George Fles

Translator, Deceased Person

1908 – 1939

57

Who was George Fles?

George Fles was a Dutch translator with a strong communist conviction. He fell victim to Stalin's repressions.

George was born in 1908 in Amsterdam, as the youngest son of Louis Fles and Celine van Straaten. He spent time in France and in the United Kingdom, where he married Pearl Rimel. With his newly wed wife he moved to the Soviet Union.

In Moscow he worked as a translator. Later he was sent to Tblisi, Georgia, where he also worked as a translator. He was informally warned that he should leave, advice that he did not follow. He did send his pregnant wife back to England.

George was arrested and put on trial for espionage and Trotskyism. He was convicted of Trotskyism. As he was asthmatic his health deteriorated quickly in Russian prison. His father and his brother Barthold Fles tried to have him released, but to no avail. He died on May 31, 1939 in a prison near Smolensk.

After George's death, Pearl Rimel and their son Michael John Fles emigrated to the United States, and settled in Los Angeles.

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Born
1908
Amsterdam
Parents
Spouses
Children
Nationality
  • Netherlands
Profession
Lived in
  • Amsterdam
Died
1939
Smolensk

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

Citation

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