als ich schon seit 1945 im Alter von 8 Jahren das/ ein "Pet der CIC/ OSS" in Bremen war. Und seit spaet-Fruehling 1945 politisch ganz hell wach wurde.
+ Anbei, auf English, einen aufklaerischen Brief den ich an den wackeren Professor Kane schrieb:
"I happened on your interview about Kempowski in the F.A.Z. As I expect you know, I translated his "Did you ever seen Hitler" these many years ago for Peter Mayer at Avon Books, but never met the author; or heard from him....
As to CIC/ OSS/ CIA I know a fair amount since I was as it were the
"pet" of the Bremen CIC from 1945-until 1950 when I came to this
country on a US troopship, the USS Maurice Rose, as a US Army dependent, and was at their edges for many years whenever I went back to Germany since I knew US ambassadors etc. I recall some event sponsored by the US embassy in Godesberg with a lot of CIA and KGB guys present, who knows some of the women may have been too, people sort of knew who was who, but all pretended not to, but me who made great fun of them for that, which raised quite a few eyebrows. They were all little boys, deadly serious.
The reason that this so happened had to with both parent and many other members of my family having been in the resistance to Hitler, and coming under the protection of these hard-partying fellows as of Spring 1945, who however were all OSS and had CIC as a cover. For example, in 1949, in Berlin for Christmas, and what an eventful few weeks it were, I first met Rainer Hildebrandt, head of the just founded Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit, whom my my
mother, a counter spy, had known since 1940, she herself survived Gestapo imprisonment, and Rainer his KZ. But the man who was already my stepfather, Richard Weber, then a captain, CIC, later reverting to his original outfit, Corps of Engineers, was the person who then arranged for the financing and control of the Kampfgruppe, which eventually became a terrorist organization inside the DDR - Rainer left it about the time that it turned violent. CIC was a cover, as were quite a few others, such as officers charged with News and Information and giving out licenses. My uncle George Aldor, a Sargent in the information and news licensing division in Kassel,
a Hungarian Jew by way of Vienna; Fred Praeger... lots of emigres who had gotten out in time, returned as OSS operatives because they knew German [my stepfather Richard Weber, who retired as a US Colonel, was a north-German farmer's son emigre at a fairly early age, and after retiring and getting himelf an MA in German lit he went to Uni Bonn on the GI bill for some post grad studies,
but supplemented his retirement income by hitching back up with the CIA and telling them what his old counterparts in the German corps of engineers were doing, or planning to do in the
event the tanks started to roll westward - I was always told to go for a walk in the great woods near Villiprot during the few months I spent with them there in 1965 and the case officer showed up!].
You might find out more by looking at OSS files if they are available.
But my guess is that you are right. K. wanted to be able to bring his
family to the West, and he was betrayed? or simply caught.
I myself turned the company down in Berlin in 1957, back for a junior
year abroad, the example of my mother sufficed; and I think
I realized once in you were ensnared for life; and I could have really
used an extra $ 100 a month just for unloading what I happened
to see on my visits to the Berliner Ensemble, the opera, etc. $ 100
had a great exchange value, one buck became 4 West Mark became 16 East mark, and 32 bought you the complete subsidized works of Lenin.; 100 the complete 20 volumes of Georgy Lukacs from Aufbau... just a guess how much I paid.
But I was the first US literary scout to go to East Berlin and visit the
Aufbau Verlag, well primed by Uwe Johnson who their writers
were. But when I happened to ask Uwe, sometime in the early 70s
in New York, about to drop him off at the Iroquois Hotel, right next to the Algonquin, he had just published "Two Views", whether he happened to know Rainer Hildebrandt... he leapt out of the car... and dashed, in as much as the Nilpferd that he had become from his alcohol consumption could run or waddle... he had become so dreadfully paranoid, however my visit with Herr Kaspar of Aufbau made me realize that there was some real justification for the paranoia. Uwe tried as much as possible too, to not get involved, to live in the inbetween.
Sincerely Michael Roloff, Handke Nut
HIER gibt es ein Personen- und Sachverzeichnis dieses Weblogs. Es soll als zusätzliche Orientierungshilfe zu den "Ressorts" und der Suchfunktion dienen.
Ich aber erinnere mich sehr genau an 1947/8
+ Anbei, auf English, einen aufklaerischen Brief den ich an den wackeren Professor Kane schrieb:
"I happened on your interview about Kempowski in the F.A.Z. As I expect you know, I translated his "Did you ever seen Hitler" these many years ago for Peter Mayer at Avon Books, but never met the author; or heard from him....
As to CIC/ OSS/ CIA I know a fair amount since I was as it were the
"pet" of the Bremen CIC from 1945-until 1950 when I came to this
country on a US troopship, the USS Maurice Rose, as a US Army dependent, and was at their edges for many years whenever I went back to Germany since I knew US ambassadors etc. I recall some event sponsored by the US embassy in Godesberg with a lot of CIA and KGB guys present, who knows some of the women may have been too, people sort of knew who was who, but all pretended not to, but me who made great fun of them for that, which raised quite a few eyebrows. They were all little boys, deadly serious.
The reason that this so happened had to with both parent and many other members of my family having been in the resistance to Hitler, and coming under the protection of these hard-partying fellows as of Spring 1945, who however were all OSS and had CIC as a cover. For example, in 1949, in Berlin for Christmas, and what an eventful few weeks it were, I first met Rainer Hildebrandt, head of the just founded Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit, whom my my
mother, a counter spy, had known since 1940, she herself survived Gestapo imprisonment, and Rainer his KZ. But the man who was already my stepfather, Richard Weber, then a captain, CIC, later reverting to his original outfit, Corps of Engineers, was the person who then arranged for the financing and control of the Kampfgruppe, which eventually became a terrorist organization inside the DDR - Rainer left it about the time that it turned violent. CIC was a cover, as were quite a few others, such as officers charged with News and Information and giving out licenses. My uncle George Aldor, a Sargent in the information and news licensing division in Kassel,
a Hungarian Jew by way of Vienna; Fred Praeger... lots of emigres who had gotten out in time, returned as OSS operatives because they knew German [my stepfather Richard Weber, who retired as a US Colonel, was a north-German farmer's son emigre at a fairly early age, and after retiring and getting himelf an MA in German lit he went to Uni Bonn on the GI bill for some post grad studies,
but supplemented his retirement income by hitching back up with the CIA and telling them what his old counterparts in the German corps of engineers were doing, or planning to do in the
event the tanks started to roll westward - I was always told to go for a walk in the great woods near Villiprot during the few months I spent with them there in 1965 and the case officer showed up!].
You might find out more by looking at OSS files if they are available.
But my guess is that you are right. K. wanted to be able to bring his
family to the West, and he was betrayed? or simply caught.
I myself turned the company down in Berlin in 1957, back for a junior
year abroad, the example of my mother sufficed; and I think
I realized once in you were ensnared for life; and I could have really
used an extra $ 100 a month just for unloading what I happened
to see on my visits to the Berliner Ensemble, the opera, etc. $ 100
had a great exchange value, one buck became 4 West Mark became 16 East mark, and 32 bought you the complete subsidized works of Lenin.; 100 the complete 20 volumes of Georgy Lukacs from Aufbau... just a guess how much I paid.
But I was the first US literary scout to go to East Berlin and visit the
Aufbau Verlag, well primed by Uwe Johnson who their writers
were. But when I happened to ask Uwe, sometime in the early 70s
in New York, about to drop him off at the Iroquois Hotel, right next to the Algonquin, he had just published "Two Views", whether he happened to know Rainer Hildebrandt... he leapt out of the car... and dashed, in as much as the Nilpferd that he had become from his alcohol consumption could run or waddle... he had become so dreadfully paranoid, however my visit with Herr Kaspar of Aufbau made me realize that there was some real justification for the paranoia. Uwe tried as much as possible too, to not get involved, to live in the inbetween.
Sincerely Michael Roloff, Handke Nut