Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-10-04
Out of the Night

of German members Of the
international Brigade in Sphh
were given 10 Schreckenbach
as copies of genuine recruit
ing files.
When the Comintern con-
centrated its forces in the
Rhineland, the Gestapo got a
report that Bolshevist con-
spiracy was in the making in
Silesia. Communists arrested
in Germany were denounced
as traitors by the Comintern
TO ease the lot Of the i'm
priSoned men.
/ sent the GeStapo false
codes, carefully prepare I'd
bogus letters allegedly stolen
from Comintern files. and old
passports discarded by Richard
Jensen as useless; false lists
of shipping contacts, reports
of the Moscow show trials, and
many other items of sup
posedly secret character.
Once in a while the West
bureau interlaced this maze
of faxed information with
facts which would check with
evidence known TO be already
in the possession of Schreck-
enbach and his aides. We in
vented meaningless terms,
such as DUNS, REPS. etc,
and impaired to them a mys-
FERROUS significance.
SEEMED TO SUCCEED
All this was done with
greatest care, and the Ges-
tapo seemed to swallow ii all.
but now l was TO use our
carefully-built up channel of
transformation TO lure one Of
Hitlers man hunters across
the frontier to Danish soil.
A special Nazi courier who
maintained contact between
myself and Schreckenbach OPP
Grated under the guise of a
sleeping-car porter on the
night express Hamburg
Copenhagen. l met him every
Tuesday and Friday morning
in obscure little restaurants
in the vicinity of Soederport.
He brought me instructions
and money and conveyed back
TO Schreckenbach whatever
material l had TO give him.
THIS Cesr5p0 courier
slight man with a small black
mustache and horn-rimmed
glasses, used the name of
Petersen. Occasionally he
brought me in contact with
other Gestapo agents active in
Copenhagen and elsewhere.
Four days after I had met
Wollweber and Avatin at the
Hotel d'Angleterre, I con-
tacted Petersen.
Petersen handed me list Of
Instructions from Schrecken-
bach. The Gestapo wanted
me TO investigate a number of
persons in Danish and Swedish
towns who had been anony-
mously denounced as having
contact with anti = NaZi
elements in Germany.
He also showed me a num-
Der of photographs of men who
had been caught smuggling a
truckload of revolutionary
pamphlets across the French
German border. wanting to
know if / could identify any
of the captured smugglers.
SOMETHING BIG
I handed him the usual re-
port which had been con-
cocted the previous day at the
headquarters of the Western
Secretariat. TIL n following
instructions from Wollweber,
l said:
Listen, I've got something
much bigger. Wollweber Is
going tomorrow on a confer
ence tour through Denmark.
sunday he'll be -Aarhns,
Monday in Esbjerg, Tuesday
in Sonderburg."
Petersen quietly made notes.
What of it," he demanded.
"What of it?" / repeated.
II said Wollweber will be In
Sonderburg on Tuesday. Son
derburg Is less than 10 kilo-
meters from the German
frontier"
l could see the excitement
mounting inside Petersen.
His eyes shone bright, his face
grew pale. and his hands be-
Idlilc ltSblCoo. AlC olSdNuCd
his hands around the beer
glass.
"Wollweber in Sonderburg,"
he mumbled.
"All Schreckenbach has to
do Is TO send one or two of
his young men to Sonderburg
with a speedboat or a good
-eAr-pourcc Wuffwrber
and carry him or"
rs he going TO be aIone?"
Petersen inquired cautiously.
Hell have translator
with him, an old idiot. Tell
Schreckenbach not to send too
many men. Wollweber Is an
old wolf. He'll fly of at the
slightest suspicion. Wollweber
ia short thick. Sn,okes ton