Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle

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Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle was a German special commission that was created by German High Command in July 1942, in response to the capture of two leading members of the anti-fascist resistance group, that was called the Red Orchestra (German:Rote Kapelle) by the Abwehr. The Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle was an internal counter-intelligence operation by the Abwehr and the Gestapo.[1] Consisting of a small independent Gestapo unit and led by SS-Obersturmbannführer Friedrich Panzinger, its remit was to discover and arrest members of the Red Orchestra in Germany, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy during World War II.[2][3]

Name[]

The name Rote Kapelle was a cryptonym that was used by the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), the security and counter-espionage part of the Schutzstaffel (SS), which referred to resistance radio operators as "pianists", their transmitters as "pianos", and their supervisors as "conductors".[4] The Rote Kapelle was a collective name that was used by the Gestapo, the German secret police for the purpose of identification, and the Funkabwehr, the German radio counterintelligence organisation.[5] The name of Kapelle was an accepted Abwehr term to denote secret radio transmitters and the counterintelligence operation against them.

Formation[]

In August 1941, Rote Kapelle was the original counterintelligence operation started by Abwehrstelle Belgium (Ast Belgium), a field office of Abwehr IIIF.[5] When Soviet agent Anatoly Gurevich was arrested in November 1942,[5] a small unit made up of Gestapo personnel was formed in Paris in the same month.[1] It was created by RSHA Amt (department) IV (Gestapo) section A2 (Sabotageabwehr), during September 1942, and led by SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lt. colonel) Friedrich Panzinger. It grew out of a 1942 agreement between the Funkabwehr, Abwehr and the Gestapo to identify members of the resistance group Red Orchestra.[6]

Size[]

History[]

In August 1943, Karl Giering was dying of throat cancer and he was forced to surrender his command to his deputy Friedrich Reiser.[7] However, Reiser was found to be incapable of managing the unit and on August 1943 Heinz Pannwitz, a Gestapo officer in department Amt. IV A2 of the RSHA took command of the unit.[8]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Kesaris, Paul. L, ed. (1979). The Rote Kapelle: the CIA's history of Soviet intelligence and espionage networks in Western Europe, 1936-1945 (pdf). Washington DC: University Publications of America. p. XII. ISBN 978-0-89093-203-2.
  2. ^ Shareen Blair Brysac (12 October 2000). Resisting Hitler : Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 441. ISBN 978-0-19-531353-6. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  3. ^ Richard Breitman; Norman J. W. Goda; Timothy Naftali; Robert Wolfe (4 April 2005). U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis. Cambridge University Press. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-521-61794-9. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  4. ^ Richelson, Jeffrey (1995). A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press US. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-19-511390-7.
  5. ^ a b c Kesaris, Paul. L, ed. (1979). The Rote Kapelle: the CIA's history of Soviet intelligence and espionage networks in Western Europe, 1936-1945 (pdf). Washington DC: University Publications of America. p. XI. ISBN 978-0-89093-203-2.
  6. ^ Blair Brysac, Shareen. Resisting Hitler : Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra (2000 ed.). USA: Oxford University Press. p. 441.
  7. ^ Stephen Tyas (25 June 2017). SS-Major Horst Kopkow: From the Gestapo to British Intelligence (in German). Fonthill Media. pp. 87–. GGKEY:JT39J4WQW30. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  8. ^ "KV 2-1971 Heinz PANNWITZ". The National Archives. Kew. p. 26. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
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