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Authored by Wall Street Journal reporter Ian Johnson, A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West is essential to understand the political and historical background of contemporary Islamism, its Nazi and fascist roots, in particular. Titled after, and drawn from, this important new book, this program details the operations of Gerhard von Mende, a Baltic German who presided over the use of Soviet Muslims as operatives for the Third Reich’s Ostministerium. (FTR #518 draws on a Wall Street Journal article by Johnson, which previews this marvelous volume.)
Building on an activity base begun well before the Second World War, von Mende utilized members of the Prometheus network on behalf of the Third Reich and, later, for the Federal Republic of Germany.
Assiduously recruited by U.S. intelligence, von Mende refused work for the Americans (who coveted his Soviet emigre networks, the Muslims in particular.) Instead von Mende recapitulated his Third Reich networks for the Federal Republic of Germany, mobilizing them under the stewardship of Nazi war criminal Theodor Oberlander, forced to resign his position as a West German cabinet minister when his wartime record came to light. Read more »
Martin Borman, Nazi in Exile by Paul Manning. German corporate capital flight program in the waning years of WWII.