Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins & the Missing Agents of WWII (79 page)

Later stages of Vera's investigation, including her enquiries into penetration of F Section and the treachery of Henri Déricourt, were pieced together from her interrogations of Avenue Foch staff, particularly Dr. Josef Goetz and Hans Kief-fer, and her notes on these meetings, which were largely contained in “Avenue Foch” (personal archive) and “Paris Files” (IWM).

Numerous papers in Vera's own files provided colour and background, including letters and notes from colleagues, as well as her own writings about her search, letters home from Germany, maps, drawings, and newspaper cuttings.

A file kept by Vera in her personal archive on the case of Frank Chamier, the MI6 agent, and Horst Kopkow, the German intelligence chief, contained details never revealed before about this case.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

For background on Germany under Allied occupation, I referred to contemporary Foreign Office and War Office documents in the NA and to those in Control Commission files. I also referred to Foreign Office Historical Branch papers, particularly volume no. 3 (1989) and other publications in the NA library.

I consulted war crimes files in the NA to supplement Vera's files on her investigation. Those relating most closely to her work were contained in the series WO 309 and WO 235, relating to the judge advocate general's (JAG) department; files in the HS9 series, containing SOE personal files; files on enemy intelligence, particularly WO 204/1257; and the KV2 series, containing MI5 personal files.

Of particular importance to the first half of Vera's investigation in Germany were WO 309/282 on the Karlsruhe Gestapo investigation; WO 309/1022, covering the investigation into Nora Inayat Khan's imprisonment at Pforzheim and death at Dachau; and WO 235/336, containing a contemporaneous transcript of the Natzweiler trial. I also relied on the personal files (HS9 series) of Nora Inayat Khan, Violette Szabo, and Francis Suttill and on the files on Hans Kieffer's trial, WO 235/560 and 235/711.

New evidence surrounding German penetration of F Section and Déricourt's treachery was contained in several security service files, particularly KV4/20; in the diaries of Guy Liddell, KV4 (185–96); and in Nicholas Bodington's report on the Prosper collapse.

SOE personal files (HS9 series) revealed the scale of the penetration, in particular the file on Noor Inayat Khan (HS9/836S), which contained the original telegram warning of her capture. Security service interrogations of Nicholas Bodington (KV2/830) and Hugo Bleicher (KV2/164 and KV2/166) further illustrated the penetration.

PRIVATE PAPERS

Vital details of Vera's early investigations came from Anghais Fyffe's personal diaries, now in the IWM, and Yurka Galitzine's report on Natzweiler-Struthof (December 1944), a copy of which was provided by Anthony Kemp.

I drew from the diary of signaller Freddie Oakes (provided by his son William Oakes) and descriptions of war crimes work by the Home Office pathologist Keith Mant (given by his son Tim Mant).

John da Cunha, the war crimes lawyer, provided vital papers and photographs relating in particular to the Ravensbrück trial, as well as poignant memories of Vera. Jane Hamlyn kindly lent photographs of Bad Oeynhausen.

Anthony Kemp gave permission for use of his interviews with Vera and with Gerald Draper in his book The Secret Hunters.

Depositions before the French military tribunal that tried Henri Déricourt were provided by Robert Marshall.

I was assisted by Martin Sugarman of AJEX (Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and women).

GERMAN ARCHIVES AND SOURCES

Dr. Manfred Koch at the Stadtarchiv in Bad Oeynhausen provided information on the period of the British occupation.

Staff at the Generallandesarchiv, Karlsruhe, produced documents of the period, including files on Hans Kieffer and files relating to the Office of the Military Government of the United States (OMGUS) detailing life in Karlsruhe under Allied occupation.

Dr. Michael Stolle of Karlsruhe University provided extensive briefings on the Karlsruhe Gestapo and documents. Dr. Angela Borgstedt of Karlsruhe University gave information on denazification. Josef Werner provided contemporary documents and background on Karlsruhe under occupation.

Stadtarchiv archivists in Pforzheim, Gaggenau, Hameln, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and Rastatt also provided relevant documentation.

Christiane Fischer, owner of the Villa Degler in Gaggenau, showed me her house.

I also drew on information provided by: the Bundesarchiv in Berlin; museums at Dachau and Natzweiler concentration camps; Monsieur Jean Simon, Natzweiler concentration camp historian; Baron Arthur Hulot, a witness at the Dachau trials; the U.S. National Archives, Washington, D.C.; the Centre His-torique des Archives Nationales, Paris; and the Association Nationale des Anci-ennes Déportées et Internées de la Résistance, Paris.

INTER VIEWS

Throughout Part Three interviews with witnesses provided essential background and information. For descriptions of life in Germany, and particularly at Bad Oeynhausen, Baden-Baden, Gaggenau, Hamburg, and Berlin, I interviewed several war crimes lawyers, former SOE members, and “Haystack” investigators, including John da Cunha, John Hodge, Sacha Smith, Arribert Volmar, Freddie Warner, John Buckingham, and Phillip Worral. Julia Draper, Mary Kaiser, and Jane Stewart kindly gave information on their husbands' war crimes work. Amy Crossland provided information about her father, Eric “Bill” Barkworth.

In Karlsruhe several people passed on information or memories of the events, including Franz Becker, nephew of Fräulein Becker; Heinrich Graf, chief warder at the prison in Reifstahlstrasse; and Erich Johe, son of Elise Johe, an inmate of Karlsruhe prison.

Hans, Hildegard, and Gretel Kieffer, as well as Karl Schuhmann, spoke about Sturmbannführer Hans Kieffer and provided letters, documents and photographs.

Yurka Galitzine gave several interviews and showed documents.

Lisa Graf gave testimony of imprisonment in Karlsruhe prison.

Relatives of the victims who kindly passed on memories of Vera and relevant papers include: Francis and Anthony Suttill; Diana Farmiloe (sister of Yolande Beekman); Helen Oliver (sister of Lilian Rolfe); and Vilayat, Hidayat, and Claire Inayat Khan.

Vera's former SOE colleagues Sir Brooks Richards, Bob Maloubier, Nancy Roberts, and Robert Sheppard, as well as the writer Anthony Kemp, provided information or recalled interviews and conversations with Vera that helped me piece together her “private chat” with Hans Kieffer. Robert Marshall was among several authors who recalled conversations with Vera about Déricourt.

My own interview with Vera also provided vital information on her war crimes search.

PA RT IV

CHAPTER 24

ARCHIVES

On the postwar period, Vera kept newspaper cuttings, screenplays, videos, correspondence with writers, and legal documents.

I drew from her papers on the Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges. Vera's miscellaneous files included pictures and correspondence about the Tuppit teapot venture, her financial investments, and her will.

NA series HS6, HS7, and HS8 contained records of SOE after the war, including on publicity and French attitudes towards Buckmaster.

PREM 11/5084/1047/143 contained reports of Irene Ward's intervention and debate on publication of the official history of SOE.

I referred to Irene Ward's personal papers deposited with the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Minister's case R 20340/3, relating to Irene Ward's request for information about Vera, was held in Vera's naturalisation file.

My sources for information about an MI5 file once held on Vera and on Guy Atkins and other references to her left-wing sympathies in official files requested anonymity.

Jean Overton Fuller's commentary on Vera's political views is contained in her book Espionage as a Fine Art.

Francis Suttill provided three original research papers.

ORAL TESTIMONY

Agents including Yvonne Baseden, Tony Brooks, Francis Cammaerts, Nancy Roberts, and Pierre Raynaud spoke or corresponded about aspects of postwar writing on SOE, as did Francis and Anthony Suttill and authors Larry Collins, Robert Marshall, and Jean Overton Fuller. Professor David Dilks advised on the demise of SOE.

Background on Vera's alleged Communist sympathies was provided by the former Communist and SOE agent Ormond Uren, Landon Temple, and SOE agents Tony Brooks and Francis Cammaerts. On Vera's political loyalties, I drew on discussions with Barbara Worcester, Jean Overton Fuller, Annie Samuelli, Oleg Gordievsky, Nigel West, M.R.D. Foot, Sir Crispin Tickell, Ronald Atkins, Zenna Atkins, and intelligence officers.

Details on Dick Ketton-Cremer in Part Four were drawn from his will, provided by the Probate Registry, and from papers provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Air Historical Branch (RAF). The Lord Chancellor's Advisory Council on National Records and Archives assisted with access to Dick's casualty file. Sebastian Cox of the Air Historical Branch gave advice. John Ward allowed me to read his diaries and hear his memories of Dick.

CHAPTERS 25 AND 26

ORAL HISTORY

For Vera's mission to the Low Countries, I drew first on information from Judith Hiller, the Belgian embassy in London, Canon Basil O'Farrell in Winchelsea, Ellis Bros. Funeral Services in Rye, Zenna Atkins, and Alice Hyde. Subsequent interviews were conducted with Gilberte Brunsdon-Lenaerts, a “Dutch lady” (real name withheld), and her family. Karina and Peter Rosenberg, Iris Hilke, and Beate Orasche provided family background, and Ludwig Linden of the German embassy in London helped with research.

I am grateful to the Belgian historian Etienne Verhoeyen and the Dutch historian Frans Kluiters for extensive research in Holland and Belgium, and to Eric Laureys of Ceges/Soma, Centre for Historical Research and Documentation, in Brussels.

DOCUMENTS AND ARCHIVES

The account of the Hungarian takeover at Vallea Uzului drew on Siegfried Rosenberg's memoir and on Fritz and Karen Rosenberg's files. In addition I drew on SIME (Security Intelligence Middle East) Reports (No. 1 of 21 November 1944 and No. 4 of 10 January 1945), provided by the SOE adviser, and related SIME material in the WO series of the NA. Iris van Vlaardingen of the Gemeenteachief in Rotterdam provided documents.

Background was drawn from the Joods Museum van Deportatie en Verzet in Mechelen, Belgium.

For information on the murder of Hans Rosenberg, I relied on Fritz Rosenberg's files and on material from the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW), Vienna.

CHAPTER 27

Vera's personal archive contained letters from next of kin, researchers, and other correspondents seeking information about agents after the war. For details of new evidence about the death of Nora Inayat Khan, I drew on a letter and report from John Wickey, in Vera's archive. Gabrielle Nishiguchi of the Canadian Defence Ministry in Ottawa and John Wickey's son John kindly provided documentation.

Jean Overton Fuller clarified the provenance of the Wickey papers and of the so-called Gibraltar letter, and Vilayat Inayat Khan granted a further interview and shared material.

For the history of SOE memorials and awards, I drew on Vera's papers and was assisted by John Sainsbury and Nigel Smith. Tim Buckmaster gave information and extracts of his father's diaries for the postwar years, and his sister, Sybil Beaton, also spoke of her father and Vera. BBC producer Robin Punt advised on Violette Szabo.

During each part of the book researchers helped me accumulate documentary evidence. I would particularly like to thank Andrew Smith, Richard Smith, Uwe Günther, Alice Ceresole, George Mireuta, John Powell, and David Harrison.

EPILOGUE

For an understanding of Vera's later years, I am particularly grateful to Barbara Worcester, Nancy Roberts, Susan Roberts, Sacha Smith, and Judith Hiller as well as several of Vera's neighbours and friends in Winchelsea, who shared memories of her. Information on Vera's will was in her archive. Her grave is in the churchyard of St. Senara, in Zennor.

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