Background
Walter Schellenberg was born in Saarbrücken on 16 October 1910, the seventh child of a piano manufacturer.
Supreme head of the espionage services
Walter Schellenberg was born in Saarbrücken on 16 October 1910, the seventh child of a piano manufacturer.
Received his law degree at Bonn University (where he demonstrated a passionate interest in Renaissance history and its political implications).
He was entrusted with organizing the Einsatzgruppen for the Czech campaign in 1938. Four years later he negotiated on behalf of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) with the Wehrmacht over the zones of authority in which these same Einsatzgruppen were to enjoy full freedom ‘in executing their plans as regards the civil population', in effect, a licence to kill civilians.
Schellenberg had earlier been involved in the Venlo incident (November 1939) when he led a detachment of armed Germans across the Dutch border to kidnap two British military intelligence agents. Major Schellenberg, at that time already head of the Gestapo counter-intelligence division, was decorated for his exploit and promoted at the age of only thirty to SS Major General. From 1939 to 1942 Schellenberg was Deputy Chief of Amt VI of the RSHA, in charge of the political secret service for foreign countries.
In 1940 Schellenberg was charged with preparing a ‘special search list-GB’ of 2,700 prominent people in the United Kingdom to be arrested following the projected invasion of Britain. (He also claimed to have written the highly secret handbook, Informationsheft, intended to aid the Nazis in looting Britain and stamping out resistance.) Another special mission, this time to Lisbon, Portugal, to kidnap the Duke and Duchess of Windsor Hitler intended to use them as instruments in his search for a peace agreement with Britain - ended in a complete fiasco. Nevertheless, as Himmler's protégé, Schellenberg was promoted in 1942 to head of Amt VI of the RSHA and Chief of Security in the occupied territories.
In 1944 he was appointed head of the united SS and Wehrmacht military intelligence, standing second only to Himmler in the Gestapo hierarchy. He used his agents to enter into secret negotiations with the Allies and prodded Himmler to establish contact with the Swedish Red Cross official, Count Folke Bernadotte, about surrendering the German armies in the West. Schellenberg was eventually tried by the American military tribunal at Nuremberg and acquitted of “genocide' charges, claiming successfully that he had no direct involvement with the ‘Final Solution'. He was, however, found guilty of complicity in the murder of Russian prisoners of war and sentenced to six years' imprisonment on 2 April 1949.
Released in December 1950, he died in Italy in the summer of 1952, at the age of only forty-two.
The career-minded, young adventurer, who spoke English and French fluently.