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ABSTRACT
In June 1941, British intelligence agents claimed to have foiled a Nazi-orchestrated coup in South America by intercepting the so-called Belmonte letter from a German courier named Fritz Fenthol. Years later the letter and the coup plot were exposed as fabrications, and published accounts since then have cast Fritz Fenthol as an imaginary figure invented by British spies to better sell the lie. But Fenthol was a real person, and his alleged involvement in the Belmonte letter affair led to real consequences: namely, his arrest and internment in a Brazilian concentration camp from April 1942 until May 1945. This article tells the story of Fenthol’s entanglement in the Belmonte letter affair for the first time based on exhaustive research at 31 archives across seven countries. The mystery surrounding Fenthol, as it turns out, is as much a consequence of his own complexities as it is the contrivances of British spies. The Belmonte letter affair of 1941 was not Fenthol’s debut as an agent of fate, but rather a fitting denouement. He emerges, in the final analysis, as a casualty of deception doubly over, as his own subterfuge became fully intermingled with that of British and American officials in Latin America.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank the following individuals for their research assistance in various Brazilian archives (Felipe Amorim and Olivier Bodart), British archives (Peter Day), and German archives (Mark Beirn and Samantha Hunt). I am also indebted to Carin Berger, Tom Miller, Joe Oppenheimer, and Erich and Jean Kirshner for their willingness to share family papers and memories. And for their feedback on earlier drafts, I would like to thank Rhonda Callaway, Austin Carson, Jason Enia, Tom Haase, Danielle Lupton, Tony Marcum, Mike Poznansky, and John Schuessler, as well as the editors and anonymous reviewers at the Journal of Intelligence History.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Elias Belmonte, ‘Memoirs on the Nazi Putsch’, 6 December 1944, 862.20210 Belmonte Pabon, Elias/12-1544, RG59, Box 5525, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD, United States (NARA).
2 ‘Elías Belmonte P. revela en una carta el plan del movimiento nazista en Bolivia’, 24 July 1941, El Dario, 7.
3 ‘U.S. Backs Bolivia on Ouster of Nazi’, 22 July 1941, New York Times, 5.
4 ‘New Diplomatic Offensive’, 30 July 1941, Wall Street Journal, 1.
5 Despatch 150 from Antofagasto to Washington, 25 July 1941, 701.6224/33, RG59, Box 1869, NARA.
6 Belmonte, ‘Memoirs on the Nazi Putsch’, 6 December 1944, 862.20210 Belmonte Pabon, Elias/12-1544, RG59, Box 5525, NARA.
7 Memorandum by Woermann, 26 July 1941, R28858, Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts, Berlin, Germany (AA).
8 Nr. 710 from Berlin to Buenos Aires, 25 July 1941, RG 242, T-120, 251/209/164692, NARA.
9 H. Montgomery Hyde, The Quiet Canadian: The Secret Service Story of Sir William Stephenson (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1962), 141–142.
10 Wendler to Auswärtige Amt, 10 February 1969, 81.10 Innenpolitik Boliviens, AA.
11 ‘British Agents “Forged German Coup Letter”’, 27 August 1979, Daily Telegraph, 17.
12 H. Montgomery Hyde, Secret Intelligence Agent: British Espionage in America and the Creation of the OSS (New York: St. Martin’s, 1982), 154–155.
13 Henry Hemming, Agents of Influence: A British Campaign, a Canadian Spy, and the Secret Plot to Bring America into World War II (New York: Public Affairs, 2019), 202.
14 Despatch 1890 from Rio to Washington, 29 June 1945, 800.515/6-2945, RG59, Box 4176, NARA; Memorandum Re: Fritz Robert Franz Fenthol, 6 July 1945, RG84, Strictly Confidential File–Rio (SCFR), Box 26, NARA.
15 ‘BNF List’, 28 July 1946, RG84, Safehaven File–Rio (SFR), Box 8, NARA.
16 ‘S.O. in Latin America’, 2 June 1942, HS7/73, The National Archives, Kew, United Kingdom (TNA).
17 ‘Report to the Prime Minister on Special Operations’, 24 September 1941, Papers of Hugh Dalton, 2/7/3, British Library of Political and Economic Science, London, United Kingdom.
18 See, for instance, John Gunther, Inside Latin America (New York: Harper, 1941), 230–231; and Hugo Fernández Artucio, The Nazi Underground in South America (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1942), 206–210.
19 ‘Maintaining Freedom of the Seas’, 11 September 1941, Master Speech File, Box 62, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York, United States (FDRL).
20 Sherwood to Ismay, 11 May 1948, 1/1251, Robert E. Sherwood Papers (REP), Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (HL).
21 Cole Blaiser, ‘The United States, Germany, and the Bolivian Revolutionaries (1941–1946)’, Journal of Hispanic American History 52, no. 1 (1972), 39.
22 For a theoretical and historical analysis of the broader Belmonte letter operation, see Jonathan N. Brown, Danielle L. Lupton, and Alex Farrington, ‘Embedded Deception: Interpersonal Trust, Cooperative Expectations, and the Sharing of Fabricated Intelligence’, Journal of Global Security Studies 4, no. 2 (2019): 209–26.
23 Sarah Rose, D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II (New York: Crown, 2019), 8.
24 Eidesstattliche Versicherung, Fritz Fenthol, 23 October 1955, Julius Simson Family Collection (JSFC), Box 1, Leo Baeck Institute Archives, Center for Jewish History, New York, New York (LBIA).
25 ‘Roosevelt and Hopkins’, 1/1950, REP, HL.
26 Ismay to Sherwood, 23 April 1948, 1/415, Ibid.
27 Cornwall Jones to Ismay, 30 April 1948, 4/18/26, Papers of General Hastings Ismay, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London, United Kingdom.
28 Sherwood to Ismay, 11 May 1948, 1/1251, REP, HL.
29 McKenzie Porter, ‘The Biggest Private Eye of All’, 1 December 1952, Maclean’s Magazine, 72.
30 Timothy Naftali, ‘Intrepid’s Last Deception: Documenting the Career of Sir William Stephenson’, Intelligence and National Security 8, no. 3 (1993): 78.
31 Hill to L.A., 11 June 1954, KV4/444, TNA.
32 Minute Sheet, 9 August 1954, KV2/2772, TNA.
33 Hyde, Quite Canadian, 141.
34 Per Dahl, Heavy Water and the Wartime Race for Nuclear Energy (Bristol, UK: Institute of Physics, 1999), 44–45.
35 Neal Bascomb, The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016).
36 Crane to Acheson, 9 July 1941, 864.6363/52, RG59, Box 5640, NARA.
37 James Pool and Suzanne Pool, Who Financed Hitler: The Secret Funding of Hitler’s Rise to Power, 1919–1933 (New York: Dial, 1978), 464.
38 ‘Interview with Dr. Fritz Robert Franz Fenthol’, 31 August 1943, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/84, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
39 Mary Lovell, Cast No Shadow: The Life of the American Spy Who Changed the Course of World War II (New York: Pantheon, 1992), 345–348.
40 Hyde, Secret Intelligence, 154.
41 William Stephenson, British Security Coordination: The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas, 1940–1945 (London: St. Ermin’s, 1998), vii.
42 David Stafford, Camp X (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1987), 250–257.
43 Stephenson, British Security Coordination, 154–155.
44 ‘Opening Statement for the Prosecution’, 27 August 1947, in Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals, Vol. VII: ‘The I.G. Farben Case’ (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1953), 101.
45 Telegram 98 from São Paulo to Washington, 30 April 1947, 740.00116 EW Prosecutions/4-3047, RG59, Box 3624, NARA.
46 Memorandum of Conversation between Atherton and Cochran, 24 October 1940, 864.6363/39, RG59, Box 5640, NARA.
47 I.G. Farbenindustrie to Harden, 1 April 1941, 864.6363/42, Ibid.
48 Donat to Feuer, 26 May 1949, RG131, Farben Concerns in Foreign Countries (FCFC), Box 49, NARA.
49 Oppenheimer to Meyer, 25 March 1938, Eugene Meyer Papers (EMP), Box 21, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., United States (LC).
50 ‘Rapport von H.D. Kugler’, 2 February 1940, C.16,1065 Fenthol, Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv, Bern, Switzerland (SB); ‘Memorandum RE: Fritz Fenthol’, 6 August 1941, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/36, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
51 Berle to Hoover, 12 September 1940, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/1, Ibid.
52 Fenthol to Ministro de Estado da Justiça e Negocios Interiores, 9 March 1942, Assuntos Políticos – Expulsão e Deportação (APED), Box 1678, Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (AN).
53 Hoover to Berle, 14 February 1941, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/2, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
54 Department Circular, 28 February 1941, Ibid.
55 ‘Fritz Fenthol’, 4 April 1941, Consulado do Brasil em Berlim, Box 369, AN; ‘Svizzera – Italia, via Lugano – 15 aprile 41’, C.16,1065 Fenthol, SB.
56 Despatch 759 from La Paz to Washington, 16 April 1941, 824.00/1038, RG59, Box 4375, NARA.
57 Telegram 34 from La Paz to London, 16 April 1941, A3657/43/5, FO371/25762, TNA.
58 Telegram 96 from La Paz to Washington, 26 November 1940, 824.00/1020, RG59, Box 4375, NARA.
59 Telegram 1139 from Berlin to Washington, 27 March 1941, 824.00/1031, Ibid.
60 Despatch 780 from La Paz to Washington, 27 April 1941, 824.00 Revolutions/57, RG59, Box 4382, NARA.
61 ‘Arrivals and Departures on LATI Airline Service from January to May, 1941’, 800.20232/20, RG59, Box 3212, NARA.
62 Despatch 4580 from Rio to Washington, 5 May 1941, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/8, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
63 Anderson to Michler, 2 May 1941, 864.6363/42, RG59, Box 5640, NARA.
64 Memorandum of Conversation between Harden and Atherton, 6 May 1941, 864.6363/45, Ibid.
65 Harden to Atherton, 9 May 1941, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/12, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
66 Department Circular, 22 May 1941, RG84, General Records–La Paz (GRLP), Box 34, NARA.
67 Fenthol to Pfeiffer, 13 June 1941, RG84, SCFR, Box 26, NARA.
68 Fenthol to Harden, 11 June 1941, 871.6363/575, RG59, Box 5747, NARA; Despatch 2597 from Buenos Aires to Washington, 18 June 1941, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/24, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
69 Memo by Sands, 16 June 1941, A3657/43/5, FO371/25762, TNA.
70 ‘Internal Review of FOI Request Ref: 0172–18’, 31 October 2018, Foreign & Commonwealth Department.
71 Telegram 155 from Bogota to Washington, 16 May 1941, 824.00/1043, RG59, Box 4375, NARA; C/6559, 21 May 1941, A4060/43/5, FO371/25762, TNA.
72 Telegram 120 from Washington to Bogota, 17 May 1941, 824.00/1043, RG59, Box 4375, NARA.
73 Hoover to Berle, 5 July 1941, 824.00 Revolutions/68, RG59, Box 4382, NARA.
74 Telegram 284 from Bogota to Washington, 21 July 1941, 824.00/1062, RG59, Box 4375, NARA.
75 Note attached to unnumbered telegram from Buenos Aires to La Paz, 19 June 1941, RG84, GRLP, Box 34, NARA.
76 Fenthol to Vargas, 30 December 1941, APED, Box 1678, AN.
77 La Paz to Buenos Aires, 26 June 1941, RG84, GRLP, Box 34, NARA.
78 Despatch 2623 from La Paz to Washington, 26 June 1941, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/27, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
79 Telegram 4 from La Paz to London, 27 June 1941, C7856/18/18, FO371/26511, TNA.
80 Despatch 2623 from La Paz to Washington, 26 June 1941, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/27, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
81 ‘Memorandum RE: Fritz Fenthol’, 2 August 1941, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/40, Ibid.
82 ‘¿Quien Es y que Hace en el País el Nazi F. Feinthol?’ 3 July 1941, Libre Palabra, 3.
83 Hoover to Berle, 5 July 1941, 824.00 Revolutions/68, RG59, Box 4382, NARA.
84 Duggan to Jenkins, 10 July 1941, Ibid.
85 Alberto Ostria Gutiérrez, Una Revolucion Tras Los Andes (Santiago: Editorial Nascimento, 1944), 133–144.
86 Memorandum of Conversation between Berle and Hochschild, 31 July 1941, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/39, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
87 Berle to Roosevelt, 1 August 1941, President’s Secretary’s File, Box 31, FDRL.
88 Berle Diary, 4 September 1941, Papers of Adolf A. Berle, Box 213, FDRL.
89 Memorandum of Conversation between Berle and Campbell, 18 September 1941, 841.20210/24, RG59, Box C135, NARA.
90 English to Lyon, 14 March 1945, 862.20210 Belmonte Pabon, Elias/3-1445, RG59, Box 6726, NARA.
91 Fenthol to Berle, 25 June 1945, RG84, SCFR, Box 26, NARA.
92 Wallace to Welles, 22 August 1941, 811.5034/259, RG59, Box 3874, NARA.
93 Überseeische Auswanderungen No.116–118, 1941, E2175-2 Fenthol, SB.
94 ‘S.S. Nevermore’, 22 September 1941, TIME, 17.
95 Hoover to Berle, 3 October 1941, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/42, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
96 Fenthol to Caffery, 21 October 1941, RG84, SCFR, Box 3, NARA.
97 O’Shaughnessy to Fenthol, 22 October 1941, Ibid.
98 Fenthol to Vargas, 30 December 1941, APED, Box 1678, AN.
99 Fenthol to Ministro de Estado da Justiça e Negocios Interiores, 9 March 1942, Ibid.
100 Fenthol to Anderson, 5 January 1942, RG84, SCFR, Box 26, NARA.
101 Embaixada da Allemanha to Itamaraty, 6 January 1942, APED, Box 1678, AN.
102 Max Paul Friedman, Nazis and Good Neighbors: The United States Campaign against the Germans of Latin America in World War II (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 105–110, 193–197.
103 Aide-Mémoire from the British Embassy to the State Department, 2 February 1942, in FRUS, 1942, I, 308–309.
104 Long to Messersmith, 26 June 1942, Breckinridge Long Papers, Box 199, LC.
105 Memorandum of Conversation between Welles and Halifax, 13 February 1942, in FRUS, 1942, I, 312.
106 Fred Israel, ed., The War Diary of Breckinridge Long: Selections form the years 1939–1944 (Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1966), 245.
107 ‘Inquérito de Expulsão–Fritz Fenthol’, 28 January 1942, APED, Box 1678, AN.
108 Chefe de Polícia to Ministério da Justiça e Negócios Interiores, 28 January 1942, Ibid.
109 Leitão to Vargas, 6 February 1942, APED, Box 1678, AN.
110 Ministério da Justiça e Negócios Interiores to Estrangeiros Policia Civil do Distrito Federal, 29 April 1942, Ibid.
111 Fenthol to Ministro de Estado da Justiça e Negocios Interiores, 9 March 1942, Ibid.
112 ‘Memorandum RE: Emmy Oppenheimer Fenthol’, 25 June 1943, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/81, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
113 Telegram 808 from Bern to Washington, 28 February 1942, and Memorandum from State Department to the British Embassy, 27 March 1942, in FRUS, 1942, I, 318, 343–344.
114 Nota Reserva No. 157, 28 February 1942, APED, Box 1678, AN.
115 Certidão Fritz Fenthol, 4 March 1944, Ibid.
116 Memorandum by Anderson, 5 March 1942, RG84, SCFR, Box 9, NARA.
117 Telegram 755 from Rio to Washington, 9 March 1942, Ibid.
118 Fenthol to Ministro de Estado da Justiça e Negocios Interiores, 9 March 1942, APED, Box 1678, AN.
119 Relatório Fritz Fenthol, 15 March 1942, Ibid.
120 See, for instance, Leslie Rout and John Bratzel, The Shadow War: German Espionage and United States Espionage in Latin America during World War II (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1986), 17–18; Thomas Schoonover, Hitler’s Man in Havana: Heinz Luning and Nazi Espionage in Latin America (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008).
121 Araujo to Ministério da Justiça e Negócios Interiores, 19 March 1942, APED, Box 1678, AN.
122 Telegram 667 from Washington to Rio, 17 March 1942, RG84, SCFR, Box 9, NARA.
123 Fenthol to Ministro de Estado da Justiça e Negocios Interiores, 23 March 1942, APED, Box 1678, AN.
124 Despatch 6977 from Rio to Washington, 8 April 1942, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/56, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
125 Telegram No. 422 from London to Rio, 2 March 1942, W6391/1000/G, ADM116/4980, TNA.
126 Fenthol to Anderson, 23 March 1942, RG84, SCFR, Box 9, NARA.
127 Memorandum by Anderson, 24 March 1942, Ibid.
128 Anonymous letter to Teixeira, 27 March 1942, Segurança Publica Ordem Politica e Social (SPOPS), Box 2377, AN.
129 ‘Embora judeu, era emissario commercial da Alemanha’, O Jornal, 7 April 1942, 5; ‘Judeu e nazista!’, A Noite, 7 April 1942, 2.
130 Lichtenstein to Souza Costa, 8 May 1942, SPOPS, Box 2377, AN.
131 Letter from Jaffa, 8 April 1942, Ibid.
132 Ritter to Overhoff, 28 April 1942, RG131, FCFC, Box 49, NARA.
133 Despatch 8027 from Rio to Washington, 24 July 1942, 701.00115 EW 1939/3992, RG59, Box 2831, NARA.
134 Muller to Leitão, 22 June 1942, Ministério da Justiça e Negócios Interiores (MJNI), 103/5/8, Arquivo Histórico do Itamaraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (AHI).
135 Nota Verbal No. 150 from the Spanish Embassy to Itamaraty, 23 July 1942, 701.0010/536, RG59, Box 1775, NARA.
136 Telegram 2762 from Rio to Washington, 28 July 1942, 701.0010/506, Ibid.
137 Telegram 721 from Rio to London, 28 July 1942, W10557/1000/G, ADM116/4980, TNA.
138 Memorandum by Long, 30 July 1942, 701.0010/506, RG59, Box 1775, NARA.
139 Telegram 3953 from Washington to London, 2 August 1942, W10653/34/49, FO371/32443, TNA.
140 Telegram 2107 from Washington to Rio, 30 July 1942, 701.0010/506, RG59, Box 1775, NARA.
141 Minute by Talbot, 4 August 1942, W10653/34/49, FO371/32443, TNA.
142 Frank-Fahle to Lewald, 6 October 1942, RG131, FCFC, Box 49, NARA.
143 Henggeler to Harden, 16 October 1942, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/74, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
144 Harden to Atherton, 22 January 1943, Ibid.
145 Relatório Fritz Fenthol, 30 March 1943, APED, Box 1678, AN.
146 Buenos Aires to Berlin, 20 June 1942, RG131, FCFC, Box 49, NARA.
147 Despatch 11,425 from Rio to Washington, 29 May 1943, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/76, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
148 Fenthol to Flinsch, 26 March 1943, RG84, SCFR, Box 16, NARA.
149 ‘Memorandum re: Fritz Fenthol, Kurt Flinsch’, 1 May 1943, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/76, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
150 Hoover to Berle, 3 July 1943, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/82, Ibid.
151 Dom Odo to Aranha, 14 September 1943, Papers of Osvaldo Aranha (POA), 19/341, Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea, Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Rio de Janiero, Brazil (FGV).
152 Berle to Wellington, 4 August 1943, 862.20211 Alexander, Charles/42, RG59, Box C270, NARA.
153 Aranha to Dom Odo, 11 October 1943, POA, 19/342, FGV.
154 Despatch 13925 from Rio to Washington, 20 December 1943, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/86, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
155 Itamaraty to Ministério da Justiça e Negócios Interiores, 6 May 1944, MJNI, 104/3/12, AHI.
156 Itamaraty to Ministério da Justiça e Negócios Interiores, 2 and 20 June 1944 and 30 October 1944, APED, Box 1678, AN.
157 Ministério da Justiça e Negócios Interiores to Itamaraty, 2 April 1945, Ibid.
158 FBI, ‘History of the Bureau During the War’, RG65, Box 122, NARA.
159 ‘Memorandum for the Ambassador Re: Fritz Robert Franz Fenthol’, 25 May 1945, RG84, SCFR, Box 26, NARA.
160 ‘Safehaven Report, Subject: Fenthol, Fritz Robert Franz’, 29 June 1945, 800.515/6-2945, RG59, Box 4176, NARA.
161 Nota Reserva No. 157, 28 February 1942, APED, Box 1678, AN.
162 No. 225 from Rio to London, 20 February 1942, W2647/34/49, FO371/32434, TNA.
163 Jeffes to Talbot, 27 March 1942, W3728/34/39, FO371/32435, TNA.
164 Anonymous letter to Teixeira, 27 March 1942, SPOPS, Box 2377, AN.
165 Disler to Schweizerische Bindespolizei, 30 November 1939, C.16,1065 Fenthol, SB.
166 ‘Memorandum RE: Fritz Fenthol’, 2 August 1941, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/40, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
167 Winfried Oppenheimer, ‘Memoir’ (unpublished manuscript, 1989), 32–33. Oppenheimer Family Collection, New York, New York, United States, courtesy of Carin Berger (OFC).
168 Rapport von H.D. Kugler, 15 February 1940, C.16,1065 Fenthol, SB.
169 Despatch 1778 from Bern to Washington, 4 December 1940, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/5, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
170 Oppenheimer, ‘Memoir’, 34, OFC.
171 Military Intelligence Division, Axis Espionage and Propaganda in Latin America (Washington, D.C.: War Department, 1946), 22.
172 ‘Exhibit No. 18: Minutes of Meeting of Farben’s Business Committee, 10 September 1937, Limiting Farben’s Foreign Representatives to Active Nazis’, in U.S. Senate Hearings, Elimination of German Resources for War, Part 10: I.G. Farben (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1946), 1329.
173 Hoover to Berle, 21 June 1941, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/23, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
174 Rout and Bratzel, Shadow War.
175 Raymond Batvinis, Hoover’s Secret War against Axis Spies: FBI Counterespionage during World War II (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2014).
176 Friedman, Nazis & Good Neighbors.
177 Meyer to Atherton, 2 May 1938, EMP, Box 21, LC.
178 Donat to Feuer, 26 May 1949, RG131, FCFC, Box 49, NARA.
179 ‘Interview with Dr. Fritz Robert Franz Fenthol’, 31 August 1943, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/84, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
180 Oppenheimer to Meyer, 25 March 1938, EMP, Box 21, LC.
181 W. E. Mosee, The German-Jewish Economic Élite, 1820–1935: A Socio-Cultural Profile (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 161–185.
182 Emma to Winfried, 18 September 1952, OFC.
183 ‘Scenes in Berlin during the Nazi Boycott Against the Jews’, 12 April 1933, New York Times, 16.
184 Christoph Kreutzmüller, Final Sale in Berlin: The Destruction of Jewish Commercial Activity, 1930–1945 (Translated by Jane Paulick and Jefferson Chase; New York: Berghahn, 2015), 163, 183.
185 Eidesstattliche Versicherung, Fritz Fenthol, 23 October 1955, JSFC, Box 1, LBIA.
186 Richard Evans, The Third Reich in Power (New York: Penguin, 2005), 396.
187 Harold James, The Deutsche Bank and the Nazi Economic War against the Jews: The Expropriation of Jewish-Owned Property (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 77–81.
188 Fenthol to Meyer, 30 April 1938, EMP, Box 21, LC.
189 Bettina Zeugin and Thomas Sandkühler, Die Schweiz und die deutschen Lösegelderpressungen in den besetzten Niederlanden: Vermögensentziehung, Freikauf, Austausch 1940–1945 (Zurich: Chronos Verlag, 2001), 140–141.
190 See, for instance, Yehuda Bauer, Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933–1945 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994).
191 Hoover to Berle, 18 June 1943, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/80, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
192 Fenthol to Hirschland, 17 February 1939, Papers of the Hirschland Bank and Family, Box 1, LBIA; Christoph Kreutzmüller, Händler und Handlungsgehilfen: Der Finanzplatz Ambserdam und die deutschen Groβbanken, 1918–1945 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2005), 240–241.
193 Beate Meyer, ‘The Mixed Marriage: A Guarantee of Survival or a Reflection of German Society during the Nazi Regime’, in David Bankier, ed., Probing the Depths of German Antisemitism: German Society and the Persecution of the Jews, 1933–1941 (New York: Berghahn, 2000), 55, 66–68.
194 Fenthol to Meyer, 30 April 1938, EMP, Box 21, LC.
195 ‘Memorandum RE: Emmy Oppenheimer Fenthol’, 25 June 1943, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/81, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
196 ‘Case of Fritz Fenthol’, 2 August 1941, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/41, Ibid.
197 Evans, Third Reich, 598.
198 Fenthol to Meyer, 30 April 1938, EMP, Box 21, LC.
199 Rahel Liebeschütz, ‘Entscheidung für die Emigration nach England’, in Charlotte Ueckert-Hilbert, ed., Fremd in der eigenen Stadt: Eriinnerungen jüdisher Emigranten aus Hamburg (Hamburg: Junius, 1989), 46–48.
200 Ron Chernow, The Warburgs (New York: Random House, 1993), 507–508.
201 Author interview with Joe Oppenheimer, 19 March 2019.
202 ‘Interrogatorio di Fenthol Fritz’, 29 August 1939, C.16,1065 Fenthol, SB.
203 Emma to Winfried, 5 January 1940, OFC.
204 Despatch 5396 from Rio to Washington, 19 September 1941, RG84, SCFR, Box 4, NARA.
205 ‘Memorandum RE: Emmy Oppenheimer Fenthol’, 25 June 1943, 862.20211 Fenthol, Fritz/81, RG59, Box C280, NARA.
206 Zeugin and Sandkühler, Die Schweiz, 140.
207 See, for instance, Gutachterausschuss für Grundstücksbewertung Nr. 1.303, 3 April 1941, Institut für Stadtgeschichte Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; ‘Das Landhaus Bielschowsky’, Treffpunkte (Berlin: Kladower Forum, 2017), 41–43.
208 Joseph Heinemann, My Ordeal, 1936–1946 (Estate of Joseph Heinemann, 1992), 13, 23.
209 ‘Hugo Heinemann, 1900–1943’, The Stern & Löbl Families Database, <http://sternmail.co.uk/sld/getperson.php?personID=I567&tree=SLtree>, accessed 31 October 2018.
210 Telegram 128 to London and 28 to La Paz, 24 July 1941, C8625/18/18, FO371/26512, TNA.
211 Ministério da Justiça e Negócios Interiores to Itamaraty, 29 August 1945, APED, Box 1678, AN.
212 Note 223, 20 June 1945, RG84, SFR, Box 6, NARA.
213 ‘Fenthol, Fritz Robert Franz’, 20 August 1945, RG84, SFR, Box 7, NARA.
214 ‘BNF List’, 28 July 1946, RG84, SFR, Box 8, NARA.
215 Fenthol to Berle, 25 June 1945, RG84, SCFR, Box 26, NARA.
216 Spanish Diary, 20 November 1944, Philip W. Bonsal Papers (PBP), Box 3, LC.
217 Despatch 3466 from Madrid to Washington, 27 November 1944, 862.20210 Belmonte Pabon, Elias/11-2744, RG59, Box 5525, NARA.
218 Spanish Diary, 11 December 1944, PBP, Box 3, LC.
219 Belmonte to Braden, 15 April 1946, 862.20210 Belmonte Pabon, Elias/4-1846, RG59, Box 6726, NARA.
220 Bonsal to Butler, 13 April 1946, RG84, Classified General Records–Madrid, Box 101, NARA.
221 Butler to Bonsal, 20 April 1946, Ibid.
222 Telegram 896 from Washington to Madrid, 8 July 1946, 862.20210 Belmonte Pabon, Elias/6-2546, RG59, Box 6726, NARA.
223 Memorandum of Conversation between Belmonte and Miller, 10 August 1941, 611.24/8-1051, RG59, Box 2760, NARA.
224 Despatch 152 from La Paz to Washington, 30 August 1951, 724.00/8-3051, RG59, Box 3307, NARA.
225 ‘Memorandum for the Ambassador RE: Release of Interned Enemy Nationals’, 25 May 1945, RG84, SFR, Box 6, NARA.
226 Fenthol to Berle, 25 June 1945, RG84, SCFR, Box 26, NARA.
227 ‘Store Holding to be Repatriated to Germany by Stock Deal Here’, 20 December 1954, New York Times, 42; Fenthol to Leschnitzer, 20 December 1961, Papers of Adolf Leschnitzer, Box 4, LBIA.
228 Author interview with Tom Miller, Lily’s widower, 18 March 2019.
229 Emma to Winfried, 16 January 1954, OFC.
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Jonathan N. Brown
Jonathan N. Brown is an Associate Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science at Sam Houston State University. His work is published in Intelligence and National Security, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Security Studies, Conflict Management and Peace Science, International Studies Perspectives, Journal of Global Security Studies, and Asian Journal of Political Science.