more uncertain in the face of
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183:. He became a regular client there after 1937, and also used party funds to gamble. At the same time, he helped fund the extravagant lifestyles of party members, including Foriș,
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argument. For a time, he gave private German lessons, then found a position as a clerk. By his own account, he embezzled significant sums while on the job, allowing him to play
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that ushered in the party's legalization. Most of the funds came from Jewish industrialists, with other money given by pro-English figures or businessmen who expected an
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622:
114:, he attended communist meetings, took part in demonstrations and agitated on Soviet Russia's behalf. In autumn 1920, while in the German capital, he contracted
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73:
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56:, eventually owned a factory and several houses before losing his fortune in 1926, and died in 1941. A free spender, he amassed wealth during the
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166:(KPD), taking part in clandestine operations. At the time, Berlin was not only an important center for communists, but was also a hub for
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He was an occasional courier to Prague, where the PCdR's political office was located. He worked with members of the party secretariat,
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244:, denounced by a fourth, Ion Zelea Pîrgaru, with whom Koffler was in touch. The following year saw the arrest of Goldberger and of
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The seminal event within the PCdR during this period was the June 1935 arrest of three leading members: Ana Pauker, Marcovici and
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cautioning against bourgeois financiers influencing the party's policies. In 1942, the party raised 17.4 million
106:. In response, his father beat him and took away his party card, also inflicting blows upon the son for reading
102:; the same year, when he reached Zürich, he declared himself a communist. In 1920, in Bucharest, he joined the
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in 1920. His interest in politics began in primary school; influenced by his father, he sided with the
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According to his autobiography, which he wrote in early 1950, while held under arrest by the
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280:, a sum that would rise to almost 30 million in 1943 and 46 million in 1944, until the
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27:. Arrested in 1949 as an inconvenient survivor, he was executed over four years later.
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Koffler was arrested in
December 1949, together with other former members of the CCF.
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256:, Emil Herstein and Egon Weigl, all Jews of bourgeois origin who had studied abroad.
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communist activist who, during the 1930s and 1940s, helped assure financing for the
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from a girl he brought to his room, and was continuing treatment as late as 1948.
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activities throughout Europe. Moreover, the political and economic crisis of the
131:, whom he hid after the latter escaped a dragnet initiated in August 1926 by the
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159:. Koffler ran a firm until 1927, when he departed for Germany yet again.
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330:, who wished to impose his own version of events on official history.
224:, to which he was a frequent contributor, along with Solomon Schein,
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218:. He was part of the editing committee of the clandestine gazette
299:. In late 1942, he became involved with the communist-affiliated
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In 1941, he became the closest collaborator of party leader
608:
People executed by the
Socialist Republic of Romania
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during World War I. Near the war's end, he became a
214:. He belonged to the agitprop section then led by
155:(PCdR, later PCR). He also became acquainted with
52:in 1902. His father Isac, initially a merchant in
550:Clienții lu' tanti varvara: istorii clandestine
64:to the temporary rulers. His mother (Ernestina
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122:Activity in Romania and late Weimar Germany
60:(1916-1918), by selling bulk quantities of
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593:Romanian Communist Party politicians
19:(1902 – April 17, 1954) was a
139:. This investigation also targeted
72:After attending several grades at
14:
259:The committee came into being as
98:on the Bolshevik victory in the
598:Romanian expatriates in Germany
110:newspaper. Leaving to study in
552:. Humanitas, Bucharest, 2005,
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303:. In 1943, he helped launch
151:, all members of the banned
58:German occupation of Romania
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583:Politicians from Bucharest
322:communist fellow-traveler
164:Communist Party of Germany
153:Communist Party of Romania
104:Socialist Party of Romania
74:Matei Basarab High School
628:Inmates of Jilava Prison
613:Executed Romanian people
288:victory in the ongoing
94:, followed by a work of
25:Romanian Communist Party
88:. In 1919, he read the
328:Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
313:Downfall and execution
36:Origins and early life
246:Constantin Pîrvulescu
236:Financial involvement
135:secret police of the
157:Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu
91:Communist Manifesto
618:Executed activists
339:Alexandru Drăghici
226:Ion Popescu-Puțuri
208:Nicolae Goldberger
193:Iosif Chișinevschi
137:Kingdom of Romania
100:Russian Revolution
336:Interior Minister
301:Union of Patriots
189:Teohari Georgescu
48:, he was born in
46:Communist Romania
44:secret police of
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96:Leon Trotsky
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578:1954 deaths
573:1902 births
324:Petru Groza
309:newspaper.
282:August coup
149:Elek Köblös
108:Socialistul
567:Categories
540:References
204:Ana Pauker
42:Securitate
168:Comintern
133:Siguranța
50:Bucharest
31:Biography
221:Scînteia
177:roulette
116:syphilis
62:liqueurs
21:Romanian
179:at the
86:Zionist
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286:Allied
112:Berlin
78:Zürich
54:Galați
353:Notes
554:ISBN
228:and
210:and
191:and
147:and
278:lei
66:née
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