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friendship." Wiseman said, "If the friendship spoils, we'll just have to go out and pick up
another one." He added, "This gives an opportunity for a scandal on a really big scale. That's
what I'm afraid of. "
FBI men followed Wiseman everywhere by car, train, and plane. There was a flurry of
meetings between Wiseman and Ingram Fraser. Wiseman and the Hohenlohes strongly
welcomed the appointment of Lord Halifax as ambassador for Great Britain in the United
States.
Lord Beaverbrook in London cabled that he wanted Wiseman to contact Lord Halifax "as soon
as Halifax arrived." There were a series of mysterious meetings between Wiseman, former
President Herbert Hoover, Herbert Bayard Swope, and others, apparently on the matter of the
negotiated peace.
On May 20, 1941, Schofield came through. He dropped the deportation proceedings and gave
an interview to newspapermen at San Francisco Immigration headquarters explaining why:
"While in custody the Princess Stefanie has cooperated with the Department of Justice and
has furnished information of interest. The Department believes her release from custody will
not be adverse to the interests and welfare of this country. Arrangements have been made for
her continued cooperation, and her whereabouts and activities will be known at all times."
The major personally conducted the princess to her luxurious apartment in Palo Alto. Dressed
in a chic black crepe dress with frothy white collar, white gloves, and a black and white hat, the
Nazi princess was in a good mood on May 25, 1941, as she drove around San Francisco with
the Director of Immigration at the wheel. Asked by reporters wherever he went if he would
explain the "interesting information" Hohenlohe had given him, the major said with a smile,
"Obviously not."
Although Walter Winchell, President Roosevelt, and seemingly everybody in Washington knew
that the head of Immigration and the Nazi's favorite agent were involved in an affair, her
release passed without significant public protest of any kind. The strongest
statement appeared in the New York Sun. It was: "If 130 million people cannot exclude one
person with no legal right to remain here, something seems wrong."
Hoover tried very hard to obtain from the Attorney General the "important information" to which
Schofield referred, but there was no reply to his or his assistant's many phone calls. In fact,
FBI memoranda show the FBI couldn't even interview the princess. When Percy Foxworth of
the New York FBI headquarters sent a memorandum on June 1 to Hoover saying, "It appears
desirable to have Princess Hohenlohe interviewed in order that complete information which
she can furnish may be available for consideration in connection with our national defense
investigations ... regarding German espionage activities," Hoover scribbled a note at the foot of
the memo, "Not until we get from McGuire [Matthew F. McGuire, assistant to Attorney General
Jackson] a copy of what she told Schofield, then we should ask McGuire for clearance ** to
talk to her."
Next day at a congressional committee hearing in Washington, author Jan Valtin testified that
Wiedemann's consulate was a clearinghouse for the Gestapo.
By early June, McGuire had still not yet yielded up Hohenlohe's statement to Schofield. The
applications went on and on. Wiedemann was still out of town by early June, filming bridges
and roads and dams from Colorado to Florida.
On June 15, 1941, McGuire sent a memo to Hoover saying that the princess's statement was
"in the personal possession of Lemmy Schofield and was being typed." The same day, Drew
Pearson in his Washington Times-Herald column said that Hohenlohe had paid for her
freedom with "some amazing revelations about subversive operations in this country and
Britain." Hoover wrote on the article photocopy sent to his office, "Have we gotten this
statement yet? Maybe if the Dept. won't give it to us we might get Pearson to supply us with a
copy!"
Pearson's article went on to say that the princess had told Schofield that Wiedemann was in
bad odor with Hitler because of his friendship with Himmler's friend Hess, who had just flown to
England on his famous peace mission; that she had given Immigration officials a list of Nazi
sympathizers in Britain who had been trying to effect a negotiated peace with Hitler; that she
had specifically named Rothermere; that she had named other German Nazi agents.
By June 20, Hoover had become exasperated by the Department of Justice's seemingly
endless delays in supplying Steffi's revelations. McGuire was stalling and refused to disclose
why Drew Pearson had information the FBI did not. "This is the worst pushing around we have
gotten yet," Hoover wrote at the foot of a memorandum from Edward A. Tamm of his staff on
the latest delaying tactic.
Meanwhile, Hoover was tireless in ordering reports on Steffi's Nazi connections.
Agent N.J.L. Pieper in San Francisco tapped several telephones to learn that Wiedemann had
had a falling-out with Steffi. An informant called Pieper to say that he was a German friend of
Wiedemann's who felt he owed something to the American government. He leaked the
contents of a conversation he had had with Wiedemann, who said, "There is nothing the
Princess could have said that would harm me. She wouldn't. Indeed, she gave nothing to
Immigration. It was a blind so that Schofield could let her out. And there's another element.
Cordell Hull's cousin, Lytle Hull, was together with Schofield in this matter. He wanted her
released."
This disclosure could not be acted on by Hoover, because of his limited powers.
In mid-June 1941, under enormous pressure from Roosevelt, the government dropped a
bombshell. All Nazi consulates in America were ordered closed. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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