Karl Säre

Karl Säre (July 2, 1903 – March 14, 1945) was a Soviet and Estonian communist politician. He was the first First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Estonian Communist Party.

During World War II, Säre was arrested by Nazi Germany and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he died in 1945. The Soviet government avoided the mention of Säre's name in any public sources, as he was suspected of treason by disclosing to Nazi Germany information about the Stalinist officials and pro-Soviet agents who had remained in German-occupied Estonia during the war.

Biography Born in to the family of brewery worker, Säre joined the communist movement at a young age and became a member of the Union of Communist Youth of Estonia in 1917.

In 1941, he became a candidate member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (b) and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet. After the German invasion, from, July to August 1941, he was Chairman of the Defense Committee of the Estonian SSR. He was lse underground to organize armed resistance to the Nazi occupiers.

He was arrested by the German occupiers and after extensive investigation he gave the information of his fellow underground communist officials and resistance fighters.

After the Soviet military intelligence network led by Richard Sorge was exposed and detained in Japan in 1942, German intelligence sent a special plane to Tallinn and took Säre from Tallinn's central prison to Berlin. From there he was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Karl Säre was probably last seen in the public in Denmark in March 1943, where he had been accused of murdering fellow communist Paul Eltermann.

Further information of Säre is still a subject of investigation. According to the researchers of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory he was sent to Neuengamme concentration camp, where on 14 March 1945 he died as a result of heart failure.