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 - The road to the Stasi
EMIL HOFFMAN AND HIS CIRCLES drugs trade, money laundering and other illegal businesses, which provided him with an inconceivably high income. Operating an underground network ensured funding not only for the IFJ ’ s influencing activities, they also added extra weight to the written word by setting up military groups: dirty money also paid for terrorist training centres.107 In light of all this, it is hardly surprising that the money that ended up in Hoffmanns hands raised the suspicion of money laundering, since his experience as a former officer of the Nazi intelligence services, foreign trader and secret agent predestined him to be used for more than his journalistic skills. 107 Pehe 1990 Hoffmann and his associates’ unrealistically adventurous comings and goings in the world of spies shows a side to the Cold War that paints a more subtle picture than the simplistic interpretation of the fight between good and evil both in terms of Nazism and communism. ‘Fabulous’ and his business partners remained committed supporters of the Third Reich right until the end of the War, but after the Reich’s collapse they were able to take advantage of the changing winds, and offered their services in the struggle against the Soviet Union. The world was torn in two, former allies were turned into enemies, at least in the propaganda, while former enemies were granted absolution for their sins in return for fighting against communism, the new demon. Holding war criminals to account meant little more than a few symbolic rulings, while the majority of top-level politicians and officers survived the end of the war unscathed to seamlessly integrate into the new world. The two areas where they tried to make inroads were the economy, particularly foreign trade, and the media. The Soviet Union, however, surpassed the cynical behaviour of the West by far: thousands were brought before the People’s Court in the countries that came under Soviet occupation under the pretext of fighting fascism, but instead of identifying and punishing war criminals, the main goal was to eliminate political rivals. While the propaganda was trying to use the fight against Nazism and fascism to legitimise leftist parties seizing power, in reality they were collaborating with the representatives of the ideology declared to be the 41
