At the same time, in Prague, as a car sped away from the French embassy, it would veer right and immediately be caught at a red light. In fact, it was a police officer who was responsible for manually controlling the traffic lights, who turned them to red as soon as his radio announced that a car had left the embassy. This delay allowed the STB agent to get away. It would take years for the authorities to figure out what was happening and send a decoy car towards the infamous traffic lights, while the real agents then sneaked off in the opposite direction.
Mroz had certainly rendered good service for the French. Thanks to him, the DST were able to make real progress in their fight against eastern espionage.
Unfortunately, the second element that works in his favour is his death. There is no doubt that it was Polish agents who killed him, which consequently posed a real threat. After all, surely the Polish authorities would not have shot a false defector? Mroz was either betrayed or had betrayed himself by making appointments with his contacts at the DST. It is also possible that Polish agents with whom he had always been in touch, now realised that he was under surveillance. As for his protection, it would appear that on that night, he had none. However, it may have been the case that he was finally trusted by the French authorities and no longer needed to be monitored.
A final factor that points towards Mroz being a genuine defector is the smokescreen that appeared after his death. After being informed by the DST, the press revealed that Mroz had been the head of a large network of communist spies, which had recently been uncovered by the French authorities. Several more arrests even took place afterwards. It was only later revealed that these arrests were only ‘small fry' or those who could provide little, or no related information.
In reality, the whole operation was intended to fool the Poles. They needed to believe that Wladyslaw Mroz had never betrayed them and that they had actually betrayed him and assassinated him by mistake. Their aim to was to protect the information that the defector had provided them with; information that at this point, had not yet been fully exploited and which the Poles were completely unaware had been betrayed.
Chapter 6
A tunnel to Berlin
Berlin: the city that best symbolised the constant tension that existed between East and West. Before the construction of the wall in 1961, the two superpowers on each side were still in communication with each other, but when the Iron Curtain went up, a strict separation was imposed between the two worlds.
Twenty years after the wall came down and sixty years after the beginning of the Cold war, it is hard to imagine what life in Berlin during that time must have been like. Unless, of course, you delve between the pages of a John le Carre novel. This was a time when the former capital of the Third Reich was a hotbed of spy activity and betrayal was rife....
Berlin in the 1950s was a world apart. It was a kind of island, with no real borders between the western zones controlled by the United States, Britain and France, and the eastern zones controlled by the Soviets. At the time it was possible to move freely from one sector to the next, and while control points did exist over ground, taking the subway was an easy way to pass through these theoretical boundaries between east and west. This situation meant that Berlin was an ideal hunting ground for spies on both sides. Those from the west were superior in numbers, with American and British agents often being supplemented by West Germans, under the direction of General Gehlen.30 The city was swarming with spies and it was just a matter of poaching members from one side to the other. It was not just agents that were needed though, but also officials, diplomats and soldiers.
It was all extraordinarily complicated and neither side was immune from being infiltrated by the ‘enemy'. What is more, even if it was relatively easy to move from one sector to the other in a physical sense, there were also psychological and economic borders to cross as well. Standing out in a hostile environment was certainly not recommended, as it meant you risked being suspected of espionage. The economic differences were the result of the Western Mark being worth significantly more than the Eastern Mark. This meant that it was difficult for Soviet troops to go shopping in the West, or to have fun in the countless nightclubs over there. After all, Berlin was one gigantic pleasure ground. Unfortunately, it was basically off limits to the Soviets and East Germans as it was just too expensive.
It was this situation that inspired MI6 agents to come up with a strategy to attract and recruit Russian agents. The British knew that western products such as luxury watches and women's lingerie, were the envy of those in the East and with the help of local smugglers, helped to set up various underground shops where such items could be purchased. The operation was very simple; MI6 rented a very nice apartment close to the Soviet zone, where they installed their ‘secret' shop that sold luxury goods at bargain prices. Potential customers were approached by touts, usually prostitutes or landladies who worked in various establishments in the eastern zone. Once they arrived in the clandestine shop, the ‘client' was attended to by the staff, who offered them wonderful deals, often with the option of buying on credit, if necessary. The next time the
