ACTIVITIES OF FREIES DEUTSCHLAND PERSONNEL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R001500950006-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 10, 2006
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: June 9, 1948
• Content Type: REPORT

CLA55I1-1{;AIION
Approved For FM20~
INFORMANT
COUNTRY Germany (Russian Zone
SUBJECT
to Germany to work in the Central 1'dministration for Justice.
`)ATE OF j_',,'~., ?larch - . pril l943
Activities of Freies Deutschland
Personnel
DATE DISTR. 9 June 1948
NO. OF PAGES 2
NO. OF ENCLS.
(LISTED BELOW)
A Library REPORT NO.r TO
f", v
25 1
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION FOR THE RESEARCH
USE OF TRAINED INTELLIGENCE ANALYSTS
Quarters for 700 German officers of the former National Komite
Freies Deutschlan(4 were arranged in the :.rrV Sport School at
Berlint--flnsdorf through the local 711VD chief early in flarch 1943.
The officers were to arrive by plane about the middle of March0
THIS UO'.UYBNT CONTAINS INFORUATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
OF THE UNITED STATES WITHIN THE UEANINO OF T112 ESPIONAOR ACT 50
Ti. S. C.. 31 AND 33. AS AUENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION OR THE REVELASIO11
OF ITS CONTENTS IN ANY PAUNER TO AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS PRO?
HIBITED BY LAW. REPRODUCTION Of THIS FORM IS PRONISITEO. 14070-
EVER.IHFORMATION CONTAINED IN CODY OF THE FORM MAY ON UTILIMO
AS DEEMED NECESSARY BY THE RECEIVING AOCNCY.
30
ii conference of SIT) functionaries held at Stralsund in early
March, officially called by SMA, included about 250 persons, of
whom two-thirds were former members of the *YFD or the League of
German Officers. They had all arrived in Germany in December
1947 or January 1948; twelve were reported to be members of the
CDU and four of the LDP. Information on conference activities
was unobtainable since all sessions were secret, but it was
rumored to concern the work of NKFD members and to include in-
structions from a high political official of the SM?. at Schwerin.
Among war prisoners returned from the USSR to the Russian Zone
since the end of 1947, an increasing proportion consists of
officers and soldiers trained by the NKFDS Some of these
positions, hut the larger part form a "leadership reserve" prepared
for action. They exercise an important psychological influence in
the Russian Zone through their conspicuous self-assurance and their
clever adoption of Nazi bourgeois lines of reasoning. They are
apparently the tools of an effort eventually to channel the political
thinking of the non-SED masses along Russian lines through appeals
to nationalist sentiments.
CLASSIFICATION_ ___S,C VT
STATE L NAVY NSRB
ARMY J+ X AIR
WARNING l ICE. TFUUS DISTR BUTTON LIST
EXGISEU ea P L1C1 I IrI Q. ITHIS t00C UMEN1,
4. During i:pril, five new department heads were appointed in the
labor office of the city of Leipzig; all are former mcrahers of
Freies Deutschland. Rolf
Helm, who was appointed General Prosecutor for Land Saxony in
December 1947, is also a former N1 Fi) and BdO member. After
becoming a prisoner of war during the Taganrog retreat in 1942,
he remained in Russia until the sur--mer of 1947 and then returned
E Date
1`~ 1 lk`prove4 For 006/03/17 IA-RDP82!
 Approved For Release 2006/0 'Ft .,9I.A-RDP82-00457R00150095000
CT,PJTftAL SN .- E'~;~ iIGETTCY
5. Ir. Semnler, former
private secretary of Dr. Goebbels, appeared at the Central
Secretariat of SED in Potsdam on 3 January 1948 and conferred
with organizational leader Kreuziger. Goebbels s9nt Semmler
to the front in 1943 for officer training; in the fall of 1944
he was captured by the Russians and jcined the NKFJ), for which
he wrote many appeals and manifestos. He declared ;hat he had
returned to J$terbog from Moscow by air on 2 January 1948 with
a number of other prominent members of Freies Deutsca1.and.
6a in Leipz.lg, that city was st?lected
Augustus Platz in late April
as ze foundation point for a new nationalist party an,: possil 1y
as the seat of its permanent directorate. Office space: for the
local Leipzig group was rented in the Turmhaus on the Y or Tier
TIAI
SEC&(T
Approved For Release 2006/03/17 CIA-RDP82-00457 R001500950006-9