Chapter 3
place of relative freedom: The meetings in the Café Kottler were described by Fritz to an American journalist who interviewed him after the war. Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”
“association” created by fritz klobe:: “The Story of George.”
work for the Wehrmacht: The Walter Girgner company, established in 1932, still exists (Trumpf Blusen, Munich). It is now one of the largest shirtmakers in Europe.
of a confirmed bachelor: “In Berlin, I met up again with my friends from the youth movements. It was as though we had never been apart. All my friends, except for two, had the same political convictions that I did. Some of them were virulent anti-Nazis who wanted to take action…. One of them lost his post in the Berlin city administration, two others were sentenced to two- and three-year terms in concentration camps. Another, who was arrested while working on a clandestine printing press, hanged himself in prison.” Autobiographical document, May 15, 1945.
explained after the war: “The Story of George.” The phrase can also be found in the autobiographical document of May 15, 1945, and in the document written by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
“Hitler and the party”: Based on “Es geht alles vorüber / es geht alles vorbei,” a famous song by Fred Raymond, a popular Viennese composer of the 1920s, who also wrote “I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg.” Memorandum of August 19, 1943, OSS Bern, National Archives, College Park.
at certain late hours: The episode of the anonymous letters is narrated in detail in “The Story of George,” as well as in the biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
“Among craven humankind”: Excerpt from the song of the knights, Wallenstein’s Camp by Schiller, tr. Charles Passage (New York: Ungar, 1958), p. 40. Schiller’s songs in the Café Kottler are mentioned in the biographical document of Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
“devil take them!”: Ibid.
“general of all time”: In German: Grösster Feldherr aller Zeiten or Gröfaz.
superiors, in professional terms: Allen Dulles later wrote that Kolbe’s “employers have an excellent opinion of him.” Letter from Allen Dulles to OSS headquarters in Washington, October 30, 1943, National Archives.
“have been a Nazi!”: Fritz Kolbe said that he had “continually been asked to join the party.” “The Story of George.” “The Nazis would have liked George to join them—they desired energetic men in their ranks—but George refused…. Again and again the Nazis tried to get him into their organization.” Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”
to by his superiors: “During the day he worked hard at his official post, even on Sundays. Only if his activity was considered outstanding could he keep exempt from military service.” “The Story of George.”
father of the Reformation: On Martin Luther, see his portrait in Hans-Jürgen Döscher, Die Braune Elite (Darmstadt, 1999), v. 2, pp. 179–91.
visas for foreign traveclass="underline" Fritz Kolbe worked for Martin Luther and the “German” department until the summer or winter of 1940 (the dates differ according to available documents). Curriculum vitae prepared after the war (undated) and biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
extensive list of contacts: Martin Luther had managed to avoid legal trouble after involvement in some murky affairs when he was a municipal councilor in Zehlendorf (a Berlin district) shortly after Hitler’s accession to power. Döscher, Die Braune Elite.
away, on Rauchstrasse: It was Martin Luther who represented the Foreign Ministry at the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, where a dozen high officials brought together by Reinhard Heydrich agreed in the course of an hour and a half on the practical organization of the “final solution.” In Ribbentrop’s name, Martin Luther secured agreement that all measures concerning Jews outside the borders of the Reich (for example, in occupied France) would require close cooperation with the Foreign Ministry, which would consequently have veto power over the question. It never made use of that power. Beginning in March 1942, Martin Luther organized, with Adolf Eichmann, the deportation of the Jews of France. Döscher, Das Auswärtige Amt im Dritten Reich; Christopher Browning, The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland, 1940–43 (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1978).
“Jewish race in Europe”: “Annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe”: expression used by Adolf Hitler in a speech to the Reichstag in Berlin, January 30, 1939.
and a “Russian desk”: The “Jewish desk” had been established within a few months of the Nazi accession to power, while the ministry was still headed by Constantin von Neurath. Döscher, Das Auswärtige Amt im Dritten Reich.
then a French protectorate: The “Madagascar plan” was an old idea that had been revived in Poland in the early 1930s. The French Popular Front authorities had also thought about it (there was a fear in Paris of being submerged by Jewish immigration from Germany). The plan had also been defended by the English, who wanted to do everything to prevent German Jews from going to Palestine. With the Blitzkrieg victory over France in 1940, Germany contemplated a radical version of the plan: the expulsion of French citizens living there would have made possible the establishment of German control over the island, intended to become a large ghetto. Administration of the island was to be turned over to Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. In the Foreign Ministry, Franz Rademacher worked in close collaboration with Adolf Eichmann, head of the “Jewish desk” of department IV of the RSHA (the Gestapo). Döscher, Das Auswärtige Amt im Dritten Reich.
“the first to disappear”: Biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe.
the game of chess: Autobiographical document, May 15, 1945. Fritz Kolbe’s passion for chess is also mentioned in the article by Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”
the most hardened Nazis: Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”
“waves kiss the beach?”: Words from a popular song composed by a Pomeranian poet, Martha Mueller, in 1907.
corridors of the ministry: The circumstances of this first meeting with Maria Fritsch are set out in the biographical document by Gerald Mayer and Fritz Kolbe; also in a document by Maria Fritsch (October 1972), Gudrun and Martin Fritsch collection, Berlin. See also Morgan, “The Spy the Nazis Missed.”
Sauerbruch was a great doctor : Ferdinand Sauerbruch was born in 1875. His career began before the First World War. In 1928, he was appointed director of the prestigious surgical service of the Charité hospital in Berlin. He was a prominent figure in German public life. A volatile and authoritarian personality, he took part in the great political debates of the time. His relationship with Nazism was ambiguous.