Tag: Joseph Jakobs

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The Beautiful Enigma

One of our readers wrote to us about his research on a woman who was a German spy during World War II. Lionel points out that Vera von Schalburg’s story is long and quite complicated. However, it is shrouded in mystery based on circumstantial evidence, assumptions, theories, conflicting information, speculation, and a general lack of factual historical documentation to support her life before, during and especially after the war. The two overriding questions are why did the British release Vera (with no trial) after capturing her along with two other spies and what happened to Vera after the war (i.e., where did she live, did she have a family in the UK, was she given a new identity by MI5, did she return to Germany, when did she die, and where is she buried?).

Sorry Lionel, I hate to disappoint you, but we won’t be able to answer those two questions in this blog. As you pointed out, no one has yet solved those mysteries. While some documents have been declassified, many others are buried in the archives of MI5. Until those classified documents are released, I’m afraid many components of Vera’s story will remain a mystery. I will try and give an overview of Vera’s story and point out some of the inconsistencies (beginning with her date of birth) and unknowns (e.g., marriages and offspring).

Did You Know? 

Did you know that the Titanic was a very small ship? So, you ask, “What do you mean by ‘small’?” Yes, it’s a relative term as we shall see. Today, the world’s largest cruise ship is Royal Caribbean’s (RCCL) “Wonder of the Seas,” and I thought it might be interesting to compare the doomed ocean liner to this modern day RCCL cruise ship. (Some say a city.) I know this comparison is like putting a Ford Model-T next to a Rolls-Royce, but I think all you cruise fanatics, and Titanic students might like to see this.

Visual comparison between Titanic (right) and the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Wonder of the Seas, an “Oasis”-class ship (left). Photo by anonymous (date unknown).
Visual comparison between Titanic (right) and the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Wonder of the Seas, an “Oasis”-class ship (left). Photo by anonymous (date unknown).
  TITANIC WONDER OF THE SEAS
Maiden Voyage 1912 2022
Construction Time 4 years 6 years
Construction Cost $ 243 million4 $ 1.35 billion
Length 882 feet 1,188 feet
Width/Beam 92 feet 210 feet (maximum)
Height 9 decks 18 decks
Volume 46,328 g.r.t.1 228,081 g.t.2
Passengers 2,435 6,9883
Crew 892 2300
Lifeboats 20 (1,166) 18 (6,660)
Elevators 4 24
Cheapest Ticket $ 1,0754 $ 423
  1. Gross register tonnage is a historic measure of volume.
  2. Gross tonnage replaced g.r.t. in July 1982.
  3. Maximum number of passengers.
  4. Today’s dollars.

Essentially, the Wonder of the Seas is three-times as large as the Titanic and about five-times heavier. There’s another interesting statistic that I’m not going to tell you. You’ll have to do some basic arithmetic, but I will give you a clue. This statistic seems to be shared by both ships.

Statistical comparison of the Titanic to a modern cruise ship (Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas). Illustration by Visual Capitalist (date unknown).
Statistical comparison of the Titanic to a modern cruise ship (Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas). Illustration by Visual Capitalist (date unknown).

Vera Von Schalburg 

Vera von Schalburg (1907?−unknown) was born in Siberia, Russia to August Theodor Schalburg, a Dane and Jelena (Helene) von Siemanovska, a Polish-Ukrainian citizen. (Vera’s birthdate has been quoted as either November 1907 or December 1912). She had two other siblings of whom, Christian Frederik, would become a well-known Danish traitor during World War II (more on that later). Read More The Beautiful Enigma

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The Nazi Frankenstein

There are many iconic images of World War II. One of them is a 1943 photograph of women and children exiting a bunker during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising with their hands raised in surrender led by a little boy. Off to the side, holding his machine gun on them, stands SS–Rottenführer Josef Blösche. He was serving as a policeman in the Warsaw Ghetto during the monthlong uprising and according to post-war testimony, carried out his daily duties with such cruelty that Blösche earned the nickname, “Frankenstein.” It also earned him the death sentence twenty-six years later.

A Jewish boy surrenders in Warsaw (original title). Polish Jews are captured by Germans during the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Josef Blösche stands (right with goggles on helmet) with machine gun pointed at the young boy. Photo by Franz Konrad or Propaganda Kompanie nr 689 (c. April/May 1943). The Stroop Report. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration and Polish Institute of National Remembrance. PD-Expired Copyright. Wikimedia Commons.
A Jewish boy surrenders in Warsaw (original title). Polish Jews are captured by Germans during the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Josef Blösche stands (right with goggles on helmet) with machine gun pointed at the young boy. Photo by Franz Konrad or Propaganda Kompanie nr 689 (c. April/May 1943). The Stroop Report. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration and Polish Institute of National Remembrance. PD-Expired Copyright. Wikimedia Commons.

Did You Know?

Did you know that the last person executed in the Tower of London was a Nazi spy named Josef Jakobs (1898-1941)? Parachuting into England on 31 January 1941, Jakobs was immediately arrested by the Home Guard. They knew he was coming because the authorities had been tipped off by a double agent working for British intelligence under Operation Double Cross [Read The Double Cross System here]. Found guilty of spying, Jakobs was executed by a firing squad (he was condemned as an enemy combatant and therefore, not hanged). Jakobs’s granddaughter, Giselle Jakobs, began researching her grandfather’s story in the early 1990s. As classified documents were released to the U.K. National Archives, Giselle was able to piece together the story of Josef’s life including his allegiance to Nazi Germany. It was not a pretty story, but it did provide some sort of closure for Giselle as well as for her father, Josef’s son. Her book, The Spy in the Tower: The Untold Story of Joseph Jakobs, the Last Person to be Executed in the Tower of London is available through Amazon.com.

The chair in which Josef Jakobs sat when he was executed by firing squad on 15 August 1941 at the Tower of London. Photo by Hu Nhu (October 2018). PD-CCA-Share Alike 4.0 International. Wikimedia Commons.
The chair in which Josef Jakobs sat when he was executed by firing squad on 15 August 1941 at the Tower of London. Photo by Hu Nhu (October 2018). PD-CCA-Share Alike 4.0 International. Wikimedia Commons.

The Warsaw Ghetto

Prior to World War II, a quarter of Warsaw’s population were of the Jewish faith. Immediately after the German invasion in 1939, Polish Jews were subjected to the Nazi anti-Jewish laws. In November 1940, the Germans established the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, and it became the largest ghetto in any of the Nazi occupied countries.  More than 400,000 Jews were required to live within the 1.3 square mile area surrounded by a ten-foot-high wall topped with barbed wire. The actual size of the ghetto decreased over time as the population declined due to deportations, executions, and death through disease or starvation along with the deliberate destruction of the ghetto by the Nazis. Beginning in the summer of 1942, approximately a quarter million of the Jews living in the ghetto were rounded up and deported fifty miles to the northeast of Warsaw to the Treblinka extermination camp.

On 15 November 1940, the Warsaw Ghetto is sealed with a wall. Photo by Meczenstwo Walka, Zaglada Zydów Polsce 1939-1945. Poland. No. 75. (c. 1941).
On 15 November 1940, the Warsaw Ghetto is sealed with a wall. Photo by Meczenstwo Walka, Zaglada Zydów Polsce 1939-1945. Poland. No. 75. (c. 1941).

Read More The Nazi Frankenstein