Johann Wenzel was a German Communist, highly professional GRU agent and radio operator of the espionage group that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Abwehr in Belgium and the Netherlands.
20 Facts About Johann Wenzel
1.
2.
Johann Wenzel's aliases were Professor, Charles, Bergmann, Hans, and Hermann.
3.
Johann Wenzel came from a working-class family and was the son of a farmer.
4.
Johann Wenzel was a communist in his youth and joined the Young Communist League of Germany in 1921 and joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1925.
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When Johann Wenzel returned, he worked as a full-time instructor for communist military issues in Hamburg, Bremen, Essen, Dusseldorf, and Cologne using the pseudonym Hermann, for the next several years.
6.
In 1935, Johann Wenzel was ordered to report to the 4th Division of the General Staff of the Red Army, the Intelligence Directorate, to be intensively trained as a wireless telegraphy operator in preparation to be a technical advisor in Western Europe.
7.
Johann Wenzel's express mission was to use his new training to set up a radio network in Belgium but the Belgian authorities refused him permission to remain.
8.
In early 1938, Johann Wenzel illegally returned to Belgium and it is likely that he resided with Franz Schneider and his wife, Germaine.
9.
Johann Wenzel was a technical advisor to Konstantin Jeffremov, who was a Soviet agent who ran a separate network in the Netherlands.
10.
On 15 November 1939, the French police issued a report that stated Johann Wenzel was working as a saboteur as a member of the Comintern-based Internationale der Seeleute und Hafenarbeiter, designed to spread communist propaganda amongst seamen.
11.
From December 1940 to July 1942, Johann Wenzel transmitted intelligence by WT to the Soviet Union.
12.
In November 1941, on orders from Anatoly Gurevich, Johann Wenzel transmitted messages on information that Gurevich had received from Harro Schulze-Boysen in October 1941 in Berlin.
13.
In May 1942, following Mikhail Makarov's arrest, Johann Wenzel was invited to re-establish a WT link to Moscow by Jeffremov, after Jeffremov took over Anatoly Gurevich's network, after he escaped to France.
14.
In May 1942, Johann Wenzel commenced transmitting important traffic to the Soviet Union.
15.
In June 1942, following the capture of Hersch Sokol who was the WT operator for Leopold Trepper in Paris, Leon Grossvogel a Soviet intelligence officer who was Trepper's assistant, ordered Johann Wenzel to become the WT operator for Trepper in France.
16.
Over several months, the Sonderkommando guards at Rue de l'Aurore became lulled into a false sense of security and either on the 17 or 18 November 1942, Johann Wenzel managed to escape, when they failed to lock an outside door.
17.
Johann Wenzel noticed this, fled and locked the door behind him and managed to get away.
18.
Johann Wenzel managed to survive in Belgium until allied liberation in October 1944.
19.
Johann Wenzel made contact with the Soviet military mission in Paris and in January 1945 was sent to Moscow.
20.
Johann Wenzel was released in the Soviet Union in 1950.