After three months of “fighting back” the Under-Secretary of War became convinced from hearing various pleas that an injustice had been done to Silvermaster and therefore ordered his dismissal cancelled. Silvermaster was allowed to resign and return to his old job in the Department of Agriculture with a clean slate. Elizabeth Bentley concludes by saying, “After a sigh of relief that must have echoed throughout the entire Russian Secret Police apparatus, we went back to our normal routine.”
According to the sworn testimony of Elizabeth Bentley, she worked with three major spy cells. The first was the “Ware Cell”—the same group Chambers had handled. In addition she handled the “Silvermaster Cell” and the “Perlo Cell.” She said these three cells were charged with the task of supplying her with an almost endless stream of information for transmittal to Moscow. She testified under oath that the members of the Silvermaster Cell and the Perlo Cell were as follows (the departments in which the members were working during the time she had contact with them are also listed):
1. Nathan Gregory Silvermaster served as Director of the Labor Division of the Farm Security Administration; was detailed for a short period to the Board of Economic Warfare.
2. Solomon Adler served in the Treasury Department as an agent to China.
3. Norman Bursler worked in the Department of Justice as a special assistant.
4. Frank Coe worked as Assistant Director, Division of Monetary Research, Treasury Department; special assistant to the United States Ambassador in London; assistant to the Executive Director, Board of Economic Warfare; Assistant Administrator, Foreign Economic Administration.
5. William Gold, known also as Bela Gold, worked as assistant head of the Division of Program Surveys, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Department of Agriculture; Senate Subcommittee on War Mobilization; Office of Economic Programs in Foreign Economic Administration.
6. Mrs. William (Sonia) Gold worked as research assistant, House Select Committee on Interstate Migration; labor-market analyst, Bureau of Employment Security; Division of Monetary Research, Treasury Department.
7. Abraham George Silverman served as Director of the Bureau of Research and Information Services, U.S. Railroad Retirement Board; economic adviser and chief of analysis and plans, Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Materials and Services, Air Force.
8. William Taylor worked in the Treasury Department.
9. William Ludwig Ullman worked in the Division of Monetary Research, Treasury Department; Material and Service Division, Air Corps Headquarters, Pentagon.
1. Victor Perlo (also connected with the Ware Cell), worked as the head of a branch in the Research Section, Office of Price Administration; served the War Production Board handling problems relating to military aircraft production.{74}
2. Edward J. Fitzgerald served on the War Production Board.
3. Harold Glasser served in the Treasury Department, loaned to the government of Ecuador; loaned to the War Production Board; worked as adviser on North African Affairs Committee in Algiers, North Africa.
4. Charles Kramer (also connected with the Ware Cell), worked for the National Labor Relations Board; Office of Price Administration; economist with the Senate Subcommittee on War Mobilization.
5. Solomon Leshinsky worked for the United States Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
6. Harry Magdoff worked for the Statistical Division of the War Production Board and the Office of Emergency Management; the Bureau of Research and Statistics of the W.P.B., the Tools Division of W.P.B. and the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.
7. Allan Rosenberg worked in the Foreign Economic Administration.
8. Donald Niven Wheeler worked in the Office of Strategic Services.
In addition, Elizabeth Bentley named the following individuals who cooperated in obtaining information from government files even though they were not tied in to any particular celclass="underline"
1. Michael Greenburg—Board of Economic Warfare; Foreign Economic Administration, specialist on China.
2. Joseph Gregg—Coordinator of Inter-American affairs, assistant in Research Division.
3. Maurice Halperin—Office of Strategic Services; head of Latin American Division in the Research and Analysis Branch; head of Latin American research and analysis, State Department.
4. J. Julius Joseph—Office of Strategic Services, Japanese Division.
5. Duncan Chaplin Lee—Office of Strategic Services; legal adviser to General William J. Donovan.
6. Robert T. Miller—Head of political research, Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs; member, Information Service Committee, Near Eastern Affairs, State Department; Assistant Chief, Division of Research and Publications, State Department.
7. William Z. Park—Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs,
8. Bernard Redmont—Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.
9. Helen Tenney—Office of Strategic Services, Spanish Division.
These lists of names are set forth to illustrate the remarkable and devastating pipelines of information which Elizabeth Bentley says the Soviet underground tapped in Washington during the time she served as the Russian Secret Police pay-master and courier in the nation’s capital.
Elizabeth Bentley worked doggedly for the Soviets until 1944. However, a great shock had come to her in 1943 when Jacob Golos died suddenly of a heart attack on Thanksgiving eve. Just before his death, Golos revealed to her the ruthlessness of his Soviet superiors who were driving him unmercifully and forcing him to engage in activities which were nauseating even to the revolutionary-hardened sense of his own calloused conscience.
And after Golos’ death further disillusionment came to Elizabeth Bentley when she learned that Earl Browder had agreed to turn over a group of American Communists in Washington to a most unscrupulous set of Soviet espionage agents. When she challenged Browder, he reportedly told her, “Don’t be naive. You know that when the cards are down, I have to take my orders from them. I just hoped I could sidetrack them in this particular matter, but it didn’t work out.”
“But Greg’s an old friend of yours,” Elizabeth Bentley said (referring to a member of the group). “So what?” replied Browder. “He’s expendable.” Shortly afterwards Elizabeth Bentley was surprised by a visit from a top Soviet official from Moscow who told her she had been awarded the highest medal of the Soviet Union—the Order of the Red Star. But she was not nearly as impressed by the proffered honor as she was disgusted and revolted by the kind of individual the Soviet official turned out to be. From that moment on she felt that the Communist leaders in Russia were absolutely incapable of building a great new world—no matter how much information she sent them.
The final blow to her idealism came when the Soviets tried to force her to turn over to them a girl-friend who was wanted for the immoral role of an entertainer for high government officials.
One night, alone, Elizabeth Bentley challenged herself, “What has happened to all of us who started out so gallantly to build a new world?” Deep inside herself she was finally able to admit what had happened. “We had been corrupted and smashed by a machine more merciless than anything the world had ever seen.”