Alfred Helmut Naujocks (20 September 1911 – 4 April 1966), alias Hans Müller, Alfred Bonsen, and Rudolf Möbert, was a German (SS) functionary during the Third Reich. He took part in the staged Gleiwitz incident, a false flag operation intended to provide the justification for the attack on Poland by Nazi Germany, which ultimately culminated in starting World War II.
Early life
Naujocks was born in Kiel and attended the University of Kiel, where he studied engineering. In 1931, after an incomplete apprenticeship as a precision mechanic, he joined the SS. A well known amateur boxer, he was frequently in brawls with the communists. He then signed on as a low-ranking driver for the SD-Regional Command East, Berlin in 1934, but was soon entrusted with special assignments such as murder. He led an undercover attack on an anti-Nazi radio station in the village of Slapy in Czechoslovakia on 23 January 1935. Black Front activist Rudolf Formis was killed in the incident; Naujocks confessed to the murder in 1944 while in US custody. By autumn 1937, Naujocks had been promoted to () and by the following year, had been promoted again to ().
World War II
On 10 August 1939, Reinhard Heydrich informed Naujocks of his mission to lead a small group of German operatives to seize the Gleiwitz radio station. Three weeks later, on the night of 31 August, Naujocks led the attack on the German radio station at Gleiwitz, one of twenty-one similar concentrated attacks which the German government quickly attributed to the Poles. Once inside the radio station, a short anti-German message in Polish was broadcast (the precise content of the message is now uncertain). Shots were fired in the studio and a corpse left on the floor near the microphone.
This attack formed Hitler's justification to the Reichstag regarding the necessary "pacification" of Poland, thereby igniting the Second World War in Europe.
More recently, author and researcher Jak Mallmann Showell's investigation has suggested that Naujocks' claims as to his actions at the Gleiwitz radio station may have been a fabrication to curry special handling by the Allies after the war. Mallmann Showell discerned that Naujocks is the sole source for details of his personal actions on the night of 31 August 1939. He also that the Poles may have accessed the site to obtain Enigma machine secrets for the Allies. General Lahousen confirmed he provided Naujocks the Polish uniforms.
Later, on 9 November 1939, Naujocks (along with Walter Schellenberg) participated in the Venlo incident, which saw the capture in the Netherlands of two British SIS agents, Captain Sigismund Payne Best and Major Richard Henry Stevens.
In 1947, Naujocks was extradited to Denmark to stand trial. There, he was found guilty of his role in the murders of Danish resistance fighters and sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, in 1950, Naujocks' sentence was reduced to four years, resulting in his immediate release.
Following the trials, Naujocks worked as a businessman in Hamburg, where he eventually sold his story to the media as The Man who Started the War. He was alleged to have been involved in running ODESSA, together with Otto Skorzeny, who handled contracts with the Spanish government, supplying passports and arranging for funds. Naujocks and his associates allegedly handled former Nazi war criminals going to Latin America, being responsible for their reception and protection there.