WORLD HISTORY : NAZI SPIES IN AMERICA
Nazi Spies In America
About The Programme
In June 1942, eight German saboteurs were delivered to the east coast of the United States via U-boats, with the intent to attack, destroy and terrorise. But they were apprehended almost immediately, and six of the eight were executed.
Nazi Spies in America exposes the shocking truth behind this ill-fated incursion, drawing on the research of leading scholars and reams of recently declassified FBI documents. Find out why the group's leader, George Dasch, was allowed to languish in prison while his colleagues paid with their lives, and discover why the mission was doomed from the very beginning.
From their training to the aftermath of their botched mission, Nazi Spies In America is a fascinating account of how a group of trained saboteurs doomed themselves through mistrust, conflicting allegiances, and betrayal.
The first group of four saboteurs left by submarine in May 1942 from the German base at Lorient, France, and on May 28, the next group of four departed the same base. Each was destined to land at points on the Atlantic Coast of the United States familiar to the leader of that group.
Four men, led by George John Dasch, age 39, landed on a beach near Long Island, New York on 13 June, 1942. Accompanying Dasch were Ernest Peter Burger, Heinrich Harm Heinck, and Richard Quirin.
On 17 June, 1942, the other group landed at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The leader was Edward John Kerling, with Werner Thiel, Herman Otto Neubauer, and Herbert Hans Haupt. Both groups landed wearing complete or partial German uniforms to ensure treatment as prisoners of war rather than as spies if they were caught.
The Trial
The eight were tried before a Military Commission, appointed by President Roosevelt. They were all found guilty and sentenced to death. Appeals were made to President Roosevelt to commute the sentences of Dasch and Burger.
As a result, Dasch received a 30-year sentence, while Burger received a life sentence. The remaining six were executed by electric chair on 8 August, 1942.
The eight men had been born in Germany and each had lived in the United States for substantial periods. Burger had become a naturalised American in 1933. Haupt had entered the United States as a child, gaining citizenship when his father was naturalised in 1930.
Dasch had joined the Germany army at the age of 14 and served about 11 months as a clerk during the conclusion of World War I. He had enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1927, and received an honourable discharge after a little more than a year of service.
Quirin and Heinck had returned to Germany prior to the outbreak of World War II in Europe, and the six others subsequent to September 11, 1939, and before December 7, 1941, apparently feeling their first loyalty was to the country of their birth.
In April, 1948, President Truman granted executive clemency to Dasch and Burger on condition of deportation. They were transported to the American Zone of Germany, where they were freed.
FBI Investigations
In 1938, FBI Special Agent Leon Turrou led an investigation into a Nazi spy ring operating in the United States. He later wrote a book on his experiences, Nazi Spies In America, describing the early use of the polygraph in espionage cases.
One of the most important suspects interrogated with the lie detector was Dr Ignatz Theodor Griebl. According to Turrou, the results of the polygraph test lulled them into a false sense of security.
As the FBI agent remembered, Dr Griebl was so convincingly innocent that he “made us relax all vigilance, all watchfulness over him.” Five days later, Griebl escaped to Germany aboard the SS Bremen.