5RTrJ [Download pdf ebook] The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet Spy Online

[5RTrJ.ebook] The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet Spy Pdf Free

Jonathan Miles ebooks | Download PDF | *ePub | DOC | audiobook

Download Now Free Download Here Download eBook

#1497167 in Books 2010-10-26 2010-10-26Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 242.82 x 1.39 x 6.39l, 1.28 #File Name: 1596916613384 pagesFBI storymission on Spanish civil warSpy | File size: 35.Mb

Jonathan Miles : The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet Spy before purchasing it in order to gage whether or not it would be worth my time, and all praised The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet Spy:

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Where nobody knows your nameBy PatrickA very informative read about one of the most consequential people of the twentieth century, of whom almost no one has ever heard. Along with his erstwhile boss Willi Muenzenberg, Katz planted the seeds for an attitude that still prevails today to one degree or another, about the benignity of .Muenzenberg was Lenin's (and later Stalin's) master propagandist, who set out to make it, in Western intellectual circles, the mark of an intelligent, informed and decent person to be favorably disposed to the Soviet Union and anything that served the foreign policy goals of the USSR. To that end he established an empire which included newspapers, magazines, movies and books, first from and then .One day in Germany, Muenzenberg met Otto Katz, who was from a family of prosperous Czechoslovakian . After WWI, Katz attempted to make a career in theatre in and Berlin. He failed as a playwright, but made a career behind the scenes, which allowed him to become friends with the likes of Berthold Brecht, , Ernst Lubitsch, Peter Lorre, Billy Wilder...and Marlene Dietrich, who he claimed, adamantly, to have once married. Whatever the truth of that, those connections were to serve him well in the 1930s in Hollywood.Katz used his friends as fund raisers for the Soviet cause--under the guise of anti-fascism--and as a propaganda arm. In addition to his German ex-pat colleagues he became friends with Lillian Hellman, , John Howard Lawson and most of those later to become infamous as The Hollywood Ten. The pro-Soviet propaganda they inserted into their film scripts was instigated by Katz. Such films as the notorious Mission to Moscow, Action in the North Atlantic, Tender Comrades, The North Star, Song of Russia, and two that were both nominated for Best Picture of 1943; Watch on the Rhine and Casablanca.Those last two both included a very Katz-like hero. Watch on the Rhine--screenplay by Dashiell Hammett and Hellman--was about a German anti-Nazi, Kurt Muller, who is raising funds in the USA and returns to Europe to oppose Hitler. In Casablanca Victor Lazlo and his wife Ilse (the name of Katz's real life wife) are similarly engaged in some vague anti-Nazi activity and in mortal danger because of it. That screenplay is from Howard Koch and the Epstein brothers, Julius and Phillip, all of whom were pro-Russia.Yes, contrary to popular belief, the supposed martyrs of Hollywood were guilty as charged; Communist propagandists. Their muses both ended up dead at the hands, indirectly, of their patron Stalin. Muenzenberg's body was found under a tree in the south of France in 1940, and Katz survived until 1952, when he was hanged in Prague after a .Just deserts.11 of 12 people found the following review helpful. The many faces of Otto KatzBy Paul GelmanJonathan Miles has written a book about a very controversial man in the annals of Cold War espionage. Otto Katz was the embodiment of the old-fashioned and classic spy who eventually paid with his life,ironically, after serving his masters in the Communist bloc. His larger- than-lifetale could be the staff for an excellent movie and Mr. Miles has managed to reconstruct a very complex life of an enigmatic spy.This story reads like a detective one,showing various aspects of the same man-lover-playboy- spy.Katz was trained as a spy in the 1930s in Moscow and afterwards he based himself in Paris. He was to be found in the major capitals of Europe and then he moved to Hollywood. There he posed as the Nazi freedom-fighter Rudolf Breda and managed to turn the heads and hearts of leading directors,writers and film stars.After returning to Europe,Katz played an important part in generating propaganda which masked Stalin's bloody and cynical manipulation on the . He was an important player in the Soviet infiltration of England during the period when the infamous Cambridge spies were being recruited. According to Western intelligence reports and assessments,Otto Katz played a major role in "consolidating Communist influence in Latin America.The seeds of social turmoil were sown and the ground was prepared for revolution in Cuba".By 1946,"Katz had already lived eight distinct lives-the spoilt Bohemian,the playboy in decadent 1920s(being one of the numerous lovers of Marlene Dietrich),the Moscow trainee,the anti-Nazi in Europe,the agent in England,the star freedom fighter in Hollywood,the all-purpose Stalinist in the Spanish Civil War,the Communist insurgent in North and Latin America. Now his ninth life was upon him-triumph and terror in Czecholsovakia".(p.264)Katz' life came to an end after a farcical trial which was inspired by Stalin's paranoia.He died in a bitter winter in the depths of the Cold War and does not even have a grave.Based on newly declassified documents by the FBI,the MI5 and Czech files,this book is a significant addition to the literature of the Cold War Intelligence history.1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Drags on longer than the cold warBy FlamoGood documentation of Katz's life but the telling of the story could have been more entertaining. Pretty dull, at times.

The FBI's file on the Soviet spy Otto Katz (1893-1952) called him "an extremely dangerous man." This label doesn't even begin to tell the story.Katz, a daring and treacherous Soviet spy, seemed perpetually to beat the center of crucial historical moments. A deft writer and littérateur, he talked out of a life-threatening but ultimately useless mission in the Spanish Civil War, and persuaded Hollywood's gentry to donate to the Hollywood Anti Nazi League, a cover organization that fed money into Soviet coffers. He traveled to Weimar Berlin, Moscow, , Prague, New York, and , and may even have married the film star Marlene Dietrich. His best-known alter ego, a debonair character known as Rudolf Brea, was the inspiration for numerous film heroes, including Casablanca's Victor Laszlo.In the hands of the hugely talented Jonathan Miles, this story is more than a biography; we also see this tumultuous period through Katz's unflinching eyes. His activities take us from the Spanish Civil War to Stalin's secret meetings, from Trotsky's murder to the hidden lives of major Western celebrities. He takes us to the precipice of war and, more than a few times, over it. Through Katz's quests for fame, fortune, glory, and power, Miles uncovers the shadowy side of a critical period in world history.

From BooklistShifting from a fine history of a painting (The Wreck of the Medusa, 2007), Miles depicts a high-profile publicist of the Communist Party line. Involved in books and movies in the 1930s and 1940s, Otto Katz also likely attempted to rub out former Russian spy Whittaker Chambers, but his Stalinist dedication was repaid in tragedy: after a show trial, Katz was executed in 1952 in Prague. Navigating in detail Katz’s many clandestine guises, Miles detects the multilingual Czech in Communist and literary circles in 1920s Berlin. Following apparent recruitment by Soviet intelligence, Katz operated from Paris with another Soviet-controlled propagandist known to students of this subject (The Red Millionaire: A Political Biography of Willi Münzenberg, 2003, by Sean McMeekin), pumping out anti- Fascist and pro–Popular Front tracts under a string of aliases. So debonair was Katz he swept through Hollywood posing as a refugee from Nazidom. Touching on famous stage names with which Katz’s agitprop career intersected (Noël Coward, Marlene Dietrich, Lillian Hellman), Miles’ book may appeal to culture mavens as well as those interested in espionage. --Gilbert Taylor “An intriguing spy biography that ably demonstrates how fierce adherence to an ideology can lead to human suffering on terms both intimate and global.” ?KirkusAbout the AuthorJonathan Miles grew up in America, Canada, and the UK and has degrees from University College and Jesus College. He has written, lectured and broadcast on cultural history all over the world, travelled extensively and is a serious cook. He is the author of two other books, The Wreck of the Medusa and The Maker Unmade. He lives in Paris with his wife and daughter.

[5RTrJ.ebook] The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet Spy By Jonathan Miles PDF [5RTrJ.ebook] The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet Spy By Jonathan Miles Epub [5RTrJ.ebook] The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet Spy By Jonathan Miles Ebook [5RTrJ.ebook] The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet Spy By Jonathan Miles Rar [5RTrJ.ebook] The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet Spy By Jonathan Miles Zip [5RTrJ.ebook] The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet Spy By Jonathan Miles Read Online