German Diplomat Fritz Kolbe

[colt45s]

A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich: The Extraordinary Story of Fritz Kolbe, America's Most Important Spy in World War II
Product Category : Books
ISBN : 0871138794
Title : A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich: The Extraordinary Story of Fritz Kolbe, America's Most Important Spy in World War II
Authors : Lucas Delattre
Binding : Hardcover
Publisher : Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication Date : 2004-10-16
Pages : 320
List Price (MSRP) : 24.00
Height : 1.3000 inches
Width : 6.4000 inches
Length : 9.1000 inches
Weight : 1.2500 pounds
Keywords : Holocaust, General, Intelligence & Espionage
Condition : Good

[colt45s]

Fritz Kolbe (September 25, 1900 - February 16, 1971) was a German diplomat who became America's most important spy against the Nazis in World War II.


[edit] Career
Fritz Kolbe was employed as a junior diplomat by the German foreign ministry before World War II and had postings to Madrid and Cape Town, but his refusal to join the Nazi party led him to be assigned lowly clerical work in Berlin from 1939. He was influenced by the anti-Nazi surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch and around November 1941, became determined to actively help defeat the Nazis.

It was not until 1943, however, that an opportunity arose when a fellow anti-Nazi in the ministry reassigned him to higher grade work as a diplomatic courier. On 19 August 1943, he was entrusted to travel to Berne in Switzerland with the diplomatic bag. While there, he tried to offer mimeographed secret documents to the British embassy. They rebuffed his approach, so he went to the Americans, who decided to take a chance on him. By 1944, they realised they had an agent of the highest quality. He was given the code name "George Wood". His US intelligence handler was Office of Strategic Services agent Allen Welsh Dulles. Altogether, by the end of the war, he passed along 2,600 documents. He was later described by the CIA as the most important spy of the war.

He provided details of:

German expectations of the site of the D-day landings,
V-1 and V-2 rocket programs,
the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter,
Japanese plans in Southeast Asia,
exposure of a German agent, Elyesa Bazna, working as a butler in the British embassy in Ankara.
Kolbe’s reporting on the mood in Berlin and character analysis was particularly prized by the Americans, according to James Srodes, author of Allen Dulles: Master of Spies. "The information he brought, plus his personal insights were unique and powerful and intensely valuable," Srodes said.

In 1949, Kolbe tried to settle in the U.S., but could not find suitable work. In 1951, he unsuccessfully applied to return to work for the German Foreign Office, the AA. Kolbe finally found a living as a representative of an American power-saw manufacturer.

Fritz Kolbe died of cancer in Bern in 1971.

[colt45s]

FEW visitors to Berlin's vast concrete and glass foreign ministry building take much notice of the brass plate bearing the name Fritz Kolbe, affixed just three weeks ago to the door of one of its elegant wood-panelled conference rooms. Most Germans have never heard of Fritz Kolbe.

[pasoleati]

To me backstabbing moles (of ANY nation) like Fritz Kolbe are the scum of the world. Too bad he wasn´t hung (slowly) like traitors should be.

[Bcarver]

btt

Pasoleati, I have to agree. Spies are lowly and when they betray their nation so another can gain something, they are not "hero's" but indeed traitors.

[Paul Giva]

To me backstabbing moles (of ANY nation) like Fritz Kolbe are the scum of the world. Too bad he wasn´t hung (slowly) like traitors should be.

Oh, really? So a guy that despised the Nazi regime and wished to aid in its demise, is scum? He is a hero in my book. He was doing what he thought was in the best interest of the German people, which, as it correctly turned out, was to act against the Nazi regime.

[Paul Giva]

Pasoleati, I have to agree. Spies are lowly and when they betray their nation so another can gain something, they are not "hero's" but indeed traitors.

I'm surprised that you agree with Herr Quisling, aka Pasoleati! Given your handle and your avatar, I thought you would have supported Kolbe's duplicitous actions.

[pasoleati]

You don´t get it. Kolbe was was a German citizen, hence ANY wartime activity against the German government for ANY reason is a treason and backstabbing behaviour. An individual citizen has absolutely NO legal right to choose whether or not a government is to his liking in wartime. Just like an individual soldier must never be allowed to question orders in combat, if an army is to maintain discipline.

Second, for me the very act of betrayal is a vile one. How would you react if your long term friend would later prove to be your worst enemy who has used your friendship to undermine you and your interests?

If Kolbe despised the regime so much, he should have acted openly and taken to arms and put his money where his mouth is. Instead, he chose the sniveler´s way.

[Anthony N]

You don´t get it. Kolbe was was a German citizen, hence ANY wartime activity against the German government for ANY reason is a treason and backstabbing behaviour. An individual citizen has absolutely NO legal right to choose whether or not a government is to his liking in wartime. Just like an individual soldier must never be allowed to question orders in combat, if an army is to maintain discipline.

Second, for me the very act of betrayal is a vile one. How would you react if your long term friend would later prove to be your worst enemy who has used your friendship to undermine you and your interests?

If Kolbe despised the regime so much, he should have acted openly and taken to arms and put his money where his mouth is. Instead, he chose the sniveler´s way.

Please can't you peddle your theories of hatred somewhere other than the book & media forum, you would be most welcome in Die Knieppe.
Schindler was not vile & despicable, the people who hid Jews including the Frank family were not vile, it was the Nazi's who were vile.
If you really believe that a citizen should be happy to live with & even be a part of mass murder on an industrial scale just because they happen to live in a dictatorship because of their place of birth then you are clearly insane.
We should all be willing to oppose hatred & racism, not uphold it if because we happen to be born into it.

[Paul Giva]

If you really believe that a citizen should be happy to live with & even be a part of mass murder on an industrial scale just because they happen to live in a dictatorship because of their place of birth then you are clearly insane.

Unfortunately our hobby has not a short supply of such folk.

[pasoleati]

Please can't you peddle your theories of hatred somewhere other than the book & media forum, you would be most welcome in Die Knieppe.
Schindler was not vile & despicable, the people who hid Jews including the Frank family were not vile, it was the Nazi's who were vile.
If you really believe that a citizen should be happy to live with & even be a part of mass murder on an industrial scale just because they happen to live in a dictatorship because of their place of birth then you are clearly insane.
We should all be willing to oppose hatred & racism, not uphold it if because we happen to be born into it.

So this is how much you value freedom of speech? Anyone having an opinion you disagree with is automatically insane?

As for hatred and racism, has it ever occurred to you that mr. Kolbe and his likes aided and abetted a certain Stalin and his regime, very much a dictatorship engaged in mass murder on an industrial scale? And by the way, is mass murder on non-industrial scale more acceptable to you since you emphasized the "industrial" so strongly?

Or has it ever occurred to you that mr. Kolbe aided a nation that wiped out hundreds of unique cultures in the name of Bible and profit, mercilessly slaughtering millions of people in the process? A nation that has never even admitted that it ever conducted a war of extermination and ethnic cleansing, let alone being punished for it. That nation is called the USA. Or is killing Indians more acceptable than killing Jews?

And has it ever occurred to you that the all time master of hate propaganda represented Stalin (whom Kolbe helped)? His name was Ilya Ehrenburg whom one Finnish communist, Matti Rossi, hailed as "the master of European Jewish culture".

[Paul Giva]

Or has it ever occurred to you that mr. Kolbe aided a nation that wiped out hundreds of unique cultures in the name of Bible and profit, mercilessly slaughtering millions of people in the process? A nation that has never even admitted that it ever conducted a war of extermination and ethnic cleansing, let alone being punished for it. That nation is called the USA. Or is killing Indians more acceptable than killing Jews?

Nice spin. Do you really want to pick a fight? You do realize that this is an American administered board, save for some of the mods, and we don't take kindly to allegations of the sort you have just levied.

[pasoleati]

So you are saying that e.g. Wounded Knee did not take place? Or that all land within the US borders are still legally owned by Indians? Or that Andrew Jackson didn´t attempt to slaughter Seminoles because they dared to offer sanctuary to escaped slaves? Or that smallpox infected blankets were not distributed to Indians to kill them (at least one incident)? That is use of WMD. Or that money wasn´t paid for Apache scalps? Or that the bisons were not killed to deprave plains Indians´ food (war crime*, by the way)? Or that Kit Carson´s troops did not destropy wells and crops in their campign against the Navajo (another war crime*, btw)?

*e.g. poisoning wells or destrying them by another means or destruction of crops are war crimes by current standards.

[colt45s]

I think someone that fights for what he believes in even if he may have his throat cut anytime is a hero,, there were 15 atemps on Hitler's life... everyone didn't think he was right.. After Stailingrad ,, Albert Speer wasn't happy,, others said they were because of FEAR!

[Bcarver]

btt

Gentlemen, I don't know what came over me..I lost my PC for a momemt. You are quite correct, bad, evil=nazi's. There can be NO DEBATE EVER. My Grandfather who was in the war told me how the nazis mowed down millions upon millions of Europes finest, bayoneted Russian babies, destroyed priceless arts so we wouldn't be able to enjoy them, killed God's chosen people, tried to take over the world so they could kill all non blonde/blue people, and to top it off started a world war just to see how many people they could kill. So this Kolbe is a good egg in my book. Anyone who helped the all lies defeat their own country is awesome. I should hope we would all be so inclined to help our enemies win a war if we think our leaders are bad. What a hero.