
Thümmel, Paul - Code name A 54 - Dresden-based high ranking member of the Abwehr
who, from March 1937, supplied Czechoslovakia with reliable information about
Germany's intentions and order of battle. He continued to do so via the Czech underground
when the Czech government-in-exile was established in the UK. Code-named A-54,
Thümmel's intelligence was passed to both MI6 and the USSR and
helped maintain the credibility of Edvard Beneš,
the exiled Czech leader. Thümmel was a highly decorated Nazi Party veteran and so many protests followed
his arrest in October 1941 that the Gestapo
released him. Rearrested the following March, he was imprisoned without trial
and allegedly murdered by his SS guards a few days
before the war ended. The motives for his treachery remain a mystery. He received payments, but not
enough to compensate for the dangers to which he exposed himself, and the
information he passed was too valuable for him to have been a double agent. (source: www.encyclopedia.com) |