Klaus Fuchs

Klaus Fuchs was born into a Lutheran family in 1911 and “had a very happy childhood”. One of the biggest take aways from his father “always did what he believed to be the right thing to do and always told us that we were to go our own way, even if he disagreed”. While studying Physics at the University of Leipzig, his political affiliations evolved, first the SPD (Social Democratic Party, a moderate social-democratic ideas and policies). During the rise of Hitler, Fuchs was expelled from the SPD for backing a communist candidate and joined the Communist party because he felt he “had to be in some organization”. Upon the burning of the Reichtstag (which was blamed on the Communists) Fuchs “was ready to accept the philosophy that the party was right and that in the coming struggle you could not permit your self any doubts after the Party made their decision”. Fuchs was sent out of Germany by the Communist Party because they said “technical knowledge” would be needed for a “Communist Germany”. He went first to France and then to England where he finished his doctorate in Physics from the University of Bristol and was invited to study at Edinburgh University. Fuchs became a UK citizen in 1942 based on a request of asylum from the Nazis. (Quotes taken from his confession^{[5 Appendix]}.)

After hostilities between Germany and Britain started, Prime Minister Churchill interned the approximate 20,000 German Nationals living in the British Isles. This included Fuchs who was sent to Canada (Similar to the USA interment of Japanese, German and Italian citizens during WW2). Fuchs “felt no bitterness by the internment, because [he] could understand that it was necessary”.

Fuchs was released from the internment camp to work on England’s Atomic bomb effort with Professor Peierls at Birmingham. When he learned of the true nature of the work he “decided to inform Russia” of what he was working on. During this time England and USA worked together sharing information and Peierls and Fuchs worked on a Uranium-237 device.

In August 1944 Professor Peierls and Fuchs were invited to join the Manhattan project in Los Alamos in the Theoretical Division where they were to focus on the Plutonium Fission device. It was during this time that he gave information to the Russians through a Russian agent whom he knew as Raymond (his actual name was Harry Gold). The information he provided included hard data collected on the materials, as well as the explosive lensing ideas and the difficulties they were having making it work. There is little doubt that this helped the Soviet scientists. While the Soviets had also decided upon using Plutonium, they were significantly farther behind regarding how to make Plutonium reliably explode. During this time, Gold offered Fuchs $1,500 for his information, but Fuchs refused to take the money.

Unbeknownst to Fuchs, he was not alone in thinking that the USA should share the bomb with Russia. Political efforts through the Supreme Court all the way to President Rosevelt implored him to share the bomb technology with Russia. Knowing that the Russians would come up with their own design within a few years, and that “not sharing would sow the seeds of future conflict”^{[5 p.78]}.

After the end of the WW2, Fuchs went back to England to lead the Theoretical Physics department at Englands Atomic Energy Research Establishment, August 1, 1946. He sent a letter to his father “I only hope that we can concentrate on the peacetime use of this tremendous force in the future”^{[5 p.95]}. During this time Fuchs provided information to the Russians 6 times over 2 years and accepted a small payment of 100 UK pounds to assure the Russians about his commitment and loyalty. The one large piece of information that Fuchs provided was that the UK was building their own atomic weapon before this was known to the UK people.

September 23, 1949, the White House and 10 Downing St said “We have evidence that in the recent weeks, an atomic explosion occurred in the USSR”. Few people has expected that the Soviets would be able to complete an atomic bomb so soon. The common expectation would that it would have been expected in several more years.

Also in September 1949, the US Army Signals Corp (the former name of the NSA) under the highly classified VENONA project was able to decrypt a message from London to Moscow that has been sent in 1941 that described a meeting between Fuchs and the USSR GRU agent where Fuchs offers to help the Soviets. That message was important because it used Fuchs name directly instead of a pseudonym which was a significant operational mistake. Other messages from February and June 1944 were also decrypted discussing the organization of the atomic bomb project and passing a document “Fluctuations and the Efficiency of a Diffusion Plant” to the Russians^{[1 p. 227-229]}. Determining the source of the leaker of the subsequent documents was difficult because of the proper use of pseudonyms. In October 1949 the FBI pieced together that one of the pseudonyms was probably Fuchs.

This information was passed to UK MI5 and an agent was dispatched to talk to Fuchs in December 1949. At this point, Fuchs was suspected of providing one or two documents. The interview was continued on and off over several weeks until on January 23, 1950 Fuchs felt compelled to confess. Fuchs said “I started in 1942 and had my last meeting last year”. The extent of the spying came as a significant surprise!

Fuchs dictated his confession, was arrested, was tried and found guilty. Before sentencing, Fuchs admitted he had “committed certain crimes” and expected to be sentenced. He also said he believed he had been given “a fair trial”. Given that the majority of time that Fuchs was spying for the Russians, the Russians were allies of the UK, the Judge sentenced him to the maximum penalty of 14 years (instead of the death penalty which Fuchs thought was a real possibility). While in prison Fuchs cooperated with the UK authorities to determine what he provided and he also identified Harry Gold as his intermediary. Harry Gold was also arrested and led US agents to other Atomic spies. Fuchs served his sentence and with good behavior was released after 9 years.

Fuchs immediately emigrated to East Germany where he resumed his work. Fuchs was elected to the GDR’s Academy of Science, the Communist Party Central Committee, awarded the Order of Merit of the Fatherland, the Order of Karl Marx and received a letter from the GDR’s Communist leader celebrating his 70th birthday saying “you can look back on a successful career as a Communist, scientist and university teacher”.

Fuchs passed away in 1988.

Footnotes

1. H. Rommerstein, E. Breindel. The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and Americas Traitor’s, 2001, Regnery Publishing
2. AtomicArchive biography of Klaus Fuchs, accessed Dec 27, 2017
3. Wikipedia page for Klaus Fuchs, accessed Dec 27, 2017
4. Williams, Robert Chadwell, Klaus Fuchs: Atom Spy, 1987, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-50540-9
5. Moss, Norman, Klaus Fuchs: the man who stole the atom bomb, 1987, Grafton