|
How Britain put Nazis' top
men to work
Stewart Payne
London
Telegraph
Thursday Aug 30, 2007
German scientists and technicians were abducted at the end
of the Second World War and made to work in Britain as part of
a secret programme to plunder the defeated nation's trade secrets
and intellectual assets, declassified government documents have
revealed.
An elite British Army unit captured hundreds of Germans in possession
of Nazi scientific and technical know-how and transported them
across the Channel to work in government ministries and private
companies.
Others were forced to travel to Britain, where they were interviewed
by commercial rivals and detained if they did not reveal trade
secrets.
The unit, known as T-Force, was lightly armed and highly mobile.
Following the D-Day landings it was tasked with seizing anything
of scientific or military value.
The purpose was two-fold. Initially the scramble to uncover Nazi
military secrets in the dying days of the war was seen as helpful
in ending the conflict in the Far East and a method by which Britain
could benefit from German knowledge to give it a commercial edge
as it rebuilt its war-ravaged economy.
(Article continues below)
As the Cold War developed, it was also part of a campaign to
prevent the Soviet Union from benefiting from Nazi scientific
and industrial assets.
The Foreign Office papers, marked "top secret" and
discovered at the National Archives at Kew, show that, in addition
to those Germans believed to have volunteered to work in Britain,
hundreds more were rounded up and transported to the UK against
their will.
The documents concede that methods used resembled those of the
Gestapo, Nazi Germany's secret police.
A memo written by a civil servant working with the British military
in Germany in August 1946 explained the procedure. "Usually
an NCO arrives without notice at the house or office of the German
and warns that he will be required.
He does not give him any details of the reasons, nor does he
present his credentials.
"Some time later the German is seized (often in the middle
of the night) and removed under guard."
"This procedure savours very much of the Gestapo methods
and, quite apart from causing great and unnecessary inconvenience
to the individual and to the industry employing him, it is bound
to create feelings of alarm and insecurity."
The abductions were carried out in the British-controlled zone
of post-war Germany on the orders of two organisations.
One, the British Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee (Bios)
was made up of armed forces and Whitehall representatives, and
was answerable to the Cabinet.
The other was the Field Information Agency (Technical), or Fiat,
a joint Anglo-American military intelligence unit that earmarked
scientists for "enforced evacuation" from US and French
zones, and from Berlin.
Both had offices in London from where investigators would be
sent to Germany, looking for human resources as well as machinery
that could be shipped back to Britain. Representatives from leading
companies such as ICI, BSA Tools, and Courtaulds were included
in the teams.
After the war, T-Force was formed into the Enemy Personnel Exploitation
Section, which escorted Bios and Fiat investigators, and took
away the scientists and technicians identified as being in possession
of knowledge useful to the UK.
After interrogation, which could last for months, they were either
released or put to work in Britain. Those who worked were paid
15 shillings (75p) a week.
The files suggest that up to 1,500 scientists and technicians
were identified for removal to the UK "whether they are willing
or not".
All the occupying powers used various methods to loot Germany
of its scientific and technical know-how. By 1947 there was concern
that this was impeding Germany's reconstruction, and the programmes
were stopped.
The policy of forcing scientists to work in the UK changed to
offering them contracts, with many taking up work with British
aerospace and armaments companies.
|
INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
|
|
