Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle

Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle was a German special commission that was created by German High Command in July 1942, in response to the capture of two leading members of the anti-fascist resistance group, that was called the Red Orchestra (German:Rote Kapelle) by the Abwehr. The Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle was an internal counter-intelligence operation by the Abwehr and the Gestapo.[1] Consisting of a small independent Gestapo unit and led by SS-Obersturmbannführer Friedrich Panzinger, its remit was to discover and arrest members of the Red Orchestra in Germany, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy during World War II.[2][3]

Name

The name Rote Kapelle was a cryptonym that was used by the German central security office, Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), the counter-espionage part of the Schutzstaffel (SS), which referred to resistance radio operators as "pianists", their transmitters as "pianos", and their supervisors as "conductors".[4] The Rote Kapelle was a collective name that was used by the Gestapo, the German secret police for the purpose of identification, and the Funkabwehr, the German radio counterintelligence organisation.[5] The name of Kapelle was an accepted Abwehr term to denote secret radio transmitters and the counterintelligence operation against them.

Formation

In August 1941, Rote Kapelle was the original counterintelligence operation started by Abwehrstelle Belgium (Ast Belgium), a field office of Abwehr IIIF.[5] When Soviet agent Anatoly Gurevich was arrested in November 1942,[5] a small unit made up of Gestapo personnel was formed in Paris in the same month.[1] It was created by RSHA Amt (department) IV (Gestapo) section A2 (Sabotageabwehr), during September 1942, and led by SS-Obersturmbannführer (Colonel) Friedrich Panzinger. It grew out of a 1942 agreement between the Funkabwehr, Abwehr and the Gestapo to identify members of the resistance group Red Orchestra.[6]

History

In August 1943, Karl Giering was dying of throat cancer and he was forced to surrender his command to his deputy Friedrich Reiser.[7] However, Reiser was found to be incapable of managing the unit and on August 1943 Heinz Pannwitz, a Gestapo officer in department Amt. IV A2 of the Reich Main Security Office took command of the unit.[8]

References
  1. Kesaris, Paul. L, ed. (1979). The Rote Kapelle: the CIA's history of Soviet intelligence and espionage networks in Western Europe, 1936-1945 (pdf). Washington DC: University Publications of America. p. XII. ISBN 978-0-89093-203-2.
  2. Shareen Blair Brysac (12 October 2000). Resisting Hitler : Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 441. ISBN 978-0-19-531353-6. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  3. Richard Breitman; Norman J. W. Goda; Timothy Naftali; Robert Wolfe (4 April 2005). U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis. Cambridge University Press. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-521-61794-9. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  4. Richelson, Jeffrey (1995). A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press US. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-19-511390-7.
  5. Kesaris, Paul. L, ed. (1979). The Rote Kapelle: the CIA's history of Soviet intelligence and espionage networks in Western Europe, 1936-1945 (pdf). Washington DC: University Publications of America. p. XI. ISBN 978-0-89093-203-2.
  6. Blair Brysac, Shareen. Resisting Hitler : Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra (2000 ed.). USA: Oxford University Press. p. 441.
  7. Stephen Tyas (25 June 2017). SS-Major Horst Kopkow: From the Gestapo to British Intelligence (in German). Fonthill Media. pp. 87–. GGKEY:JT39J4WQW30. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  8. "KV 2-1971 Heinz PANNWITZ". The National Archives. Kew. p. 26. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
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