Hede Massing

Hede Tune, the daughter of a Polish father and an Austrian mother was born in Vienna in 1900. After leaving school she worked in a millinery shop. She later became an actress and married Gerhart Eisler, the brother of Hans Eisler, in December 1920. Both men were members of the German Communist Party.

In 1924 she met Julian Gumperz, who ran the publishing company, Malik Verlag and began associating with a group of Marxists that included Richard Sorge, Georg Lukács, Karl Korsch, Friedrich Pollock and Karl August Wittfogel. Hede married Gumperz but left him after he became disillusioned with communism.

Hede and Julian Gumperz visited the United States in August 1926. They met Michael Gold, a journalist who worked for The New Masses. Gold arranged for Hede to work in an orphanage in Pleasantville. Hede married Julian in December 1927. Julian decided to return to the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main. However, soon after arriving in Germany they separated and Hede went to live with the sociologist Paul Massing. It is claimed that during this period Richard Sorge recruited Hede as a Soviet agent. She worked under Ignaz Reiss, a senior figure in Comintern.

Hede Massing in the USA

Hede Gumperz returned to New York City and at first became a courier between the United States and Europe. Later she became a trusted agent of Peter Gutzeit, a senior NKVD agent. He had been sent to run the spy network from the Soviet Consulate in New York City in 1933. The following year he identified Laurence Duggan as a potential recruit. One of his objectives was to use Duggan to draw Noel Field into the network. He wrote on 3rd October, 1934, that Duggan "is interesting us because through him one will be able to find a way toward Noel Field... of the State Department's European Department with whom Duggan is friendly."

The task of recruiting Duggan and Field was passed to Hede Massing. According to Massing's report he (Field) had been recently approached by Alger Hiss just before he left to attend a conference in London: "Alger Hiss (she used his real name because she was unaware of his codename) let him know that he was a Communist, that he was connected with an organization working for the Soviet Union and that he knew Ernst (Field) also had connections but he was afraid they were not solid enough, and probably, his knowledge was being used in a wrong way. Then he directly proposed that Ernst give him an account of the London conference."

Hede continued in the memorandum about the involvement of Alger Hiss with Duggan: "In the next couple of days, after having thought it over, Alger said that he no longer insisted on the report. But he wanted Ernst to talk to Larry and Helen (Duggan) about him and let them know who he was and give him (Alger Hiss) access to them. Ernst again mentioned that he had contacted Helen and Larry. However, Alger insisted that he talk to them again, which Ernst ended up doing. Ernst talked to Larry about Alger and, of course, about having told him 'about the current situation' and that 'their main task at the time was to defend the Soviet Union' and that 'they both needed to use their favorable positions to help in this respect.' Larry became upset and frightened, and announced that he needed some time before he would make that final step; he still hoped to do his normal job, he wanted to reorganize his department, try to achieve some results in that area, etc. Evidently, according to Ernst, he did not make any promises, nor did he encourage Alger in any sort of activity, but politely stepped back. Alger asked Ernst several other questions; for example, what kind of personality he had, and if Ernst would like to contact him. He also asked Ernst to help him to get to the State Department. Apparently, Ernst satisfied this request. When I pointed out to Ernst his terrible discipline and the danger he put himself into by connecting these three people, he did not seem to understand it."

Boris Bazarov

On 26th April, 1936, Boris Bazarov reported back to Moscow: "The result has been that, in fact, Field and Hiss have been openly identified to Duggan. Apparently Duggan also understands clearly her (Hede Massing) nature... Helen Boyd (Duggan's wife), who was present at almost all of these meetings and conversations, is also undoubtedly briefed and now knows as much as Duggan himself... I think that after this story we should not speed up the cultivation of Duggan and his wife. Apparently, besides us, the persistent Hiss will continue his initiative in this direction. In a day or two, Duggan's wife will come to New York, where she (Hede Massing) will have a friendly meeting with her. At Field's departure from Washington, Helen expressed a great wish to meet her again. Perhaps Helen will tell her about her husband's feelings."

Headquarters instructed Bazarov to be certain that none of his agents undertook similar meetings across jurisdictional boundaries without your knowledge". Bazarov was particularly concerned about the behaviour of Hede "knowing that her drawbacks include impetuousness". They made it very clear that they were very keen to recruit Laurence Duggan and his wife: "Therefore we believe it necessary to smooth over skillfully the present situation and to draw both of them away from Hiss... It is our fault, however, that Field, who is already our agent, has been left in her (Hede Massing) charge, a person who is unable to educate either an agent or even herself."

Duggan agreed to become a spy for the Soviets. Bazarov reported: "It is true that he is widely known as a liberal, a typical New Dealer... But that is not a problem. For the sake of security, he asked us to meet with him once a month, and he would like very much if our man knew stenography. He cannot give us documents yet, but later, apparently, he will be able to... He asked us not to tell his wife anything about his work and revealed an understanding of contact technique."

It was suggested that Duggan should be paid money for his information. Boris Bazarov reported back to Moscow: "You ask whether it is timely to switch him to a payment? Almost definitely he will reject money and probably even consider the money proposal as an insult. Some months ago Borodin wanted to give Duggan a present on his birthday. lie purchased a beautiful crocodile toiletries case with (Duggan's) monograms, engraved. The latter categorically refused to take this present, stating that he was working for our common ideas and making it understood that he was not helping us for any material interest."

Noel Field, was eventually recruited. He later recalled: "We (Noel and Herta Field) made friends with Alger Hiss – an official of the New Deal brought about by Roosevelt – and his wife. After a couple of meetings we mutually realized we were Communists. Around the summer of 1935 Alger Hiss tried to induce me to do service for the Soviets. I was indiscreet enough to tell him he had come too late. Naturally I didn't say a word about the Massings."

Paul Massing was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933. On his release he moved to the United States where he married Hede Gumperz and helped Hede in her spying activities. Allen Weinstein, the author of The Hunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America (1999) that Hede Massing concentrated on recruiting New Deal officials. This included Alger Hiss. According to recently released document this upset her masters in Moscow: "We do not understand Gumperz's motives in having met with Hiss. As we understand, this occurred after our instruction that Hiss was (working with military intelligence) and that one should leave him alone. Such experiments may lead to undesirable results." Gumperz was described as being "impetuousness".

Also in the archives was a memorandum from Boris Bazarov, the NKVD station chief in New York City. He also complains about Hiss’s behaviour and the “casual interlocking of agents from two completely distinct networks”. Moscow replied to Bazarov that Hiss was definitely working with GRU and that NKVD agents should leave him alone as these meetings “may lead to undesirable results”. The memorandum goes on to argue that Hiss is an important agent and that he should not be contacted by Gumperz as “that her drawbacks include impetuousness”.

Another Soviet agent, Itzhak Akhmerov, defended Gumperz: "She (Gumperz) met with Hiss only once." He quotes, Joszef Peter (the man that Whittaker Chambers identified as a Soviet agent in his testimony before the House of Un-American Activities Committee on 3rd August, 1948) as saying: “You in Washington came across my guy (Hiss)… You better not lay your hands on him.”

Hede Massing testifies against Alger Hiss

Hede Massing became disillusioned with events in the Soviet Union. This included the assassination of her former controller, Ignaz Reiss. In the late 1930s she stopped being a Soviet agent and testified at Hiss's second perjury trial. She claimed that at a dinner party in 1935 Hiss told her that he was attempting to recruit Noel Field, then an employee of the State Department, to his spy network. At his perjury trial in 1950, Hiss admitted to knowing Field, but denied knowing Massing."

Whittaker Chambers claims in Witness (1952) that this was vital information against Hiss: "At the second Hiss trial, Hede Massing testified how Noel Field arranged a supper at his house, where Alger Hiss and she could meet and discuss which of them was to enlist him. Noel Field went to Hede Massing. But the Hisses continued to see Noel Field socially until he left the State Department to accept a position with the League of Nations at Geneva, Switzerland-a post that served him as a "cover' for his underground work until he found an even better one as dispenser of Unitarian relief abroad." Hede Massing published a book on her activities, This Deception: KBG Targets America (1951).

Confession of Noel Field

Noel Field was arrested on the orders of Lavrenti Beria. It was claimed that he had been spying on behalf the United States. Field was tortured and held in solitary confinement for five years. In East Germany, in August 1950, six members of the Communist Party were arrested and accused of "special connections with Noel Field, the American spy." Field was also named as a spy in the trial of Rudolf Slansky, the Secretary General of the Communist Party, and 13 other officials. Slansky was executed on 2nd December, 1952.

While in prison he claimed that like him, Alger Hiss had been a Soviet spy during the 1930s. According to Major Szendy of the Hungarian Interior Ministry: "Field confessed … only now recognizing that he had become a tool for the American intelligence and that he had also handed over other people to the American intelligence. Field emphasized repeatedly, that decades ago, while he was in the USA, he had approached the Communist Party and had cooperated with the Soviet intelligence agencies for a long period of time; he did not know why this connection was cut off. Furthermore, he emphasized that the House Committee on Un-American Activities was investigating him in connection with the case of Alger Hiss. Field stated that he had been trying to clarify his membership in the Communist Party since 1938 (when he travelled to Moscow) and that he was promised, last time in Poland, that this would happen." Noel Field admitted that he had been recruited by Hede Massing in 1934: "In the year 1934 (as far as I remember) I got in touch with the German communists Paul Massing and Hede Gumpertz who informed me that they were spying for the Soviet Union. I handed over lots of information to them – orally as well as in writing - about the State Department."

Hede Massing died on 8th March, 1981.

Primary Sources

(1) Whittaker Chambers, Witness (1952)

But two other contacts, who at first were unwittingly part of the same campaign, yielded surprising results, though not those intended. From my first day in Washington, I had heard the name of Laurence Duggan as a likely underground recruit. I also heard constant rumors about Duggan's great friend, Noel Field, a Harvard man and Quaker of good family who was in what was then the West European Division of the State Department. The Fields and the Duggans lived in the same apartment house.

Hiss began an intensive campaign to recruit Field and Duggan. He reached the point of talking very openly to Noel Field. I was afraid to ask just how openly they were talking, for I might have been tempted to urge caution, and in such delicate negotiations much must be left to the tact of the negotiator, in this case Alger Hiss. Too much supervision or advice may lead to disaster, or at least to an awkward situation.

I was soon to learn just how far the two young State Department men had gone. One night Alger reported to me that Noel Field claimed to be connected with "another apparatus." "Is it possible?" Alger asked me in surprise. "Can there be another apparatus working in Washington?" I told him that it was quite possible, that it was probably a parallel apparatus. I asked Peters what he knew about it. "It is probably the apparatus of Hede Gumperz [Hede Massing]," he said. I had never heard of Hede Gumperz. I asked who she was. "Oh, you know," said Peters-a stock answer when no more will be said. Peters urged me to let Noel Field alone. But Alger's spirit was up. He was determined to recruit Noel Field.

At the second Hiss trial, Hede Massing testified how Noel Field arranged a supper at his house, where Alger Hiss and she could meet and discuss which of them was to enlist him. Noel Field went to Hede Massing. But the Hisses continued to see Noel Field socially until he left the State Department to accept a position with the League of Nations at Geneva, Switzerland-a post that served him as a"covei' for his underground work until he found an even better one as dispenser of Unitarian relief abroad.

At the time, I had wondered why the parallel apparatus would let Noel Field leave the State Department. It was General Walter Krivitsky who first told me that Noel Field had left the State Department on orders from his apparatus to work for Krivitsky, who was then chief of Soviet Military Intelligence in Western Europe.

(2) G. Edward White, Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars (2004)

The first set of documents was related to a story about Hiss that had been told by a former Soviet agent, Hedda Gumperz (known in the United States as Hede Massing) at Hiss's second perjury trial. Massing, who had defected from the Soviets in 1937, had told the same story to the FBI in 1948. The story was about a conversation between Massing and Alger Hiss that took place at a Washington dinner party in 1935. In the conversation, Massing recalled, Hiss had said that he and Massing, as recruiters for Soviet networks, were in competition for the services of Noel Field, then an employee of the State Department. Hiss teased Massing that she was trying to get Field away from him, but that he would prevail. When Massing testified at his 1950 perjury trial, Hiss admitted to knowing Field, but denied knowing Massing and produced a witness who claimed that Massing had told him she couldn't remember ever having met Hiss."

The dinner party, Massing claimed, had taken place sometime in the winter of 1935. In the spring of 1936 she learned from Field, who was about to leave for Europe, that Hiss had renewed contact with him. This prompted her to write a lengthy memorandum to her superiors in Moscow.

(3) Whittaker Chambers, interviewed by Ray Murphy, a State Department official (20th March 1945)

In a special category were Noel Field and Laurence Duggan of the State Department. Field was described as a member at large of the Party. Duggan was not. Neither was connected with the underground and in fact the underground had orders to refrain from contacting them. The special liaison of Field and Duggan was Hetta Gumperts. She is now in the personnel Department of the Toss Shipbuilding Corporation and is married to Paul Massing, a former member of the German Communist Party described by General Krivitsky in his book. Massing is a penologist for the State of Pennsylvania, and they have a farm near Quakertown, PA. He is also known as Karl Billinger. Hetta Gumperts is a Viennese Jewish girl. When Field went to the League of Nations in 1936 he left Duggan in her special care. Gumperts was a Communist International agent. It is understood that Field and Duggan disclosed any information she wanted to know.

(4) Hede Massing, testimony to the grand jury in the Alger Hiss case (8th December, 1948)

Q: When did you meet Alger Hiss?

A: I met Alger Hiss only once. I believe that I met him, and I am not certain, and that is one of the reasons why I didn’t come forward before... it might have been the winter of 1934-1935, and it might have been the winter of 1935-1936. I am not certain of that, but it was just one meeting. And then was… then was this dinner arranged between Alger Hiss and the Fields. And one of the reasons why I haven’t spoken about this before is that it was one of the haziest evenings in my life… I’m trying to recollect - I don’t even know whether there were any other people invited. I sometimes see the evening as a dinner party at the Fields with other people around, and I sometimes see the evening as a bouffe supper. I do recall having spoken to Alger alone in the room to the right of the hall at Noel Field’s apartment and I just don’t recall whether there were other people or not. It might have been that it was just we four. I know that Mrs. Hiss was supposed to come that evening and she did not. That I know.

Q: You mentioned, Mrs. Massing, that you haven’t talked about this before. When did you first talk about this with the FBI, this Hiss Incident?

A: Yesterday.

Q: Yesterday?

A: Yes. And I want to say right here why I didn’t. There are three reasons for it. One is that - the most essential one is a technical one that held me back. First of all, I had forgotten it for years. And when I first saw the picture of Alger Hiss at the San Francisco conference I thought, “Oh, this is the fellow I met at Field’s.” And then I felt how wonderful that he must have left the service... When Alger Hiss came into this terrific thing now with Chambers, of course I thought about it all the time and I have seen, meanwhile, Bill McCarthy, who has almost become a friend of mine, in the FBI service, several times, and there was one evening before I was called to the Un-American Activities Committee where I met Bill McCarthy and was on the verge of telling him about that. This leads to the third reason why I hesitated to speak about it. My husband at present, Paul Massing, knows nothing about my knowing Alger Hiss and I felt that it was very hard for Paul Massing to establish himself in this country. He is not an American citizen yet.… and I just don’t want to jeopardize his chances.… And also I thought, since I don’t know it clearly, since it is so vague, I cannot help very much.… And so I didn’t talk about it. I wanted to speak to Bill McCarthy the evening before I went to the Un-American Activities Committee. Paul Massing arrived and I didn’t get the chance. At the Committee I was not asked. Paul Massing was asked whether he knew Нiss, and he doesn’t and he said no. Would I have been asked, I certainly would have had to speak about it, because I was determined to say what I knew under oath. But I wasn’t asked.

Q: When were you before the Committee, what date?

A: There you got me. Last month. But I don’t know when.

Q: Would you say it was in November, the middle of November?

A: It might have been the end of September.... I do remember distinctly having had a lot to drink… I had many drinks there, too. And I had a conversation with Mr. Hiss that ran, аs I remember it, like this - whether it was I or he who said it first “Well, you are meddling in my affairs,” whether it was I or he who said, “Well, no; you are meddling in my affairs.” Whether it was he who said or I who said - and this is the vagueness - “But we are working for the same boss, anyway.” That is the gist of the conversation. I mean, there were many other things, you know, of course, but this is the significant sentence. And it would be much more significant would I know who said it. But it might be that he said it, and it might be that I said it. And this is one of the reasons. You see, this is all I have and it didn’t seem enough to comment and say yes, I know that Alger Hiss did this and this and that and that. This is the sentence I think was said either by him or by me.

Q: Was there any prior conversation with the Fields, saying you wanted to meet Alger Hiss?

A: Yes. When Noel said that he had this very close friend of his whom he thought whom he considers a man of high ethics and moral standards, a man of Marxian - a trained Marxian, an educated Marxian, a man who is versed in politics, a man whom he admired very greatly… and he said, “You know, he is trying to … win me as you do, and I am tending to be with him. I know him so much longer than you.” And I said, “Well, why won’t you let me meet this man?” This was the previous conversation... As a matter of fact, it was sprung on me very suddenly, and I remember exactly when it was. Not when, not the date, but the occasion, the situation, I was on a boat with the Fields on the river this is in Washington.

Q The Potomac?

A Yes. And I remember that Herta, his wife, went out swimming, and Noel and I had this discussion. And, as a matter of fact, I think… it was something Noel had planned to tell me, obviously, something he wanted to confront me with… It was an important issue to him; that he had spoken with me … I had never known that Alger Hiss was a friend of Noel’s until then when Noel told me that there is this man whom he regards as such and so, and so forth.

(5) Major Szendy, Hungarian Interior Ministry (22nd August, 1952)

Field confessed … only now recognizing that he had become a tool for the American intelligence and that he had also handed over other people to the American intelligence. Field emphasized repeatedly, that decades ago, while he was in the USA, he had approached the Communist Party and had cooperated with the Soviet intelligence agencies for a long period of time; he did not know why this connection was cut off. Furthermore, he emphasized that the House Committee on Un-American Activities was investigating him in connection with the case of Alger Hiss. Field stated that he had been trying to clarify his membership in the Communist Party since 1938 (when he travelled to Moscow) and that he was promised, last time in Poland, that this would happen...

In the year 1934 (as far as I remember) I got in touch with the German communists Paul Massing and Hede Gumpertz who informed me that they were spying for the Soviet Union. I handed over lots of information to them – orally as well as in writing - about the State Department...

At first, the Massings didn’t give any evidence about me. … during a trip to the USA in 1946, I met Hede Gumpertz, who informed me that she didn’t work for the Soviet Union anymore. Gumpertz was trying to establish contact with me and frankly asked whether I was working for the Soviet Union, which I denied. In response, she told me that so far she hadn’t revealed to the authorities that she had been in contact with me and was not planning to do so. Later on, I discovered from evidence at the trial against Alger Hiss and from confidential letters of my friends that Hede Gumperz and Paul Massing had revealed my name. At this time, one could hardly call me to account because I hadn’t returned to the USA and besides, there couldn’t be proof against me.