Kerstin von Lingen. , the OSS, and Nazi War Criminals: The Dynamics of Selective Prosecution. Translated by Dona Geyer. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. ix + 328 pp. $99.00, cloth, ISBN 978-1-107-02593-6.

Reviewed by Sebastian Huebel

Published on H-War (December, 2015)

Commissioned by Margaret Sankey (Air University)

Allen Dulles, the OSS and Nazi War Crimi‐ police units in Italy fghting an antipartisan war, nals: The Dynamics of Selective Prosecution does however, made such a proposition to the Ameri‐ not ft into a single category of historical analysis. cans, Allen Dulles, head of the OSS ofce in Berne, It is in part a military history of the fnal stages of , received a positive response from World War II; it is intelligence history of the early Washington to look further into this matter. Oper‐ with strong focus on the ’ ation Sunrise, the ensuing secret deal that was Ofce of Strategic Services (OSS); and fnally, it is forged between Wolf and the United States, rep‐ a part political, part social history of Germany’s resented by Allen Dulles, came into efect, after ambiguous postwar attempt to come to terms several delays, on May 2, 1945, days before the of‐ with its recent past (Vergangenheitsbewältigung), fcial end of World War II in Europe. including the contentious issue of re-integrating Von Lingen’s aim then is to contextualize Op‐ former Nazi functionaries and members of the eration Sunrise and bring its political repercus‐ Wehrmacht. Above all, however, it is a case study sions on subsequent trials into a larger that seeks to analyze and bring into context the context. Through a case study of Karl Wolf, the story of SS General Karl Wolf (1900-84). author aims at fnding an explanation for “the At the end of World War II, several German clemency for Wolf and his staf in the Allied war Nazi Party and military ofcials made overtures criminals program after 1945” (p. 2). It is the au‐ to negotiate an early surrender with the West. In thor’s argument that Operation Sunrise was a 1943, however, the Allies, including the Soviet turning point in East-West relations and “the frst Union, had agreed to require an unconditional of a bundle of measures that sought to reward surrender by Germany, ruling out any bilateral German negotiation partners for their actions be‐ agreements. When Karl Wolf, higher police and cause the early surrender in Northern Italy had SS leader in Italy and responsible for the SS and benefted the Western powers on the eve of the H-Net Reviews

Cold War as they attempted to push back, specif‐ the United States internationally. Wolf was also cally to the Yugoslavian border, the Soviet sphere protected from extradition to other countries that of infuence in central Europe.” intended to put him on trial, including Italy. In Not only was the United States interested in 1948, in Wolf’s denazifcation trial, a German saving time needed in a race to increase its mili‐ court sentenced Wolf, based on Western pres‐ tary and political presence in Northern Italy vis-à- sure, to fve years in prison, of which four had al‐ vis a feared spread of communist infuence in the ready been served and the remainder turned into region; but the United States reasoned that avoid‐ parole. The strategy of extolling Wolf’s virtues as ing an unnecessary military confrontation with the “good German,” a gentleman ofcer who the Germans in the mountains and bypassing the brought about the much-awaited end to Hitler’s German “Alpine Fortress” could save American horrendous war and who thus saved many Ger‐ lives. It is for these immediate military, geopoliti‐ man and American lives, worked. The supporting cal, and ideological goals that Operation Sunrise, afdavits submitted by important American of‐ at the instigation of Karl Wolf and upon recom‐ cials, including Dulles, allowed a public, one-sided mendation by the OSS ofce in Switzerland, re‐ image of Wolf to emerge that was positive and ceived a green light from Washington. blind to the general’s other “deeds” during the Third Reich. Following a chapter devoted to a comprehen‐ sive analysis of Operation Sunrise, the author Only in the 1960s, thanks to private initiatives moves on to examine Wolf’s privileged treatment by Nazi war-crime hunters like Tuviah Friedman, by the Allies after the war. The author relies on who discovered new incriminating evidence that circumstantial evidence, as no clear written state‐ linked Wolf to the deportation of 300,000 Euro‐ ment that agreed to protect Wolf from legal pros‐ pean Jews to the extermination camp Treblinka, ecution exists. With numerous agencies, ofces, and a simultaneous, newly ignited interest among and ministries from diferent countries all trying German society in desk-perpetrators (such as to collect and analyze incriminating evidence in ), did Germany’s state attorneys 1945, it is striking that Wolf, whose name at frst re-open the Wolf case. In 1964, Wolf was sen‐ appeared on the list of potential war criminals to tenced to ffteen years in prison as an accessory to be sentenced at the Nuremberg Military Tri‐ murder. Even though this time the Dulles circle bunals, did not end up on the defendants’ bench. (which had fallen into disgrace in the United Von Lingen infers that through the protective States as a result of the Cuban fasco in 1959) was hands of Dulles and his associates, Wolf was at frst unable to infuence matters behind the shielded from prosecution. It was “the anticom‐ scenes, it was pressure on the Bavarian justice munist motives that served as the cement holding minister to pardon Wolf that eventually led to his together the secret deal between Wolf and release on “medical grounds” in 1969. With a Dulles” (p. 156). At the same time, Wolf was such shattered reputation but largely left untouched, a prominent SS general that his public abdication Wolf lived quietly of his pension until his death would have raised some suspicion; instead, Wolf in 1984. remained in Allied custody--against his will--and Von Lingen’s stimulating case study of a SS was eventually transferred to a mental hospital, general, his involvement in bringing World War II away from the international limelight in Nurem‐ to an expedited end and his subsequent shielding berg. Dulles made sure that Wolf was prevented by United States authorities adds signifcantly to from having a platform to reveal critical details our understanding of the political processes that about Operation Sunrise and thus embarrassing governed the victor’s justice over former Nazi

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Germany. Her commendable research based on cation of these Cold War intrigues of international declassifed sources at various national archives politics is warranted. in Germany, England, the United States, and Nevertheless, the reader is left with the im‐ Switzerland as well as university libraries and portant lesson that not only had the alliance be‐ newspaper archives has resulted in a meticulous‐ tween the East and West crumbled before the war ly detailed and well-written work of scholarship. even ended, but that the United States went so far Successfully interconnecting diferent historical as to negotiate a separate, secret surrender agree‐ themes, von Lingen is convincing in her argument ment with the enemy, , which in that “political considerations that foreshadowed turn resulted in the complicated conundrum for the coming of the Cold War began to dominate as the United States of protecting, instead of bringing the war ended” (p. 287). War criminal policy, de‐ due punishment to, a high-ranking SS general. spite the noble goals formulated in Nuremberg to bring justice to the horrors of World War II and , could be, as this study proves, sec‐ ondary to political considerations. Von Lingen’s study shows how a few intelligence ofcers around Allen Dulles could infuence war criminal policy on the ground at various levels to their own and their government’s interests. From a more critical point of view, the reader might fnd the English title of the monograph slightly misleading--after all, the book’s central subject of historical analysis is Karl Wolf and his name should have been included in the title. Fur‐ thermore, some additional information on Wolf’s earlier career in the Third Reich, when he was Himmler’s chief of staf for instance, and his rise in the SS state apparatus, including his participa‐ tion in the preparation and facilitation of the Holocaust, would have helped the reader obtain a more comprehensive and well-rounded under‐ standing of the protagonist. It would have also been interesting--but likely infeasible due to re‐ stricted access to sources--to learn more about the Soviet Union’s understanding of Operation Sun‐ rise at the time of the negotiations. Von Lingen states that information about a separate surren‐ der leaked when Winston Churchill revealed de‐ tails to the public. The Soviets, understandably ir‐ ritated about this breach of the Casablanca Agree‐ ments, demanded the immediate cessation of ne‐ gotiations (to which the Americans, of course, agreed, but which Dulles ignored). Further clarif‐

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Citation: Sebastian Huebel. Review of Lingen, Kerstin von. Allen Dulles, the OSS, and Nazi War Criminals: The Dynamics of Selective Prosecution. H-War, H-Net Reviews. December, 2015.

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