SCHOLARS IDENTIFY GERMAN WHO WARNED OF HITLER'S ATROCITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303090050-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 50
• Publication Date: September 28, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303090050-3
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'ri.C. --
WASHINGTON POST
28 September 1983
Scholars identifyGmanW.
Warned of Hitler's Atrocities
By Charles Fenvvesi
Uast ineton Post Staff writer
Two American University profes-_
sors- have. identified the mysterious
German industrialist who risked his
life to warn a representative of Jew-
ish organizations in Switzerland that
Adolf Hitler planned to ship Jews to
extermination camps in eastern Eu-
rope.-
The two academic detectives dis-
covered that the - industrialist,
Eduard Reinhold Schulte, also was a
top World War II intelligence source
for the Allies, warning them of Hit-
ler's invasion of the-Soviet Union. I
In a heretofore unnoticed citation
in 1945. Alien Dulles, then chief of
U.S.. intelligence operations in Swit-
zerland and later director of the
CIA. stated that Schulte had 'ren-
dered most valuable services to the
cause of the United Nations, moti-
vated soleh? by his hatred of the
Nazi systen and his desire to see it
overthrown as thoroughly and spee-
dily as possible.'
Schulte. who died during the
1950s. headed the largest zinc-pro-
ducing firm in Germany. It had a
branch in Switzerland. He passed
along to the Allies, without pay,
valuable information from inside the
.German military.
The professors who solved the
four-decade-old mystery of Schulte's
identity are Richard Breitman, 37, a
specialist in European history, 'and
Alan. Kraut, 36, a specialist in U.S.
immigration policy. They identified
Schulte in the October issue of Com-
mentary.
They said that they were left with.
`absolutely no doubt' about his
ldent ty when they found references
in three groups of documents-Al-
lied intelligence data. a Swiss bank-
er's report to U.S. intelligence and
Jewish reports out of Switzerland-
to a German industrialist who cited
as his source a German colonel with
an armored regiment on the Russian
front.
one of -the U.S. 'intelligence re-
ports identified Schulte by name. A
Jewish document included 'the ini-
tials "E.S " And another Allied -doc-
ument disclosed that one' of
Schulte's sons fought in an armored
rei'iment on the Russian front.
The only person still alive known.
to have received intelligence directly
from the German industrialist is
Gerhart 'Riegner, then, as now, the
Geneva-based representative of the
World Jewish Congress. Contacted
by.The Washington Post, Riegner
would only repeat that he had given
his word to the industrialist never to
reveal his name.
But on previous occasions, Rieg-
ner had told others that their spec-
ulation was wrong. One of them,
Walter Laqueur, director of research
at Georgetown University's Center
for Strategic and International
Studies, said in an article Friday on
the opinion page of The Washington
Post that the industrialist's identity
has now been established "beyond
any shadow of doubt."
When Breitman and Kraut asked
Riegner to let them know if they had
the wrong man, Breitman said, "He
did.not contradict us."
Working independently of 73reit-.
man and Kraut, another scholar,
Monty Penkower of Touro College
in Brooklyn, also identified Schulte
through research in Jewish archives
in London and Jerusalem..
Breitman said that he and Kraut
have been working on the case since
f980, "but we have been obsessively
involved only since last fall. We just
had to track him down."
Laqueur had come up with an
important clue, the initial "S," which
tiegner confirmed. Riegner then
told Breitman and Kraut that the
industrialist had 30,000 employes,
ivas tall and opposed Hitler on moral
grounds.
It appeared to Breitman and
Kraut that Riegner was determined
both to keep his secret and to keep
l.alking about it.
"Riegner threw the gauntlet at
us," Britian said. "He said scholars
would never ?fmd out. That really
was a -sla;p idt -historians -that we re-
yarded as a sallenge."
...hTwa` historians' .-:speculation
irst' nt~ered on aridustrialist Hugo
.Stinne w-hose. brother, Edmund,
sage ie yar -years .sn .the United
States'-heir- brother-in-law, --Gero
..von = evernitz, ?a.:German-born
American, was an adviser,to Dulles.
But' contacts with -relatives and
checks ' in archives showed that the'
brothers had no love 'for each other
and that Hugo Stinnes "was no dem-
ocrat, . unless he concealed his true
convictions very well," Kraut said.
The two scholars said that they
found 20 German -'industrialists
heading large corporations of rough-
ly 30,000 employes during World
~iv
ar II and with fairly, names be-
ginning with "S."
"We- were frustrated," Kreitman
said.
They then combed the original
files of the U.S. legation and consul-
.ates in wartime 'Switzerland, which
are now housed in Suitland in an
annex of the National Archives.
"We found many citations of un-
named prominent German industri-
alists. And also at least five indus-
trialists mentioned by name, three of
them beginning with `S.'," .Breitman
said. This search went nowhere.
Next they sifted through the
Swiss-origin intelligence reports in
the Archives. They said that the CIA
has declassified only. one-fourth of
wartime records from agents and
other sources. . ? .
"That's still better than the Brit-
ish," Breitman said. "That's indef-
initely unavailable."-
. Breitman and Kraut said that
they are convinced that the CIA has
the letter naming the industrialist
.that Riegner said he gave to the U.S.
:consul in Switzerland in 1942 in
what he called a "desperate attempt"
to persuade the Allies that the infor-
mation on the death camps came
from . ralinhio rntirrp
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303090050-3