Josef Berger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Josef Berger, or Joseph Isadore Berger (May 12, 1903 - November 11, 1971), was an American journalist and speechwriter.
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[edit] Early life
Berger was born in Denver, Colorado in 1903 and graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 1924. He worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star for a time.
[edit] Career
In 1934, he settled with his wife and daughter in Provincetown, Massachusetts where he tried to make it as a freelance writer. Berger had a hard time earning money and for about year lived in near poverty until he found a job with the government-sponsored Federal Writer's Project.
Berger, who wrote under the pen name Jeremiah Digges, was employed by the United States Department of Justice in 1942 as a speech-writer for the Attorney-General, Francis Biddle, and later also secretary to the chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Robert E. Hannegan. He also served as a U.S. delegate on the Reparations Commission.
[edit] Accusations of espionage
He has been accused by John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr of being connected to the Soviet spy ring run by Judith Coplon. Their assertion is based on VENONA Project evidence; Berger was never charged or arrested for any crime, however.
[edit] Death
At the age of 67, he died suddenly of an aneurysm on November 11, 1971 in New York City.
[edit] References
- FBI Venona Files
- John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999)
- Marcia and Thomas Mitchell, The Spy Who Seduced America: Lies and Betrayal in the Heat of the Cold War: The Judith Coplon Story, (Invisible Cities Press LLC, 2002) ISBN 1-931229-22-8
