George John Dasch

George John Dasch (February 7, 1903 – 1992) was a German agent who landed on American soil during World War II. He helped to destroy Nazi Germany’s espionage program in the United States by defecting to the American cause, but was tried and convicted of treason and espionage.

George John Dasch
BornFebruary 7, 1903 (1903-02-07)
Speyer, German Empire
Died1992 (1993)
Ludwigshafen, Germany
Occupation
Criminal statusConvicted
Criminal chargeTreason and espionage
PenaltyCapital punishment (commuted by Franklin D. Roosevelt to 30 years in prison; clemency by Harry Truman with conditional deportation to American-occupied Germany)
Military career
Allegiance German Empire United States
Service/branchGerman Army
United States Army
Years of service
  • German Army
    1917–18
  • U.S. Army
    1927–28, 1936-38
Rank
  • German Army – Private
  • U.S. Army – Private
Battles/warsWorld War I

Early life

George John Dasch was born in Speyer, German Empire. He entered a Catholic seminary at the age of 13 to study for the priesthood. However, he was expelled the following year for unknown reasons. Lying about his age, he enlisted in the Imperial German Army and served in Belgium during the final months of World War I. In 1923, he entered the United States illegally through a port in Philadelphia by ship as a stowaway then stayed in New York City. For four years, he drifted among several New York restaurants with one season spent at a hotel in Miami Beach. In 1927, Dasch enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was assigned to the 5th Composite Group of Newton field in Honolulu and served with the 72nd Bombardment Squadron, but after a year, he purchased himself out of the Army, receiving an honorable discharge. He then worked as a waiter in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and back in New York City. In 1930, he married Rose Marie Guille, an American citizen.[1]

Dasch reenlisted in the US Army in 1936. Dasch was stationed at Ft. Ontario in Oswego New York. George Dasch served with the 1st Infantry Division, 28th regiment, L Company. While stationed at Fort Ontario Dasch met a young local girl by the name of Charlotte Holliday. George Dasch and Charlotte Holliday were married in Oswego at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in the parsonage in March 1936. According to City and church records George married Charlotte Holliday using the alias of George Henry Aldasch to hide his bigamy. (Illegal marriage). As George was still married to Rosemarie Guille at that time. George resided with his new wife Charlotte Aldasch at her father Jay Holliday's home located at 11 Murray St in Oswego NY while serving at Fort Ontario. On October 20, 1937 George and Charlotte had a son named Howard Elliot Aldasch. Their son was born at their residence of 11 Murray St in Oswego New York. After the birth of their son Howard, the marriage became tumultuous. Some time in 1938 George Dasch left the US Army abandoning his wife and son. Dasch returned to Germany in 1938. Charlotte Aldasch would eventually learn the real identity of her husband in 1942 when Dasch turned himself in to the FBI. Horrified by this turn of events and fearing for their son's safety, Charlotte sent their son Howard Aldasch to live anonymously with distant relations in rural Madison New York. Dasch's last communication with his wife Charlotte and his son Howard was via a lawyer and military officer in 1955. At that time Dasch was trying to regain entry back into the United States which was denied by FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover.

Operation Pastorius
Main article: Operation Pastorius

Preparation for espionage

Dasch and the others (what others; who??? parts of this story appear missing) were trained for espionage activities in a German High Command school on an estate at Quenz Lake, near Berlin, Germany.

The agents received three weeks of intensive sabotage training and were instructed in the manufacture and use of explosives, incendiary material and various forms of mechanical, chemical, and electrical delayed timing devices. Considerable time was spent developing complete background "histories" they were to use in the United States. They were encouraged to converse in English and to read American newspapers and magazines so no suspicion would be aroused if they were interrogated while in the United States.

Espionage activities

On May 26, 1942, Dasch and his team (Ernest Peter Burger, Heinrich Harm Heink, and Richard Quirin) left by submarine from Lorient, France. They landed on Long Island, New York shortly after midnight on June 12. They were wearing German Navy uniforms to avoid being shot as spies if captured during the landing. Once ashore, they changed to civilian clothes and buried their uniforms and other equipment. Early that morning, John C. Cullen, a Coast Guardsman from the station in Amagansett, New York spotted Dasch and three others posing as fisherman off the coast of Long Island with a raft. He saw that the men were armed and also noticed a submerged submarine. The men offered him a $260 bribe to keep quiet. He took the bribe, but alerted his superiors. By the time an armed patrol returned to the site, the Germans had taken the Long Island Rail Road train from the Amagansett station into Manhattan, New York City, where they checked in and stayed at a hotel. A search of the beach revealed concealed explosives, timers, blasting caps, incendiary devices, cigarettes, and the military uniforms.

It was realized that German agents had landed on American soil. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director J. Edgar Hoover were immediately alerted, and the FBI conducted a massive manhunt. Hoover ordered that all information be kept secret to avoid public panic and to prevent the spies from knowing they had been discovered. However, the FBI did not know exactly where the Germans were going.

Defection to the United States

George John Dasch was by now unhappy with the Nazi regime. He eventually talked to one of his compatriots, a naturalized American citizen named Ernst Peter Burger, about defecting to the United States. Their plan was to surrender immediately to the FBI. Dasch ordered Burger to stay and keep an eye on the German agents. On June 15, Dasch called the FBI office in New York from a pay-telephone on Manhattan's Upper West Side to convey the information to Director Hoover. When the FBI agent did not believe his story, Dasch hung up and took a train to Washington D.C. four days later and booked in at the Mayflower Hotel.[2] He then went to the FBI headquarters asking to speak to Hoover. Dasch tried to tell the truth to the FBI officials, but they did not believe his story. While Dasch was at FBI headquarters, the FBI sent agents to his hotel room, where they found $82,500 in cash (worth more than $1 million in 2017 U.S. dollars).[3] Dasch was arrested and interrogated for eight days. He disclosed the locations of the other men in the sabotage operation including Burger. He revealed that the goals of the sabotage program had been to disrupt war industries and launch a wave of terror by planting explosives in railway stations, department stores, and public places. Armed with the information Dasch provided, the FBI arrested Burger and six other German agents within the following week. The FBI withheld the true circumstances of their arrest prior to the trial of the eight men, including the fact that they did not actually consummate their plans of sabotage.[4]

Aftermath
Main article: Ex parte Quirin

Dasch, Ernst Peter Burger, and six others – Edward John Kerling, Heinrich Harm Heinck, Richard Quirin, Werner Thiel, Hermann Otto Neubauer, and Herbert Hans Haupt (who had landed in Florida to meet with Dasch and Burger) – were tried by a military commission appointed by President Roosevelt on July 8, 1942 and convicted of sabotage and sentenced to death. FBI Director Hoover and Attorney General Biddle appealed to President Roosevelt, who commuted the sentence to life imprisonment for Burger, and thirty years for Dasch.[5] The others were executed in the electric chair in Washington D.C Jail on 8 August 1942.

In 1948, President Harry S. Truman had both Burger and Dasch released and deported to Germany. They were not welcomed back because they were regarded as traitors who had caused the death of their comrades.[6] Although they had been promised pardons by Hoover in exchange for their cooperation,[7] both men died without ever receiving them. Dasch wrote an account of his involvement with Operation Pastorius (“Eight Spies Against America,” Publisher: R.M. McBride Co., 1959. Library of Congress catalog # 59-13612). He died in 1992 at the age of 89 in Ludwigshafen.

See also

References
Citations
  1. Alex Abella, Scott Gordon (January 2003). Shadow Enemies: Hitler's Secret Terrorist Plot Against the United States. The Lyons Press. p. 24. ISBN 1-5857-4722-X.
  2. Lardner, George (January 13, 2002). "Nazi Saboteurs Captured! FDR Orders Secret Tribunal". Washington Post. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
  3. Cox, John Woodrow (June 23, 2017). "Six Nazi spies were executed in D.C. White supremacists gave them a memorial — on federal land". Washington Post. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
  4. Sullivan and Feldman's Constitutional Law, 18th, 2013 Supplement (University Casebook Series)
  5. "George John Dasch and the Nazi Saboteurs". FBI Online : Famous Cases. Archived from the original on 2016-05-16.
  6. "Shoot or hang themselves?". Der Spiegel (in German) (15). 6 April 1998.
  7. Rosenberg, Kenneth (2020-10-31). Enemies: A War Story. Kenneth Rosenberg.
Bibliography
  • Billy Hutter: Doppelkopp. Llux Agentur & Verlag, Ludwigshafen 2013, ISBN 978-3-938031-44-5 (book about George Dasch in palatinate Language)
  1. City of Oswego New York Marriage. license.
  2. St Paul's Lutheran Church Oswego NY Marriage register
  3. Service Photos of George John Dasch provided by Ft. Ontario historic site manager Paul Lear.
  4. Family records and photos provided by George John Dasch's grandson Mark Aldasch aka Marc Holliday
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