Emil Augsburg (born 1 May 1904 in Łódź; died 1981) was a German SS functionary and Nazi war criminal.

Career

Emil Augsburg was born in Congress Poland in 1904 and learned to speak fluent Polish and Russian.

"Studious and dedicated, Augsburg earned a doctorate three decades later studying about the press in the Soviet Union. In 1934 he joined the SD; membership in the SS followed. In 1937, Augsburg became associated with the Wannsee Institut." Between 1939 and 1941 he worked for the Security Police. As part of his duties in World War II, Augsburg was responsible for planning the SS executions of Jews and other "enemies of the Reich" in occupied Poland.[1] Augsburg was later a member of the Vorkommando Moskau for Einsatzgruppe B. During Operation Barbarossa, he participated in mass executions of Jews, communists, and partisans in Smolensk.[2][3]

"After Augsburg was wounded in an air attack in Smolensk in September 1941, he returned to Berlin to conduct research on Eastern European matters. The RSHA foreign intelligence branch formally absorbed the Wannsee Institute in 1943." He interrogated Soviet prisonres of war for Operation Zeppelin.[4]

Just before the war ended Augsburg hid at a Benedictine cloister in Ettal, Germany. There he joined a sympathetic Polish monsignor and the pair escaped to the Vatican in Rome.[1]

Postwar

After the war, Augsburg was tried in absentia by the Polish People's Republic authorities. He escaped punishment because from 1947-1948 he was employed by an American military counter-intelligence agency as an expert on Soviet affairs.

After 1949 he worked for West German intelligence under Reinhard Gehlen.

"By the late 1950s, it was known that Soviet agents were trying to contact Augsburg. In the early 1960s, many people operating in intelligence circles believed Augsburg was working as a double agent.... He was increasingly viewed as a liability and a record of his nefarious wartime activities was compiled to force his quiet resignation. In 1966 Augsburg was dismissed for "unauthorized intelligence activities."[5]

References

  1. ^ a b Kenneth A. Alford & Theodore P. Savas, Nazi Millionaires: The Allied Search for Hidden SS Gold (Casemate; 2002) ISBN 0-9711709-6-7 , page.213.
  2. ^ Rudolf Augstein: Ein Leben für Deutschland, München 2002, ISBN 3-426-27253-9, S. 269
  3. ^ Jefferson Adams: Augsburg, Emil, in: Historical dictionary of German intelligence. (Historical dictionaries of intelligence and counterintelligence 11) Plymouth: Scarecrow Press 2009 ISBN 978-0-8108-5543-4, S. 15f
  4. ^ Werner Schroeder: „ … eine Fundgrube der Schrifttumsinformation“. Die Leipziger „Arbeitsstelle für Schrifttumsbearbeitung beim Sicherheitshauptamt (SD)“ und die „SD-Verbindungsstelle an der Deutschen Bücherei“. In: Monika Gibas, Cornelia Briel, Petra Knöller: "Arisierung" in Leipzig : Annäherung an ein lange verdrängtes Kapitel der Stadtgeschichte der Jahre 1933 bis 1945, Leipzig 2007, S. 146
  5. ^ Kenneth A. Alford & Theodore P. Savas, Nazi Millionaires: The Allied Search for Hidden SS Gold (Casemate; 2002) ISBN 0-9711709-6-7 , page.290.

Literature

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