Gaining a foothold -- Rising star -- Intelligence man -- Office VI and its forerunner -- Competing visions: Office VI and the Abwehr -- Doing intelligence: Italy as an example -- Alternative universes: Office VI and the Auswärtige Amt -- Schellenberg, Himmler, and the quest for "peace"--Postwar

"In the early thirties Hitler concluded that to achieve his ambitions of power in Europe, absolute control must be established within Germany. He entrusted this task to Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, who decided that he needed a small intelligence unit within the SS to monitor Nazi Party members and also anti-Nazi factions. The Nazi SS Security Service, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) was formed for that purpose. It was created by Reinhard Heydrich and under his dedicated, methodical and ruthless hand it grew into one of the most professional and dangerous espionage services in the world. SS Intelligence traces its early beginnings, its struggle against underfunding and the rival organisations--to its triumphs across Europe, including the successful operation of spies in Allied countries. Of particular interest is a series of events that took place in the late summer of 1940 when the exiled Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson were targeted by Hitler as potential allies in his battle to overcome Britain's determination to fight. An elaborate plan was hatched to snatch the ex-royal couple from Portugal before they departed by sea across the Atlantic. It is a fascinating episode involving Hitler's agents, Spain, Portugal, Churchill and the British Secret Service. This book reveals many new facts and gives insights that will fascinate every student of Hitler's Third Reich--and the spying game."--Dust jacket.

Drawing heavily on recently declassified sources, this examination of German wartime intelligence services traces the logistical and strategic expansion of the Third Reich's foreign covert operations in World War II. Beginning with the changes introduced to counteract institutional neglect, the author describes attempts to penetrate both neutral and adversarial nations outside territories occupied by the Wehrmacht. The Nazis created covert teams for counterintelligence and penetrating border defenses. Strategies were formed for assembling saboteur divisions in North and South America, while data were gathered on industrial installations to target. American fascist movements of the 1930s are discussed, along with Nazi sabotage missions in the United States and intelligence penetrations and domestic collusion in Latin America.

The fascinating true story of a German bureaucrat who worked secretly with the Allies during World War II. In 1943 a young official from the German foreign ministry contacted Allen Dulles, an OSS officer in Switzerland who would later head the Central Intelligence Agency. That man was Fritz Kolbe, who had decided to betray his country after years of opposing Nazism. While Dulles was skeptical, Kolbe’s information was such that he eventually admitted, “No single diplomat abroad, of whatever rank, could have got his hands on so much information as did this man; he was one of my most valuable agents during World War II.” Using recently declassified materials at the US National Archives and Kolbe’s personal papers, Lucas Delattre has produced a “disturbing and riveting biography” that moves with the swift pace of a Le Carré thriller (Booklist). “A richly detailed and well-crafted account of one of America’s most valuable German spies.” —Library Journal

Spying for the Fuhrer is the story of German intelligence agencies leading up to and during World War II. From the fledgling beginnings of the Nazi SA, or Stormtroopers, grew an espionage machine to rival any in the world. The words SD, Abwehr and Gestapo are some of the most evocative words associated with the war, and all these were German intelligence units. Tasked with suppressing internal unrest, planting agents abroad to gather intelligence or sabotage, the Third Reich's espionage machinery had a long reach. Spying for the Fuhrer is a detailed examination of all the varied facets of the Nazi intelligence apparatus, ranging from the dreaded Gestapo,the daring Brandenburg battalions through to the SD under the Central Security Service of the Reich. The book examines the history of each unit, its formation, the missions, and its importance in the war as a whole. It also explores the nature of the myths and mysteries that have grown up around the German intelligence agencies, with rumours of their activities still rife over 60 years after the defeat of the Third Reich. Similarly, it explores the rivalry rife throughout the intelligence community, and analyzes the effect that this had in damaging Germany's intelligence, especially the rivalry between Canaris, head of the Abwehr, and the SS intelligence service.1)

During the Nazi regime in Germany, all police forces were centralised under the command of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. The political police (Gestapo), the criminal police (Kripo), and the security service (SD) were all brought together under the RSHA umbrella in 1939, commanded by SS-General Reinhard Heydrich. Using RSHA in Berlin as the centre, the web of Heydrich’s control extended into every corner of Nazi-occupied Europe. British and American intelligence agencies tried to get to grips with RSHA departments at the end of the war, knowing who was who and what they did, relying on what captured RSHA personnel told them along with intercepted documentation. To provide Allied intelligence officers in the field with accurate knowledge, the Counter Intelligence War Room (CIWR) was established to provide this information and list further Gestapo, Kripo, SD, and Abwehr officials to be arrested and interrogated. The informative CIWR reports used here give a precise examination of the RSHA by department, some detailing how Nazi jealousies and rivalries were more helpful to the Allied war effort than the Nazi cause - a portrayal of how Nazi Intelligence agencies went wrong.

This publication joins two cryptologic history monographs that were published separately in 1989. In part I, the author identifies and presents a thorough account of German intelligence organizations engaged in clandestine work in South America as well as a detailed report of the U.S. response to the perceived threat. Part II deals with the cryptographic systems used by the varioius German intelligence organizations engaged in clandestine activities.