Hitler's Spy Princess Read online

  On 27 December Stephanie decided, with her mother, secretly to leave the extremely hospitable Wiedemann home. She was fortunate, once again, that an old friend of hers, Vilma (‘Mimi’) Owler Smith, lent her an apartment in a building on Forest Avenue in Palo Alto. Mimi Smith also organised an attorney for her, Joseph J. Bullock. The first thing the lawyer did was ask a woman doctor to sign a certificate stating that neither the princess nor her mother was well enough to travel. Armed with this document and with an affidavit from Stephanie, Bullock headed for Washington on New Year’s Eve.

  Stephanie’s affidavit makes astonishing reading:

  I hereby expressly declare that I am not and never have been in sympathy with Germany or the Axis Powers in their present state of war, and that all my sympathies lie with the kingdom of Great Britain and its people. Further: that without any basis a misleading, false and libellous smear on my good name has been published, purely due to the fact that I was perhaps unwise enough to have accepted the invitation of the German government’s representative in San Francisco, to be his house-guest. As soon as I recognised this fact, I left the residence of the person in question and have had no further contact with this person.

  Thus, within a few days, her lover had become an anonymous ‘person’. Stephanie felt that Fritz Wiedemann could have done a great deal more for her in fighting her threatened deportation. And her new ‘best friend’, Mimi Smith, chimed in as well. She now took over the ‘negotiations’ with Wiedemann, and the first thing she tried to do was get money from him for Stephanie. When that failed, she threatened blackmail, needless to say under Stephanie’s guidance. She would inform the German embassy in Washington of the fact that Wiedemann had been in contact with the British authorities.

  Yet Wiedemann refused to be cowed and simply drew a line under the love affair. He was unable to accede to the princess’s wish for further financial contributions. What is more he asked her to repay all the money he had lent her from his personal account since her arrival in the United States, a total of $3,003. In a sad letter he bade farewell to his mistress:

  I am choosing this somewhat unusual route, in order to be reasonably sure that my letter will in fact reach you; after the experience of recent days, this seems necessary. After you left I tried for two whole days to get news of you by telephone. The guardians of your hiding-place were so good that I did not succeed. I don’t know whether we will ever get a chance to discuss the bitterness of the last few days, like sensible human beings. The heavy blow that struck you like a bolt from the blue does much to explain your behaviour. I do know that you no longer wish an approach on my part and that you will do everything to avoid it. Even so, I cannot simply draw a line under the years which, thanks to you, were among the richest and most wonderful of my life. I know that today you will treat me with cold disdain when I tell you that, wherever a call from you reaches me, I will be there for you, just as far as my strength allows.

  I still have to answer your last letter personally. You asked me for a sum of money that I no longer possess. You, or possibly your friend who acts for you, seem to think I can, like a cashier at a bank, withdraw funds that do not belong to me, i.e. embezzle them. I refused and replied that I would try to get the money for you, if you were to hand over your shares as collateral. I assume this was not an unreasonable demand, since your representative, whom you have only known for a few days, was trustworthy enough for you to give her the key to your safe. Secrecy was guaranteed, as I discovered in a conversation with a representative of the Bank of America. If the worst happened the papers could have been deposited in the safe in my office.

  I regret having given you the funds a year ago, which you have been in need of in the last few days. Had I not done so then, I could have given them to you now and then I would not have had to be reproached by you for failing you at this crucial moment.

  This brings me to the point that still has to be sorted out between us. I’ve given you the entire savings that I have here. It was money put by for my family for an emergency, if I ever have to leave here, which may very soon be the case. The shares and jewellery you own are today worth many times more than what I have. I emphasise that I don’t need the money today, nor even tomorrow. But maybe one day I’ll need it in a hurry. For this reason I must know your address, or that of your representative, who has the job of sending me the money. I have written to [Donald] Malcolm about it. He has not replied to me, and I obviously can’t force him to. Do you want to put me and my family in a situation where we need the money urgently and can’t find you because we don’t know where you live? The only thing I am asking of you is to tell me whom I can approach in order to get back the sum of money you owe me. There must be someone who can confirm to me that they are acting for you. You may be quite sure that I won’t ask you for repayment, as long as I don’t need the money urgently.

  I have given you the following sums:

  $

  A year ago in New York 1,500.

  Here for a trip to NY 850.

  Christmas 39, for Franz’s trip to NY 60.

  A cheque that was not honoured 20.

  Telephone calls to NY in last few weeks 73.

  On our very last day 500.

  3,003.

  7 April

  According to the archives, this large sum was never repaid by the woman whom Wiedemann still loved.

  In the end, after her son Franzi had made a plea on her behalf, the Hungarian embassy in Washington took up her case, as she was a Hungarian citizen, and obtained a twenty-day postponement of her deportation. Stephanie could stay in the country until 11 January 1941. The plan was that on that day she was to sail on the passenger-ship SS Exeter from New York to Lisbon. But the princess’s health was not good. In her mind, the only thing left to do was to write directly to the US president, Franklin D. Roosevelt. In a long letter she related half her life story and invoked her acquaintance with his mother, whom she had twice met socially: once in Paris and once in Salzburg. Finally, in well-chosen words, she came to the matter in hand:

  Please allow me to appeal to you as a man, and as president of a free country. Permit the authorities to grant me a reprieve. Give me time to restore my good name for the sake of my son, whose future is in jeopardy. Grant me the same privileges that this land of freedom would grant to anyone who is not guilty of an unjust or disloyal act. Please spare me the humiliation of having to leave this country under such oppressive circumstances, as though I were a criminal.

  Most sincerely yours,

  Stephanie Hohenlohe

  Yet on 9 January the princess was informed by her attorney that all efforts to save her from deportation had failed. She had a nervous breakdown and threatened suicide. A Catholic priest was summoned, and her friend Mimi tried to reach President Roosevelt by phone. Franzi hastened to California from New York. The warrant for Stephanie’s forcible deportation had been signed by the head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Major Lemuel Schofield, who had recently taken over responsibility for the Hohenlohe case. However, if the princess could deposit a bail fee of $25,000, she would be spared detention. Mimi agreed to pay her bail.

  Stephanie was then informed that the hearing in connection with the enforcement of her deportation order would take place on 17 January at 10 a.m. in the offices of the Immigration Service. At the appointed time Stephanie von Hohenlohe arranged to be transported there in an ambulance with siren wailing, and then carried in on a stretcher. The press were already there and one reporter managed to snatch a photo of her. The inevitable chaos ensued, and Schofield decided immediately to adjourn the hearing to the princess’s apartment in Palo Alto.

  Although the princess had to make her statements under oath, the information she gave was very vague. She was represented by her two attorneys, Bullock and White, and her son had arrived from New York again. An official doctor was called in from the US Department of Health. The investigating officer, Earl A. Cushing, questioned Stephanie about the purpose of her stay
in the United States. The reason she gave was: to write her memoirs. After a brief intervention by her lawyer, White, the interrogation of the visibly exhausted princess was interrupted and adjourned. Nonetheless the immigration authorities ordered an ‘extremely discreet surveillance of the subject’.

  There was also a message from the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr, to say that he was anxious to see the princess deported: ‘Britain, the country she came from, refuses to “take her back”. The State Department indicates that Japan would be prepared to issue her with a transit visa, always provided that Russia co-operates, since that would be the only way she could be deported to Hungary, of which she is a citizen. I have issued instructions that this should happen as quickly as possible.’

  Another lawyer was called in to say that he had obtained forty-two refusals of a visa for the princess, and thus it was impossible for her to leave the United States.

  The whole business about ‘the Hungarian woman’ irritated the president himself. On 7 March 1941 F.D. Roosevelt gave his Attorney-General Robert Jackson an unambiguous directive: ‘That Hohenlohe woman ought to be got out of the country as a matter of good discipline. Have her put on a boat to Japan or Vladivostok. She is a Hungarian and I do not think the British would take her off. That is their lookout anyway. F.D.R.’

  At this point, on Saturday 8 March, Schofield had the princess arrested at her apartment by officials of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). He planned to ‘ship her across the Pacific to Siberia’.

  A week later Schofield visited her in the INS detention centre in San Francisco. It was the worst thing the 48-year-old Lemuel Bradley Schofield, married with four children, could have done. He fell fatally in love with his ‘prisoner’. There was no way she was going to be sent to Siberia. He intended to examine her case again thoroughly, to see if she really was a Nazi agent. Even Jackson, the Attorney-General, played a benevolent role, and finally on 19 May the princess was a free woman. However, the following conditions were imposed on her:

  (1) She must at all times keep the district director of the INS informed of her place of residence.

  (2) She is not allowed any contact whatsoever with the German Consul-General in San Francisco.

  (3) She may not, without the knowledge and approval of the relevant INS district director, have any direct or indirect contact with a representative of a foreign government.

  (4) She must establish residence in a small town with no airport.

  (5) On request, she must report her address to the INS district director and answer all questions put to her relating to her activities.

  (6) She may not, without the consent of the INS district director responsible for her place of residence, give any lectures, or interviews to the press, nor issue any public declarations of documents or any other statements.

  On 1 July Stephanie and her mother moved from Palo Alto to the Raleigh hotel in Washington DC, where Schofield was also staying, though he was unaware that the FBI were preparing a report about this. ‘When Schofield was in the hotel … he spent the whole time with Princess Hohenlohe, either in her room or his. On one or two occasions it was obvious that Princess Hohenlohe had spent the whole night with Major Schofield, as she was found in his room at 8.30 or 9 a.m.’

  Franzi von Hohenlohe had again put in a plea for his mother’s release. Back on 16 April he sent this telegram to the president’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt:

  WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SO BOLD AS TO WIRE UNDER ORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES BUT SINCE YOU ARE IN CALIFORNIA COULD YOU POSSIBLY GRANT ME THE FAVOR OF A SHORT MEETING BEFORE YOUR RETURN EAST VERY SINCERELY

  PRINCE FRANCIS HOHENLOHE 360 FOREST AVE PALO ALTO.

  He received this prompt reply:

  16 April 1941

  My dear Prince Hohenlohe,

  Mrs Roosevelt asks me to say that she received your message while she was in California, but her time was so short she could make no appointments.

  Very sincerely yours,

  Secretary to Mrs Roosevelt

  Wiedemann’s days as Consul-General in San Francisco were also numbered. On 16 January 1941 President Roosevelt had ordered the closure of all official German premises in the USA. Their staff had to leave the country by 14 July that year.

  But Wiedemann did not want to return to the German Reich. Like the princess, he now offered his services to the Americans. He was prepared to reveal everything he knew as a former intimate of the Führer. It came to the ear of the FBI chief, Hoover, that Wiedemann had made an offer to the Hearst publishing group ‘… to put his entire knowledge of the Nazi situation at their disposal, provided he is allowed to remain in the USA’. Hearst was willing to pay Wiedemann the sum of $15,000. Hoover contemplated keeping Wiedemann on as a defector and double agent. But the State Department and ultimately President Roosevelt himself turned this idea down. Wiedemann had to leave the USA.

  Wiedemann relates in his memoirs how in July 1941 he returned to Berlin via Lisbon, and two days later was called in to a meeting with the Foreign Minister, Ribbentrop. He wanted to hear Wiedemann’s views on America and whether it would enter the war. Wiedemann could only reply in the affirmative.

  Wiedemann was able to spend ten days on holiday at his farm in Fuchsgrub. Then in November 1941 Hitler posted him as Consul-General to the Chinese seaport of Tientsin. On Ribbentrop’s orders, his wife and children were not allowed to travel to China with him. He remained there until 18 September 1945, some weeks after the Japanese surrender, when he was captured by the US army and later taken to Washington. Prior to this he was subjected to a lengthy interrogation, recorded in a 100-page document. Anyone looking for the princess’s name will only find it briefly mentioned twice. When questioned about his time as German Consul-General in San Francisco, Wiedemann stated that he had received ‘a great deal of information through his good friend Princess Stephanie Hohenlohe’. The interrogating officer, Colonel Heppner, asked Wiedemann to spell the name and also wanted to know if she was American-born. Wiedemann replied: ‘No, Hungarian. She lived in London for a long time and was an intermediary between Rothermere and Hitler.’

  In Washington DC Stephanie enjoyed relative freedom but had serious financial worries. So she decided to look for a way of making some money. She discussed this with Major Schofield who, in late July 1941, sent a confidential memorandum to the newly appointed Attorney-General, Francis Biddle: ‘Princess Hohenlohe has suggested making a public statement about the dangers threatening this country and the whole world, and at the same time demonstrating the weaknesses of Hitler and his policy, and showing how he might possibly be overthrown.’

  The princess would be prepared, Schofield went on, to write a series of articles either under her own name or anonymously. She could speak in German, French and Italian, in short-wave radio broadcasts beamed from America to Germany and the occupied countries. She could reply to the isolationist speeches by Lindbergh and his supporters, she could write pieces for various magazines and give lectures to women’s clubs, as well as at other meetings and historical seminars. She could also be useful in producing foreign language propaganda.

  Schofield summarised his conversations with Stephanie in a memorandum:

  (1) Her personal experience of Hitler over six years enables her to draw a true-to-life picture of Hitler and his methods. She can describe his falsity, his treachery and his cunning. She can show him up for what he is, not an audacious conqueror, but a sly and crafty crook who does not hesitate to apply the crudest methods to achieve his ends; and who only attacks when he is sure of his absolute superiority, when he has got his opponent politically, morally and physically on the ropes. In order to achieve his purposes, he resorts to the cheapest trickery and does not even shrink from murder. Princess Hohenlohe can underpin all this with numerous statements that he has made to her, as well as the political views he has personally expressed.

  (2) By reason of the precise knowledge she has of the situation in Europe, she can make a particularly st
rong point of the fact that the President must be given the most extensive powers in order to stand up to Hitler and to be able to co-ordinate all operations in this country. This is absolutely necessary, even if it means temporarily giving up some of our democratic ideals. If you want to preserve and guarantee the future liberty of this great democracy and of the individual, then you must now curtail some of these democratic ideals.

  (3) Princess Hohenlohe can make it clear that it is idle to hope that Hitler could ever be mollified and persuaded to enter into civilized international relations. A peace treaty negotiated with him means the end of democracy, as his many broken treaties and promises demonstrate. She can prove by what he has said to her that he has no time for ‘old-fashioned morality’; he described holding to an agreement that is no longer of use to him, as ‘the ideas of those gentlemanly old liberals.’ He told her his policy was to alter his behaviour according to the demands of the moment, to suit his requirements at the time: ‘They can’t nail me down!’ She can show how stubborn Hitler is when he wants to achieve a goal, that he never abandons his objective, he simply changes his methods in order to achieve it. He himself admitted he lets people believe he has given up his plan; but in reality he has only altered the way he intends to carry it out.

  (4) Based on her experience, she can confirm that America is the only power strong enough to thwart Hitler’s plans to impose his order on the world.

  (5) She can make it clear that our country must act to protect itself. Hitler will not rest until he has destroyed our economic system and has infiltrated our country with his own doctrines. Chiefly because we are helping Britain. For this reason, if for no other, Hitler will get his revenge and will do everything in his power to destroy and subvert our nation. Once, in the princess’s hearing, he boasted that he never forgets and never forgives ‘those who stand in his way’. He once told her the war was principally a political and psychological one, rather than a war of armaments. The greatest mistakes made up to now, he said, were those due to ignorance of countries, their customs and characteristics and especially the mentality of their leaders.