by Larry Loftis
portero… sereno: Romanones, Spy Wore Red, 92; End of an Epoch, 33.
watchman… clapping… stick: Walter Smith, Glimpses of Spain, 185–86; Romanones, End of an Epoch, 33.
June 10… Edmundo… Barcelona: While Edmundo’s personal correspondence of June 10, 1944, suggests that he arrived on the ninth (Huddleston, Edmundo, 56), the deputy chief of the Barcelona station (code named ELTON) stated in a memo to ARGUS (Gregory Thomas) on July 24, 1944, that Edmundo had arrived on the tenth. RG 226, Entry 127, Box 18, NARA.
Ritz: Edmundo’s June 10 correspondence states that he was staying at the Barcelona Ritz. Huddleston, Edmundo, 56.
$7 per diem: All Madrid staff, including Gregory Thomas, were limited to a $7 per diem, and Edmundo’s file is replete with memos that, notwithstanding Disney’s effort to provide him with a reasonable expense account, the OSS wanted him held to no more than the $7 amount given to others. See, e.g., June 16, 1944, correspondence to ARGUS (signature somewhat illegible, but appears to be “Jim”; in all likelihood this was James MacMillian, the financial officer for the Madrid station) at RG 226, Entry 197A, Box 76, NARA.
ELTON… He has made a remarkable: ELTON memo to ARGUS (Gregory Thomas) on July 24, 1944, RG 226, Entry 127, Box 18, NARA.
Horcher’s… hidden microphone… Johann Jebsen… Dusko Popov: Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 102.
Hans Lazar… Gives lavish parties: Romanones, Spy Wore Red, 110–11.
Who is that …Gloria von Fürstenberg… I know her… In Berlin: Ibid., 111–12.
Ah… You’re mad: Ibid., 113–14.
If that were true: Ibid., 115. Given that there were no sightings of Himmler in Madrid at this time, it appears that Aline’s assertion was mistaken.
rumors of Himmler sightings: Hayes, Wartime Mission in Spain, 263.
Tio Pepe… San Antonio… Those were painted: Romanones, Spy Wore Red, 117–18.
That’s where… Steps of Cuchilleros… This is where… Of course I know: Ibid., 118–19.
second week of July… Gregory Thomas informed… additional security… embassy: Aline places this announcement on March 27, 1944 (Ibid., 126), but that date is off by more than three months. The lease between Ambassador Hayes and Thomas was signed on July 5, 1944, so the move could not have occurred beforehand. The executed lease agreement is located at RG 226, Entry 197A, Box 76, Folder 429, NARA.
Paseo de la Castellana… Calle Eduardo Dato: Dunev, Spy Reminisces, 26; Romanones, “The OSS in Spain,” 124.
entire city block… Duke of Montellano… horse chestnut… roses: Hayes, Wartime Mission in Spain, 22–23.
Thomas… secretary… garage annex: Dunev, Spy Reminisces, 27.
the three-story baroque palace: The property appears to have been around Calle Rafael Calvo, 39, which faces the Castellana and is directly across from the American embassy. Both Àlvaro Figueroa (Aline’s grandson) and Michael Dunev (Robert Dunev’s son) have suggested that the original structure, like most in the Castellana, was torn down to make room for a modern commercial building.
one of Spain’s wealthiest men: See “Palace in Spain Burns: Count Romanones and Family Are Routed in Night Clothes,” New York Times, January 14, 1935, 2; “Even in May, There’s Just No Rest for the Partygoer,” New York Times, May 10, 1970, 76 (“He owns something like a fourth of Spain,” referring to Luis, Àlvaro’s grandson, the 3rd Count of Romanones).
TO ARGUS FROM CHESS: Romanones, Spy Wore Red, 129 (Aline’s quote changing Thomas’s code name to MOZART).
Canaris, had been working against Hitler… Abwehr officers had: Countless books have been written about the efforts of Canaris, senior German military leaders, and members of the Schwarze Kapelle to oust or assassinate Hitler. See Agostino von Hassell and Sigrid MacRae, Alliance of Enemies: The Untold Story of the Secret American and German Collaboration to End World War II, 253–58 (regarding the Canaris diaries); Charles Burdick and Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, eds., The Halder War Diary, 1939–1942; Michael Balfour, Withstanding Hitler in Germany, 1933–45; Peter Hoffman, The History of the German Resistance, 1933–1945; Klemperer, German Resistance Against Hitler; Ger van Roon, German Resistance to Hitler: Count von Moltke and the Kreisau Circle; André Brissaud, Canaris: The Biography of Admiral Canaris, Chief of German Military Intelligence; Heinz Höhne, Canaris: Hitler’s Master Spy; Michael Mueller, Nazi Spymaster: The Life and Death of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris; and Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. See also the entries for Beck, Canaris, Halder, Oster, and the Schwarze Kapelle in Dear and Foot, eds., Oxford Companion to World War II, and Marcel Baudot, et al., eds, The Historical Encyclopedia of World War II.
Hammerstein… Bussche-Ippenburg… Hindenburg… January 26… Austrian corporal: Peter Hoffman, The History of the German Resistance, 1933–1945, 24.
Brüning… turned in his resignation: Ibid., 25.
SA… SS… auxiliary police… Röhm… Himmler: For an excellent background on both organizations, Röhm, and Himmler, see Heinz Höhne, The Order of the Death’s Head: The Story of Hitler’s SS.
Fritsch… Rundstedt… Witzleben… Bock: Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 25.
Blomberg… Fritsch… Lebensraum… Brauchitsch: Ibid., 36–40. See also Klemperer, German Resistance Against Hitler, 66.
Canaris… Beck… Oster… Brauchitsch… Rundstedt… Witzleben… List… Kluge… Hase: Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 42–44; Klemperer, German Resistance Against Hitler, 105–7; Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 372–75; Roon, German Resistance to Hitler, 167–68; Hassell and MacRae, Alliance of Enemies, 41, 46, 59; and Dear and Foot, eds., Oxford Companion to World War II, 117 (Beck entry), 189–90 (Canaris entry), 848 (Oster entry), 982–83 (Schwarze Kapelle entry).
Beck tendered his resignation: Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 62; Roon, German Resistance to Hitler, 168; Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 374.
Halder… bloodsucker and criminal: Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 83.
Canaris… Oster… Witzleben… Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt… Hoepner… Stülpnagel: Ibid., 84–89; Klemperer, German Resistance Against Hitler, 105–9; Roon, German Resistance to Hitler, 168–71; Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 374–75; Hassell and MacRae, Alliance of Enemies, 77–79.
Heinz… Helldorf… Schulenburg: Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 90–91.
Heinz had already decided… Hitler would be shot: Ibid., 93.
Halder… forty-eight-hour notice: Ibid., 85.
Neville Chamberlain made a surprise visit: Ibid., 93; Klemperer, German Resistance Against Hitler, 108; Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 384–91.
Munich Conference… September 29–30: Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 414–21. See also the entry under “Munich Pact” in Baudot, et al., eds., Historical Encyclopedia of World War II, 337.
Halder collapsed over his desk: Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 109.
Beck and other officers: Schlabrendorff had tried to kill Hitler twice: on March 13, 1943, he put a bomb on Hitler’s plane (which failed to ignite), and on another occasion he conspired with an assassin to plant a second bomb but at the last minute the man got cold feet. After the July 20, 1944, putsch, Schlabrendorff was arrested and subjected to such torture that he passed out. The next day he suffered a heart attack. When he sufficiently recovered, the Gestapo repeated the procedures and again Schlabrendorff passed out. For details of the tortures, see fn. 49 in Loftis, CODE NAME: LISE, 226–27.
Beck and Oster… July 20, 1944… Wolf’s Lair: The putsch, codenamed Valkyrie, has been written about at length. For excellent summaries, see Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 412–60; Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 1033–69; Klemperer, German Resistance Against Hitler, 375–85; Dear and Foot, eds., Oxford Companion to World War II, 982–83 (Schwarze Kapelle entry).
Rommel had given the putsch his blessing: Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 1031–32; Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 351–5
4.
five thousand military officers… sixteen… three field marshals: Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 1069–79; Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 507–34.
General von Stüpnagel… arrest and jail all 1,200 SS: Ibid., 475; Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 1060.
second confrontation… Halder… von Bonin… Villabassa… Kesselring: Peter Churchill, Spirit in the Cage, 220–22; Loftis, CODE NAME: LISE, 228–29, 232.
Rommel’s desire… Hitler to be arrested: Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 352–54; Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 1031.
von Rundstedt… von Manstein… acquiesced: Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 290, 351–52.
Generals Ludwig Beck… Heinrich von Stüpnagel… Field marshals Erwin Rommel… Günther von Kluge: Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 1069–79; Hoffman, History of the German Resistance, 507–34.
Ralph Forte… La Reboite… shutters… pistol… man’s hand: Romanones, The Spy Wore Red, 130. In this passage Aline states that her gun was a revolver, while the pistol she says she was given by Thomas earlier (Spy Wore Red, 87) was a Beretta .25, which would have been impossible since Beretta did not manufacture the .25 caliber (model 950) until 1952. He could have given her a Belgian Melior .25, however. On page 145 of The Spy Wore Red, Aline again refers to a Beretta as a revolver. It appears, then, that Aline referred to any pistol as a “revolver,” which is odd since she trained with many types of guns at The Farm.
Chapter 9: Glorious Gloria
Pierre!… Who is that: Romanones, Spy Wore Red, 130–31.
Maria Francesca… Pimpinela: Aline disguises Hohenlohe daughter’s name in The Spy Wore Red (p. 21), identifying her as Carola Lilienthal. Interestingly, Aline never knew that “Pimpinela” was only Maria Francesca’s nickname. In a memo to James MacMillan, Aline gives Maria’s name as Pimpinela. See BUTCH memo to QUERES, June 19, 1945, RG 226, Entry 127, Box 22, Folder 150, NARA. Maria Francesca’s full name can be seen in photographs marked by her mother, Doña Maria Piedad de Iturbe, in the blog by royal archivist, Marlene Eilers Koenig. Royal Musings, September 23, 2008, Royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com.
El Quexigal… Prince Max had bought: Jorge Piedrahita, “El Quexigal: Finca de Reyes y Nobles Desde Inmemorial,” July 30, 2010, https://jorgepiedrahita.blogia.com/2010/073001-el-quexigal-finca-de-reyes-y-nobles-desde-inmemorial.php. See also, “El Quexigal,” nuestroincondecebreros.es/pagina/6.html.
On Saturday afternoon: Romanones, Spy Wore Red, 132. This Saturday appears to be July 22, 1944.
Maximilian Egon von Hohenlohe-Langenburg… Rothenhaus castle… Santillana… Biarritz: See “Memorandum for the Officer in Charge,” September 27, 1945, from Special Agent George G. Charig, 307th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment, Seventh Army, at RG 226, Entry 119A, Box 55, NARA.
Look, Aline: Romanones, Spy Wore Red, 132–33.
To me the building: Ibid., 133.
Gobelins tapestries… El Greco… Murillo… Talavera pottery: Piedrahita, “El Quexigal.” See also, “El Quexigal,” nuestroincondecebreros.es/pagina/6.html.
150 rooms… 86,000 square feet: Ibid.
How happy I am… Nena: Romanones, Spy Wore Red, 135–36.
Prince Max… early fifties… thick build… six foot… blond hair… round face: See “Memorandum for the Officer in Charge,” September 27, 1945, from Special Agent George G. Charig, 307th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment, Seventh Army, at RG 226, Entry 119A, Box 55, NARA.
I think we have met… Encantada: Romanones, Spy Wore Red, 136–37.
had dinner at Edelweiss… bumped into him: Romanones, Spy Wore Red, 75, 90 (Aline referring to him as the admiral’s godson).
Abwehr agent… nephew of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris: Kahn, Hitler’s Spies, 246. See also Popov, Spy Counter-Spy, 85.
Samuel Hoare… sinister eastern Jew: Burns, Papa Spy, 353, citing Samuel J. G. Hoare, Ambassador on Special Mission.
Lazar… well-dressed: Burns, Papa Spy, 353.
Constantin Canaris: Aline’s identity of this man, whom she refers to as “Constantin Weiderstock,” has been confused by one author writing in the World War II genre. Nigel West (pseudonym of Rupert Allason) in Counterfeit Spies suggests that Aline is mistakenly referring to Gustav Leisner, head of the Abwehr’s Madrid station. On page 56, West writes: “Constantin von Weiderstock, who is referred to as controlling the Abwehr in Madrid… is described as ‘a young fellow’ and ‘a favourite [sic] disciple of Admiral Canaris’, [sic] who also happens to be his godfather. This is odd because the senior Abwehr officer in Madrid at that time was a naval contemporary of Admiral Canaris during the First World War, whose real name was Commander Gustav Leisner.” West, however, is the one who is confused, succumbing to both a citation error and a grammatical error. On page 75 of The Spy Wore Red, Aline writes: “Constantin von Weiderstock, a favorite disciple of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, who controls the Abwehr.” West’s citation error is that he adds “in Madrid,” to the sentence, thus allowing the jump from Canaris, who headed the Abwehr, to Leisner, who was the Abwehr’s chief of station in Madrid.
West’s grammatical error is the classic misplaced or dangling modifier. In Aline’s sentence, “who controls the Abwehr” modifies “Admiral Wilhelm Canaris,” not “Constantin von Weiderstock.” Aline has correctly placed the modifier next to the noun it modifies. West’s rendering of the sentence would have “who controls the Abwehr” modifying “Weiderstock” at the far end of the sentence. If Aline had been trying to connect the modifier to Constantin, she would have written: “Constantin von Weiderstock, who controls the Abwehr, is a favorite disciple of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris.” A second, less appealing way she could have written it would have been simply to omit “who” in the sentence, rendering it: “Constantin von Weiderstock, a favorite disciple…, controls the Abwehr.”
Aside from the citation and grammatical errors, it appears that West is unaware that Admiral Canaris’s nephew, whose name was Constantin, worked for the Abwehr in Madrid during World War II. In his excellent work Hitler’s Spies (pp. 246, 248), David Kahn sets forth the Abwehr personnel in Madrid in June 1944, which included: “Specialist-Captain Constantin Canaris [a nephew of the admiral]” (brackets in the original). Similarly, in Dusko Popov’s memoir, Spy Counter-Spy (p. 85), Popov notes that Johnny Jebsen (his German friend and Abwehr case officer) informed him that Admiral Canaris’s nephew was with the Abwehr in Madrid.
tapestries from Cuenca… silver candelabra: Piedrahita, “El Quexigal.” See also, “El Quexigal,” nuestroincondecebreros.es/pagina/6.html.
names in the guest book: Aline appears to have gone to weekend parties at El Quexigal on several occasions. On one outing, which she detailed in a June 19, 1945, memo to QUERES (James MacMillan), she reports that she looked at this guest book. RG 226, Entry 127, Box 22, Folder 150, NARA. The question, then, is whether she looked at it once or twice. It appears that she tried to examine it on her first visit to El Quexigal, in July 1944, but was thwarted in her attempt to see much when she was interrupted by Prince Max’s daughter. On the visit the following summer, Aline was able to record several names of interest (Liesau, Kiechle, Spitsky); she also saw several German names but was unable to get them down.
Aline, what on earth: Romanones, Spy Wore Red, 143. Here Aline provides dialogue with Pimpinela von Hohenlohe, whom she refers to as Carola. Aline states that at this, her first visit to El Quexigal, she begins to photograph pages of the guest book with the “spy camera” contained in her “slender cigarette lighter.” This is highly unlikely since, at this point in 1944, she has not been engaged as a reporting agent and there is no record of her receiving a camera of any kind. In addition, there are no images or photos supposedly taken by her in the OSS files. Finally, in her June 19, 1945, report noted above, she does not mention having a camera when she looks at the guest book. Equally compelling is the fact that the OSS used Eastman Kodak cameras disguised as matchboxes, not lighters (see the CIA’s
article, “Weapons & Spy Gear,” at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/intelligence-history/oss/art08.htm, and “CIA Museum Provides Glimpse into Intelligence History,” at https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2007-featured-story-archive/cia-museum.html), and that cigarette lighter spy cameras were not invented until 1951 (one of which is showcased in the Vintage Cameras Museum in Kampong Glam, Singapore), some seven years after Aline claims to have used one.
The fräulein: Romanones, Spy Wore Red, 145.
Chapter 10: Visitors
Don’t be afraid… Get out of here: Romanones, Spy Wore Red, 146–47. According to Aline, she happened to have a capsule of sodium amobarbital (“truth serum”) in her makeup case, and she also happened to have a pitcher of water and glass on her night table. Pouring the contents of the capsule into the glass and adding water, she states that she then had Constantin drink it, telling him it was bicarbonate of soda. She then interrogates him and he confirms that Himmler had been in Madrid. I have not included this part of Aline’s story as it seems far-fetched. Aline wasn’t a field agent at this point, so she wouldn’t have been given capsules of truth serum. In fact, it would be a rare occasion that an active agent would have been supplied the drug, if the OSS even had it. On April 1, 1945, a team of medical experts at Cornell University Medical College began a study for General Donovan on whether there was “any agent that would be useful in extracting information from persons who are reluctant to yield it.” An initial report completed on September 21 revealed that a substance the team identified as “TD” had some value, but was approximately equal to alcohol in effect. The overall study, Donovan was told, would not be completed until June 30, 1946. Correspondence from Dr. H. G. Wolff, associate professor of medicine, Cornell University, to General William Donovan, September 21, 1945, RG 226, Entry A1 92, Box 81, NARA.
In addition, given that OSS and British postwar records make no mention of Himmler traveling to Spain in 1944, the Himmler sighting itself seems highly unlikely, thus negating Constantin’s confirmation of it.
