Marcus Klingberg, scientist and spy for the Soviet Union, Died at 97

  Military

Avraham Marek Klingberg was born on October 7, 1918, and died on November 30, 2015.

Known as Marcus A. Klingberg, Avraham was an Israeli scientist and the highest ranking Soviet spy ever caught in Israel.

The case of Klingberg is regarded one of the most destructive spy scandals in the history of the State of Israel.

Avraham was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1918, to a Hasidic Jewish family of rabbinical lineage.

In his youth, Avraham lived for a time with his grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Klingberg.

His parents sent him to a cheder, or Jewish religious school.

As a teenager, Avraham turned his back on religious life and enrolled in a regular high school.

In 1935, Avraham began studying medicine at the University of Warsaw.

In 1939, when World War II started with the German invasion of Poland, Avraham escaped to the Soviet Union.

There, he completed his medical studies in Minsk.

On 18 January 2003, he was released from house arrest. He immediately left for Paris to live with his daughter Sylvia and grandson Ian.

Avraham lived in a one-room apartment in Paris, but did not take French citizenship.

He frequently lectured on medicine at universities.

Avraham helped establish the Ludwik Fleck Center of the Collegium Helveticum – a university center in Zürich, and delivered the opening lecture.

As a former Lieutenant Colonel in the IDF, Avraham received an officer’s pension from the Israeli government, which in France amounted to around € 2,000 a month.

Avraham continued to suffer from medical problems, even after his release, and was frequently hospitalized.

He published his memoirs, Hameragel Ha’akharon (“The Last Spy”), written together with his lawyer, Michael Sfard in 2007.

Avraham passed away at age 97 in 2015.