Venlo incident involved the kidnap of two British and a Dutch officer from the Netherlands to Germany. Their spy operation became a pretext for German occupation of Netherlands
A car drove swiftly across the Dutch-German border. Onlookers saw that the vehicle contained two shell shocked passengers and a wounded Dutchman.
This kidnap brought World War II to the Netherland’s doorstep, and changde its stand on neutrality. Hitler will use this kidnapped personals as his claim to start his invasion of Western Europe.
British spy activities and peace efforts:
When Hitler came to power in Germany, there was a rise in rival factions against his motives.
Britain was keen to know Hitler’s next moves as it will affect them directly. Britain set up its border control office in Hague with more than 12 employees.
Point to be noted that Dutch citizens don’t need a visa to travel to Britain. The Border control office bustled with a hub of spies and espionage. The Dutch government maintained neutrality in World War I.
Still, it allowed spy activities in his soil under the condition that the spied information should also go through them. In World War II, the Dutch government made the same deal. The Hague was hotspot with spies from both sides.
As the British Embassy bustled with a spy network, Germany sensed something is being cooked up by British spies. There were efforts made by Britain though neutral countries to come on a peace term with Germany and to stop another war. All the attempts failed with the German invasion of Poland.
Fisher and Best:
Fischer was a refugee from Germany to Holland. Fischer was able to convince British Secret Intelligence that he has contacts in Germany. The latter wanted to end Hitler’s rule and make peace in Europe.
Sigismund Payne Best was assigned the task to coordinate Fischer. Best was a World War I veteran. He ran a spy network from the Hague and married a Dutch woman.
Major Stevens accompanied Best in his meetings with Fischer. Fischer discussed a possible plan to overthrow Hitler and to declare peace in Europe. After he won the trust of Best, Fischer introduced Walter Schelelndberg to Best.
Walter Schellenberg was a SS officer and head of for foreign intelligence in the Third Reich. He was the protege of Heinrich Himmler, the SS head, and had close contact with Reinhard Heydrich.
Schellenberg will be responsible for the kidnap attempt on the Duke and Duchess on Windsor in Portugal and also attempts to contact British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill throughCoco Chanel to negotiate separate surrender terms. Schellenberg ran several German spy network across Europe in World War II.
The Venlo Incident:
Himmler received regular updates on the operations with Best from Schellenberg.
Schellenberg convinced Britain that it is possible to overthrow Hitler and an allied Britain, and Germany could take on Soviet Russia. Once Best was confident that he is in talks with a high-ranking Nazi official, Himmler gave the green signal to kidnap Best and others.
Best got a request to meet at the town of Venlo in a restaurant, Cafe Buckus, near the border. The Dutch security services sent Lieutenant Klop with Best and Major Stevens.
Fischer, along with Schellenberg and Schutzstaffel(SS) personals, entered the restaurant and threatened the Best and party. Lt Klop shot with his gun as a counteraction but was injured due to return fire by SS.
Best, Stevens, and Lt Klop were hurdled into a car and driven to Berlin. Lt Klop later died due to the wounds in a hospital in Dusseldorf. Himmler linked the British spy action with the attempt to kill Hitler in Bürgerbräukeller by Georg Elser.
The worst part of the incident was that Best carried a list of British intelligence service personals in Europe, which fell in the hands of Germany. The list put the entire British espionage operations in Europe at risk
Aftermath:
The involvement of Dutch security officer Lt Klopp in the spy action became a pretext for the German invasion of Holland. Germany accused that the Netherlands had joined hands with Britain to kill Hitler and to create chaos in Germany.
The deception action played out by Germany ultimately was used as a reason for the German invasion of the upper countries like the Netherlands. After the Venlo incident, British intelligence moved its operations entirely out of Europe until Churchill became prime minister of Britain and established the Special Operations Executive, or SOE
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