Evening Star Newspaper, March 23, 1930, Page 93

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MARCH 23 1930. Thomas M. Johnson. (Famou: War Correxpom/cnr.) i it illj' IR UL “Here,” she said, her large eyes flashing. She handed him a pistol 10 use upon himself. And he did. Queen of Spies, Glorified in Role, Dealt Cruelly With Foe and Brought Death to Many in World War, Paying Dearly for Her Amazing Carcer in the End. EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the fourth of a series of true American spy stories. HE last of the trio of woman super- spies was, as far as this writer knows, a success from start to finish. She was said to be a Norwegian, who worked for the Germans, and both the names allied secret services attributed to her sounded German: Heinrichsen and Hackemulleur. Her real identity remains secret. But she was commonly called Fraulein Doktor by her obedient if not always devoted pupils in the big spy school at Antwerp. A fascinating person, the Fraulein. An officer of the American secret service wrote of her during the war that she was “a beautiful blonde, of great intelligence, who speaks many «lJanguages very well, and enjoys a great ascen- dency over the clients of the house.” That ascendency she exercised ruthlessly, first driv- ing her pupils to their limit in learning their hazardous profession, then demanding that they take big risks to execute her missions, keeping them meanwhile under surveillance. ‘Tall, strong, a “pure Nordic type,” her power seems to have been animal magnetism no less than intellect. Her pre-war existence was ‘dubious, daugh'er of an art dealer, it is said, then a police detective; but in secret service she found herself. She gloried in it. “All my life I have loved intrigue and power,” she told one pupil. “Now I have both. I am on confidential terms with the highest. Only in secret service can one realize fully a desire for an interesting, adventurous life—that is, if cme is not too scrupulous. I would not exchange my position for a throne.” ‘She reigned in Antwerp through the war, living in a fine suite at a leading hotel, but the shifting boundaries of her shadowy realm ex- tended farther, across frontiers into Switzer- land, and Holland: even into France, behind the allied lines, and England. Spies trained by her gathered information about Americans as well as French and British. She trained them well in her remarkable educational insti- tutien in a fine old Belgian mansion in the center of the best quarter of Antwerp, at 10 Shoonbeke Fishpond street, with a second en- trance at 33 Harmony street. One corner was stil scarred by a German shell fired in the invasion of 1914. DEVOTED Belgian agent went through the school, and to him the allies owed a mi- nute report of Fraulein’s interesting methods. Secrecy was her first and great commandment. She tried to conceal by every means from allied spies the identities of the pupils continually be- ing sent her by other branches of the German secret service. These pupils were brought into Antwerp usually by automobile, or, if by train, were met at the station. Always the automobile shiades were lowered. The Harmony street side of the A/tise was the automobile entrance, and there secrecy . The new pupil must see none of the other pupils, nor be seen by them. Through darkened halls, with alt doors closed, he was led to one of many rooms marked with letters of the alphabet and assigned each to a special group of pupils and teachers. Entering the room, he became a spy, for the letter on the door, together with another, and the num- ber of his matriculation in Fraulein’s secret academy, were to become his secret designation in her system. These were concealed later on passports the spy received and got him through many places where others could not pass. Immediately Fraulein gave the new pupil a sort of intelligence test, to find out what he knew, and could know, his capacity, memory, presence of mind. If he passed that grilling, his troubles began. Through waking hours he was scientifically crammed by one German cx- pert after another with information about French, British and American armies, how they were organized, what equipment they used, what guns. No “modern” school has a more complete collection of models for demonstra- tion: types of warships, dirigibles, airplanes, ships, weapons of all sorts, colored charts of uniforms and badges of rank. The spy must know the difference between the veteran Marine leatherneck and the partly trained “draftie” of a National Army Division. That groundwork mastered, the course grew even more secret. Mysterious men, described only as “of the German middle class,” visited the pupil in his secluded room, to teach how, when he had gathered information, to accom- plish the harder task of getting it back to Praulein. They showed him how to write, often with a ball-pointed pen, invisible messages on paper, handkerchiefs, margins of newspapers, and how to bring out by chemical reagents the further instructions he would receive from time to time written between the lines of apparently innocent letters. ‘They taught him secret ciphers to be used in his correspondence with Fraulein. Like a conscientious teacher, Fraulein gave her graduating pupils good advice. “Be good,” she would say, “and be careful. Keep sober. Above all, remember that in secret service he lives longest who lives alone. The allied secret services put woman counter-spies on men, and man counter-sples on women. Watch yourself. Plan everything you do care- fully, for your success, and perhaps even your life, will depend on your capaclty for taking Niowhguromulvke.lhepnhsrpupfln easy assignments at firet, not {o overstrain ability, and to beget confidence, also as a sort of post-graduate training in accuracy and reliability. But soon she demanded more and more. The assignments always required exact, truthful reports. 5 “Bring me facts, not opinions,” she would say. Still more secrecy marked the fledgling spy’s departure on his first mission. But as long as he worked under her, her eye was on him. Not only had she spies to spy upon the en:my, but spies to spy upon her spies. Were they in Paris, or London, or Bar-le-Duc, she knew what they did and whether they followed her commands. Sup- posing himself safe, one of them sought re- laxation in the society of a Paris dancer. Soon on a boulevard, a polite stranger asked him for a light, then remarked casually: “You have forgotten Praulein's warning” and walked on. A few of the dutiful she paid as much as two thousand dollars a month. The faithless she paid sometimes with death. Not one but several of her unsuccessful agents with cold-blooded intention she sent back into enemy territory to walk almost into the arms of a firing squad. TTERLY ruthless, Fraulein ruled her satel- lites regardless of previous race or condi- tion. In fact, they were a poor lot. There were few German patriots among them. There were renegade Belgians, often criminals, re- cruited by a Belgian traitor who ran an Ant- werp hotel, decayed Dutchmen unable to earn an honest living, nondescripts of all races seek- ing money and adventure. Some were Belgian and PFrench women of few morals or none. Perhaps Fraulein believed herself dealing with curs, so used the Jash, They feared her, wherever they were, and more than one wel- comed a prison term rather than the bullet or knife of one of her doubly secret force of su- pervisors. They told of her with shivers of horror, apparently eager to help their captors to trap her. She had a few assistants of a lygher type, German army officers of undoubted ‘patriotism, well educated and experienced. One such was an expert engineer of high rank and, some say, title, whose death she is said to have caused in & dramatic manner that illustrates the deadly female at work. It was about the first tanks the British used on the Somme in the Autumn of 1916. German spies had reported on them before they first spread dismay among German infantry. Those reports, rather vague ag to detail, but sub- stantially correct, had reached Fraulein. She had turned them over to her technical advis:r for his expert opinion. That opinion had been whatever was in 1916 the German equivalent of “Boloney!” The British might succeed in building a tank, he admitted, but under modern battle conditions on the western front it would accomplish nothing. Then came the first tank attack, warning of what came later when Ludendorff said that allied tank attacks were one of the principal causes of German defeat. Fraulein summoned her technical expert. “Here,” she said, her large eyes flashing, a sneer on her lips. “Here, technical expert!"" She handed him a pistol—<to use upon him- self. And he did. There is a story that Fraulein killed one man with her own hand—the Belgian who had gone through her school. According to that story, she suspected him @f treachery, called him an accursed Belgian spy and shot him dead. If the story is true, that was Fraulein’s one mis- take, the only time when she failed to be a super-spy. For by every rule of secret service she should first have found out who were the Belgian’s superiors, STRANGE woman. She paid a high price for her brief intoxicating power. She be- came a drug user and in April of 1929 was interned in a German asylum. Her true identity may never be known now. ; An ever-present atmosphere of romance and mystery intermingled makes the woman spy more intriguing even than the man. Here are extracts from genuine letters of a German ‘woman spy, one of Fraulein’s pupils, that passed through the hands of the American Secret Service in late 1918: “Last night I made arangements with the deck officer. Poor devil, he already loves me passionately. Think of it—he wants to marry me! He invited me to pay him a visit on board the ship. Of course, I have accepted. I take it upon me to get into the map room in his com- pany. Two dark eyes will do the rest!” “The case of the deck officer has come to an end. The information was important. I am sorry for the man. He has touched me very much, but I am in the service of the Father- land. I would gladly give my life if I could bring those hateful English to ruin.” “I am interested in the old man, Mr. B, in the coal office. Wom:n play a great part in his life. An attractive woman can do much, I don’t know yet whether I shall act as a Duich woman or an American. There is also Herr I, a Dutchman, who hates the English like a pest and may become useful to us. The plans and maps of the Netherlands' military positions are “I saw Marie S. just before the departure of the convoy. She will give us information ... Continued on Twenty-first Page