Helen Grace Scott Keenan

Helen Grace Reswick Scott Keenan (June 16, 1915 — November 20, 1987), more commonly, Helen Grace Scott, was a United States citizen employed in the Office of Strategic Services and later the Office of U.S Chief Counsel for Prosecution of Axis War Criminals on the staff of Justice Robert H. Jackson during World War II. She was also a broadcaster for Free France in Brazzaville, and later in life, as Helen G. Scott, was a close associate of François Truffaut and other French filmmakers.

Helen Grace Scott
Born
Helen Grace Reswick

(1915-06-16)June 16, 1915
Brooklyn, New York, United States
DiedNovember 20, 1987(1987-11-20) (aged 72)
NationalityAmerican
Known forSpying, radio and film work

Early life

Helen Grace Reswick was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of William Reswick and Bessie Schwartz Reswick. She and her brothers were raised in Paris, where their father worked as a journalist with the Associated Press. William Reswick, who was born in Ukraine, was also a correspondent in Moscow from 1922 to 1934, and wrote a memoir of his time there.[1] She was fluent in English and French from childhood.[2]

In 1943, during World War II, Reswick fled France due to her Jewish heritage and settled in Brazzaville, Congo, where she was a radio broadcaster for Free France.[3] After the war, she was a press attaché to Justice Robert H. Jackson at the Nuremberg trials. She was recognized later for her wartime work: in 1965, she was awarded the Commemorative medal for voluntary service in Free France, and in 1986 she was named a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.[4]

Alleged spy activities

Between 1933 and 1938, Helen Scott served on the Executive Committee of the Workers Alliance, a Comintern affiliate front organization. In 1944, she worked for Congressman Boulton. Keenan had been a freelance journalist in the 1930s before beginning work in the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA) as a writer and editor in 1945. She first worked for the New York line of KGB, then later the Washington, D.C. branch of the KGB.

Venona

Helen Grace Scott Keenan's code name in Soviet intelligence, and later as deciphered by the Venona project is "Fir" (or "Spruce"). "Firtree" and "El" also occurred. Keenan is referenced in the following Venona decryptions:

  • 326: KGB Moscow to New York, April 5, 1945;
  • 3614–3615: KGB Washington to Moscow, June 22, 1945.

Later career

Scott worked as a senior editor at the United Nations headquarters,[5] and from 1959 to 1965 at the French Film Office in New York, as director of public relations.[6] She worked with many French and American filmmakers in this role, including Robert Benton, Miloš Forman, Jacques Tati, Alain Resnais, and Jean-Luc Godard. She also wrote the English subtitles of various French-language films, including Manon of the Spring and Jean de Florette.[4]

She assisted François Truffaut as the interpreter in his conversations with Alfred Hitchcock,[2][4] using both her language skills and her specialized knowledge of film.[7] She collaborated with Truffaut in writing the resulting book, Hitchcock/Truffaut (1966).[8] She wrote additional dialogue for Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1966), and was among the writers nominated for a Hugo Award when that film was a finalist for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1967.[9] Later, she translated another book of Truffaut's, The Adventures of Antoine Doinel (1971). Scott was Truffaut's confidante, and their correspondence offers insight into his personal life and relationships.[10]

Scott appeared in uncredited cameos in Godard's Weekend (1967) and Truffaut's Bed & Board (1970). She also appears in archival footage in the 2015 documentary Hitchcock/Truffaut.[11]

Personal life

Helen G. Scott was divorced. She died in Paris in 1987, aged 72 years, from a heart attack.[2] Her gravesite is in Montmartre Cemetery, not far from Truffaut's.

References
  1. "William Reswick, News Writer, 64; Former Reporter in Moscow Had Worked with Hoover, Baruch, and Otto Kahn" New York Times (June 3, 1954): 27. via ProQuest
  2. Vincent Canby, "Helen Scott's Death Grieves Film World" Chicago Tribune (December 3, 1987).
  3. Janet Bergstrom, "Lost in Translation? Listening to the Hitchcock-Truffaut Interview" in Thomas Leitch and Leland Poague, eds., A Companion to Alfred Hitchcock (John Wiley & Sons 2011): 392-394. ISBN 9781444397314
  4. "Helen G. Scott, 72, Writer for Truffaut and Other Directors" New York Times (November 24, 1987): 11.
  5. Dolores Palà, The Way it Was (2015). ISBN 9781491766323
  6. "Passings: Helen G. Scott, French Arts Figure" Los Angeles Times (November 26, 1987).
  7. Sidney Gottlieb, "Hitchcock on Truffaut" Film Quarterly 66(4)(Summer 2013): 10-22. DOI: 10.1525/fq.2013.66.4.10 via JSTOR
  8. François Truffaut in collaboration with Helen G. Scott, Hitchcock (Simon and Schuster 1967). ISBN 9780586086537
  9. 1967 Hugo Awards, The Hugo Awards official website.
  10. Antoine de Baecque, Serge Toubiana, François Truffaut (University of California Press 2000): 198, 208, 226. ISBN 9780520225244
  11. Peter Travers, "Hitchcock/Truffaut" Rolling Stone (December 3, 2015).

Sources
  • John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999)
  • Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, 21 February 1946, FBI Silvermaster file (busted link) (65—56402), serial 573
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