Hitler's Lost Spy (17 page)

Also, what did she have to lose in requesting the interview? From what
she
knew, there was nothing to lose. It's what she didn't know that brought her down and booked her passage back to Madagascar.

FOOTNOTES

14
 The correct spelling is Hedinger.

The sole official record of Annette Wagner for the period following her CIB interview until her departure from Sydney in late January 1940 is an
Alien Application
for Registration
form issued on 16 January 1940. The application lists a new address for Annette, Barncleuth Square, in the harbour-side inner Sydney suburb of Elizabeth Bay, a short distance from the ABC studios from which she had broadcast her travelogues the previous year.

Annette had attended the nearby Darlinghurst police station and completed the application, listing her occupation as ‘advertiser'. In the ‘remarks' section on the form is the statement ‘she was under the impression that she did not have to register'. As the war had commenced over four months earlier, it is remarkable that she had not been aware of her requirement to register as an alien.

Annette departed Sydney in late January 1940 on the
MV Gorgon
¹⁵
 and sailed from Fremantle on 9 February. 
Her route was to Colombo via Batavia (Jakarta) before transhipping to Madagascar. Nine first-class passengers were listed on the manifest and three second-class, of whom one was Annette. Her occupation was described as ‘radio announcer' and her nationality as ‘French'.

While the other passengers disembarked in Singapore, Annette terminated in Batavia. This stopover was curious as the shipping schedules from Batavia offered her a sailing disadvantage, and strengthens the claim that she wished to travel to Madagascar via Japan. Added to Annette's
Personal Statement and Declaration
, completed on her arrival in Australia two years earlier, was the handwritten comment
Return ticket order to Colombo.
Annette's
Personal Statement
had moved from Customs to Military Intelligence and clearly she had been denied any opportunity for an alternative route home. Had Australian officials forbidden this for security reasons – 
as suggested – the next preferred option for Annette would be the Netherlands East Indies where highly organised Japanese spying was rampant.

Evidence indicating Annette may have undergone a forced removal from Australia does not appear to exist. 
The absence of notes in her file for the interval from the CIB interview until her departure implies little of consequence was learned from her conduct. But there were some clear motives supporting her decision to leave.

The CIB interview confirmed that Annette had lied in answering key questions. She certainly would not be granted the broadcasting exemption for which she had applied. The interview results would have in fact led to a tightening of her surveillance, rather than a reduction. 
Annette may not have been officially ‘hounded' out of the country, but the freedom to conduct her successfully developed routine had vanished.

From Annette's perspective, the failure to gain permission allowing her return to radio would have been a substantial factor in her decision to leave Australia. Her capacity to operate as a spy diminished when she was deprived of her amazing communication channel. Added to this is the possibility she discovered, or suspected, that she was under surveillance. That being so, she would have shut down her entire undercover network. Her use as a spy in Australia would be worthless, but her talents could be applied elsewhere.

Then there is the security operational factor. If Annette had been just a little too clever to be caught in the act, and had the ability to talk her way through almost any difficult situation, she may have presented to authorities the dilemma of what to do with her. The expense required for a surveillance operation cannot be open-ended. The country was now at war and there was an abundance of suspicious individuals who warranted the same treatment. It could have been an opportune time to apply some form of pressure for her removal – 
and one way would be to deliberately allow the exposure of the surveillance operation.

For a lady with a strong sense of control, to learn that she had lost that capacity could be very unnerving. 
Knowing that she was constantly stalked could understandably mean her cover had evaporated and her preference, or rather that of her controllers, would be to exit the scene entirely. It would now be time to return to Madagascar, sort out the issue with her husband, and to then avail herself for further espionage work in another direction.

In a May 1942 report to the Director of Military Intelligence, an officer within the General Staff stated:

During the period from September 1939 until
departure from Sydney in February 1940 Wagner was the subject of close enquiry but no evidence of her alleged pro-Nazi sympathies or association with
members of the German community was obtained.

The precise meaning of
close enquiry
is not clear. It may be interpreted as ‘more of the same', or an intensification of her monitoring, or it could be taken to mean a deliberate surveillance overkill – more than enough to send an unsubtle message to Annette that her game was up. Clearly, Annette had gone to ground and was avoiding all contact with suspect connections. However, this may not have been difficult. The important Nazis had been removed from Australia prior to the outbreak of the war, others had gone underground, while the remaining suspects, such as Kaemper, Cordes and von Skerst, had been interned. Annette's broader network had largely disappeared, but this was to be expected, as her projected wartime espionage role would not have needed support from others.

Following her arrival in Madagascar, Annette wrote a letter to her relative living near Newcastle. The letter, dated 4 March 1940, was intercepted in Newcastle by postal authorities and the contents were described in the above May 1942 report.

The letter indicated that, since her arrival in
Madagascar, she had been subjected to interrogation by the authorities there in regard to her German antecedents but that, with the assistance of the Swiss Consul, she had been able to establish her bona fides, and ‘no harm was done'. She considers that interrogation had been made as the result of advice forwarded by persons in Australia to the French
authorities.

Her file implies that this letter was the final communication received from Annette.

The contribution of the Swiss Consul in assisting Annette on her return is intriguing, in fact almost bizarre.

Annette lived in Madagascar for a year prior to leaving for Australia, and her husband was an officer in the colonial government. Her social networks were very likely to have included other members of the French administration and their families. It is also probable that she knew senior members of the government including the Governor. Add the fact that she was a French citizen, and that she had claimed to have been recognised by the French government for her work during a medical crisis in the colony, why would the Swiss Consul be necessary to assist her ‘to establish her bona fides' to that same government? Further, what information would the Consul have that others – namely the French authorities and Australian Security – didn't have? Why would the Consul know more about Annette than the officials, and others, who had previously lived and socialised with her in Madagascar?

Annette's relationship with the Swiss Consul in Sydney was unusual, but that with the Swiss Consul in Madagascar appears extraordinary. As Switzerland had been representing Germany in all international consular matters since the invasion of Poland, it may have been that this representation went, at times, beyond normal diplomatic functions.

The report quoted above also includes reference to a rumour that Annette may have returned to Australia.

This was addressed in a memo from the Director-General of Security to the Director of Military Intelligence, dated 11 June 1942.

I refer to your memorandum M.I.S. 1107 of the 23
^rd
April, and in reply have to advise that, so far as it is known, the above-mentioned person has not re-entered 
Australia since her departure for 
Madagascar on 9th February, 1940, from Fremantle.

Where, and from whom, the rumour of Annette's re-appearance derived, is unknown.

Nothing more is heard from Annette until the news of her suicide. Security had received information that she had worked in the German intelligence headquarters in Paris until the city was liberated. The declassified French archives do not offer any information on either Annette or her husband. Their files, whether German, or French, or both, may have joined thousands of others in furnaces at the war's end, or been simply lost in time. Another possibility is that the files do in fact exist, but are collecting dust in a French archives basement, not yet declassified.

The
Smith's Weekly
article referred to in Chapter 1 
states that Annette went to France to live in the region controlled by the Vichy government. This would be consistent with her activities in Australia, and would be an ideal location to prepare for German intelligence work. This information appears to have been derived from the only sources available at the time – from within the security services – but deemed to be of interest by
Smith's Weekly
to its readers as Annette was what we would refer to today as a celebrity or media personality, and the secrecy attached to her case no longer applied.

One interesting note in the article raises a final component in the mystery of Annette's departure from Australia. This is the reference to her intention of sailing to Japan, and the refusal of authorities to allow it.

Had she travelled to Japan as intended, new questions would arise. Why would a twenty-seven year old female, journeying alone, choose to travel to Madagascar via Japan in 1940? This would have been unusual in the extreme, not just due to it being unnecessarily dangerous for a young lady travelling independently, but the shipping connections would ensure the journey was long and expensive. Was there an entire branch of Annette's activities that had completely bypassed the authorities in Australia? The German connection was established, but was there also a direct Japanese relationship beyond the aerial mapping of Newcastle harbour? It now appears a little more likely that Annette did in fact have a connection with the Japanese embassy in London and with the Japanese legation at the League of Nations.

Annette's disappointing personal circumstances – as they would have been when she departed Australia – 
could hardly provide an incentive for travelling to Japan. 
The country was at war with China and the democratic world was revolted at the inhumanity being inflicted on the Chinese people. Tourist facilities in Japan were very limited and a single Caucasian female traveller would be highly unlikely to find any enjoyment in that country. 
This was an authoritarian, male-dominant nation beset with militarism and hate, with a brutal social mind-set surviving from the 1700s. But, had Annette been travelling to Japan for something else, possibly on an invitation, her circumstances in the country may have been entirely different, and far more comfortable.

Plugging the Gaps in Annette's Story

It is difficult to ignore that segment of the Annette Wagner story which commenced with her arrival back in Madagascar and ended on the pavement of the Paris Police Headquarters in 1946. Official documentation is non-existent, but there is some reporting, witness accounts and background data that, when placed within the perspective of the times, produce a projected outcome that follows a common sense evaluation.

On that footing we may present a ‘most likely' 
scenario of Annette's six years following her departure from Australia:

Annette returns to Madagascar, resolves her relationship with Robert, and at some juncture travels to Vichy following the fall of France in June 1940. Her association with German intelligence moves her to Paris and until the liberation of the city in August 1944 she works in the German intelligence headquarters. She then blends in with the French population until the war's end when she emerges with a cover story totally devoid of her German (and traitorous) activities. She remains in France until summoned to the Police Headquarters in July 1946.

Many people, both French and German, had reason to disappear as France was liberated. False identities abounded in the confusion of the German retreat and, with the right connections enemies of France could readily be determined as ‘displaced persons' and accorded, at a minimum, some peace in their refuge.

Annette's peace, if she experienced any at all, would be short lived.

FOOTNOTES

15
 
The Gorgon
was requisitioned by the Australian navy following the outbreak of the war in the Pacific. Despite being damaged by Japanese bombs on three occasions, the ship survived the war, unlike the others Annette had previously sailed on.

An appraisal of Annette Wagner's two years in Australia demands the consideration of her credentials, personal qualities, conduct, and associations, based on the evidence we have. These features describe the core of the valuable data necessary to produce an inclusive insight into the lady, and to provide a hub to explain her espionage activities.

In this appraisal there will be other items of information we would like to take into account, but compromises are necessary in consideration of the secrecy inherent in her role as a spy. Concealment, silence and deception always ensured that a great deal about Annette will never see the light of day.