- Alfred Naujocks
Alfred Helmut Naujocks (
September 20 1911 in Kiel -April 4 1966 in Hamburg, alias "Hans Müller", alias "Alfred Bonsen", "Rudolf Möbert"), was anSS -Sturmbannführer , and according to some historians, thecatalyst for starting the Second World War in Europe.World War II
Formerly an engineering student at
Kiel University , Naujocks has already helped with undercover attacks inSlovakia which were blamed on Slovakian nationalists.On
August 31 ,1939 , he led the attack on the German radio station Gleiwitz, one of twenty-one similar concentrated attacks that the Germans quickly attributed to the Polish. These attacks, but not explicitly the Gleiwitz incident, formed Hitler's justification to the Reichstag regarding the necessary "pacification" of Poland.That November, Naujocks also participated in the
Venlo incident which saw the capture of two British SIS agents in theNetherlands .In 1941, he was dismissed from the
Sicherheitsdienst after disputing one ofReinhard Heydrich 's orders. He was demoted and had to serve in theWaffen-SS on the Eastern Front. In 1943, due to his health condition, he was sent to the West where he served as an economic administrator for the troops inBelgium , while involving himself in the deaths of several Belgian Underground members.After his promotion to Obersturmführer he participated in sabotage and terrorist actions against the Danish population from December 1943 until autumn 1944, as a member of the "Peter Group", led by Otto Schwerdt, including the murder of the priest
Kaj Munk .Around November 1944, Naujocks turned himself over to American forces who subsequently placed him in detention as a possible war criminal.
After the war
At the
Nuremberg Trials , Naujocks declared the attack against German Radio Tower in Gleiwitz was under orders from Reinhard Heydrich andHeinrich Müller , the chief ofGestapo .After the war he worked as a businessman in
Hamburg , where he also sold his story to the media as "The Man who Started the War".He is alleged to have helped
Otto Skorzeny run "ODESSA " in helping migrate former SS officers toLatin America covertly to avoid prosecution.Naujocks is alleged to have died on
April 4 ,1960 , although some sources state that his death occurred in 1966 or 1968.See also
*
Venlo incident References
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