‘Control Not Morality? Explaining The Selective Employment Of Nazi War Criminals By British and American Intelligence Agencies In Occupied Germany’

Intelligence & National Security, Vol. 35, No. 3 (2020), pp. 331-349.

This article reveals for the first time why a Nazi war criminal named Günter Ebeling who was employed by the American Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) in occupied Germany was violently killed by British intelligence officers. Through analysis of hitherto unpublished Intelligence Division documents, it argues that existing debates concerning the post-war employment of Nazi war criminals in occupied Germany have been framed in the wrong light. Discussions concerning security and control, not morality, usually surrounded disputes regarding the employment of Nazis. Close and comparative analysis of Ebeling’s recruitment and ‘dismissal’ with that of several other Nazis demonstrates that hindsight, source limitations and a prevalent case study approach have prevented the identification of common reasoning concerning security and control which surrounded the post-war employment of war criminals in several areas of intelligence work. Indeed, new evidence suggests that the British and American intelligence services employed some Nazi war criminals in post-war Germany as part of a wider strategy of control designed to ensure the security of the occupation and pave the way for a future democratic Germany. Through the analytical prism of security and control, this article provides a synthesis between a multitude of case studies.

'The Intelligence Division in Occupied Germany: The Untold Story of Britain’s Largest Secret Intelligence Organisation'

Journal of Intelligence History, Vol. 18, No. 1 (2018), pp. 86-107.

This article provides the first detailed analysis of the British Intelligence Division (ID) in occupied Germany. It examines the reasons for its undue lack of prominence in the current historiography, its organisational structure, key functions, activities, its legacy and resulting historical significance. Drawing on recently discovered and declassified documents, it argues that the ID played a crucial role in the occupation of Germany by securing the British Zone, destroying anti-democratic movements, helping to control the German population, shape government policy and to construct important elements of the modern German state. This role has been overlooked by historians who underestimate the importance of intelligence, the seriousness of post-war Nazi resistance, focus on scientific intelligence, the Anglo-American recruitment of Nazis, intelligence efforts against the Soviet Union or concentrate on the American Zone.

'Seventy-Four Years On, Hitler’s Suicide Is Still Shrouded In Politics and Propaganda'

New Statesman (30/04/2019)

On the same day that Soviet soldiers announced to the world that they had found Hitler’s body, Stalin was spreading a myth of his own: that Hitler was still alive...

'The FBI, Hitler’s Death and Rumours of Escape to Argentina'

The American (16/04/2019)

According to the late, great, critical thinker and icon of Anglo-American literary relations, Christopher Hitchens: ‘extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and that what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence’. Of course, with this, as with most things, he was right...

'British Intelligence and Rumours of Adolf Hitler’s Post-War Survival'

History Hit (25/03/2019)

On 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler fired one of the most important shots of World War Two. It was the one that ended his own life. Two days later, the Red Army captured his Führerbunker. But it was not until June 1945 when Soviet officers informed British newspapers that Hitler’s body had been found....