Great Spies of the 20th Century

by Patrick Pesnot

  Israeli services had already learned that Nasser, humiliated by the defeat of the Suez campaign, intended to start manufacturing modern weapons with the help of German scientists. They therefore wanted to know more about what Nasser was planning. Hence the idea to send Lotz to Egypt; a country he already knew well. Thanks to his Aryan looks, there was a chance that he could pass himself off as a Wehrmacht or even SS officer, one of many similar former Nazi soldiers who had found refuge in Egypt.

  First he had to construct a back story, or legend, as they say in the Secret Service, as well as undergo intensive training to learn espionage techniques to help him construct his new life. He went back to using his original name, Lotz, and posed as a former officer in the Afrika Korps, having fought with Rommel's army in North Africa and Libya. He claimed to have had sympathised with the Nazis, without being a ‘card-carrying member'. He planned to pose as a rich horse breeder and open an equestrian centre, with the hope of attracting clients from among the large German ex-pat colony now established in Egypt.

  To authenticate his cover he was sent to Germany where he was helped by the famous and mysterious General Gehlen's BND (Intelligence Service). Gehlen was working with the Egyptians, but was actually closer to the Israelis. With this help, Lotz may have been given access to the Third Reich Army archives in order to complete his ‘legend'. After all, he had a big hole to fill: it had been a quarter of a century since he had left Germany. Still with Gehlen's help, he later approached veterans of the Afrika Korps so as to collect vital, detailed information and make his story all the more credible. Last but not least, the BND erased his real records from his hometown: Lotz was now no longer the son of a Jew, but had still been born in Germany.

  This change of identity lasted for several months and he only arrived in Egypt at the end of 1960 to set up his equestrian centre. He carried with him a large amount of Deutschmarks, proving that the Israelis had attached great importance to this mission, as they were otherwise known for being rather miserly.

  Once in Egypt, Lotz treated his future clients very generously and was immediately embraced by them, not only within the German colony in Cairo, but also in the Egyptian circles of power and the executives of the Moukhabarat (the Egyptian intelligence agency). His equestrian centre was soon up and running and his bosses were proved correct: the former officers of the Afrika Korps, all riding enthusiasts, rushed in, along with the cream of Cairo society. It became the place to be seen, and was somewhere to drink and even smoke hashish, thus allowing conversations to be more relaxed and confidences to be betrayed more freely.

  However, Lotz had to proceed carefully when it came to approaching the German scientists, as they were virtually confined to the perimeter of Factory 333. He was counting on his new friends within the Egyptian secret service to help introduce him to the secret base, but this could not be rushed as too much curiosity would arouse suspicion.

  Despite this, Lotz was quickly able to confirm to his bosses that Egypt had indeed embarked on a new weapons manufacturing programme. To communicate with Israel, he had a miniaturised transmitter hidden in the heel of his riding boots and would later hide another in his bathroom scales. He had to use it sparingly though, for fear of being spotted. The weak link of any secret agent is always his or her communication with ‘head office'. This being so, Lotz always preferred to take a quick trip to Europe whenever he needed to submit a comprehensive report to his contact and it was during one of these trips that he discovered a very curious and attractive piece of information...

  Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman46

  [The two Israeli authors suggest that Wolfgang Lotz was hired by Aman, the IDF intelligence service.]

  The military intelligence officers were impressed with how un-Israeli Gur-Arie looked: blond, well-built and a big drinker - the epitome of a former German officer.

  The Aman recruiters asked if he was able to hide his Jewishness and convince people that he was a former Nazi. During training that was to prove ‘intensive and exhausting’, Lotz learned to forget his true identity and returned to Germany to solidify his cover. He was now a German businessman who had served in Hitler’s army in North Africa, after living in Australia for eleven years, breeding racehorses.

  Aman sent him to Egypt in December I960 and provided him with sufficient capital (a huge sum, by Israeli standards) to set up a ranch.The Israelis thought it unlikely that the Egyptian intelligence service, the Moukhabaratal-Ammah, would dig particularly deep into the history of this rich German. The risk was still there, remembered Lotz, but he was ‘one of those rare secret agents who could work under his real name, with his real papers’.

  Lotz first went to Berlin, before going to Paris, where he had a meeting with his contact officer. On the train he met a beautiful creature called Waltraud Martha Neumann, a refugee from East Germany who now lived in the USA. A natural ladies man, Lotz appreciated young and pretty women, and this one pleased him a great deal. He quickly made his conquest and two weeks after their meeting on the Berlin-Paris train, the marriage was conducted and celebrated.

  This brings up several questions: firstly, the fact that Lotz already had a wife in Israel. However, after accepting his mission in Cairo, he had already been forced to leave her behind. What is more, he was not able to marry again without the consent of his case officer, who obviously agreed to the marriage for the good of the mission. In fact, Waltraud also worked in the intelligence community: she was a German spy in Gehlen's BND. It is therefore likely that the marriage was arranged between the Germans and Israelis, who then had nothing to hide from West Germany, especially thanks to the secret agreement between Ben-Gurion and Chancellor Adenauer to supply military equipment to Israel for free. This equipment included Patton tanks that would be very useful to General Moshe Dayan during the Six Day War and his ride through the Sinai.

  Although the German secret service had a base in Cairo, the BND believed, not without reason, that by using Lotz as an agent it would be able to get first-hand information on the German scientists working for Nasser, and who at the same time, were damaging the image of the new Germany.

  And so the lovebirds departed for Egypt. The impression they gave of being man and wife was so true that even after the mission was over, Lotz chose to live with Waltraud and divorced his Israeli wife, who was no doubt bluntly forced to understand that sacrifices had to be made.

  In any case,Waltraud was an enthusiastic companion who helped her new husband to cement their social standing by giving magnificent parties for the Germans in Cairo and the Egyptian VIPs. The champagne flowed freely and Waltraud did not fail to show the anti-Semitism that was enjoyed as much by the Germans as the Egyptians who attended. As for the actual espionage work: that was progressing at a grand pace.

  Lotz was now persona grata in the echelons of Egyptian circles and could travel around the country without difficulty. Unlikely as it may sound, he even managed to take a tour of the secret Factory 333 with the base commander himself as his guide. Introduced as a friend of Egypt, he was able to make direct contact with the German scientists and glean valuable information on the progress of their work.

  However, the nature of his mission soon changed after the spectacular firing of the four missiles in July 1962, which surprised the Israelis, and Lotz, who were otherwise aware of everything that was taking place. Much more serious were the revelations of the Austrian scientist, Yoklik,47 who worked for the Egyptians before defecting. It was he who told Mossad that Nasser planned to fill the warheads with radioactive material and even bacteriological germs. Against the advice of Prime Minister Ben-Gourion, who wanted above all to preserve good relations with Germany, the Mossad chief, Isser Harel, decided to strike back hard. This led to Operation Damocles, which resulted in many German scientists being targeted and even killed. Wolfgang Lotz was responsible for the Egyptian part of this offensive.

  Firstly, Lotz was told that during the preparation for Operation Damocles, Isser Harel (who was head of the two major
Israeli intelligence services: Mossad and Shin Bet), wanted him to be under his control and not that of the army's. Harel was victorious: Meir Amit, the head of the Aman, was not in a strong position and had to bow down. Lotz, the new Mossad agent, was asked by Harel for a list of the German scientists and their addresses. The mission was simple for the Israeli who was now freely mixing with these people on a regular basis. Knowing their addresses, the Mossad agents were able to send letter bombs, which were often posted from Germany.

  The first package of books to be delivered killed five people at Factory 333 and caused heavy damage. But the Egyptians employed countermeasures: any packages arriving from abroad addressed to the scientists were now systematically x-rayed before being opened. Harel, who had no intention of abandoning his reign of terror, instead asked Lotz to post the letters himself, from Cairo. The mission was risky, but Lotz agreed and Mossad sent him explosives hidden in bars of soap.

  During his extensive training in Israel, Lotz had learned how to booby-trap letters, including methods which had been used by other agencies around the world, as well as by Mossad. After receiving his instructions, he sent the booby-trapped packages accordingly. These methods were very efficient and panic soon spread among the German scientific community living in Cairo. In spite of the protection they received from the authorities, they still felt very vulnerable, especially as they also received letters containing very specific threats. These anonymous letters contained information about their work and their families, but above all, explicitly advised them to leave Egypt as soon as possible.

  Gradually the frightened men, or at least those who were not wanted for war crimes, began to return to their homeland. Inevitably, the Egyptian secret services now knew that there was an Israeli spy in Cairo. It had to be someone who had infiltrated the German ex-pat community, as they clearly knew the men in it.

  Steve Eytan48

  Dr Josef Eisig received the following missive: ‘You are blacklisted. We know that you are a specialist in aerospace research. It is out of concern for your wife, Ruth, your daughter, Inge, and your son, Peter, that we advise you to leave Egypt and return to Germany. The sooner you return, the better for your family.’

  Signed:The Bayonets.

  On 27 September, in spite of all the precautions taken by the Egyptians, a letter that had supposedly been x-rayed exploded when opened by Dr Kirmayer, another aerospace specialist. A few days later, another letter for a third German scientist exploded at the hands of a post office worker in Meadi.

  To the great dismay of the Egyptians, who were no longer able to guarantee their safety, these repeated acts (even those that according to the postmark originated in Cairo), prompted many Germans to leave. At the end of September, Wolfgang Pilz, the chief rocket specialist, left Egypt with no though of return, accompanied by the unhappy Hannelore Wenda.

  [The latter, Pilz's secretary, had been disfigured by the letter bomb and had lost her sight. Steve Eytan, incidentally, writes that Wolfgang Lotz was one of the most passionate Germans against the ‘Zionist terror campaign'.]

  By undertaking this mission given to him by Mossad, Lotz had run the risk of being identified. Fortunately for him, however, the Egyptians failed to find him and Mossad asked him to move on to other things. After all, there were now hardly any German scientists left in Egypt and the best ones had already gone home. Operation Damocles was a great success for the Israelis.

  As a war with Egypt seemed inevitable, the Cairo spy was thus entrusted with a new mission. He was asked to uncover the battle plans for the Egyptian Army and details of the military equipment that Moscow continued to send to Nasser. Thanks once again to his excellent relationship with the cream of the Egyptian Army, Lotz was well-suited for the task. Under the guise of a tourist, he was able to approach the military bases and after explaining his ‘connections', take a look around. This meant he was able to send Tel-Aviv highly reliable information.

  The Israelis now had a comprehensive knowledge of the anti-aircraft installations and surface-to-air missiles that had been supplied by the Soviet Union. This information was extremely important because the Six Day War would start with a series of air raids that would annihilate the Egyptian Air Force and its defences. The Israelis thus had control of the skies in the early hours of the war, thanks, in part, to Lotz.

  However, towards the end of February 1965, Lotz and his wife were arrested after returning from a trip to the area around the Suez Canal. The spy couple had just completed the identification of an anti-aircraft battery, but what had led the Egyptians to arrest them? Several theories are possible:

  The first, and most likely, is that his radio transmissions had eventually betrayed the undercover agent. On a similar subject, it should be noted that at the same time in Syria, another famous Israeli spy called Eli Cohen,49 was soon to be unmasked and hanged, probably as a result of his radio transmissions. In Syria, as in Egypt, the secret service had received help from Soviet radiogoniometer specialists. The Egyptians had been looking for the Israeli spy living in their country for a long while, and had no doubt asked these experts to help them locate where he had been sending messages from.

  A second possibility is that the arrest of Lotz and his wife coincided with the visit to Egypt of the East German Communist leader, Walter Ulbricht. On this occasion, the Egyptian authorities had decided to force the more prominent members of the German community to stay at home, so as not to anger Ulbricht and to avoid him meeting any former Nazis. An officer from the security services would have presented himself at Lotz's home and in the absence of the owner, would have taken the initiative to conduct a review of the premises. He would then have discovered the spy's transmitter and possibly even the explosives.

  The third possibility is that Lotz was betrayed. Mossad and the BND maintained increasingly tight communications, yet the German secret services were still infiltrated by their eastern counterparts. One of these double agents may have been aware of Lotz's existence or even the reports that his wife, Waltraud, would regularly have been sending home. Markus Wolf, the head of the East German intelligence service, would thus have been able to alert the Egyptian authorities.

  The only fact that remains is that Lotz's identity was finally revealed, which was a huge blow for Mossad.

  The spy was quickly confounded by the over-whelming physical evidence; the transmitter, the explosives etc. However, he was to play a very clever game: he claimed that while there was no denying that he had been spying for the Israelis, he was only doing it for money. He explained that he was in debt as a result of his equestrian centre and had agreed to work for the Israelis after they had approached him and offered him large sums of money. Most importantly, he stood by his cover: his name was Lotz and he was a genuinely a racehorse breeder.

  In the eyes of the Egyptians, his story was solid, and as he was not circumcised, they believed that he was not Jewish. Lotz's foreskin had saved his life! However, he was not out of the woods yet. Back in Germany, where this story had naturally caused quite a stir (not forgetting the mysterious bombings that had hit the scientists), journalists began to investigate. A reporter from the Stern magazine managed to discover some of the truths from Lotz's past, including his Jewish mother, his emigration to Israel in the 1930s and his naturalisation as an Israeli citizen.

  The journalist had a real scoop in his hands and if the story were to be published, it could prove very expensive for the spy. Fortunately for Lotz, an Israeli journalist called Uri Dan, who was very close to Mossad, was made aware of the situation. He immediately went to Hamburg and met with the journalist's boss, who also happened to be a personal friend. He argued that if the story was published before the trial took place, Lotz would likely be condemned to death and executed. It worked: the journalist decided to delay the publication. However, a German lawyer who was representing the family of one of the scientists killed by the Mossad attacks, also discovered the true identity of Wolfgang Lotz.

  What happened next is staggeri
ng: the trial of Lotz and his wife was already under way, when a letter from the German lawyer was handed to the judge, in which he revealed what he knew about the Israeli spy. As the judge began to read the document, he suddenly stopped, demanded that the journalists leave the room and that the doors be locked behind them. In discovering that Lotz was actually an Israeli spy, who for years had managed to fool the high-ranking members of Egyptian politics, he was no doubt concerned that such information would damage his country and its leaders. In short, it was a question of honour. A German spy working for Israel was bad enough, but an Israeli spy that had successfully infiltrated the highest echelons of Egyptian politics was too embarrassing to acknowledge publicly.

  However, there is another possible explanation for what happened: the judge was already aware of the secret negotiations that had taken place between Israel and Egypt regarding Lotz. Mossad, who had already lost Eli Cohen in Damascus, were obviously keen to sane their spy in Cairo. On the occasion of the first visit France by an Egyptian leader since the Suez Crisis, both Israeli and Egyptian envoys met secretly in Paris. During the meeting, Mossad offered millions of dollars to prevent Lotz from being condemned to death after the trial. The Egyptians accepted the deal, on the basis that the fiction of Lotz as a German spy working for Israel was maintained - Arab public opinion would never have accepted the fact that an Israeli spy caught in the act would not be executed!

  Waltraud was sentenced to three years imprisonment, while Lotz received a life sentence. However, there was a prisoner exchange between the two countries after the Six Day War. Israel had captured thousands of Egyptian soldiers and at least twelve generals. Tel Aviv accepted their release in exchange for Lotz's wives, thus showing the importance they attached to the Mossad spy. In Egypt, however, it was never officially revealed that Lotz had been a Jewish spy.