Lev Manevich: A Lone Spy
Lev Manevich was born on August 20, 1898 in Chausy, Belorussia. At twelve years old, he joined his eldest brother in Switzerland. There he studied in a technical school in Geneva and mastered three foreign languages. In 1916, he returned to Russia and joined an intelligence unit in the Red Army. After the Civil War, in 1924, he graduated from the Military Academy and spent some time in China training the revolutionary army of Mao Tse-Tung. He returned to Russia and almost became a squadron commander in the Russian Air Force when the head of military intelligence recruited him to work as a lone spy.
In 1932, posing as Konrad Kartner, code-name Etien, Manevich opened a patent registration office in Vienna, visited factories and plants and built contacts with pilots and technicians. While in Vienna, his wife and daughter, Tatiana, lived with him. When counter-intelligence began asking his wife about her husband, she was ordered to return to Moscow immediately.
Manevich moved his main offices to Milan where he represented German, Austrian and Czech companies interested in selling their goods to Italy. Thanks to his cover, he was able to visit Germany. He told Moscow about Italian aid to Spain and how the Germans were arming themselves.
On October 3, 1937, he was arrested by the Fascists and sentenced to 12 years in prison even though he maintained he was an Austrian businessman. On September 8, 1943, Italy surrendered, and came under German occupation. Manevich, presenting himself as a Russian prisoner of war, Colonel Starostin, was sent by the Germans to Mathausen concentration camp. He was transferred to Melk, a sub-camp of Mathausen, and then to Ebensee concentration camp, also a sub-camp and considered one of the most horrific. Here, the slave laborers dug underground tunnels to house armaments.
On May 5, 1945, the day before the camp was liberated, the Nazis ordered the prisoners to enter one of the tunnels for protection from the approaching Allies. Manevich correctly suspected that the plan was to blown up the tunnel and, in several languages, he yelled at the prisoners not to obey. The Nazis abandoned the camp and the next day it was liberated by the Americans. Manevich died a few days later and was buried in Linz, Austria – his headstone read Colonel Starostin.
Manevich’s contribution to the war efforts, like Trepper’s, were at first ignored. However, twenty years later, on February 20, 1965, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
*This article ends our series on Jewish soldiers in World War Two.
Sources: In the Shadow of the Red Banner by Yitzhak Arad.
Life of Soviet intelligence officer Lev Manevich http://english.pravda.ru/history/10-09-2004/6948-intelligence-0/#sthash.GG9NuDp8.dpuf
