Trapped in the Cold War: The Ordeal of an American Family - Hardcover

Field, Hermann; Naimark, Norman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0804735905 ISBN 13: 9780804735902

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 2000

Synopsis

The disappearance behind the Iron Curtain of the American brothers Noel and Hermann Field in 1949, followed by that of Noel’s wife and their foster daughter, was one of the most publicized international mysteries of the Cold War. This dual memoir gives an intensely human dimension to that struggle, with Hermann narrating all that happened to him from the day he was abducted from the Warsaw airport to his release five years later, and Kate relating her unrelenting efforts to find her husband.

Thousands of potential victims of Hitler’s dragnet were rescued in 1939 and during World War II through separate efforts of the Field brothers. Arrested in Czechoslovakia in 1949, Noel was taken to Hungary and used as an example of American perfidy in show trials. Hermann went to Poland primarily to find out what had happened to his brother. After Hermann’s abduction, he was taken to the cellar of a secret Polish prison, where he was held for five years. He gives us a detailed account of his battle to survive, alternating despair and horror with mordant humor. Meanwhile, his family had no idea whether he was still alive and if so, where.

This moving story, based on detailed notes made by the authors during and shortly after the events described, presents an inside-outside counterpoint, as Hermann’s chapters on his inward journey in his cellar world alternate with Kate’s efforts in London to find him by scrutinizing accounts of political events in Eastern Europe for clues and penetrating the diplomatic corridors of power in the West for help. Hermann had been arrested by a Polish security agent who later defected and became one of the West’s most important informants on Soviet operations in Eastern Europe. The search for the Field brothers was complicated by their history of leftist connections, for this tense period in the Cold War was also the era of McCarthyism in the United States. The book ends with an Epilogue that analyzes the events of fifty years ago in the light of what we know today, as the result of newly available archival material.

About this title

About the Author

The late Hermann Field was Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy, Emeritus, at Tufts University. Kate Field holds an honors degree in Economics and Politics from the University of Cambridge. She held an administrative position at Harvard University until her retirement.

From the Back Cover

The disappearance behind the Iron Curtain of the American brothers Noel and Hermann Field in 1949, followed by that of Noel's wife and their foster daughter, was one of the most publicized international mysteries of the Cold War. This dual memoir gives an intensely human dimension to that struggle, with Hermann narrating all that happened to him from the day he was abducted from the Warsaw airport to his release five years later, and Kate relating her unrelenting efforts to find her husband.
Thousands of potential victims of Hitler's dragnet were rescued in 1939 and during World War II through separate efforts of the Field brothers. Arrested in Czechoslovakia in 1949, Noel was taken to Hungary and used as an example of American perfidy in show trials. Hermann went to Poland primarily to find out what had happened to his brother. After Hermann's abduction, he was taken to the cellar of a secret Polish prison, where he was held for five years. He gives us a detailed account of his battle to survive, alternating despair and horror with mordant humor. Meanwhile, his family had no idea whether he was still alive and if so, where.
This moving story, based on detailed notes made by the authors during and shortly after the events described, presents an inside-outside counterpoint, as Hermann's chapters on his inward journey in his cellar world alternate with Kate's efforts in London to find him by scrutinizing accounts of political events in Eastern Europe for clues and penetrating the diplomatic corridors of power in the West for help. Hermann had been arrested by a Polish security agent who later defected and became one of the West's most important informants on Soviet operations in Eastern Europe. The search for the Field brothers was complicated by their history of leftist connections, for this tense period in the Cold War was also the era of McCarthyism in the United States. The book ends with an Epilogue that analyzes the events of fifty years ago in the light of what we know today, as the result of newly available archival material.

Reviews

This remarkable document is a moving love story, a tale of sinister international intrigue and a revealing probe of Cold War politics. In 1949, American journalist Noel Field vanished in Prague. His brother, architect Hermann Field, traveled to Europe searching for Noel--and he too disappeared without a trace from the airport in Warsaw. The Field family's Kafkaesque ordeal got worse: when Noel's wife, Herta, went looking for him in 1949, she too disappeared; then Noel and Herta's foster daughter were arrested by East German secret police and spent five years in German and Soviet prisons. These disappearances behind the Iron Curtain made front-page headlines when Noel, a State Department worker during the 1930s, was named as a friend and associate of Alger Hiss in Hiss's 1950 perjury trials. Most likely arrested (it's still unclear) for being imperialist agents, the brothers were held incommunicado without trials, tortured and put in solitary confinement in Eastern European prisons until 1954, when they were exonerated and released. In this book, Hermann, who endured psychological torture, endless interrogations and a straitjacket and survived by dint of his iron will, subversive wit and Quaker pacifist faith, describes his experience. His courageous narrative (reminiscent of Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon) is told in counterpoint to chapters written by his devoted English wife, Kate. One of the ironies of the story is that the Field brothers, reviled by their communist captors and used as props in a wave of purges and show trials, were both communist sympathizers (and Noel may have served as a communist agent) who had aided antifascist refugees escaped from Eastern Europe during WWII. B&w photos. (Mar.)

Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0804735905
• ISBN 13: 9780804735902
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 488