George Fles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| George Fles | |
 |
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| Born | 1908 Amsterdam, Netherlands |
|---|---|
| Died | 1939 Smolensk, Russia |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Occupation | translator |
| Spouse | Pearl Rimel |
| Children | Michael John Fles |
| Parents | Louis Fles and Celine van Straaten |
George Fles (1908-1939) was a Dutch translator with a strong communist conviction. He fell victim to Stalin's repressions.
George was born in 1908 in Amsterdam, as the youngest son of Louis Fles and Celine van Straaten. He spent time in France and in the United Kingdom, where he married Pearl Rimel. With his newly wed wife he moved to the Soviet Union.
In Moscow he worked as a translator, but later he was sent to Tiblisi, Georgia. Here again he worked as a translator. He was informally warned that he should leave, an advise that he did not follow. He did send his pregnant wife back to the England.
George was arrested and trialed for espionage and Trotskyism. As he was asthmatic his health deteriorated quickly in Russian prison. His father and his brother Barthold Fles tried to have him released, but to no avail. He died on May 31, 1939 in a prison near Smolensk.
After George's death Pearl Rimel and her son immigrated to the United States, where they settled in California.
[edit] Additional reading
- David Aaronovitch: "Stalin's British victims (book review)." New Statesman 16 August 2004.
- Francis Beckett: Stalin's British Victims. Phoenix Mill: Sutton, 2004. ISBN 0750932236
- Thijs Berman: Op zoek naar George Fles, het einde van een Hollandse revolutionair in de Sovjetunie (Dutch: Searching for George Fles, the end of a Dutch revolutionary in the Soviet Union). Amsterdam: Van Gennep, 1993. ISBN 906012992X
- Giorgio van Straten: My name, a living memory. South Royalton, Vermont: Steerforth Italia, 2003. ISBN 1586420712
