THE INFORMER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M01009A000700970152-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 1, 2013
• Sequence Number: 152
• Publication Date: May 6, 1946
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/11/04: CIA-RDP80M01009A006700970152-9
NEWSWEEK - May 6, 1946
ii-.-1-44--?-!---;t--,..--
--,--0.-
,,,.. . ,
1The informer t.. , , .4., , ,
? ,10- Both Field MarShal Werner von Blom- "
,Therg and Col. Gen.-Werner von Fritsch
;looked as Wit. Nordic god had created
-; them as the very incarnations of the Pots-
" dam tradition in' the, Prussian ? Army.
,.'Their ramrod hacks bespoke the goose:
, stepping discipline of the Kaiser's Army.
. Their set features and thin lips reflected'
the almost . monastic devotion of . the
. general-stab officer. Fritsch even sported'
a monocle ivhich gave him an Eric von
1 Stroheim appearance. ? '
.
.
-.. , Both shared the faults and 'virtues of
' the professional officer.-A contempt for
. ,, politicians and , adventurers was one of
? ! their faults?or virtues. In any case, they
I underestimated - Hermann Goring. . In
41938 Goring resolved to get rid of them ,
. both. And the ?M- ethods he used had a
'.buccaneering ? renaissance quality - in
.- keeping with Goring's own nature.' .
,." :At that time Blomberg Was ,Germant
i,War, Minister. Goring apparently .ar-
,.. . -ft j3 ranged to provide, him with 'a . peetty
? -, " . ,,. r 28-year-old- secretary ? ,named - Erika
Grulm. Erikri was skilled in the ways of
love. Blomberg decided to marryber and
/I asked Gering's help, since he knew Erika
was the daughter of 'a carpenter and 'a -
"lady with a past," a circumstance which',
under the 'officers' code would -prevent
-1. him from marrying her. ? '-. ? , - ?
t. Gering' helped , Blomberg, and then
? - went straight to Adolf Hitler and told
-3, him that the new Frau von Blomberg
..) had been registered as a prostitute in
i
? seven German cities ! and convicted for
; :
.. distributing .poncographic literati-ire.?? i
:
Hitler dismissed Blomberg.
' Fritsch was -slated to succeed him.
Goring thereupon dug up a three:year-
, r
old Charge of homosexuality against a
a
?At Bad Wiessee this week Frau von Blomberg .5.
L
denied the charges. -
.... . ? -
; s
5- i
. ? ?
Captain von Frisch and threatened to kill .
? a witness unless he testified in Hitler's
,presence that the real culprit was Gen-
eral von Fritsch. The charge shocked
Hitler, the ex-corporal?although ainong
German officers the tradition of homosexu-
ality goes back to their idol, that princely
pervert, Frederick the Great. Fritsch was
later 'exonerated, but not :before an in-
: dignant Feiner had dimissed him. .
. The Friendly Contact: This fan-
tistic tale came out at , the Nuremberg
trials last week, told'by a witness called
-.by the defense?Hans Bernd Gisevius. ,
Gisevius had been summoned on be-
; half , of Wilhelm Frick, for whom he
- once worked in the Ministry of the In-
terior. Only the Ptosecution was not sur-
prised at the turn of his testimony. A
triumphant Prosecution officer said: "If
the defense hadn't called him we
tainly would have." SiisPicion dawned on
the defense attorneys. "During the war
were you ever active ,in the intelligence
service of a foreign power?" Gisevius was
asked T "No," he replied, "I was :in the
service of a good clean German power."
t "Do you know what-'the 'letters OSS
mean?" the defense cotinsel 'persisted: ,
';? :Ditririg the war I was in friendly and
political contact 'with 'Members of this
organization.", ? ?
Gisevius,-ostensibly working for the
Gestapo, actually had contacted the
American Office of Strategic Services in
Switzerland in 1942. He became one of
its Most valuable sources of information
from Germany, traveling frequently to
Switzerland. One of the few survivore of
the 1944 bomb plot against Hitler, he !"
tipped off American officers to the
assassination attempt a week before it
happened. Gisevius took no money for
his services to the Allies. His ;reward:
entry into the United States, where he
plans tolive when he is no longer needed
at Nuremberg. o'
. _
,
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/11/04: CIA-RDP80M01009A000700970152-9