Out of the NightPickle Partners Publishing, 2020 M01 30 - 724 pages A bestseller in 1941, selected by the Book of the Month Club for a special edition and described by Book of the Month Club News as: “...full of sensational revelations and interspersed with episodes of daring, of desperate conflict, of torture, and of ruthless conspiracy...It is, first of all, an autobiography the like of which has seldom been.” The son of a seafaring father, Richard Julius Herman Krebs, a.k.a. Jan Valtin, came of age as a bicycle messenger during a maritime rebellion. His life as an intimate insider account of the dramatic events of 1920’s and 1930s, where he rose both within the ranks of the Communist Party and on the Gestapo hit list. Known for his honesty and incredible memory, Krebs dedicated his life to the Communist Party, rising to a position as head of maritime, organizing worldwide for the Comintern, only to flee the Party and Europe to evade his own comrade’s attempts to kill him. As a professional revolutionary, agitator, spy and would-be assassin, Krebs traveled the globe from Germany to China, India to Sierra Leon, Moscow to the United States where a botched assassination attempt landed him a stint in San Quentin. From his spellbinding account of artful deception to gain release from a Nazi prison and his work as a double-agent within the Gestapo, to his vivid depiction of a Communist Party fraught with intrigue and subterfuge, Krebs gives an unflinching portrayal of the internal machinations of both parties. |
From inside the book
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... committees of the sailors and stokers had been elected. The latrines in the shipyards became the centers for clandestine revolutionary meetings. Desertions increased; sailors sold their uniforms and decamped inshore. Several ringleaders ...
... committees of the sailors and stokers had been elected. The latrines in the shipyards became the centers for clandestine revolutionary meetings. Desertions increased; sailors sold their uniforms and decamped inshore. Several ringleaders ...
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... committee which had established headquarters in the Weser Shipyards. I did not understand the quarrels between the various workers' parties, but I easily acquired the contempt with which the former mutineers regarded the moderate ...
... committee which had established headquarters in the Weser Shipyards. I did not understand the quarrels between the various workers' parties, but I easily acquired the contempt with which the former mutineers regarded the moderate ...
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... Committee used boys and girls as couriers because youngsters were less likely to be suspected and halted by advancing Noske troops. All through the day I watched sailors and workers place field cannon on covered spots along the river ...
... Committee used boys and girls as couriers because youngsters were less likely to be suspected and halted by advancing Noske troops. All through the day I watched sailors and workers place field cannon on covered spots along the river ...
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... Committee of Transport Workers (IPAC-Transport). The communists being entrenched more solidly in Hamburg than in any other great seaport, Hamburg became the center for Comintern enterprises in the allimportant marine industry. Albert ...
... Committee of Transport Workers (IPAC-Transport). The communists being entrenched more solidly in Hamburg than in any other great seaport, Hamburg became the center for Comintern enterprises in the allimportant marine industry. Albert ...
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... Committee and utmost unity of aims. I was class-conscious because class-consciousness had been a family tradition. I was proud to be a worker and I despised the bourgeois. My attitude to conventional respectability was a derisive one. I ...
... Committee and utmost unity of aims. I was class-conscious because class-consciousness had been a family tradition. I was proud to be a worker and I despised the bourgeois. My attitude to conventional respectability was a derisive one. I ...
Other editions - View all
Out of the Night: The Memoir of Richard Julius Herman Krebs Alias Jan Valtin Jan Valtin Limited preview - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
aboard agents Albert Walter Antwerp Apparat arms arrested arrived ashore asked Bandura Berlin British Brownshirts Captain cell chief Cilly Comintern Communist Party Comrade Copenhagen courier crew death Dimitrov door Elite Guards Ernst Wollweber eyes face Firelei front Fuhlsbüttel gave Gestapo girl guns Hall Halvorsen Hamburg hands harbor head headquarters Heinz Neumann Heitman Hertha Jens Hitler Hugo Marx hundred Inspector Kraus International Club Jensen John Scheer Karl Liebknecht knew later leaders Leningrad looked marine mass Michel Avatin morning Moscow murder Murmansk mutineers Narvik Nazi never night organization passport Pioner police policemen political ports prison Profintern propaganda Radam Reichswehr Rotterdam Russian sailors Samsing seamen secret sent shouted smuggled socialist Soviet Union station steamer stood storm troopers street strike told took towline train voice waiting walls wanted waterfront Western Secretariat window woman workers yard young