Was "Kitty" in Spain?

Katherine ("Kitty") Oppenheimer

Kitty Oppenheimer was born Katherine Puening on August 8, 1910, in Germany. She came to the U.S. in 1913 with her parents, Franz Puening and Kathe Vissering Puening. On her mother's side, Kitty was a cousin once removed of General Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of Staff of the German Army under Hitler (he was convicted at Nuremberg and hanged in 1946). While attending college at the University of Wisconsin in 1933, Kitty went to Pittsburgh during the Christmas holidays to stay with family friends. At a New Years Eve party she was introduced to Joe Dallet by her friend Selma Baker. Kitty returned to Wisconsin, finished her semester and then joined Dallet in Youngstown, Ohio, in February 1934. Kitty Puening subsequently became the common law wife of Joe Dallet (a previous 8 month marriage to one Frank Ramseyer was annulled). As a consequence of her relationship with Dallet, Kitty joined the Communist Party in Youngstown and became involved in CPUSA activities. Over the next two years, Kitty became acquainted with Earl Browder, Gus Hall, John Gates, John Stueben, John Williamson and Steve Nelson—all activists and leaders of the CPUSA. Browder, who became Chairman of the American Communist Party, had been a dinner guest in her home. [1]

The Dallet marriage encountered problems. In 1936 Kitty left Joe and joined her parents in England where her father, a chemical engineer, was working as a representative of the U.S. firm Koppers Company. Through letters Kitty and Joe were able to reconcile their differences. In March 1937, Dallet and Steve Nelson sailed on the Queen Mary for France as volunteers for the International Brigades in Spain. Nelson, an underground operative in the CPUSA's Special Apparatus, travelled under the alias "Joseph Fleischinger." When the Queen Mary arrived at Cherbourg, Kitty was on the dock to meet her husband. Kitty wanted to go to Spain with Joe. But the French government was not issuing visas for Spain and IB headquarters in Paris forbade her infiltration with the group led by Dallet and Nelson. Kitty returned to England with the understanding that Joe would find a role for her in the Brigades and send for her. [2]


Letters from Spain

In Spain, Joe Dallet was assigned as Political Commissar to the Makenzie-Papineau (Mac-Pap) Battalion of the Fifteenth Brigade. In the summer of 1937, the Mac-Pap was forming and training at Tarazona de la Mancha. Tarazona was the Brigade's training grounds located 90 miles west of Valencia on the Mediterranean, and 10 miles north of Brigade Headquarters, the town of Albacete, Spain. Joe and Kitty maintained an active letter correspondence. [3]  The following are excerpts from Joe's letters to Kitty:

March 30
“Dearest, Twenty-five of us, seventeen Americans and eight Canadians, were picked up in a French fishing boat Saturday morning in French water neat the Spanish coast. We were just out for a pleasure tour but were arrested by the non-intervention commission and have been in a filthy jail since.”    "Joe"


May 17
“Dearest, Today was a rich day. I got three letters from you. I was overjoyed by your desire to come here and work, but I am compelled to say no for the present at least. We have made a decision that no wives are to be allowed to come here unless an emergency arises.”    "Joe"


June 21 to 25
"Dearest: Havent heard from you in a blooming week and miss your letters no end. Do something about it please. ...All the dirty work you did for years, cranking leaflets, passing them out in snow and sun, visiting contacts, etc., was not in vain. Everything we worked for for years is coming true in steel."    "Joe"


July 19
"Dearest, ... Wonderful news. You can come. Get in touch with Jack in Paris, for whom I enclose a note, and he will put you through."    "Joe"


July 25
"Dearest, ... Marion [Merriman] promises to do everything possible for you if and when she sees you. I assume that you got my last letter in which I said that the answer finally is 'Yes' and enclosed a note to Jack. I am overjoyed, even though I did not go into details about that in the last letter, and I can't wait to hear your plans."    "Joe"


August 1
"Dearest, ... I'm terribly worried about your appendix, dearest. Why in god's name does it have to pop now? Please have it fixed up immediately so you can start your trip here."    "Joe"


August 17
"Dearest, ... Bob Merriman has been promoted to a leading position in the brigade staff and Marion has gone back to work in Albacete. That is where you will find her, and it would be best to send her a wire from Paris telling when to expect you, just before you leave. Take care of yourself--good luck in the operation--all my love."    "Joe"


September 3
"Kitty dearest, ... Just a line to say that all goes well -- got several letters and cards which you sent from Paris and which made me very happy. I hope you're recovering quickly and that things will work out so that we'll see each other soon."    "Joe"


[On September 9, 1937, the Mac-Pap Battalion left Tarazona to join the Fifteenth Brigade encamped at Quinto 160 miles to the north. [4]


September 15
"Dearest, ... I haven't written much lately for several reasons: I hope to be seeing you soon and that makes writing seem rather unnecessary. ... We are now up with the brigade which is resting after doing a brilliant job at Quinto and Belchite. ... The fact that I have not heard from you since your operation is beginning to become a source of anxiety, although the reasons for it are probably quite natural. I'll be glad when I get a letter which assures me that you are well and getting ready for the trip. Marion promised to write you telling you what to bring."    "Joe"


No Date
"Kitty darling, I've been a louse about writing but there was no sure way to reach you and anyway we've been on the jump. Now we are waiting for the convoy … by the time you get this we'll be in action. We are in shape and will do our best. Writing this by flashlight. I hope that by the time we get out of the lines you'll be in the country to spend a few days' leave with me. Until we meet--"    "Joe"

[In a comment below this letter, Steve Nelson wrote: "There were no more letters. He went into action and did his best."]

According to the literature, the Fifteenth Brigade at Quinto, now augmented by the Mac-Pap Battalion, went into battle on October 13 against the "Rebels" (Nationalists) holding the town of Fuentes del Ebro. The literature reflects that Dallet was shot leading an assault mid-afternoon on the 13th, and that he probably died on the battlefield where he was hit. [5]

Dallet's letters to Kitty clearly show the following:
That on July 19, 1937, Joe Dallet sent for Kitty to come to Spain;
that Jack [Reid] in Paris was to make the travel arrangements for her;
that Marion Merriman was her point of contact in Albacete;
that between August 1 and Sept 3 Kitty underwent an appendectomy;
that by Sept 3 she was recuperating from the operation in Paris and planning her trip to Spain;
that, in the weeks before he died, Dallet believed Kitty was en route to Spain ("no way to reach you") and that he would be reunited with her in Spain after the forthcoming engagement ("until we meet").


Death of Dallet

On September 6, 1937, Steve Nelson was shot by a sniper at Belchite, a town in Spain’s Aragon region. Although his wounds were serious and he lost a lot of blood, after several weeks he was able to leave a field hospital. From Nelson’s memoir, American Radical: “After I left the hospital …my wounds had become infected, and I was unable to return to the front as long as they were festering. Consequently I took on minor duties for the next six weeks. I escorted Congressman John Bernard, the sole representative to vote against the U.S. neutrality acts, through Republican territory.” Congressmen John Bernard and Jerry O'Connell arrived in Republican territory, Valencia, Spain, on October 14, the day after Joe Dallet was killed at Fuentes de Ebro. Their tour of Republican Spain was scheduled for two weeks. [6]

Marion Merriman was the wife of the American Commander of the Fifteenth Brigade, Robert Hale Merriman. She worked in Albacete as the Brigade Administrative Officer and was responsible for reporting the dead and wounded to the Ministry of War in Valencia. Marion received a letter from her husband dated October 16 that first notified her of Dallet's death. On October 17, Congressmen Bernard was in Albacete to view a parade celebrating the Fifteenth’s first year anniversary, and later that day visited the Brigade training camp at Tarrazona. On October 21, Phil Bard, secretary of the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion in New York City, notified Joe Dallet Sr. of his son’s death. The New York Times reported Dallet’s death on October 23. [7]

At some point during his escort assignment of Bernard, Nelson was selected to represent the Fifteenth Brigade in Moscow on November 7 for the USSR’s celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Russian Revolution. From American Radical:

"At about that time, preparations for the twentieth anniversary of the Russian Revolution were beginning, and it was decided to send representatives from the International Brigades. I was selected to represent the Fifteenth Brigade and made arrangements to travel to Paris and pick up a visa for the Soviet Union.

"I caught a train for Paris [from Marseilles], checked in with brigade headquarters, and waited for my visa. At Headquarters I received the sad news that Joe Dallet had been killed on the Aragon front … The man who gave me this news also told me that Joe’s wife Kitty was on her way to Paris from England and due to arrive the next day. She didn’t know about Joe.

"After about a week [of waiting for a visa] I received a cable from Earl Browder, the secretary of the American Party, to forget about Moscow and catch the next ship home. I boarded a steamer the next day and arrived in New York City in time to report on Spain at a National Committee meeting. It was November 1937.” [8]

A New York Times article dated November 9, 1937, carried the following: "Returning yesterday aboard the SS Normandie after a two-week visit in Loyalist Spain, Representatives Jerry J. O'Connell of Montana and John T. Bernard of Minnesota declared that they would urge upon President Roosevelt the end of the present Neutrality Act provisions as applied to Spain." The Normandie had departed Le Havre, France, on November 3, made a call that same day at Southhampton, England, and docked in New York on November 8. Regarding the "steamer" Nelson said he boarded for the States, an FBI FOIA file reflects that he returned on the Normandie crossing that Bernard and O’Connell were on. Other government records, however, show that is not the case. Traveling again under the ailas "Joseph Fleischinger", Nelson actually arrived back in the United States on November 9 aboard the SS Aquitania out of Southampton, England. [9]

The forgoing sources and data show the following:
That Steve Nelson was in Spain at the time of Dallet’s death and for a significant period thereafter—two weeks, if he stayed with Bernard for the whole O'Connell-Bernard visit;
that the news of Dallet’s death was fully reported at all levels—Spain, Paris, New York—by October 21, 1937;
that Nelson was lying about Kitty being en route from England to Paris in October (or November). Dallet’s letters clearly show she had arrived in Paris by early September.


Conflicting Stories

There are differing accounts of how Kitty Dallet first heard the news of her husband's death. Most are connected with her desire to join Dallet in Spain. Kitty herself gave two versions: one to an FBI agent in 1952, another to the 1954 Oppenheimer Personnel Security Board (PSB). There also is Steve Nelson's account in his memoir, American Radical. Yet another version appeared on the Internet in 2002 by an anonymous author. Providentially, Dallet’s letters to Kitty provide a fragmentary but reliable arbiter of events.

Kitty to the FBI

In 1952 Kitty was interviewed by the FBI in Princeton, NJ. The occasion of the interivew was a security review of her husband. At his request, Robert Oppenheimer was present during the interview. From FBI Interview Report, dated 23 April 1952, Princeton, NJ:

"[Mrs. Oppenheimer] recalls that she spent a short time, approximately a week or ten days with Dallet [when he first arrived in France on the Queen Mary] and wanted to go to Spain with him. She thought perhaps she could do hospital work or drive an ambulance; however, Dallet refused to let her go. She then returned to England, where she resided with her parents.

"In about 1937, she is not certain of the time, she again went to Paris where she met Steve Nelson. Prior to going there, she had been informed that Joseph Dallet had been killed fighting in Spain. At this time she tried to persuade Nelson to make arrangements for her to go to Spain to serve as a hospital worker but Nelson discouraged her. She did this because she was upset over the death of Dallet. Nelson consoled her and assisted her in making arrangements for return to the U.S.

"During one of these visits to France, she was not certain whether it was the first or second visit, she went to Germany to see relatives and while there was operated on for appendicitis."

Comment/Analysis     Dallet's letters from Spain show that Kitty dissembled and lied to the FBI agent. The first time she was in France was when she met Dallet and Nelosn arriving on the Queen Mary; the second time was when she was in Paris preparing to go to Spain herself. It is absolutely not credible that she would not remember her appendicitis that prevented her from seeing her husband before he was killed. Even more egregious is her false statement that she had learned of Joe's death in England prior to going to Paris.

Kitty to the 1954 PSB

The most detailed version of this episode from Kitty is found in her testimony (under oath) during the 1954 Personnel Security Board (PSB) in the matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Kitty told the Board that she was in England waiting for instructions from Joe about going to Spain. From the ITMOJRO transcript:

Q. – Did you try to do anything about joining Joe?
A. – Yes, I wanted to very much.

Q. – What was your plan as to how you would join Joe?
A. – I was told that they would try to see if it were possible, and if it were, I would hear from someone in Paris, and be told how to get there [Spain].

Q. – Were you ultimately told that it was possible [to go to Spain]?
A. – I got a letter from Joe saying that he found me a job in Albacete.

Q. – Did you then go to Paris?
A. – First I stayed in England and waited quite a while, until October.

Q. – What year was this?
A. – 1937. I then got a wire saying I should come to Paris, and I went.

Q. – What happened when you got to Paris?
A. – When I got to Paris, I was shown a telegram saying that Joe had been killed in action.

Q. – What did you do then?
A. – I was also told that Steve Nelson was coming back from Spain in a day or two, and I might want to wait and see what Steve had to say. He had a lot to tell me about Joe.

Q. – Will you tell us what that discussion [with Nelson in Paris] was?
A. – For a little while I had some notion of going on to Spain anyway.

Q. – Why?
A. – I was emotionally involved in the Spanish cause.

Q. – Did Joe's death have something to do with your wanting to go on [to Spain] anyhow?
A. – Yes, as well as if alive he would have.

Q. – Did you discuss this with Steve?
A. – I did, but Steve discouraged me. He thought I would be out of place and in the way. I then decided that I would go back to the United States and resume my university career. I would like to make it clear that I always felt very friendly to Steve Nelson after he returned from Spain and spent a week with me in Paris.

(…several questions later…)

Q. – Did there come a time after you married Dr. Oppenheimer when you again saw Steve Nelson?
A. – Yes.

Q. – Will you tell us the circumstances of that?
A. – I will as best I can remember. I remember being at a party and meeting a girl called Merriman. I knew of her. She was in Albacete, and her husband also got killed in action there. The reason I remember her name is that I had been asked to bring her some sox when I came. When I met her at this party, she said did I know that Steve Nelson was in that part of the country. I said no, and then expressed some interest in his welfare. Some time thereafter Steve Nelson telephoned me, and I invited him and his wife and their small child up to our house. [10]

Comment/Analysis     Dallet's letters show that Kitty's account to the PSB contained several lies and omissions. Kitty did not stay in England until October after getting the 'green light' from Joe in July to come to Spain. She had sent Joe cards and letters from Paris in August. She omits any mention of her appendectomy in Germany in August. (She was a German citizen with important family connections there. Undoubtedly that is why she went to Germany for the operation.)

Steve Nelson in American Radical

Steve Nelson's version is found in his American Radical memoir. In order to attend events in Moscow commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Russian Revolution, he went to Paris to get a travel visa for the Soviet Union. (He took a plane from Barcelona to Marseilles, 200 miles; then a train from Marseilles to Paris; estimated travel time, 2-3 days). After checking in with International Brigades headquarters he got the news that his "best friend and comrade" had been killed on the Aragon front:

"The man who gave me this news also told me that Joe's wife Kitty was on her way to Paris from England and due to arrive the next day. She didn't know about Joe..... Joe had written her that I was going to be in Paris on my way to Moscow, and Kitty decided to come and visit with me. I was the one to tell her about Joe."

Comment/Analysis     According to Nelson, Dallet had written Kitty that he would be in Paris on his way to Moscow. However, Dallet's letters to Kitty contain no such statement. Moreover, the decision to send IB representatives to Moscow was ostensibly made after the date of Dallet's death. Most revealing is the fact that Nelson and Kitty’s accounts are completely contradictory: (1) Kitty said she was in Paris when Nelson arrived; Nelson stated that he was in Paris when Kitty arrived. (2) Kitty indicated that someone in Paris told her "Nelson was coming back from Spain in a day or two"; Nelson said that Joe wrote Kitty that he would be in Paris on his way to Moscow; there is no "Letter from Spain" advising Kitty that Nelson would be in Paris. (3) Kitty said someone (not Nelson) showed her a telegram stating Dallet had been killed; Nelson said that he was the first to tell Kitty about Joe. On this point, Robert Oppenheimer corroborated Nelson: In 1946 he told an FBI agent that, "it was Steve Nelson who brought to his wife the news of her former husband's death, and consoled her and assisted her in making arrangements to return to the United States." [11]

Anonymous

An anonymous writer published The History of Espionage in 2002 on an Internet web server in England. Regarding Steve Nelson and Kitty Dallet he wrote:

"Nelson had an ironic contact to Oppenheimer, the scientist's wife, Mrs. Katherine Puening Harrison Oppenheimer. This woman had appeared in Spain during the bitter Civil War. She was seeking her husband who was serving on the Loyalist side. Nelson had met her at that time and told her that her husband was not only dead, killed during a battle, but also had, indeed, died in his arms. Nelson then made arrangements for Mrs. Oppenheimer to return safely to the U.S."

Comment/Analysis     There were no supporting references, footnotes or sources for the anonymous account. However, the website/author displayed a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of espionage. The History of Espionage website has been removed from the Internet and is not found in cache. [12]


Was Kitty in Spain?

The hard facts on the actions and whereabouts of Kitty Dallet and Steve Nelson, combined with their prima facie lying about same, indicate with virtual certainty that Kitty did enter Spain, as was her firm intention to do and as Joe believed was a foregone conclusion, e.g. "Until we meet, Joe." Since Kitty had admitted to the PSB that she had been a member of the Party and had deeply supported the Communist cause in Spain, it is a mystery why it was deemed necessary to conceal a natural, defensible action on her part, i.e., joining her husband at war.

Kitty Puening Dallet returned to the United States on the SS Normandie, embarking at Southampton, England, and arriving at the port of New York on November 22, 1937. This fact along with the lack of a coherent, credible account from Kitty and Nelson, suggest the following scenario for what really happened: Kitty traveled to Spain and arrived at Albacete in the first weeks of October. Nelson then arrived at Albacete with John Bernard when the congressman toured the Fifteenth Brigade's home grounds on October 17. When the news came that Dallet had been killed, it was Nelson who informed Kitty. Understanding that he was leaving Spain (either to go to Moscow or return to the U.S.), Nelson persuaded Kitty that her best course of action was to leave Spain with him. They both went to Paris, perhaps accompanying the Bernard entourage. Nelson and Kitty boarded the Normandie along with Bernard and O'Connell on November 3, but both disembarked that same day at Southampton. Nelson escorted Kitty to her parents and then returned to Southampton and boarded the Aquitania on November 4. He arrived at New York on the 9th. Kitty returned to the U.S. on the Normandie a week later and stayed with the Nelsons in their apartment for about a month.

The question remains: Why could not such an account have been given to the FBI or PSB? [13]

Notes, Sources, References

1.   "Kitty joined the Communist Party in Youngstown": In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Transcript of Hearing Before Personnel Security Board, Washington, DC. April 12, 1954, through May 6, 1954, page 915.

2.   "Kitty wanted to go to Spain with Joe": Katherine Oppenheimer, FBI FOIA File #100-17828.

"Nelson ... an underground operative in CPUSA's Special Apparatus": The Secret World of American Communism, Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, Fridrickh Igorevich Firsov, 1995, page 87. To wit, Document 27, dated 28 January 1939, titled Brief on the Work of the CPUSA Secret Apparatus, which begins, "The CPUSA secret apparatus has been in existence about four years. Its operations have been directed for tht entire period by Comrade [Josef] Peters. On 13 June 1938 he was relieved of that position an appointed to another, and special-work was assigned to Comrade Baker." Further from Secret World, page 202, "Graduates from the International Lenin School [in Moscow] held influential positions within the party; among them were such noteworthy figures in the party's secret apparatus as Rudy Baker and Steve Nelson."

3.   Letters from Spain, Joe Dallet, Workers Library Publishers, 1938.
Note    After returning from Spain, Steve Nelson got permission from Kitty Dallet to publish the letters she had received from her husband in 1937. The resulting booklet was titled Letters from Spain, by Joe Dallet, American Volunteer. It was published in 1938 by Workers Library Publishers in New York, and had introductory articles by William Foster, Earl Browder, Tim Buck, John Williamson and Steve Nelson. In all, 30 letters were published, the first dated March 30 and the second-to-last dated September 15. The last letter was undated. However, Nelson stated in the Introduction that the letters were written between March and September 19, 1937, so perhaps that is the date of the last letter. Open questions are whether the published letters were all of Dallet's letters to Kitty (i.e. were any withheld), or whether they were edited in any respect by Nelson.

4.   The Abraham Lincoln Brigade, A. H. Landis, page 304.

5.   "get in touch with Jack": Note   "Jack" was Arnold Reid (Reisky) a Spanish-speaking New York Communist whom the CPUSA Central Committee had sent to Paris to oversee the infiltration/travel of American volunteers into Spain. Comrades and Commissars, Cecil D. Eby, 2007, pages 144-5; "the Mac-Pap Battalion went into battle on October 13 against the "Rebels ...""Ibid., page 255.

6.   "After I left the hospital … I escorted Congressman John Bernard, the sole representative to vote against the U.S. neutrality acts, through Republican territory": Steve Nelson, American Radical, Steve Nelson, James R. Barrett, Rob Ruck, 1981, page 232.

"Congressmen John Bernard and Jerry O'Connell arrived in Republican territory, Valencia, Spain, on October 14, the day after Joe Dallet was killed ...": Reported in the Daily Worker (U.S.), October 15, 1937.

7.   "Marion Merriman ... worked in Albacete ... responsible for reporting the dead and wounded to the Ministry of War in Valencia ... received a letter ... dated October 16 that first notified her of Dallet's death": American Commander in Spain, Marion Merriman and Warren Lerude, 1986, page 175.

"On October 17, Congressmen Bernard was in Albacete ... later that day visited the Brigade training camp at Tarrazona": The New York Times, October 18, 1937, carried the following from the Associated Press: "Albacete, Spain, October 17 (AP).--The first United States Congressmen to visit war-torn Spain today watched the International Brigade celebrate its first anniversary and pledged to work in Washington for the Spanish Cause. Jerry O'Connell, Montana Democrat, and John T. Bernard, Minnesota Farmer Laborite, spent the day watching the brigade's first parade and later visiting a near-by training camp [Tarrazona] where Americans, Canadians, Britons and Spaniards were being put in condition by American Officers."

"On October 21, Phil Bard, ... notified Joe Dallet Sr. of his son’s death ... reported Dallet’s death on October 23": New York Times, October 21 and October 23.

8.   "At about the time ... she didn't know about Joe ... it was November 1937": Steve Nelson, American Radical, page 232-3.

9.   "The Normandie departed Le Harve ... docked in New York on November 8": National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), New York Arrival Passenger Manifest. No passenger named Nelson/Fleischinger listed for Normandie arriving Port of New York on November 8, 1937.

"Nelson actually landed back in America on November 9 aboard the SS Aquitania": NARA, Arrival Passenger Mannifiest, SS Aquitania, Southampton to New York, dated November 9, 1937. Passenger entry: "Fleischinger, Joseph, age 33, married, born Philadelphia, 27 Feb 1902, US address 1012 S. 10th Street, Phil., PA."

10.   In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Transcript of Hearing Before Personnel Security Board, Washington, DC. April 12, 1954, through May 6, 1954, pages 573-4.

11.   "The man who gave me this news ... I was the one to tell her about Joe": Steve Nelson, American Radical, page 233.
Note    The Oppenheimer book American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin contains the following statement: "Before his death, Dallet had written Kitty, telling her that Nelson would be passing through Paris, so Kitty had decided to make the trip from London to meet him. She planned to go on from Paris to Spain." [AP, p.160] The sources cited for this account were an interview of Nelson by Martin Sherwin, Nelson's book American Radical, the Oppenheimer security hearing, and an FBI document. Also, Letters from Spain is listed in AP's Bibliography and Index. [AP page 625, and 709] For unknown reasons, AP's authors do not point out that Letters from Spain contains no letter from Joe advising Kitty of Steve Nelson's presence in Paris, not to mention the prima facie observation that Kitty and Nelson's accounts contradict one another.

"Oppenheimer corroborated Nelson": FBI Report, J. Robert Oppenheimer, dated December 3, 1951.

12.   Note   In his Introduction to "Letters from Spain", Steve Nelson wrote that Joe Dallet was his "closest friend and comrade." As Brigade Political Commissar, Nelson had direct responsibility for Dallet, who was political commissar for the Mac-Pap Battalion. Dallet was having serious leadership problems in his position: From Cecil Eby's Comrades and Commissars: "A grievance committee, supported by many officers and minor commmissars, wanted to depose [Dallet]. Deeply shaken, Dallet sought the advice of Steve Nelson. He wanted to submit his resignation, but doubtless Nelson reassured him." [a] On October 13, the Fifteenth Brigade attacked Franco's forces holding the town of Fuentes de Ebro. Prior to battle, the Brigade deployed on a north-south axis a kilometer to the east of Fuentes. The British Saklatvala battalion held the right flank near the Ebro river which passed to the north of town. The Lincoln battalion was in the center, straddling the main road into Fuentes from the east. The Mac-Pap battalion, on the left flank of the Lincolns, anchored the southern end of the battle line. The Brigade's field command center, with supporting logistics and medical forces, was behind the Lincoln Battalion off the main artery to the east (toward Barcelona, 90 miles away). [b] The Dallet situation reached a crisis on the night before the Fuentes assault. From Eby: "On the eve of battle, Commissar Dave Doran [Brigade Commissar after Nelson was injured] called a special meeting of the Brigade commissariat to discuss whether Dallet should be removed from his post. From sundown until two in the morning more than a dozen men discussed, grilled, and analyzed Joe Dallet. ... After nearly eight hours of denunciation and dissection, Dallet begged for permission to resign. This was refused for reasons unknown." [c] Wounded on September 6, Nelson was ambulatory and discharged from hospital prior to the assault on Fuentes. His own battalion, the Lincoln, was in action next to the Mac-Paps. Since his exact whereabouts on October 13 are not recorded, it is possible that he stationed himself at the Brigade command center in order to monitor the Dallet problem and the performance of the Mac-Paps. The account from Anonymous that Nelson was at Dallet's side when he died cannot be dismissed.
[a. Comrades and Commissars, pages 234-5; b. Ibid., page 248; c. Ibid., page 249.]

13.   Morris Cohen   Soviet espionage agent Morris Cohen represents a possible, penetrating answer to this puzzling question. In a letter dated July 19, 1937, Joe Dallet told Kitty she was approved to come to Spain. In a subsequent letter dated August 1, Joe noted receiving a letter from Kitty dated July 25 ("I just got your letter of the 25th") in which he learned of Kitty's appendicitis and the delay it would cause her trip to Spain ("Please have it fixed up immediately so you can start your trip here"). In this particular instance, it took 7 days or less for mail from England to reach Albacete, Spain. It can therefore be projected that Joe's letter of July 19 reached Kitty in the time frame July 25 to July 31. The question is, when did Kitty leave England for the Continent to have her appendix "fixed up" and make contact with Jack Reid in Paris? With regard to a prospective appendectomy in Germany, time was undoubtedly of the essence. A first, logical travel opportunity would have been on the Queen Mary which landed at Plymouth England from America on August 2 and then proceded that same day to Cherbourg France (before finally arriving at Souhthampton on Aug 2). It so happens that one of the U.S. passengers on this eastward transit of the Queen Mary (departing New York on the 28th) was Israel Altman. This name was the Communist Party alias of Morris Cohen who was leading a group of seventeen volunteers from the U.S. to Spain (via Paris). Even if Kitty Dallet was not on the Queen Mary from Plymouth to Cherbourg on August 2, there are other scenarios under which Kitty and Cohen might have met in Paris before Cohen departed for Spain. Significantly, Kitty was to "get in touch with Jack" (Reid) in Paris, the same person who would have been responsible for the in-processing of Cohen and his group. [a]
Steve Nelson    Steve Nelson moved from San Francisco to Oakland in early 1942. That year he began spying against the Berkeley Radiation Lab where Robert Oppenheimer and his students were contributing as consultants. Nelson had an extremely close personal bond with Kitty Oppenheimer. He also knew Morris Cohen in New York. [b] Cohen had been Dallet's subordinate in Spain and was seriously wounded on the day Dallet was killed. Morris Cohen is believed to be the organizing principal of the so-called Volunteer Group which is credited with "guaranteeing the transmittal to the Center [KGB] of super secret information concerning the development of the American atomic bomb." [c] The intriguing aspect of the Cohen-Volunteer Group association is that, in April or May 1942, Morris Cohen was alledgedly approached by an American atomic physicist who offered to spy for Russia. This person was said to be "a Spanish War acquaintance" of Cohen. This attribute was later modified to mean that "Cohen knew him through their political involvement in the Spanish Civil War." [d] It cannot be dismissed that a possible explanation for Nelson and Kitty's efforts to hide the truth about her presence in Spain was to avert any investigation that Kitty might have met Morris Cohen (codename Volunteer) either in Spain or later in New York.
Marion Merriman   There is convincing argument that Marion Merriman was party to a coverup regarding Kitty's presence in Spain (but no evidence that she might have understood the reason for it). In 1986 Marion Merriman (1909-1991) published a memoir with Warren Lerude about her and her husband's experiences in the Spanish Civil War: American Commander in Spain, Robert Hale Merriman and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Marion herself became a member of the Brigade, more accurately referred to as the Fifteenth Brigade. She served as its administrative officer at its headquarters in Albacete. Marion is mentioned in several of Dallet's letters to Kitty from Spain. She was the person Kitty was to contact on arriving in Albacete. Joe wrote Kitty that she would be receiving a letter from Marion advising her on what to bring. Ostensibly this happened, as Kitty testified to the Oppenheimer PSB that she had been asked (by someone) to bring some sox to Spain for Marion. Both Nelson and Dallet are mentioned often in American Commander. Marion's last comment on Dallet is, "The death of Joe Dallet ate at me." [e] Marion and Kitty were the same age (b. 1909 and 1910, respectively). Both had husbands who were dedicated Communists and leaders in the Spanish Civil War. Both were made widows by the war. At the end of 1940, when Kitty married Robert Oppenheimer, both were living in the San Francisco area. Kitty's FBI FOIA file reflects that she was probably a member of the "Merriman Branch" of the Communist Party at Berkeley. In view of the many associations between Marion and Kitty, it is inexplicable that Marion does not mention Kitty Dallet in her book—Joe, often; Kitty, never. However, this anomaly is echoed by another curious circumstance. In connection with the fate of her husband, Marion wrote, "On April 10, 1938, a friend in New York called to tell me Herb Matthews wrote in the New York Times the previous day that some of the Americans had escaped." [f] This statement is the first of several mentions of an anonymous friend in New York who updates Marion regularly with information about Spain in the New York press. Although never named, the friend is identified as a woman. One of the meritorious qualities of American Commander is its historical detail and accuracy, achieved through the records of Marion's personal letters and diary. Obviously, then, a sensitivity must be involved when Marion chooses to relate phone calls from New York concerning her missing husband in Spain, but prefers not to identify the source. More probably than not, this author suggests, the un-named friend was Kitty Dallet, living in New York and Philadelphia at the time. [f]
[a. An endnote in Bombshell (n. 29, p. 305) erroneously indicates that Cohen sailed from New York for Europe and Spain on July 25, 1937. The Shipping and Mails section of the New York Times for July 25, 1937, reflects only one ship departing on a transatlantic voyage that day, the freighter Argosy going to Copenhagen. This same section reflects the arrival of the Queen Mary the following day, July 26, and her return crossing to Southampton on July 28. These data corroborate a report in the literature that Cohen travelled on the Queen Mary.  b. Bombshell, Reader's Rendezvous, Joseph Albright: "As a green recruit who arrived in Spain in mid-August 1937, it is very doubtful if [Morris Cohen] even met Steve Nelson before Nelson left Spain. But we do know that Cohen knew Nelson at least slightly back in the United States."  c. Veterany Vneshnei Razvedki Rossii, T. V. Samolis, Editor, SVR Press, 1995, pages 158-9;  d. Comment Staline a vole la bombe atomique aux Americains, Dossier KGB No.3676 (How Stalin stole the atomic bomb from the Americans, File No. 13676), Vladimir Chikov and Gary Kern, Editions Robert Laffont, Paris, 1996, pages 137-8;  e. American Commander in Spain, page 179;  f. Ibid., page 222.]