Anna Spiegel (I)

Excerpts from Anna Spiegel’s grand jury testimony on February 3, 1949.

Q. What were you, formerly?

A. A teacher.

Q. Where did you teach, in the Baltimore schools?

A. In the Baltimore public schools.

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Q. But what I’d like you to do, is try to search your memory so that you can say more definitely whether it is ’37 or ’36?

A. Only this, if this is what you mean: We moved into 112 East Madison Street, I think it was September or October of 1937, I am not quite sure, it was that early fall, and it was during that time, a while after we moved in there, that David Zimmerman asked if he could use our apartment, and offered to pay part of the rent, and since we were in quite bad circumstances at the time, why, we said that he could.

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Q. So it couldn’t possibly be before September or October 1937?

A. No. Because we lived at this apartment only one year, a little over one year. It was either 11 or 13 months, I do not remember which. And, another way I might associate it, was that was during one of the periods when we were in very bad financial straits, and the following year we were so much better off and we moved to a new and better apartment. I mean, those are the circumstances under which I can identify the date.

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Q. So, did Whittaker Chambers come to your apartment at any time, and you and your husband go out, so he would be in the apartment alone?

A. No, not that I recollect.

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Q. On any occasion did you ever see him working in there in the evening?

A. Not that I remember; no.

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Q. Are you, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?

A. No.