Hitler wanted these ladies dead or alive...
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| THE DUTCHESS OF ATHOLL |
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| LADY NANCY ASTOR |
What follows may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I publish it on Wrights Lane for its historical significance and for the interest of those who have made a study of our Great World Wars.
I write this on Tuesday the 15th day of September, the anniversary of the Battle of Britain, after gaining access to a brand new, free and exclusive Forces War Records database, containing the full list from Adolph Hitler’s Black Book of “enemies of the state, traitors and undesirables, marked for punishment or death”.
It has been painstakingly translated from the original German by Forces War Records to mark the 75th Anniversary of Battle of Britain Day, and documents the 2,820 individuals who would have been arrested immediately if Hitler’s “Operation Sea Lion” had materialized with the full-scale invasion of the UK. Included in the remarkable list are the real James Bond (aka Conrad Fulke Thomond O’Brien-French) and Britain’s Schindler (aka Major Francis E. Foley).
The Black Book was a popularized name of the Nazi “special wanted arrest list” drawn up for the immediate period after a successful Nazi invasion in 1940. An invasion that was, thankfully, never to be, largely as a result of the Battle of Britain culminating in September that year with air supremacy retained by the British RAF, and the fact that Britain still had the most powerful navy in the world - making a sea and airborne Nazi invasion impossible.
The original name in German is “Sonderfahndungsliste GB” which means (es)special(ly)/most wanted list - GB (GB- Gross Britannien - Great Britain). |
| Adolph Hitler with SS General Walter Schellenberg. |
Similar lists were drawn up and, indeed, used for the USSR, France and Poland among other countries. Fortunately, the only place in the British Isles that experienced these roundups was the Channel islands, although the rest of the UK may well have had a similar experience had history unfolded differently.
A list of 144 pages containing 2,820 names of politicians, writers, emigres, known intelligence agents, scientists and artists was drawn up by SS General Walter Schellenberg’s office. Schellenberg was to become the ‘Police’ chief responsible for Great Britain after an invasion and the main Gestapo offices were to be based in Birmingham, England.The list shows the department of the RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt- Reich security service) which would investigate each individual. This gives insight into what crimes the individual was suspected of having been involved in. Some of those listed were wanted by multiple departments, although which order would be used to decide which department had priority is unknown.
There seems to be little written evidence that those wanted would have any collective fate as such, although some would obviously have more to fear than others based on what we knew after 1942 of the Holocaust and concentration camps (i.e. Jews, Communists and ex Nazi defectors), however no arrest or incarceration would have been pleasant.
In 1940 there were 450,000 persons of direct Jewish descent in the UK, all of whom would have been considered enemy to the Nazis, and any indirect family connection after that.Here is a sample of how a few of the names appeared in the Black Book’s wanted list.
Herbert Purcel Astbury , Engineer , From: Leeds Born: 13/Nov/1907 Wanted by: Amtsgruppe IVE4 - Counter Espionage -Scandinavia
Aline Sybil Atherton-Smith , From: Ryde Born: 13/Nov/1875 Wanted by: Amtsgruppe IVA1 -
Clement Attlee , Leader of the Labour Party Wanted by: Amtsgruppe II B4 - Marxism / Aliens Police & Security of Frontiers
Clement Richard Attlee , British Army Major Born: 03/Jan/1883 Wanted by: Amtsgruppe VIG1 - Evaluation of Intelligence Material
Werner Karl Rudolf Aue , From: Albion Villas Born: 08/Jan/1898 Occupation: British Vice Ambassador To Holland Wanted by: Amtsgruppe IVE4 - Counter Espionage -Scandinavia
Walter Auerbach , From: Hamburg Born: 22/Jul/1905 Occupation: Speaker (Am-Apparat), Historian Wanted by: Amtsgruppe IVA2 - Sabotage - Defense, Sabotage - Combat, Political Commissioner of the Police, Political Forgery
Rifat Avigdor , From: Constantinople Born: 09/Aug/1895 Occupation: Jew, Construction Manager.
Reference 286 Wanted by: Amtsgruppe IVB3.
NOTE: You can click on each individual's name to learn more about them.
NOTE: You can click on each individual's name to learn more about them.
It is especially interesting to note some of the better-known names from this brief sampling. For instance: Clement Attlee, who seemed to warrant two entries in the book, a British statesman and leader of the Labour Party who instituted the welfare state in Britain; Katherine Dutchess of Atholl, Member of Parliament, political activist and author, and Lady Astor.
*In 1919, Nancy Astor became the first female Member of Parliament elected to the House of Commons. She was not what had been expected. Far from a virago who had suffered for the cause of female suffrage, Lady Astor was already near the center of the ruling society that had for so long resisted the political upheavals of the early 20th century, having married into one of the richest families in the world. She wasn't even British, but the daughter of a famous Virginian family, and fiercely proud of her expatriate ancestry. But her moral drive was strong, and she would utilize her position of privilege and influence to blow a bracing American wind into what she regarded as the stuffy corners of British politics, at times to the annoyance of Winston Churchill.
*A member of the Conservative Party, The Duchess of Atholl was elected to the House of Commons and became the first woman in Scotland to be a sitting member of Parliament. Atholl also took a keen interest in foreign policy and was a strong opponent of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and Non-Intervention in the Spanish Civil War. She was increasingly concerned about Adolf Hitler and his government in Nazi Germany. She totally opposed the British government's policy of appeasement and in 1938 resigned her seat and sought re-election on this issue. In 1945 Atholl became chairman of the British League for European Freedom.
Just think, these outstanding women and close to 3,000 others listed in Hitler’s Black Book would have faced unimaginable consequences had Germany won the Battle of Britain. A frightening thought!
*A member of the Conservative Party, The Duchess of Atholl was elected to the House of Commons and became the first woman in Scotland to be a sitting member of Parliament. Atholl also took a keen interest in foreign policy and was a strong opponent of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and Non-Intervention in the Spanish Civil War. She was increasingly concerned about Adolf Hitler and his government in Nazi Germany. She totally opposed the British government's policy of appeasement and in 1938 resigned her seat and sought re-election on this issue. In 1945 Atholl became chairman of the British League for European Freedom.
Just think, these outstanding women and close to 3,000 others listed in Hitler’s Black Book would have faced unimaginable consequences had Germany won the Battle of Britain. A frightening thought!
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