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Hitler’s rogue military intelligence chief Wilhelm Canaris sabotaged Nazi war effort and helped Chabad rebbe Schneerson escape Reich
Why did the Hasidim of Admiral Kanaris bere-reviewed?
Based on the materials of publications on the website of the portal "Free Press".
In April, it was 73 years since the execution of Wilhelm Kanaris,head of the Abver, the intelligence and counterintelligence body of the Wehrmacht. Recently, writers and journalists have been trying to present the main Hitlerite intelligence officer as almost one of the leaders of the anti-Hitler resistance, and the Lubavi Khasidim even demanded in 2009 to recognize him as a "righteous among the nations of the world".
At the same time, in Soviet journalism, Kanaris' personality is surrounded by a dark halo, and many of his subordinates were convicted of participation in war crimes. So who is right after all - critics or fans of the Nazi admiral?
The future head of Abwer was born in 1887 in western Germany, in Aplerbeck in a wealthy family - his father was a manager at a metallurgical plant. Kanaris has long claimed that his family comes from Greece, and that he is a relative of the hero of the war for the independence of Greece from the Turks - Admiral Konstantin Kanaris.
However, before the outbreak of World War II, already the head of Abwehr, he changed his "legend" and began to talk about his Italian origin. However, this was most likely done for purely conjunctural reasons. Everything indicates that the Hitlerite admiral actually had Greek roots.
In 1905, young Wilhelm became a cadet of the German Navy. After graduation from the cadet corps, he served on various ships. At the beginning of the First World War, he participated in battles with the British fleet in the southern part of the Atlantic, was interned in Chile, but fled and was able to return to Germany. In 1916, on the instructions of the German special services, he was engaged in the supply of German submarines on the territory of the Iberian Peninsula, then he himself commanded the submarines.
Kanaris suffered from the defeat of Germany in World War I, but the armed forces did not leave, remaining to serve in the ranks of the Reichsmarine. In the 1920s, he became friends with another naval officer - Reinhard Heydrich, who would later also head the Hitler special service - the General Directorate of Imperial Security.
In the fleet, Kanaris continued to cooperate with the German intelligence, performing various meticulous tasks. Given the presence of such specific experience, Kanaris was appointed head of Abver, the military intelligence and counterintelligence of Germany, in early January 1935. By this time, his comrade Heydrich, having created and headed the security service of the SD, managed to become a great man in the SS. Former fleet colleagues agreed on the division of intelligence powers - all political issues were attributed to the competence of the SD, and Abvera - military.
Against the background of a sharp increase in the influence of the army in the life of the country, Wilhelm Kanaris became one of the key figures in the management of Nazi Germany. He took an active part in the planning of the Wehrmacht's military operations, the information collected by military intelligence contributed to Hitler's lightning occupation of Western Europe and Norway, and the fighters of the special forces units created under Abver (later called "Brandenburg-800") played a key role in the capture of the most important objects of European infrastructure, without which the "blitzkrieg" of 1940 would not have taken place.
Kanaris also took an active part in the war against the Soviet Union. His star began to fall only in 1943, when Abwehr failed to cope with several operations in Africa and Asia (in particular, failing anti-British speeches in the South African Union and Afghanistan). In addition, Abver employees were caught preparing an assassination attempt on Hitler. In 1944, military intelligence and counterintelligence were re-subordinated to the Main Directorate of Imperial Security of the SS, and Kanaris himself was taken under observation and instead of intelligence was sent to organize trade wars. Former employees of Abver, according to the generally accepted version, informed their boss about the upcoming assassination of Hitler, and after the failure of the conspiracy, Canaris was arrested, but his guilt could not be proven immediately.
However, in 1945, representatives of the SS discovered Kanaris' diaries, after studying which Hitler ordered the execution of his former head of military intelligence, which was done on April 9, 1945 as a result of a formal trial. The personal records of the head of Abwehr allegedly testified to his cooperation with the British and participation in various conspiracies against Hitler.
The Nazi Führer instructed to destroy the diaries. The investigation materials against Kanaris have not reached us. Therefore, unfortunately, we cannot say with one hundred percent certainty what exactly the chief military intelligence officer of the Third Reich was caught.
However, "praise" Wilhelm Kanaris today is accepted not only for his participation in conspiracies against Hitler, negotiations with the British and attempts to delay the outbreak of the war against Poland. According to the results of research by Israeli scientists, the head of Abwehr saved several hundred Jews, smuggling them outside Germany under the guise of military intelligence agents. In particular, Kanaris helped the leader of "Chabad" (the Lubavitic Hasidic movement) Yosef Itzhok Schneerson to leave the Reich. In this regard, modern followers of "Chabad" demanded that the Israeli National Holocaust Memorial Center recognize Kanaris as one of the "righteous people of the world".
Popular American media also lobbied this idea. Materials sent, in fact, in support of Canarys, were even released on Radio Liberty. However, in Israel, the idea of praising Chief Abver was treated without much enthusiasm, noting that his subordinate units could be related to the murder of Jews.
And, nevertheless, the romantic image of Canary continues to be created these days in popular culture, thanks to films, books and publications in the popular press. Already today on forums, social networks and in "kitchen conversations" you can often hear reflections on the topic that the head of Abver did nothing wrong and cannot be considered a criminal. However, how fair is it?
In fact, just a few historical facts can easily destroy the myth of Canary as a "knight without fear and reproach" and a "white and fluffy" Abver.
Wilhelm Kanaris was one of the main lobbyists for the idea of forcing German Jews to wear the notorious yellow stars. And the chief of Abwehr insisted on this, even when representatives of other Nazi departments were still against such measures. Kanaris justified his position by the fact that the Jews were allegedly massively accomplices of foreign special services. Probably, this fact alone is enough to stop any talk about assigning the title of "righteous" to the chief Hitlerite.
It was Abver, with the involvement of agents from among the Ukrainian nationalists, who made the so-called "proscription lists", which included Soviet citizens who were subject to destruction in the first place - in particular, communists, Soviet leaders and Jews. These lists were then guided by the organization of mass murders of the Einzatzgruppen of the security police and the SD.
It was Abver, at the request of the political leadership of the Reich, who prepared, relying on its agents Andrei Melnik and Stepan Bandera, the creation of a "insurgent" movement from among the supporters of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN)* with the aim of total extermination of Jews and Poles, which was then implemented in practice - with the appearance of the first Ukrainian local militia and the formation of battalions of the security police (Schutzmanshaft) on its basis. The role of these units in the Holocaust on the territory of Ukraine was key. Subsequently, these same people, having joined the UPA*, also staged the Volyn massacre, which claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Poles.
Together with the SD and the Gestapo, the Abver bodies (including Brandenburg-800 fighters) took an active part in the liquidation of the Resistance movement in Western Europe, and in anti-partisan punitive actions on the territory of Belarus, Yugoslavia and Greece.
The "Brandenburg-800", subordinated to Abwehr, was responsible for the destruction of transport communications between the "Big Land" and the blockaded Leningrad for the purpose of mass murder of Leningraders by starvation.
Representatives of Abver worked on the basis of all prisoner-of-war camps without exception, being part of the system for the extermination of Soviet citizens.
Militants working for Abwer committed sabotage on civilian infrastructure facilities of the USSR and murdered civilians.
This list can be continued for a long time. However, what has already been said is enough to realize the scale of Abver's criminal activities under the leadership of Wilhelm Kanaris. German military intelligence and counterintelligence bodies were an important part of the mechanism for the destruction of civilians and the abuse of prisoners of war.
The head of the SS Heinrich Himmler, like Kanaris, conducted separate negotiations with the Western powers. And he also committed some "acts of goodwill" against them. However, will anyone in a right mind think of justifying Himmler today? However, it's still... As we can see, the notorious Overton Window works. And if today Kanaris is fully rehabilitated in the eyes of the public, it cannot be ruled out that after a while He may be accompanied by Himmler with the "anti-communist" Hitler...
*On November 17, 2014, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the activities of the "Ukrainian Insurgent Army", "Right Sector", UNA-UNSO and "Trident named after Stepan Bandera", the organization "Brotherhood". Their activities on the territory of Russia are prohibited.