Christian Rohrer World Chess Champion and Favourite of Hans Frank? Assessing Alexander Alekhine’s Closeness to the National Socialist Regime Translated by Emily Pickerill Online publication University of Stuttgart, Institute of History 29.06.2021 Bibliographic Information of the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) The German National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography; detailed bibliographic data is available online at http://dnb.d-nb.de. © Christian Rohrer, Berlin 2021 All rights reserved. This publication including all its parts is copyright protected. Any use beyond the limits of the copyright law without the written consent of the author is prohibited and punishable by law. This applies in particular to reprinting, including excerpts, reproduction, duplication, translation, microfilming as well as digitalisation or storage and processing on audio devices in electronic systems of all kinds. Table of contents Foreword to the English edition ................................................................................................................. 4 Foreword ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 6 I. Alekhine and the “Third Reich” up until the invasion of France (August 1939–May 1940) ............ 16 II. Searching for a way out (June 1940–September 1941) .................................................................... 24 A world championship match against Capablanca as a way out ............................................... 24 Alternative avenue – approaching the National Socialist regime ................................................. 27 Two-pronged strategy .......................................................................................................................... 31 III. Return to the Reich and to the board (September–November 1941) ........................................... 41 Europa-Schachturnier in Munich ......................................................................................................... 41 Weeks of decisions in the Generalgouvernement............................................................................ 43 IV. Sand in the gearbox (December 1941–May 1942) ......................................................................... 52 Conflict with the GSB ............................................................................................................................ 52 Simultaneous “Soldatenbetreuung” for GSB and KdF ...................................................................... 56 V. Alekhine’s employment in the Generalgouvernement (May–June 1942) .................................... 61 In the crosshairs of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt .......................................................................... 61 Research advisor at the IDO ................................................................................................................ 65 Material matters .................................................................................................................................... 68 VI. In the service of the National Socialist regime (June 1942–October 1943) .................................. 72 Europaschachbund .............................................................................................................................. 72 In the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ................................................................................... 77 Tireless final spurt: Protectorate – Generalgouvernement – Reich ................................................. 80 Chess seminar in Krakow? .................................................................................................................... 81 VII. Final years of life in Spain and Portugal (October 1943–March 1946).......................................... 84 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 91 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................. 100 Primary sources .................................................................................................................................... 100 Archival sources .............................................................................................................................. 100 Newspapers and periodicals ......................................................................................................... 101 Contemporary publications ........................................................................................................... 102 Document collections and editions .............................................................................................. 108 Secondary literature ........................................................................................................................... 108 Digital resources .................................................................................................................................. 119 Information ........................................................................................................................................... 121 List of abbreviations ................................................................................................................................ 122 Foreword to the English edition The German version of my Alekhine study, published in February this year, has already met with a very friendly reception and triggered many reactions. And because the chess world is global and interconnected, it has already aroused interest beyond the borders of the German-speaking world. I have therefore decided to have my Alekhine study translated into English. For this I thank first and foremost Emily Pickerill. She managed not only to turn my dry original text into readable English, but also to keep me from performing numerous inadequate translations of my own. The translation follows as closely as possible the original German text, which should be consulted in case of ambiguity. German quotations in the main text are translated, the original quotations are given in the footnotes. Dates are always given in the order day, month, year. Berlin, June 2021 Christian Rohrer 4 Foreword This publication came into being in 2010 when I came across Alexander Alekhine in the Federal Archives of Berlin-Lichterfelde while researching a project that had nothing to do with chess. Why would the personal file of the fourth world chess champion be found in the records of the Institut für Deutsche Ostarbeit? The duration of this archival fonds (R 52-IV) dates from 1940 to 1945, and the institute was based in Krakow in the Generalgouvernement. Although obviously in need of an explanation, this discovery remained unexplored for years, with other projects taking priority until autumn 2019. Once I began to examine the topic, however, it quickly became apparent that the subject required more than a short essay. In view of the poor state of research, I decided not to shorten the text at the expense of much detailed information, but to publish it in full as an independent online publication, thus ensuring that all information is preserved and available to all interested parties immediately and regardless of location. The subject of the present study, which intends to mark merely the beginning of further analyses on chess history, was the beginning of my cooperation with Prof. Dr. Wolfram Pyta. I would like to thank him most sincerely for his support, assistance and many suggestions. Since this study follows Alekhine through Europe, many archives and libraries were relevant, especially in Germany, Poland, France, Spain and the Czech Republic. It was gratifying to see the great commitment and interest with which the staff of these archives and libraries examined their records with regard to my research topic. I would like to express my gratitude to all of them. In addition, this work includes numerous helpful hints from people whom I had contacted with the request for information and assistance. I would therefore like to sincerely thank the following people for their support: Vlada Arnold; Ramona Bräu; Michael Coblitz; the DHI Paris, namely Kaja Antonowicz, Dr. Jürgen Finger and Dr. Stefan Martens; Ralf Dose; Reinhard Frost; Jan Kalendovský; Ingeborg Linder; Dr. Volker Mohn; Stefanie Odenthal; Veronique Perrin; Prof. Dr Helmut Reinalter; Dr Małgorzata Popiołek-Roßkamp; Dr Daniel Rittenauer; Miguel A. Sánchez; Dieter Schenk; Dr Miroslav Šepták; Marzena Szugiero. The coronavirus pandemic continues to limit historians today because archives and libraries are hardly or not at all accessible. This also affected the present study, although its core statements remain unaffected. The plan is to incorporate the results of the research that has been interrupted or made impossible up to now as part of a second edition and expansion of this study in the near future. Berlin, end of 2020 Christian Rohrer 5 Introduction Anyone who reads a description of the “defeat of the Anglo-Jewish idea of defence against the German-European idea of aggressive struggle”1 would