General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Re: spying for Russia - the Lucy spy ring
Posted by:
Frank
()
Date: October 27, 2001 09:17AM
<HTML>Hi Kurt -
At the risk of adding to an already long thread, can I offer a sixpenn`orth ? Was reading Michael Burleigh`s recent (2000) and encyclopaedic `Third Reich` while tackling a boiled egg at breakfast this morning, and happened to hit pages 670-671 (yes, it`s quite a long book !) where the Red Orchestra is mentioned. I have taken the liberty of quoting a bit here verbatim. Though off the u-boat topic as such, I`m sure any information is relevant which helps to fill in the backdrop against which the u-boat war was waged. If you find it interesting, (and his style manageable........) do get the book and read it. It`s stunning in its scope. I`ve kicked off from a bit about Römer, who according to Burleigh was one of those involved with the `Red Orch`. (page 670.)
(Copied by OCR, BTW, I hope reasonably accurately.....)
"A survivor of both the Western and Eastern Fronts in the Great War, Römer was the former chieftain of the Free Corps 'Oberland`, which had crushed the left-wing regime in post-war Munich and liberated the Annaberg in Upper Silesia from Polish nationalist insurgents. The French sentenced him to death in absentia for his involvement in terroristic activities in the occupied Ruhr, during which the KPD made its first tactical approach to the nationalist right, via the so called Schlageter line, when the Party adopted this dead Nazi as a martyrological mascot. Anti-bourgeois, nationalistic and sympathetic to Russia in equal measures, Römer drifted via 'National Bolshevism' to the Nazi Party, until the KPD's espousal of national and social liberation enabled him to defect to that camp. The catalyst seems to have been the case of the Reichswehr officer Richard Scheringer, who, imprisoned for Nazi affiliations, made a very public conversion to Communism in 1931. Römer edited the anti-fascist journal Aufbruch, recanting his former Free Corps involvements: they were guard dogs acting on behalf of business interests. Shortly after the Nazi 'seizure of power', the renegade Römer was arrested and, after long imprisonment, placed in 'protective custody' in Dachau. Appeals on his behalf were personally vetoed by Hitler.
After five years' detention, Römer was released in July 1939 He immediately began organising small left-wing resistance cells in Munich and Berlin, forging contacts with opposition circles in the civil service and military. The members included actors, electricians, furni-ture makers, stage carpenters and painters. During this period Rirner produced pamphlets highlighting the scarcity of resources - notably certain metals and oil - underlying Germany's prosecution of the war. By September 1941 his groups were collaborating with the resisters organised by Robert Uhrig, with 'Red Orchestra' and representatives of Wilhelm Knöchen's organisation in the Rhine-Ruhr. Römer advocated training armed cadres and sabotage in the factories. Together with Uhrig, he published a bimonthly Information Service analysing the current political situation, setting out goals and advising on appropriate targets for sabotage: 'The supply of petrol is Hitler's Achilles heel. Every action which destroys petrol weakens his war-making potential.' Partly as a consequence of his involvement with the Uhrig group, Römer was arrested in February 1942, tried over two years later and guillotined in Brandenburg-Gorden in September 1944?
Another resistance network, dubbed 'Red Orchestra' by the Gestapo, was erroneously identified with Soviet military intelligence activities inGermany and beyond, but in reality consisted of several of several discrete groups of around 150 men and women, which coalesced in the period in between the Non-Aggression Pact and the invasion of the Soviet Union. The minority which opted for espionage had little success. Harro Schulze-Boysen and Arvid Harnack passed on information about the invasion to contacts in the Soviet embassy, information which Stalin discounted; attempts to establish radio contact with Moscow after 1941 were an unmitigated disaster, since the equipment supplied by the Soviets was defective. The groups had more luck with leaflet campaigns which drew attention to Nazi atrocities in occupied Europe. The only Central Committee functionary active in Germany, Wilhelm Knöchen, briefly succeeded in organising a resistance network in the Rhine-Ruhr area, with a monthly underground newspaper, before his betrayal and arrest in early 1943. Again, the Gestapo arrests militate against any overestimation of Communist resistance activities in the closing years of the war. The majority of those arrested for disrupting or sabotaging production were foreign or forced workers rather than Germans, Communist or otherwise. Those detained in Dortmund or Düsseldorf who figured under the Gestapo rubric 'reactionary opposition' now exceeded those registered under 'Communism/Marxism'.19 Communist resistance had been smashed. Other resistance circles rash enough to put out feelers to them soon regretted it, for the remnants of the KPD were riddled with informers."
Hope this helps - as I say, do get the book !
Best regards
Frank</HTML>
At the risk of adding to an already long thread, can I offer a sixpenn`orth ? Was reading Michael Burleigh`s recent (2000) and encyclopaedic `Third Reich` while tackling a boiled egg at breakfast this morning, and happened to hit pages 670-671 (yes, it`s quite a long book !) where the Red Orchestra is mentioned. I have taken the liberty of quoting a bit here verbatim. Though off the u-boat topic as such, I`m sure any information is relevant which helps to fill in the backdrop against which the u-boat war was waged. If you find it interesting, (and his style manageable........) do get the book and read it. It`s stunning in its scope. I`ve kicked off from a bit about Römer, who according to Burleigh was one of those involved with the `Red Orch`. (page 670.)
(Copied by OCR, BTW, I hope reasonably accurately.....)
"A survivor of both the Western and Eastern Fronts in the Great War, Römer was the former chieftain of the Free Corps 'Oberland`, which had crushed the left-wing regime in post-war Munich and liberated the Annaberg in Upper Silesia from Polish nationalist insurgents. The French sentenced him to death in absentia for his involvement in terroristic activities in the occupied Ruhr, during which the KPD made its first tactical approach to the nationalist right, via the so called Schlageter line, when the Party adopted this dead Nazi as a martyrological mascot. Anti-bourgeois, nationalistic and sympathetic to Russia in equal measures, Römer drifted via 'National Bolshevism' to the Nazi Party, until the KPD's espousal of national and social liberation enabled him to defect to that camp. The catalyst seems to have been the case of the Reichswehr officer Richard Scheringer, who, imprisoned for Nazi affiliations, made a very public conversion to Communism in 1931. Römer edited the anti-fascist journal Aufbruch, recanting his former Free Corps involvements: they were guard dogs acting on behalf of business interests. Shortly after the Nazi 'seizure of power', the renegade Römer was arrested and, after long imprisonment, placed in 'protective custody' in Dachau. Appeals on his behalf were personally vetoed by Hitler.
After five years' detention, Römer was released in July 1939 He immediately began organising small left-wing resistance cells in Munich and Berlin, forging contacts with opposition circles in the civil service and military. The members included actors, electricians, furni-ture makers, stage carpenters and painters. During this period Rirner produced pamphlets highlighting the scarcity of resources - notably certain metals and oil - underlying Germany's prosecution of the war. By September 1941 his groups were collaborating with the resisters organised by Robert Uhrig, with 'Red Orchestra' and representatives of Wilhelm Knöchen's organisation in the Rhine-Ruhr. Römer advocated training armed cadres and sabotage in the factories. Together with Uhrig, he published a bimonthly Information Service analysing the current political situation, setting out goals and advising on appropriate targets for sabotage: 'The supply of petrol is Hitler's Achilles heel. Every action which destroys petrol weakens his war-making potential.' Partly as a consequence of his involvement with the Uhrig group, Römer was arrested in February 1942, tried over two years later and guillotined in Brandenburg-Gorden in September 1944?
Another resistance network, dubbed 'Red Orchestra' by the Gestapo, was erroneously identified with Soviet military intelligence activities inGermany and beyond, but in reality consisted of several of several discrete groups of around 150 men and women, which coalesced in the period in between the Non-Aggression Pact and the invasion of the Soviet Union. The minority which opted for espionage had little success. Harro Schulze-Boysen and Arvid Harnack passed on information about the invasion to contacts in the Soviet embassy, information which Stalin discounted; attempts to establish radio contact with Moscow after 1941 were an unmitigated disaster, since the equipment supplied by the Soviets was defective. The groups had more luck with leaflet campaigns which drew attention to Nazi atrocities in occupied Europe. The only Central Committee functionary active in Germany, Wilhelm Knöchen, briefly succeeded in organising a resistance network in the Rhine-Ruhr area, with a monthly underground newspaper, before his betrayal and arrest in early 1943. Again, the Gestapo arrests militate against any overestimation of Communist resistance activities in the closing years of the war. The majority of those arrested for disrupting or sabotaging production were foreign or forced workers rather than Germans, Communist or otherwise. Those detained in Dortmund or Düsseldorf who figured under the Gestapo rubric 'reactionary opposition' now exceeded those registered under 'Communism/Marxism'.19 Communist resistance had been smashed. Other resistance circles rash enough to put out feelers to them soon regretted it, for the remnants of the KPD were riddled with informers."
Hope this helps - as I say, do get the book !
Best regards
Frank</HTML>
