Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)
EMIL HOFFMAN AND HIS CIRCLES - Atlas GmbH
FABULOUS SPY GAMES The picture is made more colourful still by the fact that the employees of Karpik’s companies were, nearly without exception, former Nazi officers and high-ranking officers in Hitler’s administration, who previously occupied posts in the countries that fell into the Soviet occupation zone, and who escaped trial for committing war crimes. They must have obviously offered their services to the Allied Forces; their contacts and knowledge were such a priceless asset to the United States of America against the Soviet Union in the race of the great powers that this superseded any moral or ideological considerations. The best-known collaboration between the CIA and a former member of the Nazi intelligence service was with the organisation operated by Reinhard Gehlen, which recruited its members from local anti-Communist forces in the countries occupied by the Soviets, making it the most useful base of information for the American secret services by the beginning of the Cold War. Gehlen, an exceptionally talented intelligence agent, recognised the moment to switch to the side of the Allied forces and realised with the same sharp intuition that, once the Cold War had started, the most important arenas of intelligence lay in corporate cooperation, financial institutions and export-import companies, in particular. Accordingly, he positioned his own people within these institutions, which also tackled the issue of funding the extensive network, given that these people received a decent salary from their cover employer.55 Gehlens people were everywhere in the West German consortia that functioned as Hungary’s eminent partners from the 1960s, including Siemens, Klöckner and Mannesman. It is no surprise that Atlas, too, piqued the former Nazi officer s interest. According to the CIA, Gehlen tried to recruit Karpik and Westerbarkey, with the support of the CIA, but at present I have no information about whether he was successful in this or not,56 although cooperation with US organisations is obvious, since the military secret service was clearly behind Atlas. It is a surprise, though, that the CIA’s code name for the Gehlen apparatus, ‘Zipper’ comes up regularly in documents 55 On Gehlens organisation see further: Ruffner 2006; Guérin 1970 56 CIA, FOIA, Special collection of Emil Hoffmann, 9 February 1954 https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/HOFFMANN%2C%20EMIL_0047.pdf (Downloaded on: 10 August 2019) 26
