Heinz Pannwitz

In the last two years of the war, Pannwitz ran the Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle, a combined Abwehr and Gestapo counterintelligence operation against the Red Orchestra espionage network, in France and the Low Countries.

[5] After the Nazi rise to power (Machtergreifung), Pannwitz joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) in August 1933, and transferred in 1939 to the Schutzstaffel (SS).

From 1940, he there led the Gestapo Unit II g, which was responsible for investigating assassinations, illegal possession of weapons and sabotage.

[8] When the report was submitted, it caused a immediate scandal amongst the Schutzstaffel who saw it as impinging the memory of the revered Nazi and he was ordered back to Berlin.

[9] In the spring of 1943, Pannwitz was assigned to the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin, working there for several months with the aim of investigating the Red Orchestra.

[7] From August 1943 until the spring of 1945, Pannwitz directed the Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle operations in Paris and France, as a successor to Karl Giering.

This procedure was coordinated with the head of the Gestapo in the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), Heinrich Müller.

[3][2]: 386 On 3 May 1945, Pannwitz was captured by French forces in a mountain hut near Bludenz, Vorarlberg, Austria, along with Anatoly Gurevich, who was a double agent and had been a member of the Trepper Group.

[11] In August 1956, the BND organisation hired Pannwitz, perhaps to keep him away from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).

Pannwitz through these proceedings seemed to be more concerned with money, insisting throughout his employment with the Gehlen Organization that his previous wartime Gestapo service as a Regierungsrat and his years in Soviet captivity should be recognised for pension purposes.

[11][10] Pannwitz, a vile torturer and murderer, lived until his death in 1975 with his wife in Ludwigsburg, where he worked as a sales representative.

At the same time, he sent a letter to Belgian Foreign Minister-in-exile, Paul-Henri Spaak, falsely assuring him that his sister-in-law, Suzanne, had been taken to Germany and was safe.