Georges Kopp

Georges Kopp, (St Petersburg, Russia 1902 - Marseilles, France 15 July 1951) was a Belgian engineer who volunteered to fight for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, rising to become commander of the 3rd Regiment, Lenin Division, a militia unit belonging to the POUM which saw active service on the Aragon front.

With the outbreak of the revolution, his parents fled to Switzerland and from there to Belgium.

He is mentioned in George Orwell's autobiographical account of the Civil War, "Homage to Catalonia" (1938), and towards the end of the book, when Orwell describes the Barcelona May Days, and the subsequent outlawing of the POUM (16 June 1937) which resulted in its members being arrested and thrown into jail, he refers to his last-minute, and ineffectual, attempt to get Kopp released from prison. [Orwell, G. "Homage to Catalonia" (Penguin)] Following pressure from the British authorities, Kopp was finally released after 18 months after having been interrogated by NKVD agents [ [http://members.cox.net/ggthomp/georgeskopp1902.html] Biography of Kopp] and in 1939 managed to reach England, where he was nursed by Orwell's brother-in-law (Eileen O'Shaughnessy's brother), and his wife, Gwen. [Orwell, Sonia and Angus, Ian (eds.) "Orwell: The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Volume 1 - An Age Like This", p.297 (Penguin)]

In September 1939, he joined the French Foreign Legion. After being captured by German troops south of the Marne in 1940, he was able to escape from a military hospital and worked for a time as a civil engineer in France. At this time he was known to be working for British Naval Intelligence, and after having been betrayed to the Gestapo, he was considered sufficiently important for the British to arrange for him to be flown out in September 1943.

Previously married to Germaine Warnotte, in 1944 he married Gwen O'Shaughnessy's sister, Doreen Hutton.

Georges Kopp died in 1951 from complications caused by his war wounds.

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