SCHOLARS IDENTIFY GERMAN WHO WARNED OF HITLER'S ATROCITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000500110005-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 9, 2005
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: September 28, 1983
• Content Type: NSPR

STAT
STAT
Approved For Release 2006/01/03: CIA-RDP91-00901R0
_~~, OL C,rp i WASHINGTON POST
28 September 1983
L
-Scholars Identify Grma
'V~7arned of HitIer?s Atrocities
By Charles Fenwesi
Washington 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.
In a ,heretofore unnoticed citation
in 1945. Allen Dulles, 'then chief of
L.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. solely by his hatred of the
Nail system and his desire to see it
overthrown as thoroughly and spee-
dily as possible."
Schulte. who died during the
1056s, headed the largest zinc-pro-
ducing firm in Germany. It had a
branch in Switzerland. He passed
aiopg to the Allies, without pay,
.valuable information from inside the
German military.
The professors who solved the
`our-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
identity 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
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
rogent 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 off 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 Breit-.
roan 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
X980, "but we have been obsessively
involved onlsince last fall. We just
had to track-him down."
Laqueur had come up with an
important clue, the initial "S," which
Fegner 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
r>(~h'ficrl~t'~~?be~pnnan~rzran6t~~r~~Atehttles that the infor-
front. Approved For Rel
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"Riegner threw the gauntlet at from a reliable source.
us," Br ertrnan said. "-He said scholars
would never find out. That really
was a-slap ~et -historians -that we re-
~arded as'a haillenge."
`Th -bwc ` histor ans .,speculation
fusttered;-on industrialistBugo
St ~vbose, `brother, Edmund,
War "years in `-the United
St`heir- =brother-in-law, -Gera
',von -Gae'eriiitz, a ...German-born
Amen n,-yeas ari'adviserto'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
War B and with family, names be-
ginning .with "S."
"We- were frustrated," Breitman
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 saidthat 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"
 ASSOCIATED PRESSSTATINTL
Approved For Release 2006/&11$ t9 D 300 1A5000
PEKING
FORMER CIA AGENT SAYS JOHN FOSTER DULLES BLOCKED CHINESE OFF&=
RELEASE HIM
Former CIA agent John T. Downey, imprisoned in China for 21 years, said
Sunday he might have been released in 1957 if not for then-Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles' "overwhelming fear of communism.,It boggles the mind to consider the possibility that I could have been free
16 years earlier," Downey told the Associated Press in an interview as he
strolled through central Tienanmen Square.
"Now that I've heard the story from the Chinese side, I'd really like to
confront Dulles himself - unfortunately he is dead," he added.
Downey's plane was shot down while on a spy mission over China in 1952 and he
was imprisoned near Peking. He was released 10 years ago at the urging of former
President Richard Nixon.
Now 53 and a lawyer in New Haven, Conn., Downey returned last week for a
goodwill tour of China with his Chinese-born wife Audrey and their 3-year-old
son, Jackie.
"I felt no bitterness then or now toward China," said Downey, adding that it
was the late Premier Chou En-lai who proposed releasing him and other U.S.
prisoners in 1957.
He said Chou offered the release if the United States would agree to an
exchange of Chinese and American journalists to promote better understanding
after years of suspicion.
'."But Dulles was so fiercly anti-communist and had such an overwhelming fear-
of communism that he absolutely rejected the offer as blackmail and extortion."
Downey said.
In Washington, State Department press officer Robert William declined to
respond to Downey's statements, saying "I've seen the reports and I have nothing
for yci: on that."
Downey said he heard the full story of the Chinese release offer from Wang
Bins sari, former secretary to Chou and now 'president of the Chinese People's
Friendship Association.
Wang gave a dinner for Downey on Friday and praised the American's feelings
for the Chinese people.
"If I had.,one strong conviction when I went home 10 years ago it was that it
was very much in our national interests to work for a good relationship with
China," Downey said. "I want to contribute to that in any way I can."
He said his 1952 spy mission was aimed at contacting Chinese CIA agents who
had been dropped into north China. The agents were taken prisoner, however, and
when their captors heard Downey trying to make radio contact with them they
fired at his plane. . C A17-HUED
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 STATINTL STAT
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,
An T I C L_E LPP,,AEtE'3
ON PAGE_
WASHINGTONIAN
September 1983
But for all the publicity those additions
to the world's arsenals receive, most of
the wars fought since World War II have
involved small arms of the type Cum-
mings buys and sells. In Iran, all the
Shah's sophisticated weaponry couldn't
save him from an internal revolt led by
dissidents brandishing rifles. For dec-
ades, in such places as Angola, Nica-
ragua, Pakistan, and other countries that
host border clashes, religious disputes.
rebellions, and riots, it has been the
small arm that kills and conquers.
From his twelve-room apartment over-
looking the Mediterranean Sea in Monte
Carlo, or from his chalet nestled in the
Swiss Alps near Geneva, the 56-year-
old Cummings keeps watch on a troubled
world. His agents in about 75 coun-
tries-most of whom are former military
or government officials who work on a
commission-communicate by Telex,
telephone, or mail to keep Cummings
apprised of the supply of, or demand
for, weapons.
Cummings's competitors are often
freelancers, con artists, or corrupt op-
portunists. Some prosper briefly by
smuggling arms to terrorists or by putting
together one lucky deal. Some are mur-
dered by factions to whose enemies the),
sell arms. Some, such as Edwin Wilson.
wind up in jail or, like Frank Terpil, in
exile for illegally selling weapons to a
foreign government (Libya) of whom their
government (the US) disapproves.
Cummings survives by avoiding back-
alley deals. He cannot ship weapons to
other countries from his Alexandria or
Manchester warehouses unless either the
United States or Great Britain approves
the deal by granting "end user certifi-
cates," which specify the final desti-
nation of his arms shipments.
Which is why, when Uganda's Idi
Amin called him in search of bazookas,
Cummings suggested he trv the Sovi-
ets-Cummings knew neither Washing-
ton nor London would approve a weap-
ons sale to Amin. Equally futile was
Libya's Colonel Muammar Qaddafi's of-
fer to pick up Cummings in a private jet
so the two could discuss the moderni-
zation of Libya's military.
Not that dealing with an Amin or a
Qaddafi gives Cummings pause: he likes
to project an image of a broker whose
job is no more interesting than, say, that
of a mattress wholesaler. Interarms will
happily sell to whoever has the money,
and Cummings considers the use to which
his products are put to be none of his
concern. He patiently awaits the lifting
of arms embargoes against L-an and South
Africa-as a merchant. he professes in-
difference to a country's politics, Just as
he could care less which side wins a war .
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By Rudy Maxa
am Cummings used to drive
around Europe in a Cadillac
Seville with Virginia license
plates that read "OKDR." The
plates caused double-takes on
the autobahns of Germany,
where, until the end of World War II,
the four letters stood for "Ober Kom-
mando Der Wehrmacht," the chief of
staff of the German army.
For Cummings, the license plates were
a sly joke by a man whose business is
deadly serious: From his warehouse on
the waterfronts of Alexandria, Virginia,
and Manchester, England, Cummings
sells more weapons than any other per-
son in the world. His company, founded
in Washington 30 years ago, is called
Inter-arms, and when it comes to selling
guns, mortars, grenades, and ammuni-
tion, nobody does it bigger..
In the United States, Interarms is the
largest wholesaler of sporting pistols and
rifles. In a typical year, the firm will sell
about. 170,000 such weapons. Most are
imported, though Interarms now also
manufactures its own weapons in Vir-
ginia and Alabama. But most of Inter-
arins' business involves the buying and
selling of military weapons from its stock,
which Cummings says can equip 26 army
divisions at the drop of a certified check.
In comparison to arms deals promoted
by the Pentagon or foreign governments,
Cummings is a minnow among the whales:
lnterarms' sales, which Cummings says
do not exceed S100 million a year, can
be dwarfed by a single arms shipment
that the American government might make
to any ally. Before the downfall of the
Shah, for example, Iran received S10
billion worth of weapons from the US.
Such government-to-government trans-
fers involve high-ticket items, such as
ships and jet airplanes.'