Agency 114

Agency 114 (German: Dienststelle 114),[1][2] was a Cold War era clandestine front of the postwar German intelligence agency Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), which served as the main entrance point for the former Nazis into the field of domestic counter-intelligence, including war criminals active during the Holocaust who have never been brought to justice.[3][4]

Origin

Colonel Reinhard Gehlen, c. 1943

Following the onset of the Cold War, West Germany did not pursue any war criminals for over twenty years. Thousands of them led normal lives often in positions of prominence, power and wealth, protected by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in office from 1949 to 1963.[5][6] Agency 114 was established within the Gehlen Organization soon after World War II. The United States Army, seeking intelligence on activities of the Soviet agents within the American-occupied zone, brought the assignment to Reinhard Gehlen previously in the Wehrmacht,[7] who proceeded to initiate the operation.[4]

Cold War

At the height of the Cold War in the mid 1960s, the agency was merged into the BND, the successor of the Gehlen Org. It was located in Karlsruhe and the Zimmerle & Co. which served as the front, ostensibly specializing in roller blinds. Aside from Soviet counter-intelligence activities, the agency also began monitoring domestic leftists and pacifists.[3]

By this time Agency 114 was headed by Alfred Benzinger nicknamed "der Dicke" (Fatty),[8] a former sergeant of the secret Nazi military police Geheime Feldpolizei. Among the former Nazis who worked in the agency were Konrad Fiebig,[9] and Walter Kurreck.[10]

Operations to whitewash German responsibility for World War II

In 1956 Alfred Benzinger (Abwehrpolizei during World War II) proposed a coordinated action to move the blame away from the German war criminals under various investigations. Benzinger adopted a deceitful term "Polish Concentration Camps" in reference to the Holocaust in occupied Poland and propagated it in popular media. The term was to suggest, contrarily to the facts, that Poles, not Germans, were responsible for the mass genocide during World War II.[4][11][12][13]

Notes

  1. ↑ James H. Critchfield: Partners at the Creation. The Men behind Postwar Germany's Defense and Intelligence Establishments. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press 2003, p. 35. OCLC 493481517
  2. ↑ Timothy Naftali: Reinhard Gehlen and the United States. In: Richard Breitman et.al.: U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis. Cambridge University Press 2005, p. 382. OCLC 803751072
  3. 1 2 Klaus Wiegrefe, "The Nazi Criminals Who Became German Spooks", Der Spiegel. February 16, 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 W.P. (2011). ""Polskie obozy koncentracyjne" wymyśliły niemieckie tajne służby ("Polish death camps" invented by German secret service)". Wręcz Przeciwnie (Internet Archive). Archived from the original on April 25, 2012.
  5. ↑ "About Simon Wiesenthal". Simon Wiesenthal Center. 2013. Section 11. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  6. ↑ Hartmann, Ralph (2010). "Der Alibiprozeß". Den Aufsatz kommentieren (in German). Ossietzky 9/2010. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
  7. ↑ Klaus Eichner, Gotthold Schramm, et al (2007). Angriff und Abwehr: die deutschen Geheimdienste nach 1945, Berlin: Edition Ost (Reinhard Gehlen) p. 42. OCLC 91785168.
  8. ↑ Klaus Eichner, Gotthold Schramm. Angriff und Abwehr. Die deutschen Geheimdienste nach 1945, 2007 - Alfred Benzinger, p. 89.
  9. ↑ Klaus Eichner, Gotthold Schramm. "Angriff und Abwehr. Die deutschen Geheimdienste nach 1945", 2007 - Konrad Fiebig Einsatzkommando 9 der Einsatzgruppe in Witebsk p. 83.
  10. ↑ Klaus Eichner, Gotthold Schramm. Angriff und Abwehr. Die deutschen Geheimdienste nach 1945, 2007 - Walter Kurreck geboren am 25. Juni 1911, ...Sturmbannfuhrer ab 1941 ... p. 127.
  11. ↑ http://dolny-slask.org.pl/3230401,Kto_swiadomie_chce_zrobic_z_katow_ofiary.html
  12. ↑ http://www.dziennik.com/publicystyka/artykul/nigdy-nie-bylo-polskich-obozow-smierci
  13. ↑ Milena Malinowska. ""Polskie obozy" – problem błędnego określenia niemieckich nazistowskich obozów koncentracyjnych i zagłady oraz próby jego rozwiązania". Leszek Pietrzak (2011), Plan »Grubasa« [The »Fatty's« Plan]. Kraków 2012: Polityka zagraniczna Polski. Wybrane zagadnienia i problemy. Pierwsze przypadki błędnych określeń i analiza przyczyn ich pojawienia się. 147–149 / 200 (in digitized form). Leszek Pietrzak w wydaniu tygodnika Wręcz Przeciwnie z 26 września 2011 r. przedstawił teorię, według której termin "polskie obozy" został wymyślony w 1956 r. przez oficerów tajnej zachodnioniemieckiej komórki kontrwywiadowczej "Agencja 114". Autor planu Alfred Benzinger przekonywał, że ta odrobina fałszu pozwoli po latach wybielić historyczną odpowiedzialność Niemiec za zagładę. Source: Wręcz przeciwnie magazine, Nr 1/2011, L. Pietrzak, Plan »Grubasa«.

References

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