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TheRed Three (German:Rote Drei) was the Switzerland section of the so-calledRed Orchestra. It was established and maintained bySoviet Military Intelligence Staff Division 4.[1]
The termsRed Three, andRed Orchestra respectively, were invented by theReichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), the counter-espionage arm of theSS. As an essential part of theRed Orchestra, theRed Three (radio stations) (de: dieRoten Drei (Funkstellen)) were outside the reach of German security forces, located in Switzerland. It was headed byAlexander Radó (code name: DORA), a Hungarian émigré, Communist, andgeographer. TheRed Three was founded in 1936, whenRadó arrived inGeneva. By April 1942, the organization had been established withRadó as group leader, and also had three subgroup leaders:Rachel Dübendorfer (code name: SISSY),Georges Blun (code name: LONG), andOtto Pünter (code name: PAKBO).
After the imprisonment ofLeopold Trepper (code name: GRAND CHEF) by theGestapo in 1942,Radó's group became the most effective part of theRed Orchestra espionage network. It collected useful information in Switzerland and had some contacts inside Germany. Perhaps most importantly,Radó was also in touch with theLucy spy ring, which had very valuable contacts inside Germany, and was linked toBritish intelligence. Some people have speculated that theLucy ring was used byBritish intelligence to passUltra information toSoviet intelligence without revealing the codebreaking operation that was its source, but most historians do not agree with this theory.[2]
In 1944–1945,Radó was recalled to the USSR and charged with spying for Britain and the U.S. He was imprisoned for eight years, but was released and rehabilitated afterStalin's death.