The Daily Worker, Communist newspaper published in New York, yesterday carried a facsimile of a letter which reveals several phases of Nazi activity both here and in Germany, among them that there are Nazi spies and workers at a New York Medical Center, at the Amtorg and at the Office for Exchange Students, that the Nazis intend to hang some one else in place of Marianus Van der Lubbe, one of the accused in the Reichstag fire trial, and that they hope to distribute free in this country many copies of “the Hitler book,” presumably Hitler’s “My Struggle”, published here by the Houghton Mifflin Company.
The letter, written on what is presumably the stationery of the “Friends of New Germany,” was addressed to “812 No X” at a Berlin address. It is dated September 23, 1933, and is signed by “W. Haag, adjutant of the National Leader”, who wrote the letter according to instruction by the National Leader, Heinz Spanknoebel.
Haag’s letter further suggests that there is cooperation between American and Berlin Nazis by the hint that since he will find it difficult to bring Van der Lubbe into the United States, as he was apparently requested to do, some means be found of throwing Van der Lubbe overboard while en route to some other country.
The letter also contains a request for “a new code,” since the local Nazi office “believes” that the code it now uses “can be read by Untermeyer”. On the letterhead is a swastika, and Haag’s closing salutation is “Heil Hitler!”
The complete text of the letter reproduced in the Daily Worker is as follows:
“Friends of the New Germany”
Telephone: Gramercy 5-1920
Address:
Efdende
Cable Address:
Efdende, New York
23 Lexington Ave.
New York
National Office U.S.A.
At the order of the head of the National Office, Heinz Spanknoebel. Keep Absolutely Secret!
September 23, 1933.
Uschla Berlin Alexanderplatz
812 No. X
In reply to your letter of September 5th:
The development of the special division cannot take place as rapidly as you desire, since conditions here are more difficult than you suppose. We are being watched and must be careful. Count Sauerma is out of the question for the proposed position, as he lacks experience. It is better to employ him for the Bunaste. Count Norman returned from Berlin, bringing his brother with him. Dr. Spanner asks energetically that the General Electric representatives in Germany be watched, as they intend to carry on espionage there. The General Electric stole his invention, and he is now going to take steps against them. As his brother in the Medical Center has done a lot for us,—for instance, he has won two of the professors there for our cause,—we request that Dr. Spanner’s business affairs be speeded up and given protection.
Send us a young lady of good appearance, who is very reliable; it is best if her father and brothers are S. A. men (storm troopers). She should speak some English and Russian fluently and must take the place of our agent in the Amtorg. She should come over on the Europa or Bremen as a hairdresser, then we’ll send another person back to Germany on the ship, thus evading the immigration authorities and avoid a check-up by Untermeyer.
I cannot find a place for van der Lubbe here; it is best if you throw him overboard into the ocean while enroute to another country. Whom do you intend to hang in his place in Germany? I agree with you entirely that it would be good to give the damned Communists in Leipzig an injection of syphilis. Then it can be said that Communism comes from syphilis of the brain.
Send us a new code; we believe that the old code can be read by Untermeyer.
Spanknoebel has just entered the room and sends you his best wishes. He would like to have a physicist assigned by the Office for Exchange Students, to do a few little jobs for him. Theremin is lazy and wants too much money, and what is more, he seems to be half a Jewish swine himself. The man betrays his own country and therefore we cannot trust him, despite all assurances. And the little Katja—that is how Count Sauerma calls Konstantinov —is a dumb and conceited girl, who is doing good work on the whole, but is always crying now; therefore I think she would be better taken care of over there. She could be used for Russian translations.
Let us know how things stand with the Hitler book. We must distribute many of them free; we’ll have considerable success with it. It is child’s play to make good anti-Semites out of the Americans.
Please work fast in the Spanner affair—lots of money for us depends on it.
Heil Hitler!
(Signed) W. HAAG,
Adjutant of the National Leader.
(Seal)
Friends of the New Germany.
National Intelligence Office, U.S.A.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
