Ellen Rometsch

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Bertha Hildegard Elly Rometsch , internationally known under the pseudonym Ellen Rometsch , (born September 19, 1936 in Kleinitz , Lower Silesia ) is a former German photo model and playgirl in Washington who was suspected of espionage by the FBI .

Life

Her family fled Kleinitz with seven children towards the end of the Second World War (since 1945 Polish: Klenica) and settled in Kreinitz near Riesa (in the Soviet occupation zone , since 1949 GDR ). The parents were given an estate in Kreinitz. Ellen was a member of the Free German Youth and worked as a stenographer for the SED district administration .

When agriculture was to be forcibly collectivized , the family moved to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955 , and the parents leased an estate near Schwelm . There she did a business apprenticeship , married for the first time and shortly afterwards divorced. In Siegburg she met Rolf Rometsch, married him, took the family name Rometsch and had a son in 1958. On April 6, 1961 Sergeant Rolf Rometsch was assigned to the German Logistic Office in Washington with his wife and son . The couple lived on Military Road in Arlington until August 1963 .

She first appeared in Washington as a photo model under the pseudonym Ellen Rometsch . She met Nancy Carole Tyler, the secretary of Senator Robert G. Baker (short: Bobby Baker) know. Bobby Baker later found her as a hostess for the Quorum Club at the Coroll Arms Hotel on Capitol Hill .

Affair with John F. Kennedy

In the summer of 1963, the President of the United States , John F. Kennedy , met 27-year-old Ellen Rometsch and began an affair with her. This first meeting was arranged by Bobby Baker (Secretary of the Senate Democratic Group) and Bill Thompson (friend of Kennedy). Bobby Baker had also started the Quorum Club , a private hangout for influential people, where Rometsch worked for about two years before starting her affair with Kennedy. Kennedy and Rometsch met more often, according to Baker.

FBI suspicion

The FBI noticed the relationship between Kennedy and Rometsch; Agents interrogated Rometsch on July 3, 1963 in Arlington, because they feared that their origin from East Germany was a security threat. However, the suspicion that she was an East German spy could not be substantiated. Further investigation revealed the Quorum Club and its connections with high-ranking politicians, including Robert F. Kennedy . The FBI then contacted the German embassy . On August 21, 1963, Ellen Rometsch was expelled to the Federal Republic at the instigation of Justice Minister Robert F. Kennedy. A few weeks before John F. Kennedy's murder, he was personally informed of the unpleasant suspicion by the intelligence chief J. Edgar Hoover in the White House . According to media reports, Robert Kennedy sent money to Europe to pacify Rometsch. Rometsch's husband denies the payments. John F. Kennedy tried in the fall of 1963 to avert a negative influence on his current election campaign , which he partially succeeded. Although it became public knowledge that Ellen Rometsch was suspected of espionage, Kennedy's name did not appear in this context. The press release on Ellen Rometsch was published on November 22, 1963, a few hours before Kennedy's murder. The FBI created a 478-page file on Rometsch with the code number 105-122316 ( FBI Files Ellen Rometsch. President John Kennedy Administration / Robert Kennedy ), which was only closed in 1987 and is now publicly available. According to the documents, Kennedy's successor Lyndon B. Johnson requested "a summary of the Ellen Rometsch case" in February 1964. The FBI assigned Rometsch to a group of women, mostly of German origin, "who offered their services as 'play girls' to various people inside and outside the government". Some of them are prominent and are in the public eye. This women's ring is responsible for " personal escapades, prostitution, partying, sex orgies, and so forth ".

After the expulsion

One month after the expulsion, in September 1963, she was divorced from her husband at the Bonn Regional Court because of "the woman's sole fault" and moved to live with her parents on the Westphalian Oberberge estate near today's Schwelm . She worked as a milkmaid on the farm, helped out with the beet harvest and raised her son. There she was tracked down in late October 1963 and harassed by media representatives . The British tabloid Daily Express offered Rometsch 55,000 Deutschmarks for her memories. Republican Senator John J. Williams held on to her guilt in 1963 and promised evidence. In October 1964 she gave a short interview to the Hamburger Illustrierte Stern .

Rometsch lives near Bonn , has remarried Rolf Rometsch and is avoiding the public.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e D. Banse, L.-M. Nagel, U. Müller: John F. Kennedy and his mistress from the GDR In: Welt am Sonntag , December 29, 2013
  2. ^ A b John Simkin: Rometsch biography Spartacus Educational
  3. ^ A b c affairs: Ellen Rometsch, 88-63-85 . In: Der Spiegel . No. 45 , 1963 ( online ).
  4. ↑ a b Surprisingly beautiful . In: Der Spiegel . No. 29 , 2003 ( online - 1st part). Surprisingly beautiful . In: Der Spiegel . No.
     29 , 2003 ( online - 2nd part).
  5. ^ Video The secrets of John F. Kennedy  in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on January 26, 2014. Rometsch: Minute 30:00; with picture
  6. ↑ Video The-Secrets-of-John-F-Kennedy  in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on January 26, 2014 .; In this ZDF documentary, a former bodyguard speaks of a million US dollars that should have flowed to Liechtenstein.
personal data
SURNAME Rometsch, Ellen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rometsch, Bertha Hildegard Elly (full married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German playgirl and alleged spy
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Kleinitz , Lower Silesia