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 services, as it provided the simplest cover for agents gathering information, so international trade effectively became the secret battlefield of the Cold War. One of the owners of Atlas was a Polish emigrant, Ferdinand Karpik, who, according to military intelligence, liaised with the emigrant Polish government operating in Washington, and, as instructed by Mr Stone, also with a high-ranking officer of NATOs counterintelligence.41 Karpiks true identity is extremely intriguing, so it appears odd that the Hungarian state security service was not concerned with establishing his identity, and did not dig deeper into the intentions of Atlas, although a company established with help from the American secret service and trying to draw trade between the Eastern Bloc and the western states of Germany into its sphere of influence must definitely be vital from a counterintelligence point of view. There were, of course, grounds for this indifference. 41 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-12344/13 p. 82 Note from the MNVK-2 archives, 1958 42 CIA, FOIA, Special collection of Helmut Triska, 26 October 1964 https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/TRISKA%2C%20HELMUT_0075.pdf (Downloaded on: 5 August 2019) 43 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) 44 ÁBTL 3.1.5. 0-12344/13 p. 83 Report on Wilhelm Ferdinand Westerbarkey, 30 January 1964 45 ÁBTL 3.1.5. 0-12344/13 p. 86 Notes on Westerbarkey by József Lutz, head of HR of Terimpex, 15 February 1964 46 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) Karpik was arrested by the Germans during WWII, and spent quite some time in concentration camps on the grounds of his role as a leftist activist: He was held both in Buchenwald and in Dachau, where he met his future business partner, the co-owner of Atlas, Wilhelm Ferdinand Westerbarkey. 42 During the war, Westerbarkey served in Spain as a courier for the Abwehr, the German military secret service,43 and is even said to have been friends with Miklos Horthy Jr. 44 He was moved to a concentration camp because he conducted secret negotiations with the Allies, but was apprehended.45 American intelligence had already engaged Karpik over these years, and his contact was Mr Stone.46 Karpik sent 22
