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Abstract
During the Second World War the British Security Service (MI5) was looking for Nazis spies, communists and pacifists. Parts of these operations concentrated on the antifascist German refugee community, although neither the communists nor the pacifists among them constituted a threat to national security, but rather supported Great Britain’s war effort. This article explores the observation of friendly aliens, which was driven by a fear of communists among British officials and the refugees themselves who willingly delivered information about their fellow immigrants. Using informants’ reports and the correspondence between one of the key informants and his MI5 handler it describes the measures that ranged from surveillance to torture. Finally, the article explains MI5’s internal logic and dynamics, which perpetuated the unnecessary and unjustified ‘Surveillance of Friends’.
Notes
1 Source Hi report No. 214 about Gerhard Hintze evening at the Kulturbund, January 10, 1942, KV 2/2364, 34c, The National Archives, Kew (NA).
2 The German Soviet alliance was later confirmed by the discovery of the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop-Pact. Jan Lipinsky, Das Geheime Zusatzprotokoll zum deutsch-sowjetischen Nichtangriffsvertrag vom 23. August 1939 und seine Entstehungs- und Rezeptionsgeschichte von 1939 bis 1999 (Peter Lang: Frankfurt am Main [et al.], 2004), 109ff.
3 John C. Curry, “The Security Service: Its problems and organisational adjustments,” in The Security Service 1908–1945: The Official History, ed. Public Record Office (Kew: Public Record Office, 1999), 31–430, here 147.
4 Christopher M. Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 (London: Allen Lane, 2009).
5 Jennifer Grant, “The Role of MI5 in the Internment of British Fascists during the Second World War,” Intelligence and National Security 24, no. 4 (2009); and A. W. B. Simpson, In the Highest Degree Odious: Detention without Trial in Wartime Britain (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992).
6 “Kurt H.” can be found in: Extract form Source Kurt H. report, August 13, 1941, KV 2/3503, 48a, NA. “Kurt Hiller” can be found in: Extract from Kurt Hiller report regarding Allen & Co., March 28, 1941, KV 2/1872, 134c, NA. “Ja” is also a frequently appearing source. Abbreviation and full name appear, for example, in: Ri[chter], Betr.: Otto Witt, May 19, 1942, KV 2/472, 66a-c, NA.
7 Extract form HO File H 18040 Kurt Hiller, November 18, 1938, KV 2/2811, 9a, NA.
8 Cross-reference about Kurt Hillers’ attendance of the Congress of League against Cruelties and Oppression in the Colonies, November 23, 1938, KV 2/2811, 1a, NA.
9 Cross-reference about Kurt Hiller attending the Anti-Imperialist League Congress, November 23, 1938, KV 2/2811, 3a, NA.
10 Extract form the Home Office File H. 13040, February 26, 1940, NV 2/2811, 9a, NA.
11 Ibid.
12 Extract of P.F. 42816 Vol. 1 for Otto Lehmann-Russbueldt, July 17, 1942, KV 2/2001, NA.
13 Franz Menges and Eberhard Flessing, “Möller-Dostali, Rudolf,” in Neue Deutsche Biographie: Vol. 17 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1994), 652–3.
14 F.B. Aikin-Sneath, Report on Rudolf Moeller-Dostali, December 1, 1941, KV 2/2687, 91a, NA.
15 Claud W. Sykes, letter to Kurt Hiller, April 23, 1941, file Claud W. Sykes, Kurt-Hiller-Gesellschaft, Neuss (KHG).
16 Guy M. Liddell, “Diary record 27.08.1940,” in The Guy Liddell Diaries: Volume I: 1939–1942, ed. Nigel West (London, New York: Frank Cass, 2005), 65–6.
17 Curry, “The Security Service,” 412.
18 Ibid., 418. Unfortunately, Curry’s account does not provide any details about the closure of F4.
19 File Eduard Beneš at KV 2/2942, NA. This file is only partly available, probably because Beneš was too prominent a figure.
20 File Wenzel Jaksch at KV 2/2870-77, NA.
21 Martin Bachstein, “Jaksch, Wenzel,” in Neue deutsche Biographie: Vol. 10 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1974), 326–7.
22 This file is either not yet declassified or has been destroyed. But we can suppose its existence from notes on other files. See, for example, Letter regarding Otto Lehmenn-Russbueldt, April 6, 1934, KV 2/2001, NA.
23 Curry, “The Security Service,” 185.
24 Andrew, The Defence of the Realm, 325–430.
25 Louise London, Whitehall and the Jews 1933–1948: British Immigration Policy, Jewish Refugees, and the Holocaust (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 153 and 173; Jana Buresova, “The Czech Refugee Trust Fund in Britain 1939–1950,” in Exile in and from Czechoslovakia during the 1930s and 1940s, ed. Chairman Brinson (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009), 133–45.
26 London, Whitehall and the Jews 1933–1948, 168.
27 Hans Gottfurcht, Report on communist positions in the Czech Refugee Trust Fund, March 1, 1941, KV 2/2723, NA.
28 Colin Holmes, “British Government Policy towards Wartime Refugees,” in Europe in Exile: European Exile Communities in Britain 1940–1945, eds. Martin Conway and Jose Cotovitch (New York, Oxford: Berhahn, 2001), 13ff.
29 Source MILLER report, March 26, 1941, KV 2/2723, 204a2, NA.
30 Ibid.
31 Michael Seyfert, “His Majesty’s Most Loyal Internees,” in Exile in Great Britain: Refugees from Hitler’s Germany, ed. Gerhard Hirschfeld (Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Berg Publishers; Humanities Press, 1984), 163–93.
32 List of Charges by M.B. Wellington, July 1940, KV 2/2727, 350a, NA. See also Kurt Hiller, Rote Ritter: Erlebnisse mit deutschen Kommunisten (Berlin: Mytze, 1980), 105.
33 List of Charges by M.B. Wellington, July 1940, KV 2/2727, 350a, NA.
34 See note 29 above. See also Franz Leimueller, Translated letter to Karl Gandl, February 14, 1941, KV 2/2722, 182b, NA.
35 List of Charges by M.B. Wellington, July 1940, KV 2/2727, 350a, NA.
36 Source Ri report No. 77 about the Czech Refugee Trust Fund, 01.041941, KV 2/2724, 222B, NA and Hiller, Rote Ritter, 110.
37 H. Bunbury, Secret memorandum regarding communist in the CRTF, April 10, 1940, HO 294/637, NA.
38 Hiller, Rote Ritter, 110.
39 W.K.H. Campell, Czech Refugee Trust Fund to Security Service (R.H. Hollis), June 10, 1941, KV 2/2725, 274, NA.
40 There was only one file which seemed to contain some of the original reports in German; Otto Witt, KV 2/471-479, NA.
41 On Kurt Hiller see Alexander Gallus, Heimat “Weltbühne”: Eine Intellektuellengeschichte im 20. Jahrhundert (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2012), 80ff and the forthcoming PhD-thesis: Daniel Münzner, Kurt Hiller: Der Intellektuelle gegen Staat und Demokratie, Staat und Demokratie gegen den Intellektuellen (PhD diss. University of Rostock, forthcoming).
42 Source M/S. Report, June 14, 1940, KV 2/2811, 200, NA.
43 Claud W. Sykes, letter to Kurt Hiller, June 17, 1940, file Claud W. Sykes, KHG. About a month previously Hiller was visited by a Scotland Yard officer, who could also have been in contact with the Security Service.
44 Internal Report about visiting Kurt Hiller, June 21, 1940, KV 2/2811, 21a, NA.
45 Charmian Brinson, Richard Dove and Anna Müller-Härlin, Politics by Other Means: The Free German League of Culture in London 1939–1946 (London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2010).
46 The Free German League of Culture owned a club house in Hampstead, London, where it ran a café and a restaurant which became meeting points for German writers and artists. Ibid. 222ff.
47 Claud W. Sykes, letter to Kurt Hiller, November 1, 1941, file Claud Sykes, KHG.
48 Extract from Source Hi report No. 549, KV 2/2889, NA, Extract from Source Hi report No. 551, November 18, 1943, KV 2/1876, 320, NA and Extract form Source Hi report No. 59, February 24, 1941, KV 2/2005, 253ba, NA.
49 Source Hi report No. 106 regarding the Kulturbund in honour of John Heartfield, June 20, 1941, KV 2/1010, 35b, NA.
50 Source Hi report regarding lecture by Hans Kahle “The strategical problems of to-day,” July 4, 1941, KV 2/1652, 68c, NA.
51 Claud W. Sykes, Kahles Lecture at the Kulturbund Hi 194, November 29, 1941, KV 2/1562, 109a, NA.
52 Source Hi report No. 194 about Kahle Lecture at the Kulturbund, November 27, 1941, KV 2/1562, NA.
53 Source Hi report No. 312, July 23, 1943, KV 2/1563, 170E, NA.
54 Extract from B.8. report, Source Hi, February 4, 1941, KV 2/1010, 29y, NA.
55 Extract from letter from Kurt Hiller to Mr. Sykes, February 1, 1941, KV 2/2721, 174b, NA.
56 Extract form Source H. report, September 4, 1940, KV 2/1871, 77a, NA.
57 Claud W. Sykes, letter to Kurt Hiller, March 18, 1941, file Claud W. Sykes, KHG.
58 Source Kurt report regarding “Die Zeitung,” September 16, 1941, KV 2, 1130, 21a, NA.
59 Claud W. Sykes, letter to Kurt Hiller, July 31, 1941, file Claud W. Sykes, KHG.
60 Kurt Hiller, letter to Claud W. Sykes, June 25, 1940, file Claud W. Sykes, KHG. Asking Walter D. Schulz: Kurt Hiller, letter to Walter D. Schultz, January 27, 1941, file Walter D. Schultz, KHG.
61 Jürgen Kuczynski was a historian and economist, who had been in the United States for postgraduate studies between 1926 and 1929. From 1944 to 1945 he served as a Colonel in the US army for the United States Strategic Bombing Survey. In 1946 he became professor of economic history at the University of Berlin (in the Soviet zone) and was the most prominent East German historian, having published in various areas of social science and cultural studies. Lothar Kieslich, Kommunisten gegen Kommunisten: Die Intellektuellenpolitik der SED im Umfeld des XX. Parteitags der KPdSU und des Ungarn-Aufstands (Kletsmeier: Gießen, 1999), 128.
62 Source report regarding Kuczynski (and Menne), August 2, 1940, KV 2/1872, 109a, NA. The author of this report is not noted, but we can assume Hiller wrote it given that: 1. He was a member of the Thomas Mann group led by Bernhard Menne; 2. Hiller had very similar difficulties in speaking and writing in English as the author of this document; 3. During this time he was asked by Claud Sykes to report about Jürgen Kuczynski.
63 Kurt Hiller, letter to Walter D. Schultz, February 8, 1941, file Walter D. Schultz, KHG.
64 Hans Gottfurcht, letter to Kurt Hiller, June 23, 1941, file Hans Gottfurcht, KHG.
65 Kurt Hiller, letter to Claud W. Sykes, July 24, 1941, file Claud W. Sykes, KHG.
66 Otto-Ernst Schüddekopf, Linke Leute von rechts. Die nationalrevolutionären Minderheiten und der Kommunismus in der Weimarer Republik (Kohlhammer: Stuttgart, 1960), 320ff. Patrick Moreau, Nationalsozialismus von links (Deutsche Verlagsanstalt: Stuttgart, 1985), 41ff.
67 Kurt Hiller and Otto Straßer, “Erklärung,” Die sozialistische Warte 13, no. 5 (1938): 119.
68 Kurt Hiller, letter to Claud W. Sykes, November 28, 1941, file Claud W. Sykes, KHG.
69 Report from Kurt Hiller, March 28, 1941, KV 2/2723, NA.
70 Kurt Hiller, Aus meinem Brief an Claud, March 12, 1941, file Claud W. Sykes, KHG.
71 Claud W. Sykes, letter to Kurt Hiller, June 15, 1941, file Claud W. Sykes, KHG.
72 Report of interrogation of Hans Jäger, June 11, 1942, KV 2/473, 151, NA.
73 Extract from Source Ri report No. 36, February 8, 1941, KV 2/2005, 235a, NA and Extract from Source Ri report No. 410, July 25, 2012, KV 2/2005, 268a, NA.
74 Ri[chter], Report 351 on Otto Witt, May 19, 1942, KV 2/480, 71b, NA and Ri report Nr. 371, June 4, 1942, KV 2/480, 128b, NA.
75 Source Ri report No. 144, August 1, 1941, KV 2/1387, 34b, NA.
76 Extract form Source Ri report No. 1534, October 21, 1946, KV 2/3026, 53b, NA.
77 Source Ri report No. 214 about communism and the BBC, November 13, 1941, KV 2/2364, 28x, NA.
78 Report on Otto Friedrich Witt, December 17, 1945, KV 2/479, NA.
79 Ri[chter], Betr.: Otto Witt, May 17, 1942, KV 2/472, NA.
80 “Es dürfte sich erübrigen, hierzu noch viel zu sagen. Es ergibt sich, dass W. [Otto Witt] ein SS- und Gestapo-Agent ist.” Ibid.
81 See note 78 above.
82 Ibid.
83 Source Ri report No. 456, September 22, 1942, KV 2/2785, 87a, NA.
84 “Und außerdem scheint mir auch Hans JAEGER gegenüber besondere Aufmerksamkeit am Platze.” Ri[chter], Betr.: Otto Witt, May 17, 1942, KV 2/472, NA.
85 Source Kasper report, March 28, 1942, KV 2/472, 13x, NA.
86 F.B Aikin-Sneath, Otto Witts contacts in England, KV 2/480, 132a, NA.
87 Report of interrogation of Hans Jäger, June 11, 1942, KV 2/473, 151, NA.
88 Aikin-Sneath, Otto Witts contacts in England, KV 2/480, 132a, NA.
89 Ri[chter], Betr.: Otto Witt, May 17, 1942, KV 2/472, NA.
90 Luhmann, Niklas, Soziale Systeme: Grundriß einer allgemeinen Theorie (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1987).
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Notes on contributors
Daniel Münzner
Daniel Münzner completed his PhD in 2014. He studied history, mathematics and drama education at the University of Rostock (Germany) and Monash University (Australia).