Lucas Delattre - A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich

were infested with snakes: German Federal Archives, Koblenz, Rudolf Pechel file, correspondence with Fritz Kolbe, April 1954.

$250 a month: The contract is in the personal archives of Fritz Kolbe.

what he could do: Peter Sichel, interview, Bordeaux, December 1, 2001.

that of Fritz Kolbe: See the illustrated volume 100 Jahre Auswärtiges Amt (1870–1970 ), published by the German Foreign Ministry in 1970, and Widerstand im auswärtigen Dienst, published by the ministry in 1994. The names of the martyrs of July 20, 1944 engraved in marble in the ministry were (and remain) the following: Albrecht Graf von Bernstorff, Eduard Brücklmeier, Hans-Bernd von Haeften, Ulrich von Hassell, Otto Kiep, Herbert Mumm von Schwarzenstein, Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg, Adam von Trott zu Solz, Herbert Gollnow, Richard Kuenzer, and Hans Litter, to which was added a few years later Rudolf von Scheliha. All these diplomats were executed between 1942 and 1945.

list of the “just”: Ludwig Biewer, director of archives for the Foreign Ministry.

to his friend intolerable: “The ironic result of the story is that a valiant patriot could have been considered a traitor to his country, when he really was one of the few who helped that in the decisive moments of German history a responsible American set of politicians could stop the Morgenthau policy and back Germany against Soviet Russia’s domination.” Ernst Kocherthaler, “The Background of the George Story.”

years left to live: Ernst Kocherthaler died in Bern on September 6, 1966.

suspicions weighing on him: Letter from Eugen Gerstenmaier, March 10, 1965, personal archives of Fritz Kolbe.

to me my honor: Letter from Fritz Kolbe to Ernst Kocherthaler, January 10, 1965, personal archives of Fritz Kolbe.

February 16, 1971 in Bern: “He did not die peacefully,” says his son, who was present for his last moments in a Bern hospital. His last words were to ask his son whether he “had been a good father.” His estate, inventoried by a Bern notary, included among assets 47,746 Swiss francs, a 1968 Opel Commodore GS, and a guitar. Fritz Kolbe’s personal indebtedness amounted to 7882 Swiss francs.

director of the CIA: Richard M. Helms (1913–2002) was director of the CIA from 1966 to 1973. A former journalist, he had covered the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games for United Press and had interviewed Hitler. He joined the OSS in 1943 and continued his career in the CIA after the war. He succeeded Allen Dulles as chief of American intelligence in Germany after October 1945. After his return to Washington, Allen Dulles asked him to handle Fritz Kolbe’s immigration file between 1947 and 1949. He was appointed director of the CIA in 1966 under the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. In 1977, after refusing to testify before Congress on the role of the CIA in the 1973 coup d’état in Chile, he was given a suspended sentence of two years in prison and fined $2,000. The memoirs of Richard Helms, written in collaboration with William Hood, were published in the United States in the spring of 2003, with the title A Look Over My Shoulder.

in his own country: Unused material for Great True Spy Stories (1967), Allen W. Dulles Papers.

My special thanks go to Peter Kolbe (Sydney), the son of Fritz Kolbe, who welcomed me to his home, opened his father’s archives to me, and answered all my questions. Without him, this book would not have been possible.

I would also like to thank Peter Kolbe for having made available the photographic documents, some of which are reproduced in this book.

Thanks also to: Peter Sichel (New York, Bordeaux), head of the CIA in Berlin after the war, who greatly helped me at all stages of this book.

Hans-Jürgen Döscher (Osnabrück), historian of the German Foreign Ministry, who granted me the benefit of his incomparable knowledge of the German diplomatic administration and its history.

Axel Frohn and Hans-Michael Kloth ( Der Spiegel ), who made me want to write this book.

Philippe Garnier (Denoël, Paris), for his patience and encouragement.

Florence and all the children: Juliette, Jean-Baptiste, Milán, Benjamin, Eléna, and Mateo, for their infinite patience.

George Holoch, for his great translation and his personal dedication to all the details.

For their invaluable testimony, I would also like to thank Gudrun and Martin Fritsch in Berlin, Sylvia and Gerald Roth in Geneva, and Marie-Christine and Frank Jung in Strasbourg. I would like to thank each of them as well for kindly making available important unpublished documents, notably some photographs reprinted here, as well as notes and diaries that were used extensively.

My thanks finally, to all those who have in one way or another made valuable contributions to the writing of this book.

Yves-Marc Ajchenbaum, Paris.

Fabrice d’Almeida, Paris.

Nickie Athanassi, Paris.

Hervé Audibert, Joinville-le-Pont.

Lucienne Bastien, Paris.

Gerhard A. Bayer, Bundesverband Deutscher Eisenbahn-Freunde e. V., Füssen-Weisensee.

Ludwig Biewer, archives of the German Foreign Ministry, Berlin.

Dennis E. Bilger, Harry S. Truman Library.

Antoine and Madeleine Bosshard, Lausanne.

Marie-Françoise Bothorel, Paris.

Daniel Bourgeois, Swiss Federal Archives, Bern.

Greg Bradsher, United States National Archives, College Park.

Pierre Braunschweig, Paris.

Jacques Bureau, Paris.

Marianne Brück, Ottobeuren.

Didier Cantarutti, Paris.

Danielle Delattre, Paris.

Micheline Delattre, Noisy-le-Roi.

Cordelia Dodson-Hood, Washington.

Louis-Marie and Nicole Duchamp, Paris.

Wolfgang U. Eckart, Heidelberg.

Bruce Edwards, Rutland, Vermont.

François Fejtö, Paris.

Louis de Fouchécour, Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Mark Fritz, New York.

François George, Paris.

Alfred Gottwaldt, Museum of Science and Technology, Berlin.

Hélène Gournay, Service pédagogique La Coupole.

Jean-Paul Guilloteau, Paris.

Peter Hantke, August Horch Museum, Zwickau.

A. Herrbach, Sélestat.

Stefan Hausherr, Winterthur.

Christine Herme, Paris.

Ronald Hermsdorf, New Boston, New Hampshire.

William Hood, Amagansett, New York.

Erika von Hornstein, Berlin.

Brigitte Kaff, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Sankt Augustin.

Peter Kamber, Bern.

Dr. Pierre Kehr, Strasbourg.

Professor Klemens von Klemperer, Northampton, Massachusetts.

Karin Kolbe, Sydney.

Ursula Kolbe, Sydney.

August von Kageneck, Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Arnold Kramish, Reston, Virginia.

Dr. Ursula Krause-Schmidt, Studienkreis deutscher Widerstand, Frankfurt.

Dominik Landwehr, Kollbrunn, Switzerland.

Linda Martin, CBS News Productions, New York.

Christof Mauch, Washington.

Gerald M. Mayer, Jr., Newbury, New Hampshire.

Fritz Molden, Vienna.

Beth Montandon, Lausanne.

Professor Dr. Rudolf Morsey, Neustadt.

Melissa Müller, Munich.

David Oxenstierna, Boston.

Anne Perfumo, Paris.

Serge Pétillot-Niémetz, Paris.

Gregor Pickro, German Federal Archives, Koblenz.

Tom Polgar, Maitland, Florida.

Norbert Prill, Strasbourg and Bonn.

Rudolf J. Ritter, Grub, Switzerland.

Constantin Roman, London.

Francis Rosenstiel, Strasbourg.

Olivier Rubinstein, Paris.