Questions, Questions, Questions: Memories of Oberusel, Germany

Introduction

Editors Note: This article initially appeared in April 1993 in Intelligence and National Security, Vol. 8, No. 2, which is published by Frank Cass, London.

Immediately after the end of the Second World War in Europe, the US Army established in Oberursel, a small town about 20 kilometers outside Frankfurt-am-Main, a center that has a unique place in the history of US intelligence. Officially it was known as the 7707th European Command Intelligence Center. Unofficially it was referred to as Camp King.

During the war, the camp, known as Dulag Luft (Transit Camp Air) had been used by the Germans as an interrogation center for captured RAF and American Air Force officers.  When the US Army took it over, all the necessary physical facilities were therefore available-quarters, stockade, small houses for special prisoners, and interrogation rooms. “Oberursel,” as the camp was most frequently called, became the Army’s center for detailed interrogation.