Behind every good spy interrogator, there’s a secretary taking the notes and typing up reports. This was true for Lt. Col. Robin W.G. Stephens, commandant and interrogator par excellence at MI5’s secret wartime interrogation centre, Camp 020. While Stephens was verbally demolishing the hapless spy who appeared in his interrogation room, the exchange was always […]
Wartime Secretaries turned Spycatchers Read More »
A few months ago, I received a comment on one of my blog posts about Josef’s landing spot. The anonymous individual was writing in reference to the military map code that is contained within the MI5 files on Josef. The file notes that Josef was found at: Grid bearing 135 degrees from Dovehouse Farm. Distance
The Cassini Code of Josef Jakobs’ Landing Spot in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire Read More »
Most of the history books note that Josef Jakobs was a dentist by profession, which is quite true. But not the entire truth. Let’s start with what Josef told MI5 during his interrogations in England in 1941. He claimed to have studied dentistry in Argentina in the early 1920s before returning to Berlin and completing
A Fashionable Dentist in Berlin Read More »
While tracing the stories of the victims of Jürgen Ziebell’s passport fraud in the late 1930s in Berlin, I often found myself sidetracked by the lives of siblings or other family members. Such was the case with Hermann Hagen. Hermann was the older brother of Louis Georg Hagen who I have written about previously. Louis,
The Tragic Fate of Hermann Hagen Read More »
Almost a year ago (April 2020), I came across a truly stunning website, that of Arthur O. Bauer. The site’s address (www.cdvandt.org) may be an acronym of Bauer’s organization which is called: Foundation (or Centre) for German Communication and Related Technologies. I’m not sure how best to describe it… simply to say that Bauer (a
Arthur O. Bauer’s Site – A Treasure Trove Read More »
For years, I’ve toyed with the idea of migrating from Blogger to WordPress. I even tried a few demo sites on WordPress.com. But I always came back to Blogger. It is easy, simple, familiar, safe and… free! But… it’s also limiting. There is only so much you can do with Blogger. In January, I decided
The Pros and Cons of Migrating from Blogger to WordPress Read More »
Back in October, I sent a request to the Landesarchiv for the Einwohner Melde Kartei (EMK) records of several individuals from Josef’s family. I got a reply in December and it contained good news and bad news. I had requested the cards for: Josef Jakobs Margarete Jakobs – Josef’s wife Emma Jakobs – Josef’s mother
Update on the Landesarchiv Berlin research Read More »
Doctors were, obviously, not the only ones who cared for Josef Jakobs while he was laid up at Dulwich Hospital. There were a rotating cohort of nurses who also provided care but, unlike the doctors, their names are lost to history. While the doctors put their names on medical requisitions and reports, nurses did not.
Ellen English, the Irish Nursing Sister who cared for a German spy Read More »
Moving from Blogger to WordPress It’s been a couple of weeks since I announced that this blog would be moving from the Google-hosted Blogger/Blogspot platform to WordPress.org. The transition has had its challenges! The transfer of over 400 blog posts took a while. Once they were in WordPress, I realized that only 10% of the
German spy, Josef Jakobs, was not a well man when he was found in the early morning hours of 1 February 1941. He had a shattered right ankle which cause him excruciating pain and made movement impossible. After a jostling ride to the Ramsey Police Station in the back of a horse-drawn cart, Josef was
Compassionate Care for a German Spy at Dulwich Hospital Read More »