It must take a certain type of individual to mentor and train a man as a spy. Watching them depart on their mission, knowing that the likelihood of success is excruciatingly slim. Knowing that they have essentially been sent on a one-way suicide mission.
Such were the men stationed at Abteilung I of the German Abwehr at Ast Niederlande in The Hague during the early years of the Second World War. It was their job to recruit, train and dispatch agents to England in preparation for Operation Sealion, the planned invasion of England in 1940/41. Some of the agents came to The Hague from other Abwehr Asts, such as Ast Hamburg or Ast Cologne.
Perhaps the officers of Abteilung I treated each agent as a commodity, a tool, someone or something that would help Nazi Germany to win the war. It wouldn’t do to see the agents as human beings with families and dreams and children.
Who were these men, these officers and soldiers who trained spies for hopeless missions to a well-defended island nation?
The Testimony of Karel Richter and Josef Jakobs
Josef Jakobs arrived in the UK via parachute on 31 January 1941, while Karel Richter landed on 12 May 1941. Both men were captured quickly and thoroughly interrogated by the officers at MI5’s secret interrogation centre at Camp 020 in Ham Common. The officers were naturally interested in the workings of the German Abwehr in Germany and the occupied countries. Both Richter and Josef had spent several time in Holland and from their stories, MI5 was able to piece together a fuzzy image of some of the Abwehr operatives in The Hague.
On 8 January, 1941, Josef left Hamburg, where he had been undergoing intensive training in espionage matters (weather reporting, wireless transmission, identification of aircraft, etc.), and arrived in The Hague. He stayed at Hotel Zeben in Molenstraat (now the Paleis Hotel) under his own name, in a room that had been booked for him by Herr Malten (an alias of Major Merkel/Mercker/Merker, as we shall come to see). While staying in The Hague, Malten provided Josef with 8-9 Gulden per day (about 12 RM) as well as ration cards for clothing and food. Josef apparently bought some clothes using the ration cards and sent the bills to the local Dienststelle (Abwehr offices) for payment. He never actually visited the Dienststelle himself, although Malten had given him the Dienststelle telephone number which he believed he had written down in a small notebook.
During his stay in The Hague, Josef received wireless training. An Abwehr operative would phone him at Hotel Zeben and then send a car to pick him up on the street corner outside the hotel. Malten was often in the car and would accompany Josef to the building in which he was to practice wireless transmissions. They would drive to the end of the Vondelstraat and walk to the house on foot.
This information aligned with what Richter told the MI5 officers, although he apparently only spent three days in The Hague, travelling there each time from Amsterdam in the company of a man named Bassermann. At one point, Richter was told by Bassermann, on behalf of Major Merkel @ Malten, that it would be necessary for his position to be regularised during his stay in Holland. He was accordingly provided with a certificate which described him as an “Angestellter” (employee) attached to Feldpost 34290, which was a Dienststelle at The Hague. This certificate or pass was signed by Major Merkel @ Malten.
Both Richter and Josef agreed that they had received their training in a flat on the Vondelstraat. The street was fairly broad running between two thoroughfares, the Elandstraat and the Prinsenstraat. An electric tram service ran along the street which had large newly built five-story red stone apartment houses on one side and somewhat older builds on the other side. According to the two spies, the street was purely residential and the only businesses on the street were several small greengrocers and a few tobacco kiosks.
The premises in the Vondelstraat to which Richter was taken were on the second floor of one of the large new blocks of apartment houses. There was no concierge, but the usual continental automatic bell and main-door release were in operation. At no time did Richter see any other person in this building apart from a young Dutchwoman who cleaned out the apartment. There were certainly no female typists or office staff and MI5 concluded that this address was merely a cover for the instruction of spies in wireless transmission, while the main offices of the Abwehr in The Hague were elsewhere. Josef had the impression that this was the place where all spies were taken to finish their training before departing for England.
While Josef and Richter agreed that the apartment was situated on the Vondelstraat, they disagreed as to the flat number. Richter thought it was 131 or 132 while Josef thought it was 184. Both agreed that the apartments themselves were numbered, not the houses. I wrote about the address issue at length in a previous blog.
While at the Vondelstraat flat, Richter and Josef encountered four men: Major Merkel @ Malten, Hiller, Schulz and a man they called Zebra (because of his large, protruding ears). From the MI5 documents, it isn’t clear if Josef and Richter knew Malten as Merkel or if this was a connection made by the MI5 officers. Throughout the documents, the man appears as Herr Malten but also as Major Merkel @ Malten and even Major Malten @ Merkel. It is possible that Josef knew the man as Malten whereas Richter knew him as Merkel and, in listening to both of their stories, the MI5 officers made the connection that they were talking about the same man.
Below is an overview of the four men, based on information provided by Josef and Richter.
Major Malten/Merkel
Merkel appears to have been the highest ranking officer that they encountered. He telephoned with Hamburg every evening for instructions. Josef did not know the address of Merkel’s office but Richter had the impression that Merkel lived in barracks. The man was in his late 40s and about 5’7” tall. He was a thick-set, slightly corpulent man who wore a grey-striped suit. His blonde hair had long since left his head and his eyes were either blue or grey, set within a pointed face. Before Josef entered the plane at Schipol, Major Merkel gave him two identity cards (one completed and one blank), a ration book, a code disk and the sum of £497, instructing him to proceed to London, obtain accommodation in a boarding house and transmit his messages, either from his own room or from some inconspicuous place. Josef had seen a large number of British uniforms at Schipol aerodrome and Merkel had told him that they were to be used for parachute troops in the invasion of England. While in England, and during a conversation with Richter, Josef also mentioned that the “Major” had told him that Clara Bauerle would be joining him prior to the planned invasion of England in June or July. This is likely a reference to Major Merkel as Josef also noted that the message had come to The Hague from Hamburg and been passed on to him by the “Major”. This was likely just a carrot to bolster Josef’s motivation to perform well in his upcoming mission to England.
Oberleutnant (or Hauptmann) Hiller
Hiller was second-in-command under Merkel and helped Schulz catch and correct transmission errors. He too was in his late 40s and about the same height as Merkel. In appearance, however, he was quite different from Merkel, being described as a “southern, almost Jewish type”. His hair, what was left of it, was dark, as were his eyes. He wore a small, clipped moustache beneath his aristocratic (hooked) nose, which likely didn’t do much for his sallow complexion. He usually wore a dark blue striped suit and a dark grey hat.
Feldwebel Schulz
Schulz seems to have been the main instructor in The Hague, training Josef and Richter in weather reporting and radio transmission. Schulz was in his late 20s, about 5”7” with a very well-groomed appearance and a relatively good figure. He had dark hair, blue/grey eyes, a somewhat hooked nose and a pale complexion. He wore a well-tailored brown striped suit with a brown belted-coat, a soft brown hat and brown shoes. Overall, he had a rather feminine manner. Josef said that he received instruction in weather reporting from Schulz. On three occasions, Schulz took Josef to a house in the suburb of Wassenaar to practice radio transmission. The messages were checked for accuracy by the Vondelstraat training centre. Schulz apparently told Josef that all of the important agents sent to England were sent by aeroplane or boat. Richter had never received any instruction from Schulz either in secret writing or in the making of explosives. He had, however, been instructed to report on bomb damage in England, which, he was told, would be of interest to the German Abwehr.
Zebra
Both Josef and Richter mentioned a man they knew as Zebra who was subordinate to Schulz. They noted that he had prominent ears and thought that might be how he had come by his name. Josef mentioned that he was a Polish cleaner who spoke broken German. He too was in his late 20s, about the same height as the others. He had a small, narrow build and acted like a clown or a country bumpkin, quite the contrast to Schulz. He wore a double striped suit and had dark hair and eyes.
According to Josef and Richter, all four men wore civilian clothes, not military uniforms. The question now becomes, can we identify these four men with any certainty?
Trainers of Spies
Two extremely helpful resources have provided some background information on the four men whom Josef and Richter encountered. I scoured through Franz Kluiters book on the German Abwehr’s activities in Holland, as well as Verhoeyen’s book on German Abwehr Activities in Belgium, searching for the four men. I wasn’t able to access Verhoeyen’s book in its entirety (relying on Google Books) but what I did find was helpful.
Carl August Johannes Merker (@ Malten/Merkel)
From Kluiter’s book, we know that Carl Merker (@ Malten/Merkel/Mercker) was born 29 October 1896 in Hamburg/Altona. From May 1940 until June 1941, Merker appears to have been the head of Abteilung I Luft (air intelligence) of Ast Niederlande, having succeeded Heinrich von Wenzlau (born 21 April 1895 in Bonn). Merker worked under the Abteilung I Leiter (leader) of Ast Niederlande, Walter Schulze-Bernett. During that period, Merker oversaw a number of agents. It was he who handled the logistics of ensuring that the agents were paid during their training and received suitable documents and supplies for their cover stories.
From June 1941 to June 1942, Merker took over from Schulze-Bernett as Leiter of Abteilung I at Ast Niederlande. There was at least one instance in which Merker needed to wield a heavy stick in order to get compliance from one of their agents. A Dutch agent, Joop Hakkaart, had been trained as a stay-behind agent in the case of invasion by the Allies. Apparently Joop had told a German officer about his assignment as an R-Netz agent and gotten into trouble for his indiscretion. After ten days in prison, Joop was taken to The Hague and threatened with death by Major Merker if he ever again spoke to anyone about his assignment. Merker was succeeded in June 1942 by Doktor Dähne. What became of Merker after that is unknown.
With Merker’s birth date, I was able to track down some genealogical records on Ancestry. Carl August Johannes Merker was born 29 October, 1896 in Altona (Ottensen), Hamburg, to master potter Johannes Adolph August Merker and his wife Anna Martha Uhl. The Lutheran couple had at least two other children, Adele (born 1895) and Ludwig Adolph (born 1900). Carl appears to have fought during the First World War with Infantry Regiment 67 (10th Company) of the German Imperial Army. He appears in the casualty list from 14 April 1916 (#506) as lightly wounded.
At some point, likely in the late 1910s or early 1920s, Carl married Lucie Anna Otto (born in Hamburg on 1 December 1897). The couple travelled frequently to The Hague in the early 1920s, possibly for business. Carl and Lucie had at least one child, a son, Carl-Heinz Franz Adolf Merker, born in Hamburg/Altona on 11 February 1923. During the Second World War, Carl-Heinz served as a Leutnant with Flaksturm Regiment 1 and died on 24 July 1945 at the Pestalozzischule, Annaberg-Buchholz, Erzgebirge, Hilfskrankenhaus. He appears to have died of wounds suffered during the war, passing away due to Pyo-Pneumothorax (gas and pus in the pleural cavity) “folge eines erlittenen granatsplitter-lungensteckschusses”, presumably a shrapnel wound that had pierced his lung. He had been residing at Fischersallee 52 in Hamburg/Altona, although it isn’t clear if that would have been a regimental barracks address (it doesn’t look like it from Google Streetview), the address of a billet or the address of his parents.
(From Annaberg-Buchholz site)
As for his father, Carl, there is some evidence that he participated in Operation Aquilar with Schulze-Bernett. I came across a Tagesspiegel article which noted that: “The parachutist missions were prepared by Hamburg’s Major Julius Boeckel, who, already before the war, had courageously supported those who were racially and politically persecuted. Majors Walter Schulze-Bernett and Carl [sic] Merker, who were stationed in The Hague and who participated in the “Aquilar” operation in 1941/42, worked with him to see that several hundred Jews could be removed from the Netherlands. The retention or manipulation of possibly tell-tale radio messages was handled by the radio station in Hamburg, where all radio messages from the Western Hemisphere arrived, the I i radiotelegraphy department of Max Werner Trautmann.” The Tagesspiegel article was written by Monika Siedentopf, who also wrote a book on Operation Sealion. Some have suggested that Siedentopf’s book takes Abwehr resistance to the Nazis too far so the information on Merker’s role requires further research to my mind.
I haven’t been able to trace Carl’s death, although his wife Lucie Anna passed away 19 February 1968 in Friedrichsgabe, Segeberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
Josef Stein (@Hiller)
Kluiter’s book states that Hiller was the alias of Josef Stein born 30 April 1892 in Hillscheid, Westerwald just northeast of Koblenz. Given how common a name “Stein” is, and a lack of online records for Hillscheid, I have been unable to find any genealogical information to take Josef Stein’s story any farther. According to Kluiter, Hauptmann Stein was the leader of Referat I i at Ast Niederlande. I hadn’t come across the I i abbreviation all that often but it stands for “radiotelegraphy and radio operator training”. His name appears much more often in the Kluiters and Verhoeyen books, since he appears to have been much more involved in the radio instruction of German agents.
Kluiters notes that, according to a post-war interrogation of Zebra/Zebralla by the U.S. Army, Stein had worked as an engineer at a refrigerator factory in Linde before the war (this is likely the same as the Gesellschaft für Lindes Eismaschinen Aktiengesellschaft – Linde’s Ice Machine Company). After 1941, Stein was transferred to the Abwehr offices in Utrecht and, in 1944 he was moved to a FAK (Frontaufklärungskommando – an Abwehr tactical intelligence unit) in Paris. A few weeks later he was sent to Wurzen (near Leipzig) to take over the management of a factory that produced transceivers and transceiver parts.
There were numerous potential agents who, in 1940 and 1941, came to the notice of the Abwehr, and would then receive a visit from Hauptmann Stein. For example, one man, Emile Heiremans had a radio operator diploma and let that information fall into some German ears. On 2 July 1940, Heiremans received a visit from Stein who questioned him about his political opinions. Content with Heiremans’ response, Stein promised the man a better job. After some deliberation, Heiremans accepted the offer and, on 6 September 1940, met with Stein at the Hulstkamp Café in Antwerp. From there, they both travelled by car to a house in the Vondelstraat in The Hague. Once they got there, Stein asked Heiremans if he would be willing to carry out an assignment in England but Heiremans expressed his preference for the Congo. A few days later Heiremans was transferred to another house in the Hoefijzerlaan. There, under the leadership of Schulz, he practised assignments in coding and radio transmission. Apparently there was no longer any question of an assignment in England. Stein told Heiremans to rent a house in the vicinity of Antwerp, from where he could send messages to the radio station of Ast Niederlande. On 1 October 1940, Stein and Schulz installed a battery-powered transmitter in the ‘Villa Simone’ on the Leopoldlei in Brasschaat (northwest outskirts of Antwerp). Both Germans visited Heiremans there monthly and he sent regular trial broadcasts. In January 1941 Heiremans met Hauptmann Merker of Ast Niederlande at Hotel de Londres in Antwerp and was told that Merker would now pay his wages (125 RM per month) and discussed what cover would be delivered to him. Heiremans also appeared to have introduced other agents to Stein and Merker.
There are also some fleeting references that Stein might have trained some agents (e.g. Lucien A.C.V. Rombaut) in the use of secret ink.
Schulz
Schulz’s name appears quite often in Kluiter’s book and while Hiller might arrange the logistics for the radio training of various agents, it was often Schulz and Zebra who did the actual hands-on radio instruction. I haven’t been able to find out anything about Schulz (that surname is just a bit too common) but we have more luck with Zebra with whom Schulz worked closely. There is some evidence that the Schulz (or Schultz), who worked with Zebra/Zebralla, used the codename JAP.
Georg Zebralla (@ Zebra)
Zebralla was born 14 November 1910 in Ratibor, Oberschlesien (now Racibórz in Poland). Josef said that Zebra was Polish and spoke only broken German. It would appear that Zebralla was a radio technician who assisted Schulz in offering radio instruction to potential agents. Zebralla also seems to have been the one who would install transmitters in various houses and locations, particularly for the stay-behind R-Netz agents. While some agents received training at the Vondelstraat address, a few in later years (1942) received signals training at a house in the Cornelis Jolstraat in The Hague (just southwest of the Wassenaar area). Another agent, Cor van Eijk who was station in Apeldoorn and transmitted under the code name Bechtel, destroyed his set with a sledgehammer and showed up at the desk in Utrecht with that news after Dolle Dinsdag (Mad Tuesday – 4 September 1944 – the day Breda was falsely reported to have been liberated by the Allies). Van Eijk said that he would no longer cooperate with the Germans and Zebralla was sent to pick up the destroyed set.
I have been unable to trace Georg Zebralla in any of the genealogical records.
Conclusion
Based on the footnotes and sources in his book, Frans Kluiters accessed a dizzying array of archival documents from at least five countries – United Kingdom, United States, The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. I have only dipped into Kluiter’s book for various snippets dealing with Merker, Stein, Schulz and Zebralla, but I would dearly love to read the entire volume, if ever it gets translated into Dutch. His book has opened up a small window to the vast treasure trove of documents that reside in various Dutch archives, as well as the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, DC. Some of the information on the four men seems to come from an interrogation of Zebralla conducted by the U.S. Army, archived at NARA. I would imagine that there might be more information of a personal nature on Zebralla, and possibly on the others. One day I hope to get down to DC to access some of these records, but for now, must be content with vicarious access via resources such as Kluiter’s.
I am curious to know what became of these four men. Did they survive the war while many of their trainees did not? Did they ever talk about their activities after the war? About the men that they trained and sent off on a fool’s errand, whose only real mission was to try to convince the British that the invasion of England was still on the books? So many stories lost in the mists of time.
Finally, as an aside, Kluiters has an appendix that lists all of the addresses for various Abwehr activities. For the Vondelstraat address in The Hague, he has 182 as the apartment in which radio transmission and signals training took place. This is yet another number that is different from that of Josef (184) and Richter (131 or 132). Kluiters gives no source for that address and it appears nowhere else in his book. I do know that he accessed Josef’s files (as they appear in a footnote) and it is possible that he transcribed 182 in error. Until such time as a primary source document appears with 182 as the number… I’ll hold off altering my own thoughts on the matter.
Sources
NISA Intelligence – online book published by Frans Kluiters on De Abwehr in Nederland (1936-1945)
Etienne Verhoeyen – Spionnen aan de achterdeur: de Duitse Abwehr in Belgie 1936-1945 – 2011 (accessed via Google Books)
Ancestry – genealogical records
(Header image of The Hague by Julian Hacker from Pixabay)