of the Stinnes family: The Stinnes family was one of the most powerful industrial dynasties in Germany, dominated by the figure of the founding father, Hugo Stinnes (1870–1924), who had created a coal and steel empire in the Ruhr.
in one of his memoirs: Allen Dulles, The Secret Surrender (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 17.
had come from Berlin: That summer, he had been visited in particular by the German lawyer Carl Langbehn, a personal friend of Heinrich Himmler (who was already considering the idea of a separate peace with the Anglo-American forces, hoping to save the Nazi regime by means of a grand alliance against the Soviets). Langbehn paid a visit to Bern in August 1943 but was arrested by the Gestapo on his return to Berlin and “dropped” by Himmler, who pretended not to know him in order not to compromise himself in the führer’s eyes.
Warburg & Co, Hamburg: Sigmund Warburg (1902–82) had left Hamburg for London in 1933. He is considered one of the founding fathers of modern finance. See Jacques Attali, Un homme d’influence (Paris, 1985).
“education of German teachers”: Memorandum of August 31, 1943, OSS Bern, National Archives.
assist the ongoing investigation: Dulles seems not to have wondered about the reasons that could explain why Kocherthaler, when he wanted to approach the Americans to talk to them about Fritz Kolbe, had not spoken directly to Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz. Why had he asked for advice from Paul Dreyfuss, his banker friend in Basel, about making contact with the Americans? The mystery remains.
Kolbe, Fritz’s only brother: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
Fritz’s real intentions: Letter from Fritz Kolbe to Walter Bauer, November 15, 1949, personal archives of Fritz Kolbe, Peter Kolbe collection, Sydney.
his visit to Bern: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
not said his last: Anthony Quibble, “Alias George Wood,” Studies in Intelligence, 1966.
sent books, radios, phonographs: “We have noted increased abuse of the diplomatic mail service for the purpose of transporting private letters. It is absolutely indispensable to limit this phenomenon,” according to a circular from the German minister in Bern, Otto Köcher, in November 1941. Source: German Foreign Ministry.
Sport Club of Sélestat: Article by Maurice Kubler in the Nouveau dictionnaire de biographie alsacienne.
travel secretly to London: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
Bur was a rare jewel: “With the agreement of Allen Dulles, I gave Albert Bur documents concerning France (activities of collaborators), but also information concerning German espionage activities in the entourage of Winston Churchill,” Fritz wrote in an autobiographical document in January 1947 in Berlin.
meant Wood’s cross-examination: Kappa messages of October 8 and 9, 1943, National Archives.
assignment as diplomatic courier: Fritz’s second meeting with the Americans in Bern is described in several documents, particularly the biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
for making “defeatist” statements: “The climate is one of pure terror,” wrote Ulrich von Hassell in his diary on October 9, 1943, Die Hassell Tagebücher (Berlin, 1988). “Nothing in Germany any longer has a face, neither streets nor men,” wrote Jean Guéhenno on October 6, 1943, following the account of a friend who had come back from the other side of the Rhine. Journal des années noires (Paris: Gallimard, 1947).
warden smiled with pleasure: This episode is recounted in the biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe. See also Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”
a pouch with a false top: “When the sealed envelope was handed him in Berlin, Kolbe merely placed it, together with the documents scooped out of his private safe, in a larger official envelope to which he affixed a Foreign Office seal.” Unpublished memoir by Allen Dulles, Allen W. Dulles Papers (box 114, file 11).
turned into a disaster: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
day from his schedule: This episode is reported in Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”
them in his coat: Unpublished memoir by Allen Dulles, Allen W. Dulles Papers (box 114, file 11).
ashes down the bowl: Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”
“because of the curfew”: Ibid.
easy to pass unseen: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
was in Herrengasse 23: “Meetings with secret agents were held in Mr. Dulles’s private house after blackout. This house, in addition to its entrance on the street, had a private entrance in the rear, which went through a garden into a back street where surveillance was almost impossible.” Miscellaneous Activities OSS Bern, National Archives.
armaments industry desperately needed: The deliveries of Spanish tungsten to the Reich were handled in secret by a company called Sofindus (Sociecad Financiera y Industrial). The Americans subjected Franco Spain to an oil embargo after learning of these deliveries of strategic raw materials to the Reich, contrary to Franco’s promises. Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”
U-boats in the Atlantic: Several secondary sources indicate that the information provided by Kolbe enabled the Americans to save a maritime convoy that was going to be attacked by German submarines. See, for example, Andrew Tully, CIA, the Inside Story (New York: Morrow, 1962).
housing the Leibstandarte SS: Hitler’s personal guard (Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler) had been established as early as March 1933 by Josef “Sepp” Dietrich, the führer’s chief bodyguard. Its strength was that of a division (20,000 men in December 1942). It participated in most of the major military operations of the war.
“Hitler’s personal guard”: Document of OSS Bern, October 9, 1943, National Archives.
his family, his opinions: “This time we had more time to talk,” Fritz said about his October visit. Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
course of the conversation: Message from OSS Bern to Washington, October 4, 1943, National Archives.
door of Herrengasse 23: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
colleagues in the legation: Ibid.
connection might attract suspicion: Ibid.
specialized in venereal diseases: Ibid.
of a later interrogation: Fritz Kolbe recounts that he was indeed interrogated by a security officer on his return from Bern. “We know that you were absent from your hotel on the night of 9 October. What do you have to answer?” The doctor’s bill enabled him to calm the suspicions of the interrogator, and Kolbe escaped with a verbal warning. Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.” Morgan places the scene in August 1943, apparently mistakenly.
“apartment on Kurfürstendamm”: Documents from OSS Bern, October 8 and 9, 1943, National Archives.
came to arrest him: “The Story of George.” Fritz Kolbe intended to shoot himself in the head if he were arrested. Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”
Kolbe (“Subject: Wood case”): Note from Norman Holmes Pearson (OSS London, chief of the counterespionage branch) to Colonel David K. E. Bruce, chief of the OSS in London, November 23, 1943, National Archives.
and the Ultra machine: See Chapter 6, note 20.
of the Royal Navy: Correspondence of the author with Nigel West, an English historian of espionage, and with David Oxenstierna in Boston, grandson of Johann Gabriel Oxenstierna.
“Josephine,” were disciplined: Count Oxenstierna was replaced in the spring of 1944 by another member of the Swedish aristocracy, Count Bertil. Among the high British officials who had to explain themselves on this matter was notably Sir William Strange, Assistant Undersecretary of State at the Foreign Office.
“course of the war”: Letter from Claude Dansey to OSS London, November 5, 1943, National Archives.
which Kolbe had revealed: Kappa message of December 30, 1943, National Archives.
“factory was not hit”: Kappa message of October 11, 1943, National Archives.
“correct,” and so on: Messages from OSS London
to Washington, Kappa series, November 19, 1943 and January 22, 1944, National Archives.
Chapter 9
the pay of Germany: Elyeza Bazna was born in 1904 in Pristina, in the western part of the Ottoman Empire. He came from a modest Muslim family. The British ambassador in Ankara hired him as a valet in 1942.
combining diplomacy with espionage: Von Papen had been expelled from the United States in 1915 for engaging in secret activities incompatible with his position as military attaché at the German embassy.
Schellenberg, head of foreign espionage: Department VI of the RSHA, the SD.
so, at what price?: Officially, Turkey was tied to England by a treaty of alliance dating from October 1939.
the German secret services: Ernst Kaltenbrunner had taken charge of the Reichsicherheitshauptamt after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague in May 1942.
memoirs after the war: Franz von Papen, Memoirs (London: André Deutsch, 1952).
this mysterious source: Kappa message, December 29, 1943, National Archives.
“source designated as Cicero”: Kappa message from OSS Bern, December 30, 1943. The next message was dated January 1, 1944. These documents were summarized to constitute the very first documents of the “Boston series,” a shorter version of the Kappa messages. Document number 5 of the Boston series—intended for distribution to the top leadership of the United States—was concerned with the procurement of British documents by the German embassy in Ankara. Source: National Archives.
“from the Cicero sources”: Message from OSS London to OSS Bern, January 25, 1944, National Archives.
of the November cables: Message from OSS London to OSS Bern, February 19, 1944, National Archives.
“the identity of Cicero”: Kappa message, January 10, 1944, National Archives.
“with him to Cairo”: Kappa message received in Washington on February 22, 1944.
source of the leak: Allen Dulles gives his version of the events: “Of direct practical value of the very highest kind among Wood’s contributions was a copy of a cable in which the German Ambassador in Turkey, von Papen, proudly reported to Berlin (in November 1943) the acquisition of top secret documents from the British Embassy in Ankara through ‘an important German agent.’ … I immediately passed word of this to my British colleagues, and a couple of British security inspectors immediately went over the British Embassy in Ankara and changed the safes and their combinations, thus putting Cicero out of business. Neither the Germans nor Cicero ever knew what was behind the security visit, which was, of course, made to appear routine and normal.” The Secret Surrender, p. 24.
wrote after the war: The Secret Surrender. After the war, the British secret services claimed that they had “turned” Cicero between January and March 1944 and used him to disseminate false intelligence to the Germans. For his part, Allen Dulles explained at the end of his life that “[i]t was obvious to me that the British were playing some sort of game with Cicero.” But the most current explanations are of a different nature: there is hardly any doubt about the negligence of the British ambassador. See Nigel West, “Cicero; A Stratagem of Deception?” in A Thread of Deceit: Espionage Myths of World War II (New York: Random House, 1985).
began to resemble fountains: Paul Seabury, The Wilhelmstrasse, A Study of German Diplomats under the Nazi Regime (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1954).
were evacuated to Silesia: The ministry retreated to Krummhübel (now Karpacz in Poland), in the Riesengebirge, or “mount of giants” region. See Kappa message, December 30, 1943, National Archives.
“soldiers all mixed together”: Unpublished notebooks of Adolphe Jung in the possession of Frank and Marie-Christine Jung, Strasbourg.
was in short supply: The “coal thief,” Kohlenklau, was denounced as a dangerous public enemy.
your civil defense kit: In German, Luftschutzkoffer. In every air raid, Fritz Kolbe put in this case the “hot” documents that he did not want to fall into the wrong hands. Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
Rome, Ulrich von Hassell: Ulrich von Hassell (1881–1944) belonged to the nationalist political persuasion, but he was also one of the strongest opponents of Hitler. German ambassador to Italy from 1932 to 1938, he then took refuge in internal exile and participated in the plot of July 20, 1944. Arrested after the failure of the assassination attempt against Hitler, he was tried by a “People’s Court” and executed on September 8, 1944. His diaries, published in Berlin in 1988, are among the richest and most interesting documents concerning the period.
singing old student songs: Klaus Scholder, Die Mittwochsgesellschaft (Berlin, 1982).
journalist Ursula von Kardorff: Ursula von Kardorff, Berliner Aufzeichnungen (Munich, 1997).
“catastrophe” from their vocabulary: The word “catastrophe” was also eliminated from civil defense vehicles (formerly Katastropheneinsatz), which were now given the label “Emergency Help” (Soforthilfe). This observation comes from Victor Klemperer, who wrote in his diary on December 25, 1943: “The Nazis’ military reserves may be exhausted, their propaganda reserves are far from exhausted.” Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years 1942–1945, tr. Martin Chalmers (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 281.
“which is not likely”: Message from Allen Dulles to John Magruder, November 4, 1943. See also Kappa message, October 27, 1943: “805 is in no position to secure such information without risking his own security and thus causing a stoppage of information.” National Archives.
passed through his hands: Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”
“his family. Merry Christmas!”: This letter is in the National Archives.
to Bern since August: This third visit is reported in particular in the biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
as usual, in advance: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
Messerschmitt 262 were assembled: “About a month and a half ago production on a new fighter plane, having a top speed of almost 1000 kilometers an hour, was begun. Reports on this plane by Gallant, leading test pilot in the Reich, were enthusiastic.” Kappa message, December 30, 1943, National Archives. The Messerschmitt Me-262 in question here was flown for the first time in July 1942. It was the first operational jet plane in history. Hitler had it presented to him in December 1943 and asked whether the plane could carry bombs (he was dreaming of a fast bomber). But the Luftwaffe pilots needed a fighter plane. Hitler prohibited this two-engine jet from being used as anything but a light bomber. The plane might have modified the course of the end of the conflict, but it was a victim of Hitler’s obsession with offensive materiel to the neglect of defensive armaments. Source: Philippe Ballarini.
was traveling in Belgium: Debriefing of Fritz Kolbe on the night of December 27, 1943, OSS Bern, National Archives.
bombed in August 1943: Kappa message, January 1, 1944, National Archives.
“fighting alongside the Nazis”: Kappa message, October 11, 1943.
“military developments from HQ”: Kappa message, October 13, 1943.
than seven hundred tons: Kappa message, January 7, 1944.
shipped to Germany: Kappa message, January 8, 1944.
“he take a rest”: Kappa message, October 20, 1943. The Japanese were very well informed about the Soviet Union. Fritz Kolbe transmitted several messages about Russia coming from Tokyo, notably a very precise evaluation of Russian military potential made by the Japanese (November 1943).
“Guarantee our borders?”: The cables about Bulgaria, Rumania, and Hungary are in the National Archives.
of a “militia state”: On the notion of “militia state,” see Jean-Pierre Azéma and Olivier Wieviorka, Vichy 1940–1944 (Paris: Perrin, 2000). In December 1943, Himmler demanded that René Bousquet be dismissed and replaced by the head of the Milice, Joseph Darnand. Bousquet was criticized, among other things, for having allowed the underground to develop.
part of the Germans: The following peopl
e were designated as suspect: Bernard Ménétrel, Jean Jardel, General Campet, and Lucien Romier. Kappa message, January 16, 1944 and Boston document no. 91, National Archives.
for influence against Pétain: Boston document no. 1067.
“Pétain’s group of associates”: Boston document no. 91.
“national stagnation and reaction”: Kappa message, January 8, 1944.
of a continuous increase: “Statistics for November 1943 (with the figures for November 1942 in parentheses); assassinations: 195 (15), destruction of rail lines: 293 (24), acts of sabotage using explosives: 443 (56), cable cutting: 48 (10), criminal arson: 94 (32).” National Archives.
former minister, Lucien Lamoureux: Lucien Lamoureux (1888–1970) represented the Allier department between the wars. He was a minister several times, of the budget (1933), of labor (1933–34), of colonies (1934), and of finance (1940). He voted in favor of granting full authority to Marshal Pétain.
such as Henri Ardant: On Henri Ardant, see Renaud de Rochebrune and Jean-Claude Hazéra, Les Patrons sous l’Occupation (Paris: Odile Jacob, 1995), pp. 693–722. Henri Ardant, as president of the Comité d’organisation des banques, was the principal spokesman for French private banks to the Germans and Vichy. He was convicted at the Liberation and spent thirteen months in prison from November 1944 to December 1945.
Yves Bréart de Boisanger: At the liberation of Paris in August 1944, the provisional government of General de Gaulle dismissed Yves Bréart de Boisanger from his post and replaced him with Emmanuel Monick. See Annie Lacroix-Riz, Industriels et banquiers sous l’Occupation (Paris: Armand Colin, 1999).
Marie Bell, Béatrice Bretty: Marie Bell (1900–85) was known primarily for her major roles in the theater (Phèdre at the Comédie-Française), but she also acted on screen (Carnet de Bal, Le Grand Jeu).
A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich: The Extraordinary Story of Fritz Kolbe, America's Most Important Spy in World War II Page 31