The former Nazi who enlisted in the IDF
One report said he had shown a picture of himself in "SS uniform or German army uniform" while drunk. Asked about this later, Schnaft said it was just a costume.
(Times Of Israel) – Ulrich Schnaft had a rare talent for infiltration.
A former Nazi and Waffen-SS fighter, in 1947 he posed as a Jewish refugee and tried to immigrate to pre-state Israel, ending up in a British internment camp for illegal immigrants. Establishing Zionist credentials there and studying Hebrew, he joined the Israeli army to become an officer – only to then become a spy for Egypt.
Decades later, it is still unclear how deep this mole had managed to dig: the file on him, which the Israeli counterintelligence apparatus only recently declassified, contains redacted parts that suggest that his actions 65 years ago are still viewed as sensitive today.
According to Haaretz, the file paints the portrait of an opportunistic, daring and sometimes foolhardy man with a knack for adapting to ideologically driven societies and using them for his own goals and survival.
Schnaft lived in Israel for six years until 1954 under the false identity Gabriel Zusman, according to Haaretz.
A former fighter for the Waffen-SS, American troops captured him as a prisoner of war in 1944. After his release, he moved to Munich, where he decided to leave Germany by posing as a Jew, to benefit from aid provided to Jewish refugees by American international organisations.
In 1947, Schnaft boarded a ship in Marseille bound for Palestine, which was still governed by the British and subject to a ban on immigration.
The ship was intercepted and its passengers were imprisoned in an internment camp in Cyprus. Schnaft participated in several escape attempts organised by fellow prisoners with ties to the Haganah.
In Israel, he enlisted in the IDF and served during Israel’s Independence War. He became an activist for Mapai, the party of David Ben-Gurion.
He became an officer during his reserve service in the artillery corps. But his request to become a career officer was blocked by the Shin Bet, pending further inquiry into his religious background.
Israeli counterintelligence first flagged Schnaft, who had blonde hair and a typical German appearance, in 1952, the file shows, when they began suspecting he was not Jewish.
As the Shin Bet made its inquiries, the organisation began unearthing the reckless aspects of Schnaff’s boldness.
One report said he had shown a picture of himself in “SS uniform or German army uniform” while drunk. Asked about this later, Schnaft said it was just a costume. The Shin Bet described him as a “loner” who was seen in the company of “sketchy individuals”. He was also suspected of stealing ammunition from an army base and, according to the file on him, ammo was also found in his room during a police search of it.
Sensing, perhaps, that the net was closing around him, Schnaft left Israel in 1954. It later emerged he went to Egypt to offer to share IDF information with Egyptian intelligence. Counterintelligence operatives defined the information as valuable and “a major contribution to the enemy’s familiarity” with the IDF.
In 1955, the Mossad located Schnaft, who was working as a pharmacist in Frankfurt, and launched an operation designed to lure him back to Israel. A female agent posing as a journalist seduced him and offered to introduce him to Arab intelligence operatives who would be interested in the information he had on Israel.
She introduced Schnaft to Mossad agents posing as Arab intelligence ones, who gave him a fake espionage assignment in Israel and a fake passport to enter the country.
Schnaft was arrested upon his arrival in Israel and sentenced to seven years in jail. He left Israel after his release.
TIMES OF ISRAEL
comments