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 part of which would have, of course, been the Hungarian city of fidelity, Sopron, and its surrounding area. According to Triska, the referendum in Sopron was tainted with fraud and terror, and the majority German population of the city had been waiting to get the city back ever since.60 The German victory in the war, expected by the Nazis, failed to materialise, so nothing came of Triskas plans to modify the borders, but the diplomat, who knew the region inside out, remained a central figure in German-Hungarian relations for decades to come. In 1942, he was transferred to the German Embassy in Budapest as cultural attaché. The seemingly harmless position, however, served merely as diplomatic cover for his actual assignment: Triska was the most influential representative of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) in Hungary.61 The RHSA was the top body coordinating the Nazi machine of oppression (including the Gestapo). Triska had probably already made contact during his years in Austria with the future head of the Imperial Security Chief Office, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who was Heinrich Himmler s intelligence agent in Austria prior to the Anschluss: according to the CIA, Triska was a member of Kaltenbrunners Austrian network. In late 1944, Triska was moved to Italy and stayed right until the end of the war. He was arrested by the American authorities but managed to escape trial. The CIA’s now searchable materials include countless reports on Triska and by Triska, since the Central Intelligence Agency used him as an informant; and the contents of the report show that his targets were primarily Hungary and foreign traders from Hungary. He performed his duties despite not being allowed to enter Hungary after 1945 as he was declared a war criminal precisely because of his activities in Budapest during the war. Yet Triska was able to create an extensive network of connections among the foreign traders delegated to West Germany, mostly to Frankfurt am Main, and among those shaping official Hungarian trade policies; and he skimmed off considerable profits from the trade between Hungary and West Germany through his network over the years, which we will return to later. 60 Tóth 2002, p. 197 61 CIA, FOIA, Special collection of Helmut Triska, 24 November 1953 https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/TRISKA%2C%20HELMUT_0049.pdf (Downloaded on: 5 August 2019) 28
