Ignace Reiss
Ignace Reiss | |
|---|---|
Ignace Reiss | |
| Born | Nathan Markovic Poreckij 1899 Podwołoczyska (Pidvolochysk), then in Galicia, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 4 September 1937 (aged 37 or 38) Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Cause of death | Assassination by gunshot |
| Alma mater | Faculty of Law, University of Vienna |
| Occupation | Spy |
| Spouse | Elsa Bernaut (a.k.a. "Else Bernaut" a.k.a. "Elisabeth K. Poretsky" a.k.a. "Elsa Reiss") |
| Children | 1 son |
| Awards | Order of the Red Banner |
| Espionage activity | |
| Allegiance | Soviet Union |
| Service years | 1919–1937 |
| Codename |
|
Ignace Reiss (1899 – 4 September 1937) – also known as "Ignace Poretsky," "Ignatz Reiss," "Ludwig," "Ludwik", "Hans Eberhardt," "Steff Brandt," Nathan Poreckij, and "Walter Scott (an officer of the U.S. military intelligence)" – was one of the "Great Illegals" or Soviet spies who worked in third party countries where they were not nationals in the late 1920s and 1930s. He was known as a nevozvrashchenec ("unreturnable").
An NKVD team assassinated him on 4 September 1937 near Lausanne, Switzerland, a few weeks after he declared his defection in a letter addressed to Joseph Stalin. He was a lifelong friend of Walter Krivitsky; his assassination influenced the timing and method of Whittaker Chambers's defection a few months later.