Hendrik Anton Cornelis Fabius

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Anton Hendrik Cornelis Fabius (born December 31, 1878 in Utrecht ; † March 8, 1957 ) was a Dutch officer. Fabius was the head of the Dutch military intelligence service.

Life and activity

Fabius embarked on a military career at a young age: in 1896 he was admitted to the Military Academy in Breda , in July 1899 assigned to the 2nd Hussar Regiment, and in 1903 he achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel .

In September 1913 Fabius was entrusted with the management of the recently established study office for foreign armies of the Dutch General Staff. This was concerned with collecting and evaluating information relevant to the Netherlands about the military in various other European countries. On June 25, 1914, this office was elevated to an official part of the General Staff under the designation GSIII. Fabius remained in the post of head of the Dutch military intelligence service - since February 1915 with the rank of captain - until 1919.

In the following twenty years Fabius took over various troop commands in the cavalry. During these years he was promoted to lieutenant colonel (January 1, 1928), major general (1933) and lieutenant general.

After Johan Willem van Oorschot resigned as head of the Dutch military intelligence service as a result of the Venlo incident in October 1939, Fabius was recalled to this post in December 1939. He then headed the Dutch military intelligence service until the German occupation of the country in May 1940.

After Fabius had received the information leaked from Hans Oster about the impending German invasion from the Dutch military attaché in Berlin, Bert Sas , on the evening before the German attack on the Netherlands , he was able to inform most of the leading figures in the Dutch government about this that they were largely able to escape the occupiers' access by fleeing to Great Britain.

The possibility of an invasion of the Netherlands by National Socialist Germany had been considered extremely improbable by Fabius until shortly before this reality was realized, which he had justified by the fact that the German government was by such a measure - the occupation of a small neutral country, its control for warfare against the Western powers was not absolutely necessary - would put their international prestige at risk, which they would not risk because of the small profit that such an action could bring.

Before the German troops managed to take control of the Netherlands, Fabius destroyed the entire archive of the GSIII. A consequence of this act is that there is little evidence of the activities and functioning of the Dutch Military Intelligence Service from 1913 to 1940, so research knowledge of this organization, its history, etc. is very limited. One researcher put this down to the formula that by destroying his archive Fabius inevitably also destroyed his own legacy (“had to destroy his own heritage”), so that he became a shadowy figure for posterity.

Due to his position in the secret service, Fabius was targeted by the National Socialist police officers in 1940 at the latest, who classified him as an important target: In the spring of 1940, the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin put him on the special wanted list GB , a directory of people who were considered particularly dangerous by the Nazi surveillance apparatus or considered important, which is why, in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht , they should be located and arrested by the special SS commandos following the occupation troops with special priority. It is not clear whether he actually fled to Great Britain.

literature

  • How is that? , Vol. 3, 1935, p. 106.

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frederic S. Pearson / RE Doerga: The Netherlands and the 1940 Nazi Invasion , in: Michael Brecher: Studies in Crisis Behavior , 1978, p. 32.
  2. ↑ Edwin Ruius: Spynest: British and German Espionage from neutral Holland 1914-1918 , 2016th
  3. ^ Entry on Fabius on the special wanted site GB (reproduced on the website of the Imperial War Museum in London) .
personal data
SURNAME Fabius, Hendrik Anton Cornelis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fabius, Anton Hendrik Cornelis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch officer, head of the Dutch military intelligence service
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Utrecht
DATE OF DEATH March 8, 1957