THE CIA’S WORST-KEPT SECRET: NEWLY DECLASSIFIED FILES CONFIRM UNITED STATES COLLABORATION WITH NAZIS
Pried loose by Congress, which passed the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act three years ago, a long-hidden trove of once-classified CIA documents confirms one of the worst-kept secrets of the cold war--the CIA's use of an extensive Nazi spy network to wage a clandestine campaign against the Soviet Union.
By Martin A. Lee | May 1, 2001
“Honest and idealist … enjoys good food and wine … unprejudiced mind …”
That’s how a 1952 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) assessment described Nazi ideologue Emil Augsburg, an officer at the infamous Wannsee Institute, the SS think tank involved in planning the Final Solution. Augsburg’s SS unit performed “special duties,” a euphemism for exterminating Jews and other “undesirables” during the Second World War.
Although he was wanted in Poland for war crimes, Augsburg managed to ingratiate himself with the U.S. CIA, which employed him in the late 1940s as an expert on Soviet affairs. Recently released CIA records indicate that Augsburg was among a rogue’s gallery of Nazi war criminals recruited by U.S. intelligence agencies shortly after Germany surrendered to the Allies.
Pried loose by Congress, which passed the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act three years ago, a long-hidden trove of once-classified CIA documents confirms one of the worst-kept secrets of the cold war–the CIA’s use of an extensive Nazi spy network to wage a clandestine campaign against the Soviet Union.
The CIA reports show that U.S. officials knew they were subsidizing numerous Third Reich veterans who had committed horrible crimes against humanity, but these atrocities were overlooked as the anti-Communist crusade acquired its own momentum. For Nazis who would otherwise have been charged with war crimes, signing on with American intelligence enabled them to avoid a prison term.
Continues…
https://fpif.org/the_cias_worst-kept_secret_newly_declassified_files_confirm_united_states_collaboration_with_nazis/
More history on the subject from GWU’s National Security Archives:
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB146/index.htm
Jewish Virtual Library also provides excellent resources:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/cia-s-support-to-the-nazi-war-criminal-investigations
ETA: The intelligence community lied to Truman about this history. Apparently the team Eisenhower had in place didn’t mind.
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