Hitler's Lost Spy (24 page)

Combes, General Bertrand
: Director of Military Operations and Intelligence, 1939–1940.

Commonwealth Investigation Branch (CIB)
: A division of the Federal Attorney General's Department and the forerunner of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation. In 1939 the CIB was responsible for internal security and, following the outbreak of the war, the assessment of internees and prisoners of war.

Controller
: The spy's supervisor. An individual responsible for collecting data from, and instructing a spy in the field. The controller may also have coordinated the spy's contacts, determined the method and choice of covert operations and managed problems of identity protection.

Cordes, Johan Heinrich
: Joined the SS in 1933 and was promoted to
bord-trooper
, the Nazi political officer attached to German merchant ships. In 1937 he deserted ship while in Sydney, but was interned at the outbreak of war. He assisted Security with details of Nazi activities and remained in Australia after the war.

Counter Espionage Bureau
: The division within the Commonwealth Investigation Branch responsible for the appraisal of suspected foreign espionage activity. The division worked closely with Military Intelligence and Naval Intelligence.

Durkop, Rudolf Karl
: A senior Nazi operative in Sydney who developed spy rings to collect information on behalf of German intelligence. He acted as a Gestapo agent and was the first contact for the crews of German merchant ships arriving in Sydney. He was interned on the outbreak of the war, and was a contact for Annette Wagner.

Franze, Helene
:
De facto
of Rudolf Durkop. An over-zealous activist in Nazi organisations in Australia. She assisted Durkop in arranging picnics for German merchant crews visiting Sydney, then recording in meticulous detail every event of the day. In true Nazi fashion, each diary entry ended with ‘Heil Hitler!'

Gestapo
:
Geheime Staatspolizei
, the secret police of Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. The organisation was formed by Hermann Goring in 1933 and later its administration was transferred to Heinrich Himmler's SS. 
During the 1930s Gestapo agents were placed in all western countries to monitor, and report on, the activities of Germans living abroad.

Hashida, Major Sie
: Officer attached to the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, seconded to the government's War Department. In January 1941 he undertook a comprehensive spying mission around Australia, most of which was closely monitored. His diary recording the military data accumulated during his two-month mission was confiscated in Batavia while returning to Japan, and a copy was dispatched to Canberra.

Heiler, Wilhelm
: Arrived in Australia in 1927 and joined the Nazi Party in 1933. The party leader in Melbourne, he was appointed national head of the Nazi Harbour Service in 1935. 
Heiler also collated data from sub-agents in other states and dispatched information to the Nazi Party's Auslands-Organisation in Berlin.

Kaemper, Arnold
: Arrived in Australia from Germany in 1937 and operated a hairdressing salon in Sydney prior to being interned in September 1939. A friend of
Skerst
, he was suspected of collecting strategic information, but his Nazi associations were not considered extreme. His familiarity with Annette Wagner would tighten the suspicions she was a spy.

Koehler, Captain Robert
: Sydney shipping agent for the Hamburg-Amerika Line. A World War I naval officer, he was a leading Nazi in Australia and utilised his merchant marine resources and industry connections to organise waterfront espionage in Australian ports in preparation for war. 
Following
Ladendorff's
return to Germany he became the last leader of the Nazi Party in Australia.

Ladendorff, Walter Karl
: Leader of the Nazi Party in Australia in 1937 when appointed
Landeskreisleiter
(country Leader) by Nazi Party headquarters in Berlin. Unknown to Australian security at the time, he was also Berlin's representative for the important posting of agent for East Asia, and he maintained a close association with the Japanese Consulate in Sydney. He had arrived in Australia in 1929 as agent for the giant German company, UFA Films. The venture failed and he was later employed by the Leicagraph Photographic Company in Sydney. A fervent Nazi, he was an organiser of Nazi front organisations in Australia, and active in the German-Australia Chamber of Commerce. He held regular meetings with
Koehler
and
Skerst
, and was responsible for forming a sabotage unit with pre-determined destruction sites in the Sydney area. Recalled to Germany in June 1939 as war approached, he served in the German army until 1943. He held executive positions within the Nazi Party during the war and was unsuccessfully sought after Germany's surrender for questioning by Allied Occupation investigators.

Long, Commander Rupert
: Appointed Director of Naval Intelligence in 1939. During the late 1930s he created an extensive intelligence-gathering structure within Australia that proved valuable in the tracking, exposure and assessment of foreign spies – including Annette Wagner. He established the important coastwatch surveillance system and created espionage structures in the Netherlands East Indies and the Southwest Pacific. He worked with the code specialist Captain Eric Nave in the breaking of Japanese consular and merchant marine codes.

Marshall, Dinah
: A languages teacher and friend of Annette Wagner. She visited Germany in 1937 where she met
Arnold
Kaemper
, and on her return to Australia her pro-Nazi conduct raised Security suspicions. In Sydney, Kaemper lived at her address in close proximity to Wagner, and like him would unknowingly enhance Security concerns about Wagner.

Mitchell, Inspector D.R.B
: Senior officer in Sydney of the Commonwealth Investigation Branch. He liaised with Military Intelligence on suspected subversive individuals and organisations, and supervised the ongoing surveillance of Nazi party identities before the war. In October 1939 he conducted an interview with Annette Wagner, the result of which was the validation of the security suspicions held by Military Intelligence. In 1941 he assisted in the nation-wide monitoring of the Japanese spy, Major Sie Hashida.

MPI (Military Police Intelligence)
: A combined police security investigation unit created on the outbreak of World War II. Its function was confined to counter-espionage operations including the monitoring of suspected German and Japanese spies. The unit brought together officers from the CIB, Military Intelligence, Naval Intelligence and state police. Only the state police held the power of arrest.

Nazi Harbour Service
(
Hafendienst
): Administered from Berlin, the
Hafendienst
attempted to oversee the conduct and recreational venues for German seamen while in foreign ports. It dictated comprehensive instructions to the seamen, while compelling Nazi operatives onshore to use all surveillance measures available to avoid any ‘contamination' 
of Nazi ideology. Ports in Western democracies were the prime targets. The Service was also an important information source for the Gestapo in Germany, with ‘wayward' offenders being reported for possible future action against them or their families. The Service was the distributor of the Nazi magazine to seamen.

Nazi Party Council
: The governing body of the Nazi party in Australia. In 1939
Ladendorff
headed the council and conducted proceedings in accordance with instructions from Berlin.

Renz, Hans
: A ships provedore, he headed the Nazi Harbour Service in Melbourne. He was a key player in the collection of shipping information deemed useful to Germany in a future war with Britain. His role included that of a Gestapo agent, reporting to Berlin through
Wilhelm Heiler
on the behaviour and political attitudes of German crew members.

Skerst, Arnold von
: Colourful but unstable Nazi campaigner in the 1930s. Born into a German family in Riga, Latvia in 1888, and educated in Russia and Germany, he arrived in Australia in 1932 as agent for a German motor vehicle conglomerate. The business ceased operations in Germany shortly after his arrival in Sydney. He joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and edited the Nazi newspaper
Die Brücke
(The Bridge). 
He associated regularly with all senior Nazi functionaries, and was known to Annette Wagner. 
He spoke seven languages, married four times, had associations with four religions and pursued nationality interests in several countries. Interned when the war commenced, he renounced his German citizenship when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. He agreed to assist security authorities and was controversially allowed to remain in Australia after the war. In December, 1948 he committed suicide at his home in the Sydney suburb of Randwick, a month following his fourth marriage.

Wagner, Annette Fanny Catherine
: Born Annette Schneider in Bienne, Switzerland in 1912, she lived with a relative in England following the death of her mother in 1919. 
Completing her schooling in London and other studies in Switzerland, she was employed in England and Europe before travelling to South Africa in 1934 to work with medical missions for fifteen months. Married Robert Wagner in October 1936 and moved to Madagascar. In 1937 she was hospitalised after contracting typhoid fever and arrived in Australia in March 1938. She came to the attention of Military Intelligence in October 1938, and placed under surveillance. 
She departed Australia in February 1940 and returned to Madagascar before travelling to occupied France and later working with German intelligence in Paris. 
Wagner's movements from the fall of Paris in August 1944 
until her suicide in July 1946 are unknown.

Wagner, Robert
. Born in Alsace when German territory, he became a French citizen on the return of Alsace to France following World War I. He entered the French Civil Service and was appointed to the colonial government in Madagascar. 
He was believed to be pro-Nazi at the time he married Annette and was sought by French police following the German surrender.

Use the "search" function on your reading device to look up any of the following terms.

Abwehr,

Aeronca Aeroplane,

Agawa, Hiroyuki,

Aleutian Islands,

Alexandria, Egypt,

Alliance Francaise, Sydney,

Alsace,

Asaka, Prince,

Auslands Organisation,

Australia,

Invasion – Plans for,

Proposed Japanese Administration of,

Japanese maps of,

Australia-Japan Society,

Australian army, 8th Infantry Brigade,

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC),

Australian Women's Weekly

Batavia,

Beira, Mozambique,

Bergamini, David,

Bernachie Chomenie,

BHP Steelworks,

Bienne, Switzerland,

Blue Mountains, NSW,

Bougainville,

Browne, Courtney,

Burma, 208

‘Cabled Fashion Service',

Canaris, Admiral Wilhelm,

Chanel, Coco,

Churchhill, Winston,

Clancy Brothers,

Clancy, Jack,

Clancy, Robert,

Clancy Skybaby,

Colombo, Ceylon,

Combes, General Bertrand,

Commonwealth Bank,

Commonwealth Investigation Bureau (CIB),

Coral Sea, Battle of,

Cordes, Heinrich,

Counter Espionage Bureau,

De Gaulle, General Charles,

Depression, The,

Die Brucke, Nazi newspaper,

Diet,

Domei news agency,

Dunbar Castle,

Durkop, Rudolph,

Elim Medical Mission,

Foy, Mark,

Franze, Helene,

French Consulate, Sydney,

French Evangelical Mission

German Pacific Territories,

Gestapo, agents for,

Gilbert Islands,

Gilbert, Martin,

Goering, Hermann,

Gorgon, MV,

Guadalcanal,

Hakko Ichiu, philosophy of,

Harbour Lights Guild,

Hashida, Major Sie,

Hedinger, Hans,

Heiler, Wilhelm,

Himmler, Heinrich,

Hirohito, Emperor,

Imperial Rescript and,

Declaration of War by,

Hitler, Adolph,

Hoyt, Edwin,

Hydro Majestic Hotel,

I-21 Submarine,

Japan,

Australian trade with,

Constitution of, to 1945,

Empire of,

Madagascar, attack on,

National destiny of

Race war, and,

Shinto religion,

Japanese Embassy, London,

Japanese Imperial Army,

Headquarters of,

Japanese in Australia,

Japan's Imperial Conspiracy,

Japan's Islands of Mystery,

Kaemper, Arnold,

Kipling, Rudyard,

Koehler, Capt. Robert,

Korea, in Japanese empire,

Ladendorff, Walter,

Lamaro, Joseph,

Lang, Hermann,

Lang, Jack,

League of Nations,

Long, Commander Rupert,

McDowell's Department Store,

Madagascar, French colony of,

Madagascar, Battle of,

Maddox, Violet,

Manchukuo,

Maps That Shaped Australia,

Marshall, Dinah,

Matsuoka, Yosuke,

Micronesian Islands,