which I had helped initiate after the 1919
communist uprisings in Germany. Because yet another world war seemed
inevitable, certain Nazi leaders expressed a desire that we should
infiltrate not only the German Communist Party, but the communist
organizations in those countries likely to be enemies of Germany in the
next war By 1923 we had put a large number of agents in place, and by
1939 we had the most extensive anti-communist intelligence network in
the world. There were losses and defections, of course, but the
strategy remained sound.
Two years later (January 1941) Hitler informed Heydrich that a powerful,
highly placed clique of Nazi sympathizers existed in England, men who
wished to arrange a peace treaty with Germany. These Englishmen claimed
to be in a position to seize their government, if only two obstacles
could be got out of the way. The main obstacle was Winston Churchill,
who considered Adolf Hitler his personal nemesis.
The second was King George VI, who, unlike his dethroned older brother
was a fervent anti-Nazi. Hitler's English sympathizers saw this
dethroned brother-then called the Duke of Windsor-as a malleable
alternative British monarch.
Hitler charged Heydrich with removing the human obstacles to this
alliance, and Heydrich naturally turned to me. Because an Anglo-German
alliance would virtually guarantee the destruction of Stalin's regime, I
volunteered immediately.
Heydrich's plan, though complex in execution, was simple and ingenious
in theory. We would assassinate both Churchill and the king, then lay
the blame on our archenemies the communists-just as the Nazis had done
with the Reichstag Fire! To accomplish this, Heydrich envisioned using
one of the British communist cells infiltrated by our agents. He asked
if I thought we might dupe one of these groups into carrying out the
assassinations for us, and I must admit that I expressed pessimism. The
revelation of the Hitler-Stalin pact of 1939
had disil&sioned communists around the world; consequently, I considered
the chance of finding western communists still fanatical enough to
attempt a suicide mission very small But Heydrich was undaunted On his
orders I set to work bringing his plan to fruition.
The communist cell I chose for the operation was based in London, and,
from our point of view, was under the command of one Helmut Steuer-a
former Wehrmacht sergeant. This Helmut deserves special mention, for
he-like the unit he had created-was uniq Helmut had@ been spying on .
communists since Munich, where he was 'sole survivor' of the massacre at
the Hauptbanhof.
When he 'fled' to Britain (on our orders) the British communists
welcomed him as a hero. His bond with them was so strong that when
these communists went to Spain to fight in the International Brigades in
1936, Helmut went with them.
Heydrich could not believe it. It was an insanely dangerous thing for
Helmut to do, but I understood. He was a young man then, a man of
action, and he craved danger In Spain he fought heroically for the
Republicans, all the while feeding to the Fascists information on the
movements of the very armies he was fighting in! Helmut lost an eye at
Guernica, and probably because of the accuracy of his own reports! It
was truly a miracle that he survived at all, yet his service in Spain
made him irreproachable in the eyes of his English comrades. After
returning to EnglandStern stopped reading. His heart was pounding. He
put his finger to the paper, traced the sentences backward and read
again: Helmut lost an eye at Guernica 'My God,' he muttered. 'I've
found you out at last. Alfred Horn ...
You're not Rudolf Hess, and you're not'Zinoviev either.'
Stern's mind raced as he tried to assimilate this new information.
There actually was a Helmut involved in the Hess affair-just as the
Oxford draft research had claimed. Professor Natterman would be
extremely disappointed to hear it! Stern heard himself laughing. It
all fits, he thought with satisfaction. I simply couldn't accept the
idea that Rudolf Hess had survived the war, that he had wormed his way
into South A ica's power elite, and I was right!
.fr 'Well,' he murmured, 'let's find out exactly what Helmut the great
German spy did during the war.' Stern picked up reading Zinoviev's
narrative where he had left off-.
After returning to England, Helmut-on our ordersorganized his own
communist cell. It was small (six men, not counting Helmut) and every
man had been seriously wounded either in the Great War or in Spain. In
his communiques Helmut called them his Verwunden Brigade-the 'Wounded
Brigade. ' These men had come from the British working class, and no
men everfelt more betrayed by their government than they- The flower of
their generation had been slaughtered in the Great War, yet they had
survived.
And when a neighboring republic was threatened by a newly risen German
monster, their government had not only turned its back, but disparaged
its sons who went to defend the democratic ideal that their friends and
brothers had died for in the Great War There is no hatred like that of
idealistic men who have been betrayed Even the Hitler-Stalin pact had
not disillusioned these men. They saw it merely as an adroit political
move by Stalin-a temporary alliance that would be rescinded as soon as
Russia could defend herself against Germany.
If any Englishmen could be made to take up arms against Churchill and
their king, I knew, it was Helmut's Verwunden Brigade.
I arrived in London in April of 1941, armed with secret documents
bearing the signatures of the highest officials of the Soviet Communist
Party-all excellent forgeries, of course. This deception was risky but
necessary. No communist cell, howeverfanatic, would undertake an
operation of the magnitude we planned without the full weight of the
Party International behind them. My mission was to symbolize this
authority. I was the holy messenger sentfrom Moscow, the sacred city,
and the documents I carried sanctified my crusade. They made the
planned assassinations sound like the first shot of a worldwide
communist revolution. One document even bore Stalin's signature! The
SD forgers had done their jobs so well that I myself was tempted to
believe in my newfound power Of the operation itself there is much to
tell, and yet little.
