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Unidentified photographer
Emil Julius Klaus Fuchs
1938-1949
Gelatin silver print
National Archives
The National Archives, Kew - KV 2/1245, PF 62251 VOL 1
LL/36128
German/British. The atom spy, Klaus FUCHS, was an anti-Nazi agitator and Communist in Germany in the early 1930's. He fled to the UK in 1933. After studies in Bristol and Edinburgh and research work in Birmingham, he became a member of the British team engaged, jointly with their US counterparts, in developing the atom bomb. He worked on this project in the United States from 1943 to 1945. On returning to the UK FUCHS worked for the Atomic Energy Research Establishment Harwell, becoming head of its Department of Theoretical Physics. In 1942 FUCHS volunteered his services to the Russians and was run by a series of case officers (both KGB and GRU) and their intermediaries both in the UK and US until 1949 when he ceased contact. During this period he passed to his handlers detailed and damaging information about the atom bomb project. FUCHS' arrest in 1950 followed an investigation which concluded that he matched the details provided by a sensitive US source. FUCHS' subsequent conviction in 1950 (he received a 14 year sentence) rested solely on his own detailed confession, elicited over numerous interviews. The investigation itself produced no evidence of his espionage. Following his conviction FUCHS was deprived of his British Nationality. These papers provide detailed accounts of FUCHS' career as a spy, his complex personality and motivation, his relationships with his father (in particular) and Harwell colleagues and the circumstances surrounding his arrest and conviction.
[Text courtesy of the National Archives, UK]
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