The Nazis Next Door (41 page)

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The military said it was
“cognizant”:
Hunt,
Secret Agenda
, 100–101.

“Memo to would-be war criminal”:
Joachim Joesten, “This Brain for Hire,”
Nation
, January 11, 1947.

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an article charging:
Drew Pearson, “Air Force Hires Nazi Doctor Linked to Ghastly Experiments,”
Washington Merry-Go-Round
, syndicated column, July 14, 1952.

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“no longer refer to them as Germans”:
Transcript of interview with Colonel Paul C. Campbell, MD, U.S. Air Force Oral History Project, Office of Air Force History, November 22, 1974, and June 10–11, 1976, p. 36. Obtained through Freedom of Information Act.

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“We knew what we were doing”:
Simpson,
Blowback
, 159.

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“The West is fighting”:
GAO Report on Nazi War Criminals in the United States
, Oversight Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and International Law of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, 99th Congress, 1st sess., 1985 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1986), 37.

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wouldn’t work for them:
Richard Breitman and Norman J. W. Goda,
Hitler’s Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, U.S. Intelligence, and the Cold War
(Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 2010), 41.

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executed 277 German:
Thomas Alan Schwartz, “John J. McCloy and the Landsberg Cases,” in
American Policy and the Reconstruction of West Germany, 1945–55
, edited by Jeffry M. Diefendorf, Axel Frohn, and Hermann-Josef Rupieper (Washington, DC: German Historical Institute; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

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McCloy in 1944 had rejected:
Richard Breitman and Allan J. Lichtman,
FDR and the Jews
(Boston: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013) 283–4; and other sources.

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“Now that the Americans have Korea”: Ibid
. Ibid.

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“inestimable value”:
Breitman et al.,
U.S
.
Intelligence and the Nazis
, 253.

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Gustav Hilger:
“Gustav Hilger” file, Nazi War Crimes Interagency Working Group, Declassified Records of the Central Intelligence Agency (Record Group 263), National Archives and Records Administration.

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“I feel no need”:
Gustav Hilger and Alfred G. Meyer
, Incompatible Allies: A Memoir-History of German-Soviet Relations, 1918–1941
(New York: Macmillan, 1953), 272.

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Barbie seemed like:
Allan A. Ryan,
Klaus Barbie and the United States Government: A Report to the Attorney General of the United States
(Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, 1983).

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“Now was the ideal time”:
Breitman et al.,
U.S
.
Intelligence and the Nazis
, 380.

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at least a hundred, by one count:
Ibid., 377. Dozens of Gestapo and SD members served in the Gehlen spy organization—on the American payroll. With four thousand operatives in the Gehlen group at its peak in the early 1950s, the actual number of Nazi war criminals among them was likely much higher than one hundred.

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They were untouchable:
Gehlen amassed enormous influence in postwar Germany with the backing of the Americans and led West Germany’s intelligence service, the BND, for more than a decade after its creation in 1956.

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“He is convinced”:
Breitman et al.,
U.S
.
Intelligence and the Nazis
, 356.

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as “insurance” against something:
Ibid., 357.

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“He is a Nazi”:
U.S. intelligence memo, April 17, 1945; “Wilhelm Hoettl” file, Nazi War Crimes Interagency Working Group, Declassified Records of the Central Intelligence Agency (Record Group 263), National Archives and Records Administration.

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Dulles agreed:
Ibid.

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“incomprehensible to all decent Germans”:
Breitman et al.,
U.S
.
Intelligence and the
Nazis
, 274.

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“no subtantiation of the allegations”:
Ibid., 229.

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Hoover didn’t want the president ambushed:
Ibid.

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pogroms in Bucharest:
Allan A. Ryan Jr.,
Quiet Neighbors: Prosecuting Nazi War Criminals in America
(San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984), 228.

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  “
need men like J. Edgar Hoover”:
Breitman et al.,
U.S
.
Intelligence and the Nazis
, 243.

3. “Minor War Crimes”

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A former Nazi SS officer:
CIA Soobzokov files.

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“sparkling and vivacious”:
CIA Soobzokov files, including internal CIA memos from security reviews and polygraphing of Soobzokov on February 20–22, 1956.

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“we are not at all interested”:
Memo of October 8, 1952, written by Kermit Roosevelt, the CIA’s station chief in the region; CIA Soobzokov file. A grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt, Kermit Roosevelt engineered the 1953 overthrow of the Iranian government.

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“somewhat reluctant”:
CIA internal security report on polygraph examinations of February 20 and 22, 1956, CIA Soobzokov files.

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“minor war crimes”:
Ibid.

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“regarding war crimes”:
Internal memo of March 9, 1953; CIA Soobzokov files.

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“awful to watch”: Quoted in Irmgard von Zur Mühlen and Bengt von Zur Mühlen, The Trial of Krasnodar, 1943 ([Germany]: Chronos Film, 1987), VHS, 55 min
. : Quoted in Irmgard von Zur Mühlen and Bengt von Zur Mühlen, The Trial of Krasnodar, 1943 ([Germany]: Chronos Film, 1987), VHS, 55 min.

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“You see before you”:
Ibid.

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“ashamed to work for a Jew”:
CIA internal memo on “Telephone call from SOOBZOKOV,” August 11, 1958, CIA Soobzokov files.

4. Echoes from Argentina

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got off a ramshackle bus:
Peter Z. Malkin and Harry Stein
, Eichmann in My Hands: A Compelling First-Person Account by the Israeli Agent Who Captured Hitler’s Chief Executioner
(New York: Warner, 1990).

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a well-appointed apartment:
Author interview with Gus von Bolschwing, son of Otto von Bolschwing.

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von Bolschwing feared:
“Otto von Bolschwing” file, Nazi War Crimes Interagency Working Group, Declassified Records of the Central Intelligence Agency (Record Group 263), National Archives and Records Administration. Some of the von Bolschwing documents remain classified today.

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“A largely anti-Jewish atmosphere”:
Breitman et al.,
U.S
.
Intelligence and the Nazis;
and Judy Feigin,
The Office of Special Investigations:
Striving for Accountability in the Aftermath of the Holocaust
, ed. Mark M. Richard (draft report of United States Justice Department, December 2008), 259–61.

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“Heil Hitler”:
Feigin,
The Office of Special Investigations
, 270.

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“the least of all evils”:
Testimony in Adolf Eichmann trial, July 10, 1961.

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“loyalty to the United States”:
CIA internal memo of February 2, 1961, CIA von Bolschwing files.

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$20,000 a year:
Ibid.

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“rests almost entirely”:
Ibid.

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“Consider it essential”:
Ibid., and Breitman et al.,
U.S
.
Intelligence and the Nazis
. The author of the CIA memo urging protection for von Bolschwing was Richard Helms, who went on to become director of the CIA.

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Warner-Lambert and the Cabot Corporation:
Author interview with Gus von Bolschwing, son of Otto von Bolschwing.

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Not until the Israelis:
Scott Shane, “C.I.A. Knew Where Eichmann Was Hiding, Documents Show,”
New York Times
, June 7, 2006; and Breitman and Goda,
Hitler’s Shadow
, 13–14.

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“failed to advise us”:
February 1961 memo, CIA von Bolschwing files.

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“The purpose of the meeting”:
Internal memo recapping von Bolschwing’s meeting with two CIA officers on May 15, 1961; CIA von Bolschwing files.

5. Tilting at Swastikas

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packed into a meeting hall:
Personal papers and unpublished memoir of Charles E. Allen, archived at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York; and
Chicago Sentinel
, May 30, 1963.

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“forbidden all clergy to aid Jews”: Charles Allen, “Nazi War Criminals Among Us,” Jewish Currents, April 1963, 37
.Charles Allen, “Nazi War Criminals Among Us,” Jewish Currents, April 1963, 37.

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“doing combat against these wahoos”:
Rochelle G. Saidel,
The Outraged Conscience:
Seekers of Justice for Nazi War Criminals in America
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984), 59.

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fell for a Jewish refugee:
Ibid., 70.

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“Listen, mister”:
Allen, “Nazi War Criminals Among Us,” 11.

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“We were very glad”:
Quoted in “Barbie Called One of Many Nazis Aided by U.S.,” Reuters, February 20, 1983.

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let loose ten white mice:
Allen personal papers.

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“one of the cute tricks”:
Chicago Sentinel
, May 30, 1963.

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had used the same tactic:
Ben Urwand, “The Chilling History of How Hollywood Helped Hitler,”
Hollywood Reporter
, August 9, 2013.

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Allen jotted down:
Allen personal papers.

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he “is potentially dangerous”:
FBI national security memo signed by J. Edgar Hoover, February 12, 1968; copy among Allen personal papers.

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Hoover secured from FDR:
Sanford J. Ungar,
FBI: An Uncensored Look Behind the Walls
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1975), 101.

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The FBI had plenty of help:
Allen personal papers.

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“Will ascertain subject’s plans”:
Internal FBI security memo on Charles R. Allen Jr., 1965; copy among Allen personal papers.

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“in a front group”:
Under the Freedom of Information Act, Allen secured thousands of pages of documents that the FBI, CIA, and other intelligence agencies had compiled on him. He sued the government over what he charged was an illegal years-long surveillance and ultimately won an unusual $1,000 settlement from the CIA as a result.

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Allen wrote to the Justice Department:
Allen personal papers.

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DeLoach, in an internal memo:
Memo from FBI to Justice Department on Allen inquiries, January 10, 1963; copy among Allen personal papers.

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“Dear Mr. Allen”:
Allen personal papers.

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a chance conversation:
Simon Wiesenthal,
Justice Not Vengeance
(London: Mandarin, 1990), 163.

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whipped the child:
Ibid., 164.

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Wiesenthal went first:
Allen Levy,
Nazi Hunter: The Wiesenthal File
(London: Robinson, 2002), 388.

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under the headline:
Clyde A. Farnsworth, “Sleuth with 6 Million Clients,”
New York Times Magazine
, February 2, 1964, p. 11.