84 Avenue Foch
84 Avenue Foch (German: Vierundachtzig Avenue Foch) was the Parisian headquarters of the Sicherheitsdienst, the counter-intelligence branch of the SS during the German occupation of Paris in World War II.
| 84 Avenue Foch | |
|---|---|
Vierundachtzig Avenue Foch | |
| |
| General information | |
| Address | 84 Avenue Foch |
| Town or city | Paris |
| Country | France |
The Avenue Foch is a wide residential boulevard in the 16th arrondissement that connects the Arc de Triomphe with the Porte Dauphine. During the German occupation of northern France, the buildings at numbers 82 and 86 - either side of 84 - were also commandeered by the German occupation forces.
Counter espionage activities
Number 84 was used for the interrogation of allied SOE agents captured in France. Prisoners were regularly brought to the building from Fresnes prison on the outskirts of the city.
The second floor was used by the SD's wireless unit known as Section IV. It was under the control of Dr. Josef Goetz.[1] The SD used captured allied wireless sets to transmit bogus coded messages in attempts to flush out resistance groups. The operation was colloquially known as Funkspiel (the 'radio game').[2]
The third floor was used by SS Standartenführer Helmut Knochen, who was appointed as senior commander of security in Paris in 1940. In 1942, Knochen's jurisdiction stretched from northern France to Belgium. He was involved in the deportation of French Jews to concentration camps.
The fourth floor was used by Sturmbannführer Josef Kieffer, the commander of number 84, as an office and private quarters. His assistants, Obersturmführer's Ernst Misselwitz and Heinrich Meiners, also had an office on this floor.
On the fifth (top) floor contained a guardroom, an interpreter's office, and cells for prisoners under interrogation.
A senior interrogator at number 84 was Ernest Vogt, a Swiss-German civilian who since 1940 had been attached to the SD as a civil auxiliary in the capacity of translator and interpreter.
See also
- Carlingue, French auxiliaries working for the RSHA
- Peter Churchill, a British secret agent was tortured and held here.
- Harold Cole, a British traitor who served the SD and Gestapo in occupied France.
- Ernst Misselwitz Head of Gestapo RSHA - Reich Main Security Office at 84 Avenue Foch
- Pierre Brossolette, a notable French Resistance leader, killed himself by leaping from the sixth floor of 84 Avenue Foch.
References
- "A Jewish Hero in the SOE Part 1". BBC. 25 October 2002.
- Field, Professor Andrew, John Grehan, Martin Mace (2012). Unearthing Churchill's Secret Army: The Official List of SOE Casualties and Their Stories. Casemate Publishers. p. 21. ISBN 9781783376643.