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<div style="background: #ccf; font-weight: bold; padding: 1px 3px 1px 3px;">This article is part of the<br/>[[Venona project|Venona]]<br/>series.</div>

<div style="background: #ccf; font-weight: bold; padding: 1px 3px 1px 3px;">This article is part of the<br/>[[Venona project|Venona]]<br/>series.</div>

[[CPUSA]]<br/>

[[CPUSA]]<br/>

[[Whittaker_Chambers#Members_of_the_Karl_group|Karl group]]<br/>

[[Whittaker Chambers#Members of the Karl group|Karl group]]<br/>

[[U.S. Department of State]]<br/>

[[U.S. Department of State]]<br/>

[[Office of Strategic Services]]

[[Office of Strategic Services]]

During his years at State, Field certainly harbored sympathies for the [[USSR]]. [[Hede Massing]], a former Soviet agent turned informer, told US authorities that when she attempted to recruit him for one Soviet spy network (the [[OGPU]]), that he already worked another (the [[GRU]]). But two of Field's handlers defected, raising doubts within Soviet intelligence about Field's own role that Field, seeking to re-establish his bonafides, spent many years seeking to assuage. Field left his position at the [[Department of State]] and joined the a [[League of Nations]] program in Geneva, Switzerland. In October 1940 Field resigned his position in Geneva and went to work for the Unitarian Service Committee in Marseilles. Field used this position to serve as a courier for the underground German Communist party and convey messages to and from Hungarian, Polish, Bulgarian and Yugoslav communist party organizations as he traveled Europe ostensibly on refugee business. During the war years, Field, based in Switzerland, continued to work on behalf of refugees, including a substantial number of Communist resistance fighters who would, after the war, assume positions of power in Eastern Europe. Field served [[Allen Dulles]], then of the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] and later [[CIA]] chief, as liaison to Communist resistance fighters when they were needed for OSS operations.

During his years at State, Field certainly harbored sympathies for the [[USSR]]. [[Hede Massing]], a former Soviet agent turned informer, told US authorities that when she attempted to recruit him for one Soviet spy network (the [[OGPU]]), that he already worked another (the [[GRU]]). But two of Field's handlers defected, raising doubts within Soviet intelligence about Field's own role that Field, seeking to re-establish his bonafides, spent many years seeking to assuage. Field left his position at the [[Department of State]] and joined the a [[League of Nations]] program in Geneva, Switzerland. In October 1940 Field resigned his position in Geneva and went to work for the Unitarian Service Committee in Marseilles. Field used this position to serve as a courier for the underground German Communist party and convey messages to and from Hungarian, Polish, Bulgarian and Yugoslav communist party organizations as he traveled Europe ostensibly on refugee business. During the war years, Field, based in Switzerland, continued to work on behalf of refugees, including a substantial number of Communist resistance fighters who would, after the war, assume positions of power in Eastern Europe. Field served [[Allen Dulles]], then of the [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] and later [[CIA]] chief, as liaison to Communist resistance fighters when they were needed for OSS operations.

After the war, Field was purged from the [[Unitarian Church]] relief organization and decided to settle in Prague; by some accounts, he was simply broke, but others attribute his decision to live within the Soviet bloc to fear that he would be subpoenaed to appear as a material witness in the [[Alger Hiss]] trial. Expecting to be greeted by old comrades with a warm welcome, he was instead arrested, moved to a prison in Budapest, and interrogated under extreme duress. No word of his fate reached the West, and concerned family members -- his wife, Herta; his brother, Hermann; and his foster daughter, Erica -- traveled to Eastern Europe to look for him. Each likewise vanished, finding a similar fate of brutal imprisonment and endless interrogation. When Field surfaced again, it was as a source of evidence used in the show trials of Communist Party leaders that were held throughout the Eastern bloc. Prosecutors used Field's confessions, obtained under torture, to implicate the accused as participants in a vast network of agents, recruited by Field on behalf of Dulles for the OSS and later controlled by the CIA. The purges and trials convulsed the governments of Eastern Europe. High officials in several countries were executed, and many others sentenced to long prison terms. Communist parties in each state turned on veterans of the [[Spanish Civil War]] and the underground resistance to Nazi occupation, once hailed as heroes. Even decades after the downfall of each of these Communist regimes, the scars have not yet fully healed.  

After the war, Field was purged from the [[Unitarian Church]] relief organization and decided to settle in Prague; by some accounts, he was simply broke, but others attribute his decision to live within the Soviet bloc to fear that he would be subpoenaed to appear as a material witness in the [[Alger Hiss]] trial. Expecting to be greeted by old comrades with a warm welcome, he was instead arrested, moved to a prison in Budapest, and interrogated under extreme duress. No word of his fate reached the West, and concerned family members—his wife, Herta; his brother, Hermann; and his foster daughter, Erica—traveled to Eastern Europe to look for him. Each likewise vanished, finding a similar fate of brutal imprisonment and endless interrogation. When Field surfaced again, it was as a source of evidence used in the show trials of Communist Party leaders that were held throughout the Eastern bloc. Prosecutors used Field's confessions, obtained under torture, to implicate the accused as participants in a vast network of agents, recruited by Field on behalf of Dulles for the OSS and later controlled by the CIA. The purges and trials convulsed the governments of Eastern Europe. High officials in several countries were executed, and many others sentenced to long prison terms. Communist parties in each state turned on veterans of the [[Spanish Civil War]] and the underground resistance to Nazi occupation, once hailed as heroes. Even decades after the downfall of each of these Communist regimes, the scars have not yet fully healed.  

Members of the Field family each suffered terribly. Herta Field was imprisoned near her husband, in Budapest. Hermann Field, who had taken time off from his search for his brother by flying to Warsaw to see friends, was apprehended as he attempted to board his return flight and endured inhuman conditions for five years. Erica's search for her foster father was rewarded by interrogation in East German prisons and, after a death sentence that was commuted, spent years in [[Vorkuta]], the notorious [[Gulag]] outpost in the Arctic. All were released by the mid-1950s, with apologies and offers of compensation. Hermann and Erica wrote riveting accounts of their experiences. But upon their release in Budapest, Noel and Herta Field asked for asylum and spent their remaining years as ordinary citizens of the state that had victimized them.

Members of the Field family each suffered terribly. Herta Field was imprisoned near her husband, in Budapest. Hermann Field, who had taken time off from his search for his brother by flying to Warsaw to see friends, was apprehended as he attempted to board his return flight and endured inhuman conditions for five years. Erica's search for her foster father was rewarded by interrogation in East German prisons and, after a death sentence that was commuted, spent years in [[Vorkuta]], the notorious [[Gulag]] outpost in the Arctic. All were released by the mid-1950s, with apologies and offers of compensation. Hermann and Erica wrote riveting accounts of their experiences. But upon their release in Budapest, Noel and Herta Field asked for asylum and spent their remaining years as ordinary citizens of the state that had victimized them.

*Klingsberg, Ethan, [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/klings2.html''Case Closed on Alger Hiss?''], The Nation, November 8, 1993.  

*Klingsberg, Ethan, [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/klings2.html''Case Closed on Alger Hiss?''], The Nation, November 8, 1993.  

==External link==

==External links==

*[http://www.mfs-insider.de/jourfixe/JF0202.htm Who Was Noel Field?] in German.

*[http://www.mfs-insider.de/jourfixe/JF0202.htm Who Was Noel Field?] in German.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Noel}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Noel}}

[[Category:KGB Agents and Sources]]

[[Category:KGB Agents and Sources]]