When Mark Zborowski resumed his anti-Trotskyist espionage activities for the GPU in the United States in 1941, he cultivated two sources of information. Both had known him in Paris when he secretly infiltrated the French section of the Left Opposition. One was his close friend Lola Estrine, wife of the American writer David J. Dallin, and the other was French-born Jean van Heijenoort, one of Trotsky’s secretaries.
Van Heijenoort, now a mathematics professor at Harvard University, Boston, testified against Zborowski in his first perjury trial in 1958. Mrs. Dallin didn’t. He described how he went to Trotsky’s first home in exile in Prinkipo, Turkey, to become a translator, secretary, and bodyguard. In the latter half of 1934, he travelled to Paris where he began working in the headquarters of the French section of the Left Opposition. This is when he met Zborowski, who was known in party circles as “Etienne.” “I didn’t know his real name at that time,” said van Heijenoort, “and not for a long time.”
He testified during Zborowski’s trial about the way Stalin’s top agent became Leon Sedov’s political confidante. “So far as I remember,” he said, “some French Trotskyites, perhaps myself, although I am not sure, learned that Zborowski knew Russian, could speak and write Russian, and communicated that fact to Sedov, and then Sedov got in touch with Zborowski. I am quite sure it happened that way, but I don’t recall the exact conditions in which it was done.” Gaining Sedov’s confidence was no mean feat, as van Heijenoort explained. “He (Sedov) was very careful. In fact, there were many regular, fully-fledged members of the French Trotskyite group who never met him, who didn’t even know much about him, where he was living, and didn’t know him at all.” In the space of two years—from 1934 to 1936—Zborowski elevated himself from being a “newcomer” to a “fairly close” relationship with Trotsky’s son.
Van Heijenoort had particular responsibility for collecting and cataloguing Trotsky’s archives. When he accompanied Trotsky from Turkey to France in 1933, he crated the archives and took care of loading them onto a ship in Istanbul for the trip to Marseilles. He recalled that the archives “which were quite bulky, were divided. Some were kept in Paris by Sedov, and some were kept by Trotsky wherever he was in France, and there was also a certain amount of interchange between the two parts.” In October 1936, the section of the archives kept at Mrs. Dallin’s Paris apartment was transferred to the Boris Nicolaevsky Institute for safer keeping. On the night of November 5-6, 1936, GPU agents broke into the institute to steal the archives—as a “gift” to Stalin to celebrate the anniversary of the October revolution! Only a tiny circle knew the documents were secretly removed from Mrs. Dallin’s place to the Institute. “There were exactly four persons involved,” said van Heijenort. “There were Leon Sedov, there was myself, there was Mrs. Dallin and Mr. Zborowski.” (Other sources say that Boris Nicolaevsky, the Institute’s director, also knew, bringing the total to five.) Van Heijenort was questioned about the archives at Zborowski’s trial.
Q: Do you know who physically transported the documents that were stolen?
Van Heijenoort: Yes, I do.
Q: And was Mr. Zborowski one of those people?
Van Heijenoort: Mr. Zborowski and Mrs. Dallin.
In December 1936, Trotsky was on the move again, having been deported from Norway. This meant van Heijenoort was moving too. This time to Mexico. He played a leading role as Trotsky’s aide in the presentation of evidence to the Dewey Commission to repudiate the lies of the frame-up Moscow Trials. In Mexico he met an American girl whom he married. They left there in November 1939 to live in the United States. In 1942, van Heijenort became international correspondence secretary of the Fourth International. With the war raging on every continent he held an important position in the movement.
His responsibilities were “to keep relations, to answer letters and exchange information between various countries.” He also played a part in the production of the magazine Fourth International, contributing articles on the occupation of France, the war in the Soviet Union, the Russian economy, and the nature of the Soviet state. He wrote under the pseudonym Marc Loris. Van Heijenort testified in Zborowski’s trial about the circumstances in which they renewed their acquaintance:
Q: Do you recall, Mr. van Heijenoort, after you came to this country again meeting Mr. Zborowski?
Van Heijenoort: Yes. It was either the very end of 1941 or the beginning of 1942.
Q: Do you recall where it was that you met him?
Van Heijenoort: I think it was in my apartment, although I am not absolutely sure, either at the New York Public Library or in my own apartment.
Q: Did you continue to see Zborowski after your initial meeting?
Van Heijenoort: Yes, fairly regularly.
Q: And were there any particular places where you were likely to meet him?
Mr. Nathan, Zborowski’s lawyer: I object to likely. Let us have the places where he did meet him.
Q: I will rephrase the question, your honor. Were there any particular places where you did meet him?
Van Heijenoort: In my own apartment on the West Side in New York or the New York Public Library, or at his own apartment, also on the West Side, a bit further uptown.
Q: Do you recall who it was who first introduced you once again to Zborowski in this country?
Van Heijenoort: Not precisely. It has been either Mrs. Dallin or Mrs. Bernaut, two common friends.
Q: Mrs. Bernaut was the widow of what man?
Van Heijenoort: She was the widow of an official of the Russian government, who was killed by the order of Stalin in 1937, I think in Switzerland.
Q: What was his name?
Van Heijenoort: Ignace Reiss.
Q: Now, around 1942, Mr. Zborowski—
Van Heijenoort: I am not Mr. Zborowski—
Q: Excuse me, Mr. van Heijenoort. Mr. van Heijenoort, did you assume an official office in a political organization of sorts sometime in 1942?
Van Heijenoort: I was international correspondence secretary for the Fourth International.
Q: During this period that you have described, Mr. van Heijenoort, when you were meeting Mark Zborowski, did you have conversations with him?
Van Heijenoort: Yes.
Q: And do you recall the substance of those conversations?
Van Heijenoort: Well, they were the subjects that—
Mr. Nathan: I think the rule is that you have to testify as to what was said, not as to the substance.
Q: I will rephrase my question, your honor.
Judge: All right.
Q: Do you recall the specific words of the conversations that you had with Mr. Zborowski?
Mr. Nathan: Let us have them one at a time, your honor, and place and date.
Judge: If he remembers.
Van Heijenoort: The specific words, I don’t remember.
Q: Do you recall the specific dates of any of these meetings?
Van Heijenoot: They were weekly or bi-weekly between 1942 and 1943, yes. I couldn’t say the specific dates, but they were frequent meetings. I saw him most regularly in 1942, up to the middle of 1943, and after April 1945.
Q: Now, as to these meetings which you recall specifically, Mr. van Heijenoot, when is the first one that you recall specifically?
Van Heijenoot: The first one I recall specifically is a visit to the house, to the apartment of Mr. Zborowski, I think on a Sunday in the early afternoon.
Q: Who else was present at that meeting?
Van Heijenoort: There was myself, there was my wife, there was Mr. Zborowski and Mrs. Zborowski, perhaps somebody else, but that is the four persons I remember.
Q: Do you recall, Mr. van Heijenoort, the conversation, what you said to Zborowski and what Zborowski said to you on that occasion?
Van Heijenoort: Well, he had just arrived in this country. We spoke about the conditions of life here. I think he described his job to me. He was doing some physical work and he was complaining a little about that. We talked about universities and academic life, how to get into academic life, the American degrees, what had to be done, and certainly also we exchanged information about France and common friends we had in France.
Q: These common friends you referred to, Mr. van Heijenoort, do you recall who they were?
Van Heijenoot: They were members of the French Trotskyite group, where they were, what happened to them after Hitler occupied Paris, where they were and so forth, who had been arrested, who had not been arrested, all that kind of information.
Q: Is there any way that you can describe people who were present at the meetings you just discussed?
Van Heijenoort: Well, the people present were European refugees who had come from Europe who had been Trotskyites or Trotskyite sympathizers in Europe and every two or three weeks they got together to drink tea or beer and exchange information and talk mostly about Europe and France and Russia.
This was precisely the haven that Zborowski worked in best. It presented a gold mine of information for the GPU. As correspondence secretary of the Fourth International, van Heijenoort was responsible for keeping in contact with the sections, some of them thrust into illegality by the war. From the emigre community further detailed information was accumulated on the whereabouts of leading members of the various sections. How many Trotskyists were killed as a result of the reports which Zborowski fed to the GPU from the discussions over tea and beer in New York?
When Zborowski was on trial for telling lies to the FBI he was specifically asked: “Did you furnish any information to Jack Soble about Jean van Heijenoort?” With characteristic evasiveness, he replied: “I could have talked to him about him, yes.” The time came when relations between van Heijenoort and Zborowski cooled. It was some time in 1943 or 1944, to the best of his recollection.
At the time, the extent of the Russian concentration camps had become known. There were about 20 million people in camps. That had been known for the first time in the whole extent and everybody was thinking seriously about that, and myself, I was revising my ideas with Russia. So I had a discussion with Zborowski about Russia, the Russian state, Stalinists and so forth, and we came to talk about the concentration camps, and the extent to which they are spread over Russia. I mentioned the extent of the concentration camps and what he said at that time was that there were always concentration camps in Russia, so what, it doesn’t change anything. At that time I got quite angry, I broke off the discussion, and that was about the last time I had a serious talk with him.
Q: And shortly after that meeting did you stop seeing Zborowski?
Van Heijenoort: I saw him a few times later in ’45 and perhaps ’46, beginning of ’46, but our relations were quite cold during that time.
It was not until 1954 that Zborowski again surfaced in van Heijenoort’s life. At that time he was a mathematics professor at New York University on Washington Square. An FBI agent came to his office to discuss information that had been received that Zborowski was a lifelong GPU agent. In his evidence van Heijnenoort said that he listened to what the agent said and then—“We decided to take a stroll across Washington Square.”
While Zborowski was infiltrating the American Trotskyist section and the Fourth International he was holding regular meetings with his GPU controller, Jack Soble, and passing on information. Soble gave evidence of his communications with Zborowski during the latter’s perjury trial in 1958. He was asked:
Mr. Soble, again asking you about the periods of time in which you personally were meeting with Zborowski, can you recall any other reports about people that Zborowski gave to you?
Soble: Reports about people?
Q: Yes. Now, you previously mentioned a number of persons whom you reported about.
Soble: From the Trotsky movement.
Q: Anyone from the Socialist Workers Party?
Soble: Yes, of course.
Q: Who?
Soble: Cannon. I mean this was work in the Trotsky movement again. There were different wings again, and they were fighting for the leadership. This can be historically checked very easily.
Q: Any one from the Fourth International?
Soble: Yes. I only forget his name. He was a secretary of the Fourth International, It is a Netherlands name, I think.
Q: Before I suggest the name to you, Mr. Soble, press your memory. If you cannot recall the specific name, describe the kind of name.
Soble: I tell you this is of Netherlands origin.
Q: Was his first name Jean?
Mr. Nathan (for Zborowski): This is an unusual way to refresh his recollection.
Soble: No, no. This is of no importance to me. I will remember the name but—
Q: Mr. Soble, I don’t want to suggest the name to you.
Soble: No, don’t.
Q: You think about it.
Soble: I know the name exactly. Anyway, this doesn’t change the matter at all. He brought information about the Fourth International, about the Trotsky, movement. At their apartment, well, maybe Zborowski will deny this too—at their apartment took place Trotsky meetings a few times, and he and his wife didn’t like it, and he was very excited about it, and then they stopped it because they were shouting and there were lots of discussion and so on.
When the court resumed the next day with Soble still in the witness box, the government attorney took up his interrogation.
Q: Also yesterday, Mr. Soble, you mentioned to me that Zborowski had given you information about the man who was the secretary of the Fourth International, and you indicated that it was a Netherlands name. Have you thought any further about that name?
Soble: I have, but I still don’t recall it. There is one I can’t state.
Q: Was it van Heijenoort?
Soble: Yes, sir.