THE BARBIE STORY: HOW IT COULD HAPPEN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000100370010-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 28, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: August 30, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/28 :CIA-RDP90-005528000100370010-1
ARTICLE _., CH^r,ISTIAN SCIENCE P~ONITOR
ox Pec ~ 30 August 1983
0i~i N I
Oil AND
COMMEN
TARP
The Barbie story: how it could ha[~[~en
Those a?ho are too young t.o remember [' [-
V~~orld R'a.r II and its early aftermath are Joseph C. Harseh
rightl}? baffled by the ea-iraordinary story of
lilaus Barbie. He was one of many Germans with experi-
How did it happen that a vicious Nazi se ence in anti-Soviet intelligence work who was
cret police officer guilty of sending hundreds, automatically taken over and put to work by
perhaps thousands, of innocent persons to the West. The eatire_Russian section of Ger-
their death in Nazi prison and concentration man military intelligence, known as the Ga-
camps was for 36 years first employed, then ten Amt, was taken over intact and went right
protected, and then hidden by US Army off- on working on anti-Soviet intelligence for the
icers? Americans.
There is no excuse, but there is an explana-
tion that those of us who lived through the pe-
riod can understand. His story is itself a re-
minder of what happened in that wrenching
moment of history when Germany, which for
centuries had shielded Western civilization
from Asia, suddenly collapsed and East and
West faced each other over the wreckage.
It was a whole new world in which, sud-
denly, the United States and the Soviet Union
sau? each other with nothing in between. They
were cheek by jowl. They did not know or un-
derstand each other. Though they had been
allies through the years of waz the experience
had been difficult for both. It had not been an
The Soviets of those davs of course ac-
cused the Americans, British, French, and
others of using Nazis. But the accusation
made_little difference because the Western al-
lies knew that the Soviets were also using Na-
zis, regazdless of background and record, if it
served their purposes. The West was fortu-
nate in one respect. More German govera-
meat offices and records happened to be in
the parts of Germany ovemm by Western
armies than is the parts overrun by the
Soviets.
Hitler's final bunker was in Berlin., but the
German High Command had moved to Flens-
burg on the Baltic. Flensburg was captured
easy or comfortable or happy association. ;by the British, wbo thereby "bagged" the ea-
Immediately after the war. Gen. George S. hire German General Staff with all its
Patton was the first prominent person among records.
STAT
The atmosphere in Germany is 1947 was
charged with a new sense of rivalry between
So~dets and the. Western allies, and with the
Western feaz of both communism and Soviet
I influence spreading westward. There is often
a tendency after wars to see the old enemy as
the new ally, and vice versa. It came sooner
than usual after World Waz II. The hiring of
ffiaus Barbie by the West was a natural, a1-
mostinevitable, product of the times.
Western wartime leaders to allow himself to More German government records, and
say out loud that his country had been fighting people, had been moved t.o the "national re-
on the wrong side. He was profoundly dis- doubt" in Bavaria where the Americans took
trtstfu! of the Soviets. During the short time over.
he lived :n :~Sunich as allied commander German)' ~ those days was crisscrossed
there, he became enamored of the Germans. by teams from all the ~~ictorious allied coun-
Others experienced similar thoughts, al- tries looking for what they could find of mili-
thoughthey usually kept them to themselves. tart', industrial, political, or propaganda
That feeling was shared in reverse on the value. The Americans "bagged" Wernher
other side. von Braun, Germany's top expert in rocketry,
The Soviets were no happier about having and from him obtained its postwar lead over
L'S armed forces in the center of Europe and the Soviets in missiles. The MX is descended
sitting on top of half of Germany than the from the rockets Von Braun built for Hitler.