Jan Valtin

Jan Valtin was the alias of Richard Julius Hermann Krebs (December 17, 1905 - January 1, 1951), a German Communist and Soviet agent during the interwar period. He defected to the United States in 1938, and in 1940 (as Valtin) wrote his bestselling autobiography Out of the Night. He also wrote several novels.

Valtin became active in the Communist movement as a boy, when his father was involved in the naval mutiny that heralded the 1918 German revolution. In 1923, he saw action in the failed Communist insurgency in Hamburg. Sometime after this he was recruited by the GPU, the foreign intelligence service of the Soviet Union, and forerunner to the KGB.

After joining the GPU he helped run various smuggling enterprises, and helped organize Communist cells in the crews of merchant ships. As a sailor he visited many countries and could speak a number of languages, including fluent English. He spent three years in San Quentin State Prison in California for an assault carried out under GPU orders.

After the National Socialist German Workers Party came to power in Germany, he fled to Denmark, where the GPU headquarters had relocated. At this time he was a seasoned GPU operative but fell out of favor with the leadership. He was sent back to Germany as an agent. According to Valtin, this order was from Ernst Wollweber.

He was subsequently arrested by the National Socialists and brutally tortured. But the GPU made contact with him in jail and instructed him to defect to the Nazis and act as a double agent for them. This plan was successful, and the Nazis sent him to Denmark to make contact with the GPU again. However, they kept his wife and son hostage in Germany.

Once again he fell out with the GPU leadership, who kidnapped him for transportation to the USSR. He escaped, and fled to the United States. The GPU took their revenge by publishing an article about him in the American Communist newspaper Daily Worker. This let the Nazis know that he had tricked them and the Gestapo killed Valtin's wife.

Valtin was destitute when he arrived in the United States. He worked at a number of menial jobs before joining the U.S. Army during World War II. After the war, he was investigated by the House Committee on Un-American Activities but cleared. He was granted U.S. citizenship in 1947.

Valtin/Krebs married again, before 1941, to Abigail Harris, an American. They had two sons.