From the Mailbox

Johannes Wolpe Follow-up

Had a flurry of emails from Wayne C. of the University of Manitoba who is writing a short (500 word) article on Hans Max Wolpe. Max was the son of Johannes Wolpe who was involved in the Irish naturalization scheme with Jürgen Ziebell. Johannes, his divorced wife and his daughter Liliane were all murdered in Nazi concentration camps. Wayne tracked down a photograph of Liliane (born 18 June 1926) on the Kazerne Dossin site. Liliane, her mother (Beatrice (nee Engers) Wolpe) and her grandmother (Paula (née Schwabacher) Engers) were all deported to Auschwitz in 1942. Liliane would have been 16 years old when she was sent to Auschwitz. She, and her family, did not survive.

Screenshot of the Kaserne Dossin information page on Liliane Wolpe
Screenshot of the Kaserne Dossin information page on Liliane Wolpe’s photograph

Robin W.G. Stephens Follow-up

A blogger that I follow, Tony Percy, posted a blog about Camp 020R (Huntercombe) and included some stunning images of R.W.G. Stephens and some of the other staff from Camp 020 and Camp 020R. I emailed Tony and he kindly shared the name and email address of the individual who had shared the photographs with him. Pete M.’s grandfather was in charge of the military guard stationed at Camp 020 and Camp 020R. He was also apparently stationed at Diest and Bad Nenndorf after the war and even testified at Stephens’s court martial in the late 1940s. Pete has shared his photos with me and I find the ones of Stephens to be quite fascinating. I’m in the process of analyzing them in some detail and will share them in due course. Nick H. has been extremely helpful in deciphering some of the finer nuances (at least to my eye) of Stephens’s uniform. Stay tuned.

On another note, I emailed the Old Alleynians, the alumni association for Dulwich College which Stephens attended in 1916/17. I had the bright idea that they might have some record of his passing given how alumni associations tend to gather and publish obituaries and other bits of news about their members. The Old Alleynians replied quickly and said that their records did not go back that far, but they were passing me along to their archivist. The archivist kindly sent a few documents from the 1940s of Dulwich College member lists, but had no information on his passing. Ah well, it was worth a shot.

Spy Radios Follow-up

I had some second-hand feedback on my recent blog post about the spy radios and have annotated the blog accordingly. While making a few additions to the blog, I realized that what I really needed was a road map of these radios. Not having a radio engineering background, all of the sockets and dials are a huge mystery to me. I am in the process of producing a colour-coded diagram of the SE 92/3 and SE 88/5 with Thomas Hoeffle’s assistance. It’s been a most useful exercise in getting clear on some of the distinctions between the two radio sets. While Thomas has explained much of this to me in writing, I find that I am more of a visual learner and that a picture (with colours and descriptions) is worth a thousand words!

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