THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

6 Friday, September 12, 1975

Expose of Interpol

Nazi Control of Police Agency During World War II

(Editor's note: This is
the second in a series of ar-
ticles written by London
scholar and researcher S.
A. Barram on the past and
present Nazi links to In-
terpol, the international
police agency based in
Europe.)

By S. A. BARRAM

The importance which
Nazi Germany attributed to
Interpol, found its expres-
sion in the appointment of
the highest ranking officer
of the SD (Security Service)
as successor to Steinhausl,
after his death.
Reinhard Heydrich —
The Hangman — chief of
the German Security Police,
became president of Inter-
pol.
The SD was the most
powerful and most efficient
organization of the Nazi
party and consisted of
highly devoted and fanatical
followers of Hitler.

Its scope of activity was
described by one of the
highest SS officers, Dr.
Werner Best. "The SD,
finally, must investigate
and explore thoroughly the
background and activities
of the great ideological
arch enemies of National
Socialism and of the Ger-
man people, in order to
make possible a deter-
mined and effective effort
for the annihilation of
those enemies."

Interpol was one of the
tools to achieve that aim.
In 1942, the de facto pow-
ers of the SD were sanc-
tioned by decree. The Minis-
ter of Justice instructed the
judiciary authorities to
make available to the men
of the men of the SD all in-
formation required by
them.
The SD, submitting infor-
mation to the police, the
Judiciary and the whole
complex of central and local
party and government head-
quarters, attained a key
position in the structure of
the Nazi state.
The incorporation of In-
terpol into the German Pol-
ice State was absolute. In
the administrative structure
of the RSHA (Head Office
of Security of the Reich), it
came under Department
VA, lb, and its official du-
ties included the control of
matters regarding foreign
countries, such as extradi-
tion, arrests of foreigners,
etc.

The notices of wanted
persons in the Interpol
Journals included
"criminals" who had is-
sued forged certificates of
baptism, travel documents
and identification papers
to Jews, so that they could
escape Nazi persecution.

On April 15, 1941, the seat

of Interpol was transferred
to a villa in a suburb of Ber-
lin, Wannsee, Am Kleinen
Wannsee 16, according to
unanimous decision of the
Commission of July 1940.
The offices of the organi-
zation in Wannsee were
linked with the SIPO (Se-
curity Police) telephone and
teleprinter network. The
archives, with its extensive
files of international crimi-
nals and their fingerprints
and photographs were
transferred as well.
However, they did not
remain under the authority
of Interpol. They were lo-
cated in the International
Bureau under the Chief of
the German Criminal Police
Office.
From this it is evident
that the term "interna-
tional" was purposely main-
tained with the intent to
deceive, as Interpol was
completely dominated by
the German Police.
The Nazis used the exten-
sive criminal files to black-
mail criminals for subver-
sive and espionage
activities.

In the same building,
Am Kleinen Wannsee 16,
some time later, fell the
decision regarding the
"Final Solution" to the
Jewish problem.

Germany, aware of the
enormous importance of
communication, introduced
to Interpol's network of im-
mobile police wireless sta-
tions, their own code of tele-
communication, which has
been maintained to today.
The existing radio net-
work, which until 1942 con-
nected Berlin as the central
wireless station, with Buda-
pest, Bucharest, Bratislavia
and Zurich, was extended to
include Brussels, De Haag,
Oslo, Paris, Rome and Sofia.
By 1944, Copenhagen,
Madrid, Stockholm and Za-
greb were added to the radio
network. With Berlin in
control, it constituted an
immeasurable potential for
the Nazi domination of Eu-
rope.

After the assassination
of Heydrich by Czech pa-
triots, Himmler appointed
Arthur Nebe, SS Lt. Gen-
eral, General of the Ger-
man police as deputy pres-
ident of Interpol, until
Ernst Kaltenbrunner,
chief of the German SD
and General of the SS,
took over the presidency.

In 1943, the Executive
Committee consisted of five
Germans; Kaltenbrunner,
Dressler,- Nebe, Palitsch,
Schultz; two fascists, Bianu
from Romania, Pizzuto
from Italy; and four collabo-
rators, N. C. Van Houten
from occupied Holland,
Werner Mueller from neu-

say

tral Switzerland, Jean Buf-
fet from Vichy, France and
F. E. Louwage from occu-
pied Belgium.
Two other neutrals who
collaborated with the Nazis
were Lourenco from Portu-
gal and Harry Soderman of
Sweden,. who roamed
through war-time Europe,
socializing with Nazi lead-
ers such as Nebe, Zindel and
Gestapo Chief Muller.
Then there was the tragic
case of Dr. Kristian Wel-
haven, the Norwegian dele-
gate who refused to become
a tool of the Nazis. His re-
fusal cost him his freedom
for a considerable time. The
Nazis put him to hard labor
in a concentration camp.
This made him one of an
extremely small number of
police officials who reso-
lutely refused to co-operate
with the Nazis. After some
time he was removed from
the concentration camp to a
cell in the basement of a Ge-
stapo building in Wannsee,
in the neighborhood of In-
terpol headquarters, where
he could be conveniently
watched. Eventually he was
released into exile in a small
Bavarian village, where he
was joined by his wife.

The Nazis had achieved
their purpose. Welhaven
had served as a deterring
example to others at Inter-
pol who might have in-
tended to show a similar
lack of enthusiasm for the
national-socialist concept.

The majority followed or-
ders and found some way
or other to accommodate
themselves to the new
masters.

With the collapse of the
Third Reich, Interpol ap-
peared to disintegrate too.
But within months, in 1946,
efforts were made to re-es-
tablish the organization.
The main initiators were
Colonel Van Houten of Hol-
land, Werner Muller of
Switzerland, Harry Soder-
man of Sweden, F. E. Lou-
wage of Belgium, Agostino
Lourenco of Portugal, Louis
Ducloux of the French Sur-
ete headquarters in Paris
during the war, Francisco I
de Echalecu y Canino of
Spain and Ronald Howe of
Scotland Yard.
All, except Ronald Howe,
had been active collabora-
tors of Interpol during the
Nazi reign.
The unsuspecting Allied
Control Authority in Berlin,
occupied with what ap-
peared to be more imminent
problems of the Nazi era, re-
leased the funds, files and
building to the newly set up
organization.

Since then, the Interpol
files relating to the Nazi
period have been inacces-
sible to outsiders. What is
more, various spokesmen
for Interpol stated that
most of the files were de-
stroyed during the war or
confiscated by the Rus-
sians.

However, the villa in
Wannsee escaped unharmed
and according to an Allied
Control Authority state-
ment, the major part of the
files were found intact and
handed over to Louwage.
Florent Louwage became
the first President of Inter-
pol after World War II. He
came from the Belgian
State Security Police and
was its inspector general in
1940. He was a permanent
reporter to Interpol before
the war and during the war,
even after the organization
had been completely taken
over by the Nazis.
He was a collaborator of
Heydrich and Kaltenbrun-
ner at a time when the or-

ganization had been totally.
brought in line with the na-
tional socialist concept of a
police organization and had
to become a tool in the sub-
jugation of Europe by the
Nazi police state.
The first General Secre-
tary of Interpol became
Louis Ducloux. During the
war he served in the head-
quarters of the Surete
tionale, 11 Rue des SL
saies, Paris, where the seat
of the Gestapo Chief of
Paris, Boemelburg, was lo-
cated.

The Surete, a political
police organization was,
during the war, the coun-
terpart of the German SD.
(Continued on Page 8)

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