Edith Tudor-Hart
{{Short description|Austrian-British photographer and spy}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox spy
| name = Edith Tudor-Hart
| image = Edith_Tudor_Hart.jpg
| birth_name = Edith Suschitzky
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1908|08|28}}
| birth_place = Vienna, Austria
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1973|05|12|1908|08|28}}{{cite web|last=Lloyd|first=Raymond|title=50–100 Year anniversaries of distinguished Women of History: 2023|url=https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:WaVe1-KpbtUJ:www.shequality.org/2023.doc+%22edith+tudor-hart%22+obituary&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiCJbeZF3HYkDPnsZ1T9HTKrPt9lMDrC3JZu7oOSDQm4lxFF8Esb37-L163Oxm7bM-13JFrHOYQ2RXgN37ZXvIKqRS-_1nvgVOfaIZAGuKoIXyh3tr2ywpBO91oVJhbom_ebJXh|work=Shequality.org|publisher=Shequality|access-date=16 February 2012}}
| death_place = Brighton, England
| nationality = British / Austrian
| alma_mater = Bauhaus, Dessau
| occupation = Photographer, spy
| awards =
| allegiance = {{flagicon|Soviet Union}} Soviet Union
| service =
| serviceyears = 1925–195?
| rank =
| operation =
}}
Edith Tudor-Hart (née Suschitzky; 28 August 1908 – 12 May 1973) was an Austrian-British photographer and spy for the Soviet Union. Brought up in a family of socialists, she trained in photography at Walter Gropius's Bauhaus in Dessau, and carried her political ideals through her art. Through her connections with Arnold Deutsch, Tudor-Hart was instrumental in the recruiting of the Cambridge Spy ring which damaged British intelligence from World War II until the security services discovered all their identities by the mid-1960s. She recommended Litzi Friedmann and Kim Philby for recruitment by the KGB{{cite news|last=Walter|first=Natasha|title=Spies and Lovers|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2003/may/10/weekend7.weekend2|access-date=16 February 2012|newspaper=The Guardian|date=10 May 2003}} and acted as an intermediary for Anthony Blunt and Bob Stewart when the rezidentura at the Soviet Embassy in London suspended its operations in February 1940.[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/21/how-mi5-failed-to-expose-matriarch-of-cambridge-spy-ring The Guardian", 21 August 2015, How MI5 failed to expose matriarch of Cambridge spy ring by Ian Cobain]
Early life and education
Her father, Wilhelm Suschitzky (1877–1934), was a social democrat who was born into the Jewish community in Vienna, but had renounced Judaism and become an atheist. He opened the first social democratic bookshop in Vienna (later to become a publishers). Tudor-Hart's brother, a filmmaker and a photographer like his sister, Wolfgang Suschitzky described their father as "a great man. I realised that later on in life, not so much when I saw him every day. But, I met interesting people, some of his authors who came and had lunch with us or met people who came to his shop."{{cite web|title=Wolfgang Suschitzky 3 – The situation in Austria and my father's suicide |url=http://www.webofstories.com/play/22798?o=MS |work=Web of Stories|publisher=Web of Stories|access-date=14 February 2012}} Suschitzky recalled boyhood memories of the family excitement that greeted the Russian Revolution in 1917.[http://lebrecht.wordpress.com/2007/09/18/wolf-suschitzky-doyen-of-photographers-is-the-guest-speaker-at-lebrecht-annual-garden-party/ Interview with Suschitzky]
She studied photography at the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1928 before working in Vienna, taking photographs of working class districts while a Montessori kindergarten teacher.{{Cite book|last=Nelson|first=Andrea|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1225633467|title=The new woman behind the camera|publisher=National Gallery of Art|year=2020|isbn=978-1-942884-74-3|pages=50|chapter=Introduction|oclc=1225633467}} An anti-fascist activist and Communist, she saw photography as a tool for disseminating her political ideas.{{cite web |title=Edith Tudor Hart |url=http://www.look2011.co.uk/photographers/edith-tudor-hart/ |work=Liverpool International Photography Festival |publisher=look 2011 |access-date=14 February 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110802042532/http://www.look2011.co.uk/photographers/edith-tudor-hart/ |archive-date=2 August 2011}}
Her brother also became a well-known photographer and cinematographer in Britain. He cited his sister as an influence on his decision to pursue an artistic career over a scientific one.{{cite web|title=Wolfgang Suschitzky 2 – Studying photography and moving to London|url=http://www.webofstories.com/play/22797?o=MS|access-date=14 February 2012|work=Web of Stories|publisher=Web of Stories}}
In 1933 she married medical doctor Alex Tudor-Hart, whom she had met in 1925. She was described "by those who knew her in her youth as immensely vivacious, amusing, curious, and gifted".{{cite web|title=Alex Tudor-Hart|url=http://spartacus-educational.com/SPtudorhart.htm|website=Spartacus educational|access-date=12 October 2015}} The couple fled to London, England in 1933, so that she could avoid prosecution and persecution in Austria for her Communist activities and Jewish background.{{cite book |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101045802/|title=Edith Tudor Hart|year=2004|author=Oxford University Press|author-link=Oxford University Press}}
South Wales
Following her marriage, she moved to South Wales where her husband practised as a GP in the area of Rhondda Valley,Eric Hobsbawm, [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n16/eric-hobsbawm/everybody-behaved-perfectly Everybody behaved perfectly], London Review of Books, 33(16), August 2011 she began to produce photographs for The Listener, Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung, Der Kuckuck,{{cite web|title=Edith Tudor-Hart. In the shadow of tyranny’ at the Wien Museum, Vienna|url=https://artblart.com/2014/01/08/exhibition-edith-tudor-hart-in-the-shadow-of-tyranny-at-the-wien-museum-vienna/
|website=Art Blart|access-date=7 July 2023}} The Social Scene and Design Today, dealing with issues such as refugees from the Spanish Civil War and industrial decline in the north-east of England. From the late 1930s, she concentrated more on social needs, such as housing policy and the care of disabled children. This change in work may have been because after separation from her husband who had just returned from the Spanish Civil War, their son, Tommy, developed schizophrenia.{{cn|date=July 2022}}
Spying activities
Tudor-Hart was instrumental in recruiting members of the Cambridge Spy ring, which damaged British intelligence from World War II through to its discovery in the late 1960s. While working as a photographer she also acted as a courier.{{cite web|title=25 November 2002 releases: Soviet Intelligence Agents and Suspected Agents |url=https://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/25-november-2002-releases-soviet-intelligence-agents-and-suspected-agents.html |work=MI5 History > The Security Service at the National Archives |publisher=Crown Copyright |access-date=16 February 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807123840/https://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/25-november-2002-releases-soviet-intelligence-agents-and-suspected-agents.html |archive-date=7 August 2011}} Her rather unsubtle codename was "Edith". Tudor-Hart had met Arnold Deutsch in Vienna in 1926, and with him she worked in the OMS, the International Liaison Department of the Comintern.{{citation needed|date=October 2015}}
Tudor-Hart was placed under surveillance by Special Branch after October 1931 when she was observed attending a demonstration in Trafalgar Square. Tudor-Hart was of interest because of her friendship with Litzi Friedmann, made when she moved to London. Arnold Deutsch discussed with Edith and Litzi the recruitment of Soviet spies. Litzi suggested her husband, Kim Philby[http://spartacus-educational.com/Edith_Tudor_Hart.htm Biography of Edith Tudor Hart] with whom she had arrived in London from Vienna in May 1934. Tudor-Hart had spotted him as a potential Communist agent during his stay in Vienna, where he was a sympathiser of the Social Democrats who waged a civil war against the government of Engelbert Dollfuss. According to her report on Philby's file, through her own contacts with the Austrian underground Tudor Hart ran a swift check for the NKVD and, when this proved positive introduced him to "Otto" (Deutsch's code name).{{cite book|author=Genrikh Borovik|author-link=Genrikh Borovik|url=https://archive.org/details/philbyfilessecre0000boro|title=The Philby Files – The Secret Life of Master Spy Kim Philby|year=1994|isbn=0-316-10284-9|url-access=registration}}{{cite book|author=William E. Duff|author-link=William E. Duff|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cHlWhjZEwXYC|title=A Time for Spies: Theodore Stephanovich Mally and the Era of the Great Illegals|year=1999|isbn=0-8265-1352-2}}{{cite book|author=Nigel West|author-link=Nigel West|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lR6nuEkieQ8C|title=Mask: Mi5's Penetration of the Communist Party of Great Britain|year=2005|isbn=0-415-35145-6}} Deutsch immediately recommended... "that he pre-empt the standard operating procedure by authorising a preliminary personal sounding out of Philby."John Costello and Oleg Tsarev, Deadly Illusions (1993), p. 134 She also helped to recruit Arthur Wynn in 1936.{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6276267.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090515131204/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6276267.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 May 2009|title=Civil servant Arthur Wynn revealed as recruiter of Oxford spies|work=The Times|date=12 May 2009|access-date=12 May 2009 | location=London | first1=Ben | last1=MacIntyre | first2=Steve | last2=Bird}}
She acted as an intermediary for Anthony Blunt and Bob Stewart when the rezidentura at the Soviet Embassy in London suspended its operations in February 1940.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}} In 1938–39 Burgess used her to contact Russian intelligence in Paris.
Later life
She separated from her husband and had a breakdown. After the Second World War, she opened an antique shop in Brighton. She died of stomach cancer in Brighton on 12 May 1973.{{cite web |title=Edith Tudor Hart |url=http://spartacus-educational.com/Edith_Tudor_Hart.htm |website=Spartacus Educational |access-date=12 October 2015}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book|last=Forbes|first=Duncan|chapter=Politics, photography and exile in the life of Edith Tudor-Hart (1908–1973)|editor1-first=Shulamith|editor1-last=Behr|editor2-first=Marian|editor2-last=Malet|title=Arts in Exile in Britain, 1933–1945: Politics and Cultural Identity|location=Amsterdam|publisher=Rodopi|year=2005|isbn=978-90-420-1786-3}}
- {{cite book|title=Edith Tudor-Hart: In the Shadow of Tyranny|editor-first=Duncan|editor-last=Forbes|location=Ostfildern|publisher=Hatje Cantz|year=2013|isbn=978-3-7757-3567-4}} Catalogue for an exhibition in Edinburgh, Vienna, and Berlin
- {{cite book |first=Peter Stephan |last=Jungk |author-link=Peter Stephan Jungk |title=Die Dunkelkammern der Edith Tudor-Hart: Geschichten eines Lebens |location=Frankfurt am Main |publisher=S. Fischer Verlag |year=2015 |isbn=9783100023988 }}
- {{cite book |first1=Edith |last1=Tudor-Hart |first2=Wolf (text) |last2=Suschitzky |year=1987 |title=The Eye of Conscience |publisher=Nishen |location=London |series=The Photo Pocket Book |volume=1 |isbn=1-85378-401-X }}
- {{cite book |first1=Leyla|last1=Daybelge|first2=Stefanie|last2=Pirker|year=2024|title=Through a Bauhaus Lens. Edith Tudor-Hart and Isokon|publisher=Isokon Gallery Trust / FOTOHOF|location=London / Salzburg|isbn=978-1-7385161-0-0}}
Exhibitions
- 1987: Edith Tudor Hart. A Retrospective (1930–1952), Liverpool
- 2013: Edith Tudor-Hart. In the Shadow of Tyranny, National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh{{cite web |title=Edith Tudor-Hart. In the Shadow of Tyranny |url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/edith-tudor-hart-shadow-tyranny |website=nationalgalleries.org/ |access-date=2024-06-22}}
- 2020: Edith Tudor-Hart. Moving & Growing, FOTOHOF>ARCHIV, Salzburg{{cite web |title=Edith Tudor-Hart |url=https://fotohof.at/en/exhibitions/edith-tudor-hart/ |website=fotohof.at |access-date=2024-06-22}}
- 2024: Edith Tudor-Hart. A Steady Eye in Turbulent Times. Curated by Stefanie Pirker. FOTOHOF, Salzburg{{cite web |title=EDITH TUDOR-HART. A Steady Eye in Turbulent Times |url=https://fotohof.at/en/exhibitions/a-steady-eye-in-turbulent-times/|website=fotohof.at |access-date=2024-06-22}}
Documentary film
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Soviet Spies}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tudor-Hart, Edith}}
Category:20th-century British photographers
Category:20th-century Austrian women artists
Category:20th-century British women photographers
Category:Austrian spies for the Soviet Union
Category:British spies for the Soviet Union
Category:World War II spies for the Soviet Union
Category:Austrian women photographers
Category:Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United Kingdom