Interagency Working Group (IWG)

Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(Record Group 65)

Other Federal Bureau of Investigation Records

Miscellaneous Records Relating to Raoul Wallenberg

Notice to Researchers in Records Released under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act and the Japanese Imperial Government Records Act

The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG), in implementing the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act and the Japanese Imperial Government Records Act, has taken the broadest view in identifying records that may be responsive to the Acts. Information relevant to the Acts is often found among files related to other subjects. In order to preserve the archival integrity of the files, the IWG and the National Archives and Records Administration, where possible, have released entire files together, not just those items related to Nazi or Japanese war criminals, crimes, persecution, and looted assets. These records may relate to persons who are war criminals, former Axis personnel who are not war criminals, victims of war crimes or persecution, or civilian or military personnel investigating Nazi activities; the records may also include mention of, or information about, persons having no connection to these activities.

This artificially created "series" consists of copies of selected records relating to Raoul Wallenberg. The FBI provided the copies to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at the request of NARA and the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group (IWG). In 1944, the Swedish government assigned Wallenberg to its legation in Budapest, Hungary. He is credited with saving at least 20,000 Jews from the Nazis by supplying them with Swedish passports. He was arrested after the Soviet Army entered the city in January 1945. He apparently died in a Soviet prison camp in 1947. The Soviets denied knowing anything about Wallenberg until 1957, however, and the case became a cause celebre because of the uncertainty over Wallenberg's fate.

The documents in this series range from those directly relating to attempts to ascertain what happened to Wallenberg, to those that have nothing to do with him except mentioning his name. In the former category are reports of sightings of Wallenberg in Soviet prison camps, and accounts of Swedish attempts to get information from the Soviets. Chief among the latter category is a 52-page translation of Swedish newspaper articles concerning a 1956 case of Soviet espionage in Sweden. The scandal had absolutely nothing to do with Wallenberg, but his name is mentioned parenthetically as an example of past Soviet treachery. A couple of the documents contain summaries of Sweden's internal political situation.

Based on file numbers on the pages, it appears that the records in this series are File Classifications 62, 64, 65, 105, 109, 110, and 197 of the FBI Central Records System. A copy of this file can be obtained in the Textual Research Room (Room 2000). It is located in compartment 11 shelf 1.
The record copy is located in Box 1 location: 230/81/47/02

CLASSIFICATION 40: RECORDS RELATING TO PASSPORT AND VISA MATTERS (1977-1978)

Classification 40 is the Passport and Visa Matters section of the FBI Central Records System. The FBI opened this classification in 1924 for investigations of false passport and visa applications, counterfeit passports, and the use of one person's passport by another. The Bureau's focus changed with the times: aliens and refugees during its search for Communist and Socialist radicals in the 1920s and early 1930s, German and Italian agents during World War II, Communists throughout the Cold War, Cuba and Cuban travel in the early 1960s, and radicals and immigrants after the Vietnam War.

File 40-84992 File relates to a person with a double identity that did not reveal "any Federal violation in which this Bureau would have an investigative interest," and the matter was referred to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Box 1 (part) Location: 230/78/32/05

CLASSIFICATION 62: RECORDS RELATING TO ADMINISTRATIVE INQUIRIES (MISCELLANEOUS SUBVERSIVE AND NONSUBVERSIVE)

Classification 62 is the Administrative Inquiries section of the FBI Central Records System. This classification covered a broad array of subjects that did not fit in more specific categories. Until 1953 this included subversive documentation. After 1953 it included nonsubversive topics. Topics once filed under classification 62, but now filed elsewhere, include security informants, criminal informants, Freedom of Information requests, civil suits against the government, liaison activities with other parts of the U.S. Government and other governments, congressional mail, General Accounting Office reviews of operations, and congressional studies and investigations of the FBI and FBI-related activities. Many of the case files relating to these topics were not transferred from Classification 62 when the FBI created the new categories. Beginning in the 1980s, the FBI placed sixteen major types of files in Classification 62:

  1. Misconduct investigations of FBI employees and officers, and Department of Justice and Federal judiciary employees;
  2. Census matters;
  3. Domestic police cooperation;
  4. Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act;
  5. Fair Credit Reporting Act;
  6. Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act;
  7. Federal judiciary investigations;
  8. Kickback Racket Act;
  9. Lands Division matters;
  10. Other violations and/or matters;
  11. Civil suits-miscellaneous;
  12. Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940;
  13. Tariff Act of 1930;
  14. Unreported interstate shipment of cigarettes;
  15. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938; and
  16. Conspiracy.

Case Files (1917-1986)

File 62-76878 consists of nineteen folders entitled War Crimes Commission. Most of the records directly or indirectly relate to the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals and to the arrest and trial of war criminals. Among the files are requests to the FBI to search its files for records on specific individuals, lists of suspects, copies of indictments and statements, and other war crimes-related records sent to the FBI for information purposes; and newspaper articles. Among the records are a March 1945 Safehaven report on the flight of and asylum for war criminals; correspondence and reports regarding alleged Polish, Rumanian, Yugoslavian, Croatian, Albanian, and other European war criminals; a three-page Office of Strategic Services (OSS) News Note of February 3, 1945, regarding the Jewish Community being upset by Herbert Pell leaving the United Nations War Crimes Commission; a May 1945 letter from Bolivia regarding war criminals who had served at Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps; photographic negatives and prints of 54 Abwehr personalities; a seventeen-page OSS printed memorandum of April 1945 entitled "The Problem of Germany in the Non-German Foreign National Press;" and, about a half dozen Central Registry of War Criminal and Security Suspects (CROWCASS) lists of wanted individuals and detained individuals, dating between August 1945 and February 1947. Additionally there is an eight-page report and a four-page summary of a 1942 interview with a Jewish survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Also included are scattered references to Japanese war crimes trials, various lists of Japanese war criminals, copies of letters sent to U.S. President Harry S. Truman protesting the war crimes trials, a copy of a letter from the FBI Director to the Director of Army Intelligence warning of possible Communist activity among the American delegates at the Nuremberg Trials, a photo of Hoover receiving a bullet fragment from the attempted suicide of WWII Japanese General and Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, a 1965 report of a sighting of missing Nazi leader Martin Bormann, a 1969 reference to historian David Irving, and a 1970 report on a meeting of an anti-Vietnam War group called the War Crimes Commission.
Boxes 1-5 Location: 230/81/47/02

Files 62-85386, 62-86355, and 62-87356 relate to investigations of former German scientists Heinz Eugene Schmitt, Otto Friedrich Schaper, and Hermann Johann Nehlsen, respectively. The U.S. brought the scientists to this country under Operation Paperclip. The Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency certified them as neither war criminals nor "ardent" Nazis before they came to the U.S. After they were already in the country, the FBI investigated the men "with particular emphasis on the internal security aspects" of their possible permanent residence. The FBI found no reason to believe they posed a threat.
Box 6 Location: 230/81/47/03

CLASSIFICATION 64: RECORDS RELATING TO FOREIGN MISCELLANEOUS (August 1944-September 1945)

Classification 64 is the Foreign Miscellaneous section of the FBI's Central Records System. Classification 64 is used to report intelligence information on foreign countries. Usually, the FBI only provides assistance to a foreign government requesting information in identification and job applicant matters by checking its files, and those of other Federal agencies, for pertinent information.

Case Files 1943-1950

File 64-175-232 is entitled Foreign Miscellaneous, Germany. It is made up of sixteen folders, covering the period 1944-1950. The records consist mainly of intelligence reports and related records sent to the FBI by Army Intelligence (G-2), the State Department, and the Office of Strategic Services. The subject of most of the reports is "Who's Who." The reports provide a source's characterization of people and their activities as pro or anti-Nazi. Among these "Who's Who" reports are, for example, one dated February 1945 regarding 28 individuals, including Robert H. Schmidt, who were employed by Ford Motor Company in Germany, and one dated May 1945 regarding the personnel and activities of the Medical Institute in Berlin. Other reports provide strategic information on factories, power plants, fortifications, roads, bridges, tunnels, railroads, mines, warehouses, laboratories, radio stations, etc. Other topics include descriptions and summaries of political conditions in occupied Germany, requests to the State Department to help ascertain the welfare and whereabouts of missing people, black market activities, illegal immigration, profiles of pro and anti-Soviet people and organizations, and summaries of pro-Soviet German language broadcasts. Also included are letters to the FBI Director from individual Germans asking either for aid, for help in locating missing relatives, or commenting on the post-War situation in their country and the world.
Boxes 1-5 location: 230/81/47/03

File 2802 mainly relates to U.S. concerns over negotiations between the Argentine army and the Oerlikon-Buehrle Munitions (OBM) Company of Switzerland in April 1945. The Argentine army wanted to buy munitions from OBM and have the company build munitions factories in Argentina. The U.S. worried because the company supplied arms to Germany during WWII; because Argentina offered the company a new market, and thus the chance stay in business; and because successful negotiations "could be used as a vehicle for the transference of German technical knowledge and probably also technicians to areas where the Germans can hope to operate after the war..." The file also contains a report on the Communist infiltration of the Municipal Tram Company of Rosario, Argentina in 1943.
Box 5 location: 230/81/47/04

File 31304 relates to Ernst Frierich Puschmann. It consists of a transmittal letter from the FBI Director to the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador, El Salvador, and an almost totally redacted copy of a memorandum on Puschmann. The memorandum was redacted because it contains Federal Grand Jury information. Because of the redactions, it is impossible to ascertain any of the information the original memorandum contains.
Box 5 location: 230/81/47/04

File 31307 relates to Armin Ruescher. It contains a transmittal letter from Hoover, this time to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, and a similarly redacted copy of a memorandum containing Federal Grand Jury information. However, there is also a copy of a letter to Hoover (also redacted) from an FBI field office that refers to a report on Ruescher "setting forth facts concerning the deportation and departure of Subject from the Republic of Colombia."
Box 5 location: 230/81/47/04

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CLASSIFICATION 65: RECORDS RELATING TO ESPIONAGE

Classification 65 is the Espionage section of the FBI Central Records System. Classification 65 is used for files created as the result of investigations of individuals alleged to have illegally obtained information affecting national defense, or to have unlawfully disclosed such information to a foreign government

Case Files (1923-1969)
Boxes 1-25 location: 230/81/47/04

Box 1

File 65-5247 Franz von Papen. Topics covered in file include a 1940 investigation into whether or not von Papen maintained a bank account at the New York Hanseatic Corporation to pay German agents in this country; allegations that he was involved in the Black Tom powder explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey on July 30, 1916; and an analysis of his check books from 1914-1915. The records relating to von Papen's activities during WWI, when he was military attachè to the German embassy in the U.S.,were created during WWII.

File 65-35798 Heinrich Himmler Section 1. The file on Himmler is mainly biographical, and includes a 1941 Department of Justice memo on what was known about Himmler, and two copies of the 69-page pamphlet The Career of Heinrich Himmler prepared by the X-2 Branch of the Strategic Services Unit of the War Department in 1945. A memo in the file indicates that FBI Director Hoover in 1937 invited Himmler to attend an international police conference in Montreal, Canada, and that Himmler was removed from the Bureau's mailing list in April 1939.

File 65-35798 Heinrich Himmler Section EBF [enclosure behind file]

File 65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 1. This file mainly consists of photostatic copies of German documents captured by the U.S. during and after WWII. The FBI copied the documents for its files after receiving most of them on temporary loan from the German Military Document Section of the Military Intelligence Service. Many of the internal memoranda included with the records contain summaries of documents not in the series. It appears that the FBI destroyed their copies of these documents at some point, either because the documents did not contain pertinent information, referred to inactive files, or took up too much space. Translations or summaries accompany most of the documents in the series. The records include reports of interrogations, spying missions, propaganda activities, and anti-Nazi guerilla movements in occupied countries, especially Yugoslavia; war diaries and after action reports; biographical sketches of prominent people and agents; espionage and sabotage manuals; and records relating to the registration of German Nationals living in the U.S. for enlistment in the German Army. Many of the documents relate to activities of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These records consist of either German reports or Soviet documents first taken from the Soviets by the Germans and then taken from the Germans by the US. Topics of these documents include Soviet cryptographic, propaganda, and counterintelligence methods; biographical sketches of prominent people and agents; and the activities of Communist organizations. Among these records are two folders of fliers and leaflets printed in the U.S. that were "believed to have been authored by organizations affiliated with the Communist Party, U.S.A." These organizations include the International Workers Order, the Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born, Workers International Relief, and the International Labor Defense. Also included in the series are number-code telegrams sent to Germany from Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1923-7; a hand written description of a possible German invasion of France found under a seat in the George M. Cohan Theatre in New York City in 1935; U.S. publications relating to, or aimed at helping decipher, captured German documents; accession lists of captured documents; military dictionaries; and correspondence between Nazi sympathizers in the U.S. and Germany.

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF X2

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 4

65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 2

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 7X

Box 2

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 9

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 12 [2 folders]

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 15X

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 17

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 17X

Box 3

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 18

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 23

65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 1

Box 4

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 29X

65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 4

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 48

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 49

Box 5

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 55

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 62

65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 5

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 109

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 113X

Box 6

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 117

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 121X3

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 121X4

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 121X5

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 135

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 163 [1-2 of 4 folders]

Box 7

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 163 [2-4 of 4 folders]

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 169 [1-2 of 6 folders]

Box 8

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 169 [3-6 of 6 folders]

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 169X

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 170

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 171

Box 9

65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 6

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 216

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 231X

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 235

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 236 [1 of 3 folders]

Box 10

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 236 [2-3 of 3 folders]

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 244

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 245

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 247

Box 11

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 249 [2 folders]

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 250 [1-3 of 7 folders]

Box 12

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 250 [4-7 of 7 folders]

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 262 [2 folders] Box 13

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 264

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 274

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 280

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 287

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 291

Box 14

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 298

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 313

65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 7

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 325

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 327

Box 15

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 335

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 340

65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 8

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 402

Box 16

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 417

65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 9

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 426

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 441

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 455

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 467

Box 17

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 471

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 478

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 481

65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 10

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 553

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 555

Box 18

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 560

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 571

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 593X

65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 11

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 610

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 618

Box 19

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 650

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 662

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 665

65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 12

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 696X

Box 20

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 700

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 701

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 750

65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 13

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 803

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 804 [2 folders]

Box 21

65-48824 Captured German Documents Section 14

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 825

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 827 [1-2 of 8 folders]

Box 22

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 827 [3-8 of 8 folders]

Box 23

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 847

65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 867

Box 24

File 65-48824 Captured German Documents EBF 874.

File 65-55954 Key German Business Men Linked With German Espionage.

File 65-55954 German businesses and businessmen: The file consists of a Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF)115-page report entitled Key German Business Men Linked With German Espionage. According to the report, it "presents a carefully selected list of key people in Germany who are connected with German industry, commerce or financial institutions and are known or are likely to have information about enemy espionage and similar subversive activities conducted under a business cover...The list is principally the result of following leads found in intelligence material concerning activities of German firms in Latin America that are subversive of United Nations war efforts and aims...we have paid attention to enemy economic and commercial activity designed to maintain Nazi influence in Latin America and preserve at least the basic structure of German penetration of that continent..."

Box 25

File 65-56670 Ernst Biberstein. The file contains two copies of the preliminary interrogation report of Biberstein, A.K.A. Ernst Szymanowski. A former clergyman, Biberstein became the chief of the Gestapo in Oppeln, Germany. The report describes his ecclesiastical and secular careers.

File 65-57260 Oswald Pohl. This file contains a copy of the special interrogation report on Pohl. Pohl was the Chief of the Economic and Administrative Department of the Nazi SS. The report provides information on Pohl's family connections and friends, as well as describing his activities from April 1945 until his capture in May 1946.

File 65-65842 Adolf Eichmann Sections 1-2. This file pertains to Adolf Eichmann, the head of the Gestapo's Jewish section. Many of the documents originally in this file were withdrawn or replaced with redacted copies. Except for a few post-war reports of possible sightings of Eichmann-in Kuwait, Egypt, and Nyack, New York-all the records date from after Israel kidnapped Eichmann from Argentina in 1960. The records include copies of letters, cards, and articles written by Eichmann supporters in the US; the statement of a German citizen imprisoned in New York, who claimed he witnessed some of Eichmann's crimes; a French publication on Eichmann's crimes, Le Dossier Eichmann; a notice of "Eichmann Trial Seminars" to be held in cities around the world to discuss the "legal treatment of offenses against humanity under Hitler"; a brief report on Herbert H. Chaice, who volunteered to defend Eichmann; a report alleging that Eichmann had an illegitimate son living in Argentina; a report alleging that Eichmann's real son attended Georgetown University in Washington, DC; a copy of what may be Eichmann's fingerprints; and a large number of newspaper articles about Eichmann's crimes, his kidnapping, the ensuing tensions between Israel and Argentina, and the trial.

65-65842-A Adolf Eichmann Section 1 [Newspaper Articles]

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CLASSIFICATION 72: RECORDS RELATING TO OBSTRUCTION OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS (1956)

Classification 72 is the Obstruction of Criminal Investigations section of the FBI Central Records System. The FBI opened this classification in 1924, although it contains information from an earlier date. Typical cases involved jury tampering, suborning perjury, bribes of witnesses, and threats against judges, government officials, and witnesses.


File 72-990 File relates to allegations that a Rumanian immigrant threatened to harm another Rumanian immigrant who testified at his Immigration and Naturalization Service hearing on charges that he had utilized an invalid visa for entry into the U.S. and that he obtained the visa by fraud. The file contains a few references to, but no details about, the subject of the file collaborating with the Germans during World War II.
Box 1 (part) Location: 230/78/32/05

CLASSIFICATION 100: RECORDS RELATING TO DOMESTIC SECURITY, 1943-1963

Classification 100 is the domestic security section of the FBI Central Records System. Created about 1936, Classification 100 is used for collecting information on the subversive activities of individuals or organizations that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government by violent or illegal means. Because of the scope of the investigations, the records are considered "a unique and extremely valuable resource" on the history of U.S. domestic developments from before World War II through the Vietnam War.

Case Files

File 100-179418, relates to the investigation of former Nazi scientist Alfred Karl Windmueller. He was brought to the United States to work for the Air Force under Operation Paperclip. The Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency certified Windmueller as neither a war criminal nor an "ardent nazi" before he came to this country. Once he was here the FBI investigated him "with particular emphasis on the internal security aspects" of his immigration. The Bureau found no reason to question his loyalty to his new country.
Box 1 location: 230/81/47/02

File 100-202300, consists of two 3 X 5 card size pieces of paper relating to Heinz Bartenstein Tischer. He is identified as a German-Jewish lawyer the stated that, as a prisoner of the Nazis, he was kept in a concentration camp from 1935-1937. However, prisoners interned with him at Dachau claimed that he was a Gestapo informant, "responsible for the internment of many."
Box 1 location: 230/81/47/02

File 100-325769 contains a carbon copy of a one-page order directing the internment of Walter Abendroth for being an alien enemy in 1944.
Box 1 location: 230/81/47/02

CLASSIFICATION 105: RECORDS RELATING TO FOREIGN COUNTERINTELLIGENCE, 1942-1985

Classification 105 is the Foreign Counterintelligence (formerly Internal Security, Foreign Intelligence) section of the FBI's Central Records System. Because of the scope of the investigations, the records are considered a "unique resource" for information on the activities of foreign subversives and domestic political and social groups.

Case Files

File 105-10684, relates to the investigations of former Nazi scientist Bruno Wolf Bruckmann. He was brought to the United States to work for the Air Force under Operation Paperclip. The Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency certified him as neither a war criminal nor an "ardent Nazi" before he came to the United States. After he was already in the country, the FBI investigated Bruckmann "with particular emphasis on the internal security aspects" of his possible permanent residence. The Bureau found no reason to believe he posed a threat.
Box 1 location: 230/81/47/02

File 105-221892, relates to Klaus Barbie. Known as the "Butcher of Lyons," Barbie was the head of the Gestapo in Lyons, France during WWII. He was responsible for the death of thousands of Jews and many members of the French Resistance, including their leader, Jean Moulin. He escaped to Bolivia after the war, and lived there under an assumed name until his arrest in 1972. In 1983 he was extradited to France, and tried and convicted for crimes against humanity. The records cover two time periods. The earlier segment consists of records reporting on Barbie's discovery and arrest in Bolivia in 1972-73. The second segment, created after Barbie's extradition, relate to accusations that U.S. intelligence agencies maintained a "relationship" with Barbie after WWII. The allegations led to a government wide investigation by the Department of Justice. A copy of the final report of that investigation, Klaus Barbie and the United States Government: A Report to the Attorney General of the United States is included in the file.
Boxes 1-2 location: 230/81/47/02

CLASSIFICATION 112: RECORDS RELATING TO FOREIGN FUNDS, 1934-1958

Classification 112 is the Foreign Funds section of the FBI Central Records System. The classification, opened in 1944, includes both intelligence information on foreign funds and records of investigations of suspicious activities involving foreign funds. Subjects in the intelligence files include tracing German funds to Latin America after WWII, unusual transfers of funds from U.S. banks to other countries, and the sale of U.S. dollars on the black market. The investigative files document the use of mail intercepts and informants by the FBI.

Safehaven Files

These records documents attempts by the U.S. and other Allied powers to prevent the secreting of Axis assets late, and in the few years after, World War II. Most of the records in this series relate to German assets. The Safehaven files relate to FBI investigations in Latin America, and State Department reports sent to the FBI, relating to countries outside of Latin America. In regards to its investigations in Latin America, the FBI stated that it wanted to "obtain information concerning the identity, location, value, and nature of all German capital in Latin America, as well as the owners thereof," and "to ascertain the true extent of the influence and results of German economic penetration in each Latin American country and the methods employed by the Germans to effect this penetration and influence." The files created in the course of the Bureau's Latin American investigations relate to Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. The State Department created the records sent to the FBI under the Safehaven program. The Safehaven program also aimed to ensure that Axis assets, including looted art works, were not hidden after the war. There are Safehaven program records relating to Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, the Canary Islands, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Mozambique, the Netherlands, Norway, Japan, Morocco, the Philippine Islands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Syria, and Turkey. The records list the names, addresses, and alleged crimes of suspects; give information on the capitalization, stockholders, and operations of suspect companies; note suspiciously large currency exchanges or purchase requests; and evaluate the effectiveness of laws in individual countries designed to confiscate and control Axis assets. Most of the records are dated 1945-1946. Arranged numerically by file number in two overlapping sequences, boxes 1-4 and then 5-12.
Location: 230/78/32/03

Box #   File #      Subject
1  112-1-204  Bolivia
    112-1-212  Ecuador
    112-1-213  Guatemala
    112-1-217  Haiti
    112-1-218  Honduras
2  112-1-221  Mexico (Sections 1 and 2)
    112-1-222  Nicaragua
    112-1-226  El Salvador
    112-1-231  France
    112-1-234  Japan
3  112-1-235  Morocco
    112-1-238  Turkey
    112-1-239  Philippine Island
    112-1-240  Russia
    112-1-241  England
    112-1-243  Canada
    112-1-244  Romania
    112-1-249  Hungary
    112-1-250  Poland
    112-1-251  Iran
    112-1-252  Austria
4  112-1-253  Greece
    112-1-254  Belgium
    112-1-255  Finland
    112-1-256  Denmark
    112-1-257  India
    112-1-258  Netherlands
    112-1-260  Norway
    112-1-261   Bulgaria
    112-1-263  Czechoslovakia
    112-1-276  Mozambique
    112-1-282  Iraq
    112-1-285  Scotland
    112-1-286  Syria
    112-1-287  Lebanon
    112-1-291  Canary Islands
5  112-1-224  Paraguay
    112-1-232  Germany (1 of 1, and enclosed bulky file 6)
    112-1-233  Italy
    112-1-236  Portugal (Sections 1 & 2)
6  112-1-236  Portugal (Sections 3-5)
    112-1-237  Spain (Sections 1 & 2)
7-9  112-1-237  Spain (Sections 3-14)
10-11  112-1-268  Switzerland (Sections 1-9)
12  112-1-268  Switzerland (Sections 10-13)
    112-1-298  Curacao (1 of 1 and enclosed bulky file 3)
    112-1-302  Africa
    112-1-303  Australia
    112-1-304  Europe
    112-1-306  South America

CLASSIFICATION 185: RECORDS RELATING TO PROTECTION OF FOREIGN OFFICIALS AND OFFICIAL GUESTS (1974-1982)

Classification 185 is the Protection of Foreign Officials and Official Guests section of the FBI Central Records System. The FBI established this classification in 1972 for investigations into crimes against foreign officials and guests that might negatively affect U.S. foreign relations. The Bureau has final investigative jurisdiction, but it closely cooperated with state and local law enforcement officials, the Secret Service, and the Department of State. The FBI usually let local law enforcement officials handle minor crimes such as vandalism, traffic accidents, and robberies.

Case Files

File 185-417 involves an investigation into a threatening letter sent to President Ford in 1974. The letter also threatened Kurt Waldheim, Secretary General of the United Nations from 1972-1981, and President of Austria from 1986-1992. The author of the letter threatened to kill the men "because I am a victim of a battle between your Federal robots and telephones and your United Nations robots and telephones." He claimed to have the backing of Ayn Rand and Howard Hughes. The Secret Service arrested the individual approximately one week after he wrote the letter. He had a fully loaded rifle in his apartment at the time.
Box 1 location: 230/78/32/05

File 185-1046 relates to an investigation into a threatening anonymous letter sent to Waldheim in 1978. The author threatened to blow up and shoot Waldheim and members of his family, accusing Waldheim of supporting the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] and their "right to sit with us as equal partners in Geneva." Because of this, the letter continued, "I can only promise you one thing: we'll blow the [expletive deleted] out of you, just the same way they're promising to do to us." The letter was signed "An Israeli member of the JDL [Jewish Defense League]." Analysis of the letter by the FBI laboratory discovered "9 latent fingerprints of value," but the sender was never identified, and the file was closed.
Box 1 location: 230/78/32/05

File 185-1666 documents a 1982 request to the Bureau for any information on possible terrorist activity directed against Waldheim during his visit to Florida State University in Tallahassee. The request came from the head of campus security. The file, which contains only the one message and a transmittal sheet, does not say if the FBI knew of any threats. The message simply concludes by saying that local FBI officials "will maintain liaison" with campus security regarding Waldheim's arrival and departure.
Box 1 location: 230/78/32/05

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