Dear 4MLM,
I didn't find much information about Endemann, but I found interesting
information nevertheless. I would like to point out, that I used
extensive search methods before coming up with the following results,
and as little as they may be, this might be the only publicly
available information about the man.
An article from 2000 by Mark Fritz of the LA Times describes
Endemann's collaboration with the Nazis in Paris, as revealed in an
OSS (the predecessor of the CIA) report. According to the information
in this and other articles, Endemann had dealings in NORTH Africa, not
South Africa (caps mine), in which he used to pass information to the
Germans that was to help them in their North African campaign:
"[...]
Among those they investigated was Carl Theodore Endemann, a
naturalized American from Germany who was assigned by the American
Foreign Insurance Association to Paris in the 1930s. When war broke
out, Endemann sided with the Nazis. When France capitulated, Endemann
contacted the Germans and gave them exceptionally detailed blueprints,
maps and other information to aid Erwin Rommel's war in North Africa.
The report makes a dry reference to Endemann's British wife, the
mother of their 7-year-old son, as a "staunchly pro-British" woman
who, as a result, "was interned from time to time."
[...]"
(SOURCE: Fritz, Mark, "The Secret (Insurance) Agent Men", Originally
published in the Los Angeles Times, on Friday, September 22, 2000, an
online source available from Michagent
<http://www.michagent.org/publications/magazine/nov00/history.htm>).
Fritz re-published the story in June 2001, in "Contingencies"
<http://www.contingencies.org/mayjun01/under.pdf> , and told
Endemann's story in much the same fashion:
"Among the many 'personalities' profiled by the Insurance Unit is Carl
Theodore Endemann, a naturalized American from Germany who was
assigned by the American Foreign Insurance Association to Paris in the
early 1930s as a fire insurance underwriter. When war broke out,
Endemann rooted for the Nazis and when France capitulated, the files
say he contacted the Germans and gave them data they would use in the
war in North Africa. His British-born wife refused to cooperate and
was "interned from time to time," the report notes. The couple's
7-year-old son was with this seriously dysfunctional family through it
all." (SOURCE: Fritz, Mark, "Under Coverage". Contingencies, June
2000. <http://www.contingencies.org/mayjun01/under.pdf>).
He also mentions Endemann in passing in another article on the subject:
"One, Carl Endemann, an American of German descent who represented
AFIA but sided with the invading Nazis, provided strategic data about
installations in North Africa just prior to the Allied invasion there,
according to an OSS report. His English wife, stoutly pro-British,
went to jail."
(Fritz, Mark, "Cloaked Business: Files Reveal How Allied Firms Dealt
with Axis Through Cover of Other Companies" , Boston Globe, November
19, 2001, available from alt.conspiracy.jfk*
<http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20011215114745.09684.00000342%40mb-mp.aol.com&output=gplain>
These articles about Endemann and the insurance activities throughout
the war base themselves on recently declassified intelligence
information (Records of the OSS insurance intelligence unit (IIU)),
that is available (not online, unfortunately), in the National
Archives <www.archives.gov>. It is handled by The Nazi War Crimes and
Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG)
<http://www.archives.gov/iwg/index.html>, whose contact information
is:
iwg@nara.gov
Fritz himself might be reached through his LA Times address:
mark.fritz@latimes.com
Endemann's books:
Voyage into the Past "of Human Asteroids" (1968)
La Dorada The Romance of San Francisco (1978)
VOICES OF THE WINELAND An Anthology by Twenty-Two Napa Valley Poets (1978) (ed)
Voyage to Gondwana: The Third "Lost Continent" (1979)
Voyage into the Past. Continuous Life Through Thirty- Five Centuries (1981)
Crossroads at the Antipodes/Scheidenwege Der Antipoden (1988)
The Road to "LA Serenidad" (1991)
He also appears in the anthology "Dan River Anthology, 1985" ed.
Richard S. Danbury (1985) with two poems.
(However, I have no conclusive evidence that this is the same man,
except for your information).
I hope this answered your question. Please contact me if you need more
clarifications on this answer before you rate it. Search strategy:
Carl Theodore Endemann (with all possible variations and omissions,
with the following terms, or variation thereof:)
OSS
IIU
CIA
Insurance
Nazis
Paris/France
Africa (also, South Africa and North Africa). |
Clarification of Answer by
politicalguru-ga
on
25 Oct 2004 14:12 PDT
Dear Meg,
Regarding your question: The National Archives are open to historians
and to the public under FOIA. If you go there, you're entitled to get
access to these records:
National Archives at College Park
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Please note, that you should want (probably but not definitely) box
no. 2 in room 2000, as described here:
Record Group 226
<http://www.archives.gov/iwg/declassified_records/rg_226_oss/rg_226_contents.html#selected>,
because it contains information on "German occupation in France,
1941". However, it is impossible to know without actually sitting with
all of the OSS documents, finding which ones belong to the IIU and
from them, which ones relate to Mr. Endemann. Quiet daunting
[Therefore, I think that if Mr. Fritz would answer us, I also emailed
him, it would be better].
In case you would like to conduct a visit to the NARA here are their guidelines:
Getting Started ? First Steps
<http://www.archives.gov/research_room/getting_started/getting_started.html>
- general instructions for someone interested in paying a visit to
NARA.
Information for Researchers at the National Archives at College Park, MD
<http://www.archives.gov/facilities/md/researcher_information.html> -
specific information regarding the NARA archives in College Park
(where the information is).
You can always hire a professional historian, or even a history grad
student, that will do the work for you. NARA allow photocopying and
scanning of documents under some provisions (the machine should be
approved by their staff, etc.).
It had crossed my mind that if it is a matter of "real" importance
(you're writing a book about him, or doing a research), you might want
to seek the release of more information about him under FOIA,
including a possible file that a person like that might have had under
Hoover's FBI (being an alleged former collaborator with the Germans).
If the information you'll find at NARA ends with this document (it is
quiet possible), you might want to seek this channel, although you'll
be facing a battle, and there is no certainty that there are, in fact,
any governmental reports about him after 1941.
Just a note: the link that fp provided in his comment certainly seems
like the person we're talking about.
|
