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The Labyrinth: Memories of Walter Schellenberg, Hitler's Chief of Counterintelligence by Walter Schellenberg (New York: Da Capo Press, 2.000) Paperback 456 pages, $18.00, ISBN 0306809273
Walter Schellenberg, the Counterintelligence Chief for Adolf Hitler during World War II, wrote his memoirs titled "The Labyrinth" recounting the counterintelligence (Cl) operations of Germany during the height of the war. [He received one of the lightest sentences of any WWII war criminal, six years in prison. The mitigating factor in this light sentence was his attempts to help concentration camp prisoners in the latter part of the war.]
In his memoirs, Mr. Schellenberg recounts some of the most interesting aspects of the German Cl paradigm and the constant battles he waged with his superiors. While many of his tasks were odd by any standard, he also was in charge of one of the most advanced Cl and counterespionage (CE) agencies of the time. In fact, in many ways, Schellenberg managed to blend many disparate intelligence disciplines and entities into a workable format. he recounts in his memoirs many of the failures of the Third Reich to recognize the importance of Cl and CE and to integrate Cl and CE into the operational planning process. One can deductively link the failures of the internal policies in regards to Cl to the inability of Germany to effect real stability operations in the Eastern Theater, and consequently win the war.
Mr. Schellenberg believed that the resistance to a "Secret Service" in Germany was at the very least plausibly related to the lack of a secret Service tradition in Germany like England had.1 he thought that there was no understanding of effectively implementing intelligence into the planning and operational processes. Furthermore, he lamented the fact that the intelligence services of...