I thought I’d tuck an extra blog post (or two) into my monthly schedule. A Friday revisit of correspondence from the week (or month). And this doesn’t include my regular correspondents like Traugott V., Tony K. Nick H. Tony P. and Adrian B. I’m reporting here on new correspondents… mostly because I am always intrigued […]
When Robin W.G. Stephens applied to join the Security Service, he claimed to have been awarded the Star of Abyssinia medal for his service with the Red Cross during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War in the mid-1930s. The funny thing is… there is no such medal in the United Kingdom. A mystery calling out for investigation.
The Medals of Robin W.G. Stephens Read More »
If you look for Robin W.G. Stephens on the internet, you will likely come across this photo. I think it originally comes from the Imperial War Museum. Stephens, for those who may not know, was the commandant of Camp 020, MI5’s secret Second World War interrogation centre at Latchmere House (Ham Common). Stephens was a
Another View of Robin W.G. Stephens Read More »
I received an email in early August 2020 from a gentleman living in Norway, the son-in-law of Karl Victor Hagen (son of Louis Georg Hagen). He had read my blogs on the pre-war black market passport business in Berlin and had a bit of information which he thought might be helpful. For those who wish
Black market passport business – Richard Eduard Wiener Read More »
A year ago, I published a series of blogs about Josef Jakobs’ involvement with a blackmarket passport scheme in Berlin. The scheme was orchestrated by a German lawyer, Jürgen Ziebell, and involved selling fake passports to Jews desperate to escape Nazi Germany. Many of the fake passports were from Finland and supplied by Finnish bootlegger
German Swindler Josef Emil Roos Read More »
A few months ago, I wrote a follow-up post about Eric Vincent Ewart White, the defence attorney for Josef Jakobs at his 1941 court martial. I had tracked down the names of three of Eric’s grandchildren and reached out to one of them. And… success! Rowan Ewart-White kindly sent me a photograph of his grandfather
Eric Vincent Ewart White – the Barrister-at-Law who defended a German Spy Read More »
During his court-martial, Josef told the court that he had direct Jewish ancestors. This was quite a revelation, as he had earlier told military interrogators that he was not Jewish. His court martial testimony, that his own grandfather was Jewish, seems like a desperate bid to gain the sympathy of the court. My own genealogical
The Jewish In-laws of Josef Jakobs – Gustav Goldemann Read More »
During his court-martial, Josef told the court that he had direct Jewish ancestors. This was quite a revelation, as he had earlier told military interrogators that he was not Jewish. His court martial testimony, that his own grandfather was Jewish, seems like a desperate bid to gain the sympathy of the court. My own genealogical
The Jewish In-Laws of Josef Jakobs – Abraham Wolfgang Elkan Read More »
My father, Raymond Jakobs, was the son of Josef Jakobs. Born in the early 1930s, my father didn’t really know his own father at all. Josef was either travelling or locked up in Swiss prisons or German concentration camps. My father was only 8 years old when Josef departed on his mission to England. Twenty
Gert Drucker – The Jewish Boy who Escaped the Nazis Read More »
I’ve been doing some follow-up work on some the individuals involved in the black market passport racket run by Jürgen Ziebell in 1938 in Berlin. I had come across a possible result on the MyHeritage site and signed up for a free two week subscription. One of the resources mentioned was the 1939 German Minority
A Useful Resource – the 1939 German Minority Census Read More »