Ridley, Norman Spying for Hitler. Nazis Who Infiltrated America

As Hitler strove for recognition and prominence in Germany during the political turmoil of the early Weimar years, he gave little thought to the world beyond the Atlantic, harbouring only a constant resentment of President Wilson's role in gutting Germany after the war at Versailles in 1919. However, it was the United States that had financially supported the German economy to significantly boost industrial production and employment in the 1920s, and the evidence of American wealth and economic power was hard to ignore. Even when the Nazis took power in Germany after the March 1933 elections, Hitler's narrow vision was still centred on consolidating his power base in Germany itself and soon extended to the countries of Eastern Europe. His impressions of American culture and society were limited to the trivialities and stereotypes of Hollywood films depicting the "Wild West" or the hardships of the Great Depression, and despite its economic power, the United States did not figure in Hitler's worldview as a potential player in European politics. They were aware of the power and influence of the Americans even before the First World War, and for them espionage against the United States was nothing more than a continuation of their efforts to prevent that country from thwarting German ambitions. There had been spectacular successes in the past, such as the espionage attack that had caused massive destruction in the explosion on Black Tom Island on 30 July 1916. But overall, the German authorities had made great efforts and incurred considerable costs without achieving their objectives, and they had failed to prevent American involvement in the war. With the prospect of another war, the Germans again made plans to influence American policy and do all they could to keep their forces out of European affairs. "Spying for Hitler" traces the history of German espionage in the United States, detailing the personnel involved and the operations they carried out in the 1930s and early 1940s. The way in which the FBI responded to the threat, particularly from the Griebl-Lonkowski spy ring, shows how Hoover's FBI was initially slow to recognise the danger, but soon learned the right lessons. This would later enable them to better counter further attempts to infiltrate agents into the United States. This book also examines the way in which the Germans used "sleeper" agents and describes how the FBI successfully "turned" German agents to provide disinformation to the counterintelligence centre in Berlin. It describes how the espionage operations took place and the fate of those involved.