PROFESSOR'S DISAPPEARANCE IN INDONESIA BAFFLES WIFE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505290003-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: September 23, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-0055
ARTICLE APPEARED LOS A`rG=,ES TIMES
ON PAGEJ/_Ld 23 SE TEIEE'R 1982
(Professor's Disappearance
in Indonesia Baffles Wife
By PAUL DEAN, Times Staff Writer
Raede, who Anglicized his name
to John W. Raede, pronounced
Reed, as part of the transition to
American citizenship and his career
as professor of modern languages at
Westmont College in Montecito, an
area of Santa Barbara, has been re-
ported missing while vacationing
alone in Indonesia.
Last month, Mrs. Raede flew to
Indonesia to goad the search for her
husband. Her contacts were Ameri-
can missionaries, U.S. Embassy officials, local police and
even the governor of West Sumatra. She returned with
the brown vinyl suitcase her husband had left in his ho-
tel room. But no solid answers.
Friday-funded by a $2.500 check donated by West-
mont College where Raede has worked for 15 years-
she. will travel again to Indonesia-
>} Whenever an American vanishes overseas there is
the Citizens' Emergency Center of the State Depart-
ment in Washington, D.C. For three months it has been
tracking Raede's disappearance, linking his family to
government sources, keeping up with information filed
through the department's Indonesian desk, asking
questions and filtering answers.
,No possibility-whether it be a theory that Raede
was devoured by tigers or an Indonesian psychic's feel-
ing that the professor' is wandering "a long tunnel"
without eats-is left unconsidered.
And not being ignored is the possibility that Raede's
unexplained disappearance might be linked to some in-
ternational intelligence activity.
:"I cannot confirm that Dr. Raede has any intelligence
connections or that his trip to Indonesia was for any
other purpose than that of a tourist," said a Washington
spokesman for the State. Department's consular affairs
section.
,CIA Alerted
`~lfaY'S'a~eT.ent was issued on a Tuesday. Yet a day
earlier another government source told The Times that
the Central Intelligence Agency has indeed been alerted
to the possibility of a clandestine purpose to Raede's
trip. "There is nothing corroborative (of suspicions) but
it is being pursued," the source said. 'What investigation, if any, the CIA will be making as
a result of this lead cannot be confirmed. "We are una-
ble to help you," was the CIA's only response to a Times
inquiry.
The thought that Raede, a master of more than a doz-
en languages, including Russian and Chinese, could
have been leading the double life of educator and intel-
ligence agent is intriguing but considered by many to be
the longest of guesses.
His wife, daughter Julie Maser and son Guy do not
subscribe to the belief. Nor do Westmont College facul-
ty members close to Raede for more than a decade. "He
spoke many languages and could have been misidenti-
fied (in Indonesia) as being with the CIA or engaged in
spying activities," agreed Paul Delaney, chairman of
Westmont's modern languages department. "But I think
there is more reason to expect some criminal activity
(surrounding the disappearance) because he is an older
man, therefore vulnerable, a Christian who could have
become the victim of Moslem frustrations or fanaticism,
and an American, which would produce the assumption
that he is rich."
The office of Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventu-
ra) has been monitoring search efforts at the request of
Mrs. Raede. "I've discussed this (intelligence activity)
with some State Department people, "aide aide Craig John-
son commented, "but it's not an avenue we feel is worth
pursuing."
Hans Wolfgang Raede was born in what now is East
Germany in 1913 and majored in law at the University of
Berlin. Raede left Germany in 1934 for sound reasons-
he was an anti-Nazi engaged to a Jew. Following stays
in Budapest and Vienna, Raede and his new wife moved
to France in I.M. He joined the French army at the
outbreak of World War II, fought in North Africa and
later workedwith the French underground.
1 was not a terrorist who went with bombs," he told
an interviewer for a campus periodical two years ago. "I
did service where my knowledge of language was use-
ful. I translated texts, spoke with prisoners and other
Germans who had some kind of relationship with the
French underground."
In 1943, in Paris and living with false papers, Raede
and his wife were arrested by the Gestapo. He was sent
to jail and lived. His wife was sent to Auschwitz and
died. Then the work camps and Galina, a 15-year-old
Russian shipped to Germany as part of a forced labor
program.
Why Raede was never executed by the Gestapo was a
mystery he could barely explain.
"The mere fact that I was a German, had served in the
French army and that I was a political refugee was
enough ... let alone -my involvement with the
(French) resistance," he told the campus interviewer.
"They could have tried me, they could have executed
me.... They never tried me because they just forgot
about me.... They sent me to do some work and then
forgot."
After World War II, Raede, now preferring a French
version of his name, Jean Raede, moved to Paris with
Calina. He worked as an interpreter for the U.S. milita-
r
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000505290003-9