S — Friday, March 2, 1973

Israel's 'Champagne Spy' I Reason Why Egypt Lost

Wolfgang Lotz is the stuff
that movie heroes are made
of.
lie emerges in The Cham-
pagne Spy" (St. Martin's
Press) as a cross between
Agent 007 and a slightly
paunchier Paul Newman. But
he's no celluloid fairytale—
he's Israel's own, very real
master spy.
A country that's known
for its ingenious intelligence
apparatus does not take the
spy business lightly. For
Wolfgang Lotz and nine
other Israelis in a Cairo
prison, Israel traded no fewer
than 5.000 Egyptian prison-
ers, including nine generals,
in 1967.
Alone, without the other
eight, Lotz and his wife
Waltraud would have been
worth such a trade. The in-
formation he picked up dur-
ing five years in Egypt play-
ed na small role in helping
Israel win the Six-Day War.
Interestingly, little was
known about the enigmatic
Lotz even as he went on trial
in July 1965. The Jewish
News carried the following
JTA item about the court
verdict in its issue of Aug.
2, 1965:
"Wolfgang Lots, the West
German businessman who al-
legedly confessed to being a
spy for Israel in Egypt, was
sentenced in Cairo to life
imprisonment at hard labor
and fined $75,000.
"Lotz's wife Waltraud, who
pleaded not guilty to charges
of spying for Israel and at-
tempting to assassinate West
German rocket scientists
working for Nasser, was sen-
tenced to three years at hard
labor and fined $2,400 . "
Who knew then, except for
a handful of Israeli intelli-
gence, that "the West Ger-
man businessman" was in
reality a Jew, born in Ger-
many to a Jewish actress
and a Christian theater di-
rector.
After his parents were
divorced. his mother took

toast of Egyptian society and
the German colony, many of
whose denizens were former
Nazis working in the Egyp-
tian armaments industry.

Little did they know that
their friend "Rusty", the
wealthy horsebreeder and
suspected former Nazi, was
in reality Maj. Zeev Gur-
Arieh of Israeli Intelligence.

WOLFGANG LOTZ

him, then 12, to Palestine.
Four years later, he joined
the Hagana.
During the Second World
War, as a volunteer with the
British Army, he served in
Egypt. It was no accidental
assignment; his knowledge
of Hebrew, Arabic, German
and English were of great
importance to the British.
Lotz was a natural for spy-
ing. Ile had military abili-
ties, proven in the War of
Independence and the Sinai
Campaign. lie looked more
Teutonic than Jewish, and his
parents never bothered to
have him curcumcised. Ile
loved to drink, was an excel-
lent horseman and a born
actor, Above all, he loved his

country.

Something an agent should
not do he did: he married
and confided in his wife that
he was spying for Israel. As
it turned out, Waltraud, a
German, was his greatest
ally.

During their five years in
Egypt, the Lotzes were the

Jewish Ring Members Admit
Contact With Enemy Agents

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Two
Jewish members of a Syrian-
directed soy and sabotage
ring admitted in court Sun-
day that they had contact
with enemy agents and re-
layed information to them.
Dan Vered, a 28-year-old
school teacher, and Ehud
Adiv, 26, a kibutz-born para-
troop veteran, insisted that
their motivation was ideo-
logical.
Adiv, allegedly the No. 2
man in the ring and head of
its "Jewish section," de-
scribed himself as a revolu-
tionary Communist in a state-
ment that police read to the
court at the spy trial in
Haifa.
He said his contacts with
the ring leader, Daoud Os-
man Turki, were aimed at
bringing to power a leftist
revolutionary regime in Is-
rael.
He admitted meeting Sy-
rian agents in Athens and in
Damascus where he relayed
information and underwent
training in weapons and ex-
plosives.
Adiv also admitted receiv-
ing instructions from a cer•
he
lain Abu Jamal, who
identified as his "operator,"
find out the location: of

Israeli army camps and vital

L .

planes there. He was also
asked to describe Israel's
nuclear reactor at Dimona

More than champagne was
spilled at the Lotzes' gay
parties. " 'It's funny,' I said
to Waltraud. 'the Germans
are convinced I can't tell an
aircraft engine from a cof-
fee grinder. And the less
interest I show in it all, the
more they insist on telling
me.
"'Look at the balance sheet
for the last six months: two
missile bases including the
experimental one, precise
progress reports on aircraft
production in both plants,
exact personal data on prac-
tically all German experts in
the war factories, details of
naval vessels in the Red Sea
as well as of all major troop
and armour movements to
Sinai, not to mention eco-
nomic and political informa-
tion. Not a bad bag, though
I say it myself.' "
What added to the esteem
in which Lotz was held was
t h e
general impression—
though he denied it—that he
had served in the SS. One
Egyptian missile base com-
mandant told him: "Yours
is a secret to be proud of.
The SS, they tell me, was the
eceme de la creme of the
German Reich. I have read
a great deal about it. We too
will a‘e a great
ei
one day. Installations like
our missile base here will
help to destroy Israel soon.
Now you understand why we
guard it so carefully. The
Israelis have an excellent
intelligence service. They
must not learn anything
about this until we strike
the final blow. Now let me
show you around."

After he and Waltraud
were arrested, Lotz knew
that it would be fatal to ad-
mit his Jewish background.
Instead, he agreed to appear
on Egyptian television and,
with apparent remorse, ad-
vised his "fellow Germans":

• "If the Israelis must send
spies to Egypt, let them use
their own people and not re-
cruit Germans for this job.
I strongly advise anyone in
Germany who considers tak-
ing on such a job to resist."

Thus, Lotz conveyed to his
Israeli colleagues monitor-
ing the program that his
German cover remained in-
tact. "I later learned that
Israeli intelligence had in-
deed taken the hint and had
been able to direct their
activities on my behalf ac-
cordingly."

Actually, "T he Cha m-
pagne Spy" is two books in
one—the first describing the
double life of a spy, the
second his trial and incarcer-
ation. The so-called justice
meted out in Egyptian courts
and the indescribable condi-
tions at Tura prison merit a
book in themselves.

Lotz understood well the
Egyptian mentality. Just as
they refused to admit to
themselves that they had
been totally duped by an
Israeli, they refused to ac-
knowledge that their forces
were being given a drubbing
by the outnumbered Israelis
in the Six-Day War.

Lotz's account of the Six-
Day War, as viewed by his
fellow prisoners in Tura, is
one of the most interesting
portions of the book. Let
anyone who has doubts about
Egypt's intentions in the
days preceding the war read
what Lotz has to say.

By way of a commentary
on the ineffectiveness
of
Egypt's intelligence system
(although its expertise in
cruelty is undisputed), Lots
recalled his and Waltraud's
release from prison.

A number
of personal
items were returned to the
Lotzes as a token of "friend-
ship and affection," and
among them were "incredib-
ly—nine undeveloped rolls
of cine (camera) film.

"Later," continues Lotz,
"when I gave the films to
Israeli intelligence, they
were flabbergasted to think
that no one had thought of
developing them: 'We see
it,' they said, 'but we can't
believe it'."
—C.D.

Adiv admitted that he pro-1
vided the Syrians with his'
personal evaluations of top-
ranking Israeli commanders,
including Air Force Corn•
mander Gen. Mordechai
Hod; Maj. Gen. Mordechai
Gur, now the Israeli military
attache In Washington; and
former intelligence chief
Gen. Aharon Yariv, among
others.

Vered admitted passing in-
formation to the Syrians but
claimed it was not of a dam-
aging nature. In a statement
read by his lawyer, Vered
said he was opposed to ter-
rorism on ideological grounds
and that his contacts with
the spy ring were based on
ideology.

He said that while in
Damascus he gave no infor-
mation that could be used
by the enemy against the
well being of Israel.
The court, agreed to ap-
point a new lawyer to de-
fend Daoud Turki. His coun-
sel, l'aacob neuter. asked to
he relieved of the assign-

ment because of differences
with hi. client over the de•
fense strategy. flei71 , r said
Turki wante i i i turil t.ie trial

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS .

Stress Precipitating Factor
in Overactive Goiter, Team Finds

JERUSALEM—Stress situ-
ations such as bereavement,
severe illness or disputes in
the family are significant fac-
tors contributing to the de-
velopment of thyrotoxicosis-
overactive goiter—claim doc-
tors at the Hadassah-Hebrew
University Medical Center
here.
The role of these emotional
factors and the mechanism
by which they precipitate thy-
rotoxicosis remains unknown.

In the case of a family, in-
cluding identical twins, inves-
tigated by the Hadassah sci-
entists, Twin A developed the
disease after being subjected
to an extremely difficult life
situation which included di-
sease and death in her home.
Once the disease developed
in one twin, the other, who
shared the feelings of her
sister, and was in addition
affected by her sister's dis-
ease and hospitalization, de-
veloped the disease shortly
afterwards. Their mother,
having been exposed to the
multiple disease situation in
her family, became thyrotox-
ic 18 months later.
The appearance of the dis-
ease in three members of the
family fits well with the
stress theory of precipitation
of thyrotoxicosis in genetic-
ally prone individuals. Envi-
ronmental factors would ob-
viously be more active in
identical twins, who usually
have a high degree of identi-
fication,
Overactivity of the thyroid

gland with all the consequent
symptoms, such as palpita-
tions, weight loss or exces-
sive sweating is still not
clearly understood. It is gen-
erally accepted that both gen-
etic and environmental fac-
tors play a role in the dis-
ease. In order to separate
the genetic from the environ-
mental causes, Hadassah sci-
entists have been studying
the condition in identical
twins, where the genetic com-
ponents of the disease can be
determined.

Research of 49 sets of iden-
tical twins suffering from
thyrotoxicosis summarized
from the literature has re-
vealed that the majority of
the twins were female.

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