Nathan I. Levine

The nephew of Esther Chambers; it was in a dumbwaiter in his Brooklyn apartment that an envelope was stored allegedly containing the film and documents that would later be used as evidence against Alger Hiss. Chambers said he had given the papers to Levine in 1938, telling him to hold them as a "life preserver" in the event his life was threatened by Communist agents. Chambers later testified that though the contents of the envelope might have been his only protection against a murder attempt, for many years he forgot that the envelope existed. Levine testified that he never saw the contents of the envelope.

In November 1948, Chambers said he remembered the envelope after he was asked by Hiss's attorney to provide documentary evidence to support his charges against Hiss. The defense later had a document examiner, Daniel Norman, analyze the envelope. His report stated that many of the papers could not have been kept inside the envelope for 10 years.