Otto von Bolschwing

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Otto Albrecht Alfred von Bolschwing (born October 15, 1909 in Schönbruch , Bartenstein district , East Prussia ; † March 7, 1982 in Sacramento , California , USA ) was a German SS-Hauptsturmführer in the security service of the Reichsführer SS (SD) and after the Second World War secret agent of the US intelligence service Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Europe.

Life

Bolschwing came from a branch of the von Bodelschwingh family and was a merchant by profession. Since 1932 he was a member of the Nazi party , and during the period of National Socialism , first as an undercover agent of SD in Palestine used to his expulsion 1936th After that he was employed at least from 1937 to 1939 in Department II 112 ("Jews") of the SD main office . As Adolf Eichmann's adjutant , he worked on programs for the “ final solution to the Jewish question ”. In 1937 he stated in a memorandum on emigration: “The most effective means of depriving Jews of their feeling of security is popular anger, which turns into rioting. Even though this method is illegal, it has had a long-lasting effect , as the ' Kurfürstendamm riot ' showed. ”In 1940/41 Bolschwing was a representative of the SD in Bucharest ( Romania ), where he participated in the anti-Jewish pogrom in Bucharest (January 21-23 1941) and supported the Iron Guard against the will of the Nazi leadership. On January 30, 1941, he was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer , but was imprisoned by the Gestapo for almost a year in 1942/43, presumably because he had acted too stubbornly in Romania. He then took part in the Aryanization of a Hamburg chemical company with personal enrichment.

Even before the end of the war, Bolschwing was recruited in 1945 by the American intelligence organization Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), the counter-espionage department of the Army Secret Service, which later became part of the newly founded CIA. In 1949 Bolschwing was transferred to the service of the German secret service Organization Gehlen , which was founded under the care of the CIA . He mobilized old contacts in Italy in order to be able to better control the events of the Greek Civil War (1946-1949), and warned the CIA and the Gehlen Organization of possible infiltration by communist agents. In 1954 he was Reinhard Gehlen's representative in the USA and received American citizenship in 1959 .

In 1969, Bolschwing became president of the Californian high-tech company "Trans-International Computer Investment Corporation" in Sacramento, which is directly involved in secret arms contracts for the US Department of Defense .

It was not until 1979 that US authorities started investigations into his past (file number: US District Court, Eastern District of California; Civil Action No. 81-308 MLS ), which made his career public. At the end of 1981, he therefore renounced US citizenship. Initially delayed due to poor health, the proceedings were discontinued after his death.

literature

  • Timothy Naftali: The CIA and Eichmann's Associates. In: Richard Breitman, Norman JW Goda, Timothy Naftali, Robert Wolfe (eds.): US Intelligence and the Nazis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005, ISBN 0-521-85268-4 , pp. 337–374, detailed description of the life stages on pp. 343–354 (preview) .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Von Bollschwing, Otto Albrecht Alfred. In: Randolph L. Braham (Ed.): Contemporary Views on the Holocaust. Kluwer Boston, Hingham MA 1983, ISBN 0-89838-141-X , p. 226 .
  2. ↑ Michael Wildt : Otto von Bolschwing or You'll Never Get Lost. ( Memento of the original from February 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Michael-Wildt.de , November 15, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.michael-wildt.de
  3. ^ Mariana Hausleitner : Pogrom in Bucharest (1941). In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Hostility to Jews in the past and present. Vol. 4: Events, Decrees, Controversies. De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2011, ISBN 978-3-598-24076-8 , pp. 270-272 (preview) ; Radu Ioanid: The Pogrom of Bucharest January 21–23, 1941. In: Holocaust Genocide Studies. Vol. 6, 1992, No. 4, pp. 373-382, doi : 10.1093 / hgs / 6.4.373 .
  4. ^ Timothy Naftali: The CIA and Eichmann's Associates. In: Richard Breitman, Norman JW Goda, Timothy Naftali, Robert Wolfe (eds.): US Intelligence and the Nazis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005, ISBN 0-521-85268-4 , pp. 337-374, here pp. 344-346 .
  5. ^ Theodor Venus, Alexandra-Eileen Wenck: The deprivation of Jewish assets as part of the Gildemeester campaign. An empirical study on the organization, form and change of "Aryanization" and Jewish emigration in Austria 1938–1941 (= publications by the Austrian Commission of Historians: Deprivation of assets during the Nazi era as well as provisions and compensation since 1945 in Austria. Vol. 20). Oldenbourg, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-7029-0496-4 , p. 45 ( excerpt ).
personal data
SURNAME Bolschwing, Otto von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bolschwing, Otto Albrecht Alfred von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS-Hauptsturmführer and CIA agent
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Schönbruch , Bartenstein District, East Prussia
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1982
Place of death Sacramento , California, United States