At the suggestion of a friend in Israel, we addressed an email to “Beit Hatfutsot, the Museum of the Jewish People” requesting them to search their genealogy database. They replied that they found 4753 entries with the name Strauss. When I corrected their error, they came up with hundreds of Karpovs.

Although we could not establish a family connection between Dorothy and her father, in April 2017, Boris nevertheless wrote to the KGB using whatever information he did have about Alexander. When he checked with the KGB whether they had received his letter, he was told that since he is a U.S. citizen, he has to go through the Belorussian embassy in DC. When he then called the Belorussian embassy, he was told that they never heard of such a procedure and suggested that he contact the U.S. embassy in Minsk. Boris then called a person at the state department who deals with Belarus who suggested that he write him a letter, which Boris did. This describes the frequent Russian run-around that one has to deal with.

Boris expressed concern that he is spending my money (at $95 per hour) without being able to accomplish anything so far. I told him to keep going as long as there are any leads to follow up.

Boris finally received a reply to his email of quite some time earlier addressed to Central Archives of the Russian Federal Office of Security. Since it was in Russian, and Boris is expensive in his translating charges, I sent it to Esty Sh’deour in Israel, a relative. She used to work with Russians in Israel. The translation when received in June 2017 told us that they could not find any records of an Alexander Karpov (Karpovich) in their archives but suggest we write to the Central Information-Analysis center of Russia, which keeps records of individuals who were political prisoners.

Boris wrote to that address. But they had a post on a Russian genealogical forum stating that this archive only has information on exiles. Nevertheless, Boris tried to reach them by phone but for over a month no one answered the phone.

Boris spent an hour on the phone with a private researcher in Belarus. In his assessment, “the current situation vis-à-vis getting anything out of any archives is rather bleak.” But he promised to “make inquiries.” At the researcher’s suggestion, Boris called another archive responsible for issuing copies of vital records but could find no records under the name of Karpov.

Research by Boris into military records of Alexander also resulted in nothing, since the name is too common.

Sometime toward the middle of 2017 I tried to establish contact with the CIA to see whether they had any information on Alexander. My first request sent in June under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was turned down. They can “neither deny nor confirm the existence or nonexistence of records responsive to your request.” But they gave me the opportunity to seek dispute resolution either from the CIA’s FOIA public liaison or from the office of government information services (OGIS). I sent an appeal to OGIS in August. OGIS replies that I should file an administrative appeal to give the agency an opportunity to review and reconsider my request and the agency’s decision.

The same month I wrote to the CIA Agency Release Panel of the CIA information and privacy coordinator. I received an acknowledgment of receipt in a short letter signed by the same Allison Fong who had originally written the letter denying my request, but with a different title. That already established that we would have little chance of receiving a favorable ruling. Not until December did I receive a reply in a letter again signed by Allison Fong denying my appeal as expected. She also informed me that I have the right to seek judicial review of this determination in federal district court, and also referring me again to OGIS for mediation services. This was just a run-around since OGIS had referred me back to the CIA previously.

Nevertheless, I wrote again to OGIS but this time to their National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) office. After various email reminders and phone calls I finally received a reply in April 2018. It was a two-page letter that only an attorney could understand. But what I did learn from it was that since the CIA was only established in 1947, its predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services, could be contacted by me since the occurrence I was investigating was in 1947. I was told to contact the chief, military reference branch, textual reference division, the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. Sound familiar? This is all NARA. NARA’s one department was suggesting that I contact NARA’s other department. When I asked them whether they couldn’t just transfer my file, they replied that they have no contact with them. Doesn’t this sound so Washington, DC?

Well I wasn’t going to run on the Washington treadmill any longer and closed that part of the file. I probably would have gotten another letter from Allison Fong. I will come back later to the prior suggestion to take the matter to court.

(To be continued)

By Norbert Strauss

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