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Introduction
- Louisiana State University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
1 introduction Walter Eugen Mosig was a businessman in 1930s Germany who dealt especially with firms in Spain and Argentina. When the National Socialists rose to power in Germany, Mosig joined the Criminal Police in Berlin. In 1936 he was sent to Spain as an observer of the Spanish Civil War, establishing contact with the Guardia Civil (Civil Guard, or national police) in the Nationalist zone, controlled by General Francisco Franco and his forces, who had risen up against the legitimate Republican government. He stayed until February 1938 and then returned to Berlin, continuing to work for the Criminal Police until 1942. At that point he transferred to Amt VI of the Reich Main Security Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, or RSHA), the foreignintelligence arm of the Nazi Party’s own intelligence unit, the Sicherhietsdienst (SD). Because of his experience in Spain, he was posted to Madrid in early 1943. His assignment was to gather political intelligence on Spain and on the German colony, as well as to secure German economic interests in the country, whose resources were crucial to Germany’s war effort. Thus he was placed under cover as a representative of Sofindus, the para-state German company that managed all trade between Spain and Nazi Germany. There he worked directly with the president of the organization, the leading Nazi within the German community of Spain, Johannes Bernhardt. He also became intimately involved in the transfer of funds between Germany and Spain, especially through the Restaurant Horcher, established in Madrid in 1943. Finally, his duties involved exchanging information with Spanish intelligence officials concerning Communist elements in Spain and across Europe. Mosig was an intelligence agent on the periphery of World War II. His story has elements of an exciting adventure. But arguably for Hunting Nazis in Franco’s Spain 2 Mosig, the adventure actually deepened once the war ended in May 1945. In occupied Germany being a member of the SD meant automatic arrest by the occupying powers France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Mosig, however, stayed in Spain, where he continued to be protected by his Spanish associates. Soon enough he was offered a position within the Spanish intelligence community, with which he had worked so closely during the war. His supervisor was Colonel Anton Zea, in Spanish Military Intelligence (SIM), who assured him that remaining in the intelligence community would protect him from any Allied investigations into his work for the Nazi regime. Nonetheless, both the United States and the United Kingdom asked for Mosig’s arrest and repatriation to occupied Germany, where he would face denazification. Warned by his Spanish associates that he was in trouble, Mosig abandoned his post with SIM and went into hiding. He made inquiries in May 1946 about immigration to Argentina, an avenue reportedly opened up in part by the Spanish undersecretary of state, Tomas Suñer. However, Mosig was arrested by Spanish officials in August 1946 and repatriated to occupied Germany, where he was placed in the U.S.-run Civilian Internment Enclosure No. 76, in Hohenasperg, Germany. From there he was transferred to the U.S. internment camp in Ludwigsburg. During a movement of prisoners from this camp in October 1947 Mosig escaped. Within a week he was back in Madrid. He remained in Spain for another year and then emigrated to Córdoba, Argentina, in 1948. In August 1972 Walter Mosig visited the American embassy in Buenos Aires and filed paperwork requesting immigration for him and his wife to Florida, where his son lived. On the application he listed his residence as Berlin from 1923 to 1943, Madrid from 1943 to 1948, and Córdoba thereafter, not mentioning his time in Spain during the Civil War or the more than a year that he was in U.S. internment in Germany. His immigration file was sent to the Central Intelligence Agency, which responded to his application with a detailed account of his time in the SD and the Gestapo, as well as his arrest and time in U.S. custody. Although his FBI file holding the immigration paperwork contains no indication of what decision [54.236.245.71] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 07:12 GMT) Introduction 3 was made, presumably his application was denied on the basis of the CIA’s response; however, this cannot be confirmed. Extensive searches on the Internet revealed no obituaries or other evidence about the last part of Mosig’s life...