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(Source: Allen Dulles papers, Seeley Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton, box 37, file 1; no changes except for minor spelling corrections and the insertion of paragraph breaks.)

Posted Sunday, January 14, 2007


July 12, 1946
Dear Allen [Dulles]:

You may wish to include in the chapter "Flirt with Himmler" the story of how Langbehn originally got in touch with Himmler, which Langbehn told me himself during his visit to Switzerland in 1943.

One day Langbehn's small girl returned from school and said that one of her girl friends had invited her for a two-weeks' stay at her family's country place in Bavaria, during the forthcoming vacation. When she said this to her father she only mentioned the first name of the girl [Gudrun]. Her father then suggested that she should inquire as to the girl friend's family name and background.

The next day the little girl returned home and said that the family name was Himmler and that the father had "something to do with the S.S." Of course, Langbehn now knew all that he wanted to about the family background of his daughter's girl friend.

As he didn't want to accept any favors from the second man in the Nazi hierarchy, he said that he would only consent to his daughter's visit if later on young Miss Himmler would return the visit and stay at his house.

When Langbehn took his daughter to the house of her host he met Himmler, who asked him to have tea with him. Langbehn decided to stay and the tea party developed into a serious political talk, during which Langbehn had the courage to express himself very freely on the deteriorating political situation in Germany, as well as on the Gestapo terror methods.

Himmler said that he was the kind of man he wanted to talk to, one who had enough courage to tell him the truth and to have an opinion of his own. When Langbehn departed Himmler gave him a Berlin telephone number, suggesting that he should contact him on his next visit to Berlin and at the same time stating that he could be reached under this number without having to go through the chain of his subordinates.

Gero [von S Gaevernitz]

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Related documents on this website: 

Heinrich Himmler dossier
 
Pringsheim statement on Langbehn
Kempner to Allen Dulles
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