The Tangled Web: Retaking the Nazi Diamonds

By A. L. Provost

In Germany in the early 1930s the Nazis began rounding up Jews and other undesirables for deportation to concentration camps. The most expensive diamonds were confiscated from these prisoners and shipped to a large collection center south of Berlin.

Thirty-six Jewish concentration camp jewelers are assigned the task of appraising these gemstones, that would be used as collateral for Hitlers prosecution of the war.

A Yank, a Brit and a band of German patriots devise an audacious scheme to retake the greatest concentration of diamonds in the world. The plans success is threatened, however, when the groups leader suspects a traitor in their midst, turning the mission into a tangled web of intrigue and betrayal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 13, 2007
• ISBN: 9781465331137

A. L. Provost

The author, an attorney and optometrist, resides outside Atlanta with his wife Evelyn, an attorney, their four talented children having gone on to careers in Optometry, real estate and teaching. In May 1961 the author received an undergraduate degree in Physics-Mathematics from Berry College, and in July of that year enlisted in the U. S. Army. He served two tours of duty in South Korea, the last with U. S. Army Intelligence as a Korean linguist and prisoner interrogator. In 1972 Dr. Provost was awarded the degree of Doctor of Optometry from the University of Houston, and in 1980 earned a Juris Doctor degree from Nova Southeastern University College of Law. Dr. Provost is the author of the best-selling memoir, Reflections in an Orphan’s Eye, The Puppeteer, a mystery novel of the wartime South, and thirteen other mystery novels.

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Copyright © 2007 by A.L. Provost.

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Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Mission Impossible?

Chapter 2

The Meddlesome Hausfrau

Chapter 3

The U-Boat Commanders’ New Friend

Chapter 4

Three Dozen Lucky Jews

Chapter 5

The Luftwaffe Pilot’s Aches and Pains

Chapter 6

The Greed of Erhard Kleist

Chapter 7

The Making of an American Spy

Chapter 8

Major Dietrich’s Inglorious End

Chapter 9

Neutralizing Helene Schellenberg

Chapter 10

A Daunting Challenge Indeed

Chapter 11

The Traitor Meets the Prostitute

Chapter 12

Killing Two Birds . . .

Chapter 13

The Wedding Anniversary Gift

Chapter 14

The Eagle’s Nest and Beyond

Chapter 15

The Bold Misdirection

Chapter 16

Day of Reckoning—Night of Decisions

Chapter 17

Winners and Losers

Chapter 18

The Reichsfuhrer Lands on His Feet

Epilogue

From the American Heritage Dictionary, Third Edition

Tangled:   Complicated and difficult to unravel.

Web:   Something intricately contrived, especially something that ensnares or entangles.

Prologue

The April 2007 issue of the Jewish Political Studies Review, a journal published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, reported that only one-fifth of the property stolen from Europe’s Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators has ever been returned, leaving at least $115 billion in assets still missing. This property includes stolen real estate, investments, businesses and household items, a category that includes jewelry and diamonds. The Nazis maintained records of many of these confiscated household items, as shown by the following.

The following excerpt is from The Holocaust, by Martin Gilbert, p. 581:

The killing and deportation of Jews had continued to enrich the German Reich. On May 13 Hans Frank sent Himmler a list of the ‘utilization of Jewish concealed and stolen goods’ in the General Government. Up to April 30, Frank reported, 94,000 men’s watches, 33,000 women’s watches, 25,000 fountain pens, and 14,000 propelling pencils had been delivered to Germany. Men’s watches were being distributed to the combat troops, to the submarine service, and to concentration camp guards. The 5,000 watches ‘of most expensive Swiss make’, those in gold or platinum cases, or partly fitted with precious stones, were either to go to the Reichsbank ‘for melting down’, or were to be retained ‘for special use’.

But what happened to all the diamonds?

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Chapter 1

Mission Impossible?

In March 1941 the German government, that had become a de facto Nazi government, converted a large airplane hangar situated near a Luftwaffe air base thirty miles south of Berlin into a so-called collection center, under the control of the War Materiel Management arm of the German High Command. The plain sign above the outside door of the hangar was made of wood, painted a glossy white, and measured six feet long by two feet high. COLLECTION CENTER was printed in thin black letters on the sign, that was positioned about ten feet above the office entrance door of the hangar.

A year later the nondescript monolith appeared just as it had the day the sign was bolted to its outer wall. From the outside, that is. However, the wheels of not a single aircraft had ever made their imprint across the spotless hangar floor, that covered an area equivalent to an American football field.

In the interim the cavernous hangar, that stood as high as a four story building, had been transformed into a heavily-guarded, three-story brick and iron fortress.

The three-tiered storage center was crisscrossed with a maze of narrow walkways. Each large storage room was numbered. A-13 stood for storage room number 13 on the first level and C-9 stood for storage room number 9 on the third level.

Two rooms on the first level had signs above the door that announced Key Room 1 and Key Room 2. These rooms were controlled by Guard Unit 1 and Guard Unit 2 respectively. Soldiers of Guard Unit 1 wore tan uniforms, and those of Guard Unit 2 were dressed in light gray.

The heavy steel door to each storage unit was equipped with two large deadbolt-type locks. Two keys, one from each key room, were required to gain access to any room in the security complex.

The Collection Center’s spacious headquarters room was located at the east end of the hangar. Access to this room was made through both an outside entrance and an entrance that opened onto the storage complex. A third door inside the hangar led to a large, well-lighted room called the Appraisal Room.

Therefore access to the Appraisal Room could be gained only by going through the headquarters room. At all times, day and night, two armed guards stood at parade rest at the entrance to the Appraisal Room. One guard wore a tan uniform, and the other was dressed in light gray.

Accountants’ ledgers hung on toggle chains along one wall of the headquarters room, one ledger for each storage room. A ledger missing from its designated place on the wall indicated that this particular storage room was in use. A Duty Officer controlled access to the storage area.

The Collection Center’s Master List was stored under lock and key in the Duty Officer’s large desk. Only the Duty Officer was allowed to make entries in the Master List Ledger.

Each page of the Master List contained two columns. The left column listed each storage room, e.g., A-14, B-12, C-19, etc. The corresponding right column contained the actual map location that was the origin of the contents of that particular storage room, along with the inclusive dates during which the contents of the storage room had been collected.

The spacious, well-lighted Appraisal Room accommodated three white-painted wooden benches, each approximately forty feet long, partitioned into work areas. Therefore one appraiser could not see his fellow appraisers on either side of his work station, nor view the contents of the work being performed by his fellow workers.

The items to be appraised were tagged individually and placed in a tray on the table in front of the appraiser. The tag for each item contained the numbers 1, 2 and 3, allowing room to record three appraisals as required in the Procedures Manual.

The thirty-six appraisers arrived at the Collection Center by bus at 7:00 a.m. Each appraiser was assigned to a specific work station. White wooden trays containing the items to be appraised were then placed on the table before each of the twelve appraisers on the first row of appraisers.

When the appraiser had determined his estimate of the value of the items in the tray and had recorded the estimates on the line marked No.1 on the tags attached to the items, he placed the tray at the front edge of his table. A guard picked up this tray and placed it on the table before the appraiser sitting directly behind the first appraiser. This second appraiser made his own appraisal of the items in the tray and recorded these figures on the lines marked No. 2 on the tags attached to the items.

The trays that contained items with two appraisals were then passed to the third row of the appraisal area, and there each tag was examined. If the difference in the appraisals of the item was greater than ten percent, this item was placed in a special tray and delivered to a table where it was appraised for a third time by a master appraiser. If the first two appraisals differed by less than ten percent, the first tag was removed, and a second tag was attached to the item, with the higher of the two appraisals being recorded in the Master Appraisal Ledger.

At day’s end a tally of the appraised value of the items was recorded in the Master Ledger, that was kept locked in the right hand desk drawer of the Collection Center commandant. The appraised items were stored in Storage Room A-1, the largest of the individual storage rooms, that was located adjacent to the commandant’s spacious office.

As an emergency precaution, a second door to Storage Room A-1 led directly into the commandant’s office. Again for security reasons, two keys were required in order to unlock this door. The Collection Center commandant, a captain in the German army, and the Collection Center Manager, a civilian, each kept a key to Storage Room A-1 on his person at all times.

The only civilian working at the Collection Center other than the diamond appraisers was fifty-year-old Konrad Mueller, the Collection Center Manager. He was an employee of the War Materiel Management division of the German High Command. His duties involved supervising the appraisers while they were at work in the appraisal center, and maintaining the ledgers. However Mr. Mueller was not a jeweler, but a bureaucrat who couldn’t tell a carat from a carrot.

Only the Collection Center commandant knew the total value of all the items stored in the Collection Center. And the Collection Center commandant answered to only two persons, who controlled the commandant’s very existence on this earth.

The Source of the Items

Beginning in the early 1930s, tens of thousands of German undesirables, many of them Jews, were ruthlessly driven from their homes and herded like cattle into the protective custody of concentration camps. One goal of such brutal policy was the creation of Jew-free villages in Germany. In the month of October 1933 alone, thousands of Jews were murdered in the Dachau concentration camp. Those unfamiliar with the history of this period tend to assume that the Holocaust was initiated at the beginning of World War II. This was not the case.

In the beginning Jews were driven unannounced from their homes and robbed of whatever valuables they carried on them, including watches, fountain pens, rings, and jewelry.

However as time progressed and the brutality became more systematic, the German soldiers and officers realized that Jews and other non-Germans did not carry their silver, gold and jewelry, that had been handed down as priceless heirlooms from generation to generation, with them, but hid these family treasures in their homes.

The infamous Nuremberg Laws of September 15, 1935, that were signed by Adolf Hitler himself, legalized discrimination against Jews in Germany.

The Nuremberg Laws denied German citizenship to Jews, decreeing that German citizenship could belong only to a national of German or kindred blood. The laws then specifically defined all Jews as not being of German blood. In one swift stroke of his fountain pen, Hitler stripped away from millions of Jews the basic protections of the law, and with it went basic human rights. It happened as they say, just like that.

On October 21, 1938 Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler met secretly with Reinhard Heydrich, who boasted the title of Chief of the Reich Central Security Office. Heydrich realized the vast potential wealth that lay in the homes of Jews throughout Germany. Following this meeting the Fuhrer issued Directive No. 17 to all German armed forces. The main provisions of this edict were as follows:

German soldiers and civilians would be prohibited from taking valuables of any kind from any persons forced from their homes and transported to relocation centers. All such valuables were to be collected by the officer in charge of the deportation, who would forward these collected valuables to a central storage facility south of Berlin. The directive provided that the penalty for such acts of profiteering by German soldiers or civilians was summary public execution. Right then. Right there. No exceptions. No I’m sorry I won’t do it again, Mein Fuhrer.

The second part of the directive provided that at the time of their deportation, the Jews and other undesirables were to be ordered to bring along with them a suitcase containing all their valuables, because they were being transported to a relocation center that was to be their new home. As soon as the prisoners arrived at the relocation centers, their suitcases were immediately taken from them.

On September 1, 1939 the Wehrmacht, the German army, and the Luftwaffe, the German air force, invaded Poland, that bordered Germany on the east. Directive No.17, along with its admonitions against profiteering by German troops, followed the Wehrmacht’s blitzkrieg across the long border into western Poland.

Polish Jews comprised a considerable percentage of the Polish population. At the time of the invasion, nearly 400,000 Jews lived in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Literally for centuries Polish Jews had accumulated the wealth of gold and jewelry passed down to succeeding generations.

During the first month of the invasion alone, dozens of Polish towns and villages were burned to the ground, and their Jewish citizens rounded up and massacred. And in every one of these villages and towns, German soldiers forced the Jews to turn in all their gold, silver, jewelry, watches and fountain pens.

The sheer volume of Jewish wealth collected during the first two months of the Polish occupation amazed the German military authorities. The storage building south of Berlin had been filled, and a second, much larger building was being used as a storage area.

Meeting in a Berlin Café-October 25, 1941

If such vast wealth existed among Jews who lived in small towns and villages in Poland, reasoned the Nazi authorities, then the potential wealth of the 400,000 Jews who lived in the capital of Warsaw must be incredible.

This potential wealth was one of the subjects brought up for discussion at a September 18, 1939 conference held in Berlin, hosted by Hitler’s trusted friend, Chief of the Reich Central Security Office, Reinhard Heydrich. The final plan approved at this meeting called for the concentration of the Jews in cities, i.e., the formation of Jewish ghettos.

Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler answered only to Adolf Hitler. It was Himmler’s duty to keep an overall tally of the wealth confiscated from the Jews. The amount of gold, silver and jewelry seized from the 400,000 Jews that had been forced into the overcrowded Warsaw ghetto alone was staggering.

On October 25, 1941 Reinhard Heydrich telephoned Heinrich Himmler. Reinhard had a problem, and he wished to discuss it with his good friend Heinrich before meeting with the Fuhrer. Because it was a pleasant day, Himmler suggested that they meet for lunch at a popular German café located on Friedrichstrasse, that provided a panoramic view of the beautiful River Spree.

The two men entered the Munich Café and took a table near the rear of the large room. They ordered strong German coffee. Himmler also ordered a large slice of his favorite sweet, Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte, Black Forest cherry cake. Just to be sociable, Heydrich ordered a small slice of Kasekuchen, a popular German cheesecake.

Truth be told, Reinhard Heydrich really did not like Heinrich Himmler. To Heydrich, Himmler was a mousy, insignificant caricature. However Heinrich Himmler was a loyal Nazi, one of Adolf Hitler’s architects of the grand scheme to dominate Europe and Russia. Therefore Reinhard Heydrich, though himself a member of the Fuhrer’s trusted inner circle, was aware of his place in the Berlin pecking order.

The two men engaged in small talk about family and mutual acquaintances. After their coffee and cake were served, Reinhard Heydrich came to the purpose of the meeting.

Heinrich, humor me for a few minutes while we engage in that mindless American parlor game called twenty questions.

Certainly, replied Himmler, not knowing exactly how to respond to such a meaningless request.

Among that class of precious stones, which is the most expensive gem?

Why, I would assume it to be the diamond, answered Himmler.

You are correct my friend, said Heydrich. Now for a question to which neither of us knows the answer. What is the value on the open market of a first-quality, one-carat diamond?

A puzzled Heinrich Himmler paused in thought for a moment, then answered, "I don’t have the slightest idea of the price or value of diamonds, of any quality."

And this is my point, Heinrich, smiled Reinhard Heydrich. I don’t know any more about the value of diamonds than you. However, the amount of diamonds taken from the Jews at the gates of the concentration camps is unbelievable.

What happens to these diamonds?

This is the reason for our meeting here today. Until now these expensive diamonds have been mixed in with all the other jewelry confiscated from the Jews, and sent to the large collection centers near Berlin.

What course of action do you suggest? inquired a suddenly quite interested Heinrich Himmler.

I am not a man who prizes worldly possessions, Heinrich. Owning or wearing expensive jewelry is of no interest to me. However as the war goes on Germany will need all the money it can get to pay for weapons, tanks and airplanes. I learned from my friend Wilhelm Steiner, a jeweler in Munich, two items of interest.

And these are? asked Himmler eagerly.

First of all, the weight of a kilogram of diamonds, regardless of their relative purity, is worth thousands of times more than a kilogram of gold. This is a fact not in dispute among German and Jewish jewelers.

I never imagined that diamonds were so expensive, exclaimed the Fuhrer’s close friend, placing his fork on the table beside his suddenly unwanted slice of Black Forest cherry cake.

"Second, my jeweler friend Wilhelm Steiner estimates that among the population of German and Polish Jews alone, there are several tons of diamonds. It is impossible to even guess the staggering value of such wealth on the world market."

Do you have a plan to accumulate these diamonds at one central location, and to separate the diamonds from the other types of jewelry confiscated from the Jews?

This has already been done, my good friend, responded Reinhard Heydrich. However, we grossly underestimated the value and quantity of the diamonds. In addition the Collection Center has been managed by a civilian employee of the War Materiel Production department, who is not even a jeweler, and a commandant with only the rank of captain. As a result the Collection Center has been operated in a slipshod, unprofessional manner. I intend to rectify this situation.

And how will you accomplish this turnaround? asked Heinrich Himmler.

First I have engaged the services of a master diamond appraiser from Berlin. His name is Erhard Kleist, and he has held the title of president of the Berlin Jewelers Guild for many years.

Do you know Mr. Kleist personally? asked Heinrich Himmler?"

I do not know him at all. I did not ask my friend Wilhelm Steiner to take the position, because with all the millions of Deutsche marks worth of diamonds at stake, I certainly wanted to avoid any accusations by others that one of my friends was involved. I have engaged Erhard Kleist based on his position and his years of experience as a diamond appraiser.

And what about the position of commandant? asked Himmler.

I’ll get to him in a moment, responded Heydrich. "However I first wanted to inform you that we are presently interviewing for the thirty-six positions of diamond appraisers. When we began, there were not enough experienced Jewish appraisers arriving at the relocation centers, so we were obliged to employ German appraisers. This led to a plethora of problems, and has become an intolerable situation."

Just what difficulties have you encountered? asked Heinrich Himmler.

Just to name a few, try expense and dishonesty, replied the obviously frustrated Heydrich.

Expense. The experienced appraisers that we require for accuracy earn more in a week than the average German general. Therefore the experienced appraisers we need are not available.

I understand, replied Himmler, nodding in understanding if not in agreement.

In addition these several dozen appraisers and their families would have to be relocated to the Berlin area. That alone would present a logistics nightmare of ludicrous proportions.

And you mentioned dishonesty? Himmler asked quizzically.

Yes. Shortly after we began the operation on a limited basis, we discovered that several expensive diamonds were missing. We knew there was theft, but with our inadequate chain of custody we never could prove anything.

So how have you tried to solve these problems? asked Himmler.

"We’re talking about a project that potentially could bring not millions but billions of Deutsche marks into the coffers of the Reich. The war is going well for us now, and we all believe Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of Russia) will be a success. However, if this war should turn into a protracted conflict stretching over many years, Germany will certainly need the purchasing power that these diamonds represent."

We are in complete agreement on this point, said Heinrich Himmler. And I certainly appreciate your candor, Reinhard.

I would like to accept credit for the solution to this serious problem, said Heydrich smiling. However the solution to our dilemma practically fell into our laps.

Please explain, urged Heinrich Himmler, slowly placing his fork filled with a large slice of Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte back on his plate, and looking directly at Reinhard Heydrich.

As more resettlement camps have been constructed in eastern Germany and western Poland, and our program of rounding up and deporting the Jews has become more efficient, the pool of Jewish jewelers has increased dramatically. Suddenly we are having great success, and the desired goal of thirty-six Jewish master jewelry appraisers has been reached. They are scheduled to begin their work at the Collection Center south of Berlin sometime near the end of November 1941.

My congratulations, Reinhard, said Heinrich Himmler beaming. The Reichsfuhrer SS lifted his fork to resume his attack on his Black Forest cherry cake, then placed his cake-filled fork back on his plate.

You mentioned a new commandant for the Collection Center? asked Himmler.

"Thanks to the pilot of a Russian Tupolev SB-2 bomber, we have our new commandant of the Collection Center," said Reinhard Heydrich, smiling broadly.

Please enlighten me, my friend, said a puzzled Heinrich Himmler. If these revelations continue, mused the Reichsfuhrer, I’ll never get to eat my cherry cake.

An excited Reinhard Heydrich related to Himmler the story of his childhood friend Colonel Kurt Keitel’s combat injuries on July 14, 1941, and of the colonel’s subsequent months of surgeries and rehabilitation.

Colonel Keitel is presently convalescing at the large military hospital at Wiesbaden, said Heydrich. I have known Kurt since childhood. He is very intelligent and completely trustworthy. He will make an excellent commandant for the Collection Center.

When may we meet with Colonel Keitel? asked Himmler. He seems to be a brave and most interesting person.

I intend to visit him in the Wiesbaden hospital in about a month, sometime toward the end of November. At that time I will mention to him that we may have an opportunity for him after he is released from the hospital.

Will you offer Colonel Keitel the command at that time?

No, Heinrich. I want you to meet Colonel Keitel sometime after the first of the year. I’d like to have your valued input before we decide whether to offer him command of the Collection Center.

I appreciate your consideration in this regard, Reinhard, and I look forward to meeting Colonel Keitel early next year. Now after all that excitement, could you please permit me to finish eating my Black Forest cherry cake? The two friends laughed as Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler picked up his fork for the third time.

Control of Germany

Before and during World War II, Nazi Germany was controlled with an iron fist by four different groups. The mission of the innocuous-sounding German Foreign Office was to plan and carry out acts of sabotage and espionage on foreign soil, including of course the United States.

The dreaded Schutzstaffel, a long German word shortened to SS for the benefit of those troops not intelligent enough to either pronounce or spell Schutzstaffel, was Hitler’s own private army. An SS colonel outranked both a Wehrmacht and a Luftwaffe colonel. And all three of these officers would concur with this statement. Or else.

The Geheime Staatspolizei was responsible for counterespionage activities within the national boundaries of Germany and all occupied countries. The Geheime Staatspolizei was led by Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler, who had appointed his twin SD sadist Reinhard Heydrich as SS liaison to the Geheime Staatspolizei.

Plainclothes operatives of the dreaded Geheime Staatspolizei initially had difficulty getting the attention of frightened Jews upon whose doors they knocked at 3:00 a.m. It was difficult for the guileless homeowner to take seriously the command,

"Open the door! This is the Geheime Staatspolizei!"

Finally some enterprising clerk solved this problem by hortening the tongue-twister Geheime Staatspolizei to Gestapo. Every frightened Jew quickly complied with,

"This is the Gestapo. Open up dammit!"

The Gestapo was actually an arm of the SS. Uniformed troops of the SS and plainclothes officers of the Gestapo possessed carte blanche authority over the very lives of German citizens.

The powerful Abwehr was responsible for military intelligence operations among the various branches of the German army, navy and air force. Frequently there was an overlapping of the duties of the Gestapo and the Abwehr, as both groups were responsible for investigating subversive activities within the German military.

Wilhelm Canaris was born in Alperbeck, Westphalia, Germany on July 1, 1887. During World War I he served with distinction in the German Navy. Admiral Canaris was forty-eight years old when he was appointed head of the Abwehr in 1935.

Admiral Wilhelm Canaris was a proud man. He considered himself to be an honorable and patriotic German. He gladly would have sacrificed his life for his country. And therein lay Wilhelm Canaris’ dilemma.

The admiral, along with thousands of other intelligent, influential and patriotic Germans, both military and civilian, realized that the arrogant Austrian flyspeck named Adolf Hitler was rapidly leading Germany down a path toward destruction. Early on in the war Wilhelm Canaris and other German patriots set out to rectify this gross insult to national pride.

Several groups of plotters shared two deep-seated points of agreement concerning the Fuhrer. First of all Adolf Hitler was well on his way to destroying the traditional German way of life, itself a source, if not the source of national pride, and replacing it in its entirety with a Nazi society. And this could not be tolerated.

The second area of concern shared by the groups of plotters was Adolf Hitler’s dangerous and ambitious plans for European domination. Except that everyone but the arrogant Fuhrer was acutely aware that the Americans never would allow this to happen. President Franklin D. Roosevelt possessed the authority and the will to mobilize twenty million G.I.s, cross the Atlantic and obliterate all of Germany. The Americans didn’t believe in doing just half of the job. Proof of this is shown by the fact that at the end of the war in 1945, America had twelve million troops in uniform.

As the head of the Abwehr, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, ostensibly a close personal friend of the Fuhrer, moved about freely in intelligence circles and occasionally could be seen having lunch in expensive Berlin restaurants with Reinhard Heydrich and Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler. Heydrich and the egotistical Himmler loved to talk shop. And the reserved head of the Abwehr was the best listener in Berlin.

A Conversation Overheard-October 25, 1941

Admiral Canaris’ point man in his contacts with anti-Hitler subversive groups was his trusted aide Colonel Gundar Beck. The thirty-five-year-old commander of a Panzer tank company had lost his right arm to a Russian grenade in the early days of the Battle of Stalingrad. Since that time Colonel Beck had served as the admiral’s aide, confidant and closest friend. The two were destined to either prevail together or perish together.

Hilga Raitsch was a twenty-five-year-old clerk in the Abwehr’s Office of Administration in Berlin. The unmarried blonde beauty possessed the natural sex appeal and come-hither smile of the popular German actress Marlene Dietrich and the personality and shapely body of the American film star Betty Grable.

Hilga Raitsch was an active member of Admiral Canaris’ subversive group. She was also in love with Colonel Gundar Beck, although she was not certain if the feeling was mutual. But she daydreamed of finding out.

Some opportunities come about by searching for them. Others come about purely by chance. October 25, 1941 presented an opportunity of the golden variety. The early winter morning was pleasantly brisk. At 10:00 a.m. Hilga Raitsch, who recently had begun shaving the hair from her underarms a la the American film actresses, was her usual cheerful self as she delivered some papers to the office of Colonel Beck. At the same time Hilga had shaved her underarms, she debated whether to shave the hair from another part of her body. If only she could find out whether Betty Grable and Hedy Lamar shaved down there . . .

As Hilga placed the papers on the corner of Colonel Beck’s desk, she smiled and greeted her heartthrob.

Hilga, we have not had lunch together in more than a month. Will you join me today?

How could I possibly decline your offer? Hilga said smiling. You are a famous war hero, and I am but a mere mortal. They both laughed.

Let’s go, said the colonel. I’ll take you to a nice restaurant.

It was a pleasant day for a stroll along the wide sidewalks of downtown Berlin. Soon they were on busy Friedrichstrasse, and a few minutes later the couple entered through the front door of the popular Munich Café, that offered a panoramic view of the broad and winding River Spree.

As soon as they entered Colonel Beck scanned the customers already seated in the large café. Spotting two familiar officers who were seated with their backs to the front door, the one-armed war hero turned to the blonde beauty.

Do you see who I see, whispered Colonel Beck, nodding his head in the direction of Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler, seated at a table near the rear of the large room.

Yes I do. Should we leave? asked Hilga Raitsch.

Certainly not. Let’s sit at a table close enough to overhear their conversation, but not too close. Quietly order for both of us. When our food comes, let’s eat without talking.

Like we were an old married couple? laughed Hilga the Hopeful quietly.

Colonel Beck and Hilga Raitsch dined in the manner of an old married couple. They overheard quite clearly the entire aforementioned conversation between Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler. When Heydrich and Himmler’s conversation indicated it was time for them to depart, Colonel Beck touched Hilga’s arm and motioned that it was time to go. The colonel left two ten-Deutschemark notes on the table and the couple quickly exited the café.

Let’s return to Abwehr headquarters immediately, said Colonel Beck. As soon as we arrive, sit at your desk and record verbatim the conversation we just overheard. Upon entering the building, Hilga went straightaway to her desk, while Colonel Beck rapped on the closed door of Admiral Canaris’ spacious office. A moment later, Gundar Beck began relating to the admiral a most engrossing conversation.

Following a hushed conference in Admiral Canaris’ office with Colonel Gundar Beck and Hilga Raitsch, the admiral placed a telephone call to a local Berlin bookstore.

Do you have any books on Kaiser Wilhelm in stock? asked Admiral Canaris.

No, but we can order one for you on the life of the Kaiser. Today is Tuesday. You may pick up the book Thursday after 9:00 o’clock.

Thank you, replied the admiral. I’ll have someone pick it up at that time.

The translation of this brief conversation was as follows. The owner of the bookstore in Berlin was a German university professor named Hans Brucker. He was an operative of British Intelligence, and was the contact between British Intelligence and a major German anti-Nazi subversive cell headed by the German patriot, the prosperous Dresden jeweler George Schellenberg.

The reference to Kaiser Wilhelm related to British Intelligence, that operated from a small apartment in the northwestern coastal town of Wilhelmshaven, that during both world wars served as Germany’s most important naval base.

The statement by the Berlin bookstore owner that the anonymous caller, in this case the admiral, could pick up the book requested after 9:00 o’clock, meant 9:00 o’clock at night. The time given as before 9:00 would have meant 9:00 o’clock in the morning. By stating that he would have someone pick up the book, Admiral Canaris meant that Colonel Gunder Beck would be the person meeting with the British agent on Thursday at 9:00 p.m.

History shows that Admiral Canaris was an ingenious and brave member of the opposition to Hitler in Germany. One such well-documented tactical maneuver was concealing his agents by employing them in the Abwehr itself, quite literally hiding his agents in plain sight.

Late that same day, Tuesday, Colonel Beck and his staff car driver Sergeant Gunther started out on the road to Wilhelmshaven.

How many pistols did you bring, Henry? asked Colonel Beck.

Why, two sir, replied the sergeant who, like Colonel Beck was a member of Admiral Canaris’ group. One for you, and one for me, added the sergeant, passing a loaded Luger pistol to the colonel.

Just in case, said Gundar Beck.

Just in case, sir, added the driver.

The two men arrived in Wilhelmshaven late Thursday afternoon, and checked in at a local hotel for a one-night stay. At shortly before 9:00 p.m., both wearing civilian clothes, they entered the crowded café near the docks. They sat at separate tables, and each ordered a strong Dunklesbier. Each man was wearing a warm jacket, and each had a Luger pistol fitted snugly in the waistband beneath his jacket.

At exactly 9:00 p.m. a German naval officer about fiftysome years old entered the café alone. After scanning the room briefly, he ordered a Dunklesbier from a passing waitress and nodded toward the table occupied by Gundar Beck. Colonel Beck stood as the German officer approached, and the men shook hands and sat at the table.

The Naval officer spoke impeccable German. Following a few minutes of small talk, Ralph Thornhill, the British Intelligence agent posing as a German naval officer, listened intently as Gundar Beck related almost word-for-word the Tuesday luncheon conversation between Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler, including the references to the Luftwaffe Stuka pilot Colonel Kurt Keitel.

At the end of the conversation the naval officer said, again in perfect German, "I will pass on the news of your son’s graduation to my