Hitler's Lost Spy (6 page)

Annette stated her health was periodically influenced by the effects of this condition. About the time of her departure from
The Manor
, her doctor recommended that she obtain some ‘mountain air' and suggested she stay for a few weeks at the
Hydro Majestic
, a popular resort hotel in the small town of Medlow Bath in the Blue Mountains, about 120 kilometres west of Sydney. She said in her security interview that she remained at the hotel for most of July.

On returning from the
Hydro Majestic
, Annette moved into a city apartment in
Wembley House
, George Street, opposite Central railway station. Her period of tenancy in the building is not known, but before mid-January 1940, Annette relocated to the harbour-side suburb of Elizabeth Bay prior to her departure from Australia the following month.

From the date of her security interview in October 1939 
until February 1940 when she boarded the
MV Gorgon
to return to Madagascar and her husband, little is known of Annette. She did not return to the radio, but may have written and produced programs for others. It is quite possible, perhaps even probable, that Annette had belatedly realised the game was up. Surveillance on her by security agents had been intense: her movements were observed, her visitors noted, her phone tapped, her mail intercepted and her associates monitored. By October 1938 her façade was under suspicion and the near-perfect cover she had successfully developed since arriving in Australia had been severely compromised – 
without her being aware of it.

Annette's Finances

Relocating to a foreign country usually incurs obligations 
– the most obvious being financial. This may be satisfied from funds brought into the country, employment, or remittances from overseas. Annette was the recipient of all three. Her income from radio, while presumably at the outset not substantial, had been supplemented, she said, by regular payments from the estate of a late relative.

Annette had also arrived in Australia with 150 British Pounds, equivalent to about 6,750 pounds today, or about 11,000 Australian dollars. These estimates are calculated on the currency indexes 1939–2014. Her cousin, Gertrude Ridgley, who ‘adopted' Annette, passed away in 1932, leaving in her will 100 pounds to Annette (the will referred to ‘Anne Schneider'), payable after the death of her husband, Harold Ridgley. He passed away in 1937 when Annette was living in Madagascar, but in his will she is not mentioned. The money may have been transferred to her at any time following the death of Gertrude, or possibly not at all.

Annette received regular payments to the credit of her account with the Commonwealth Bank, and these present a mystery. Her parents had both passed away and it would be highly unusual for beneficiaries of estates who are not immediate family members to receive regular cash payments. Estates need to be wound up, not complicated and drawn out by periodical payments to a beneficiary who is not a direct family member. It is highly likely that the payments she received did
not
derive from a personal estate. However, a successful investigation to determine the source of the funds would have been very difficult to achieve.

In 1939 a detailed search of the payments to Annette would probably yield no more than the bank from which the payment was arranged and the name of the payer – 
who could be anyone or any organisation. In this situation, a foreign spy payment plan would rank as more than a possibility.

German intelligence organisations established bank accounts outside Germany for the purpose of paying their international spies. The ‘friendly' neutral countries in Europe were often used to ‘launder' the payments to agents abroad. An account at a Swiss bank, for example, could remit funds to Annette without suspicion. Any detailed examination of the transactions would have been protected by the bank's secrecy rules, and Annette's personal Swiss connection could be argued as a legitimate reason to justify the payments' origin.

Therefore, the most likely source of the funds Annette received would
not
be an estate, but a bank account controlled from within an intelligence branch in Berlin. Annette's financial support from her German employer was immune from exposure. Other features of her espionage activities in Australia did not carry that same level of protection. The spy industry is as imperfect as any other, and Annette, although talented and proficient, was not an exception.

Annette's Typhoid Fever – A Convenient Condition?

In the process of attempting to lay bare Annette's undercover façade, a useful tool would, at first sight, be to examine her assertion that she was confined to a hospital in Madagascar for six months. Today, with a prompt diagnosis and adequate treatment, a patient who has contracted typhoid fever should be free of the symptoms within a few weeks. Six months in hospital appears excessive, but in her circumstances an absence from her normal lifestyle could provide an excellent cover for something else. A discreet exit from Madagascar, a trip to Germany for some spy-school training and a quiet return back home could all be explained later by an unfortunate, and extended, period in hospital.

This neat analysis, however, has one simple complication – antibiotics. Until the late 1940s no effective antibiotic had been developed to fight the cause of typhoid fever, so Annette would have received treatment without this benefit and six months in hospital, including a few relapses, would not have been uncommon. It is also medically feasible that Annette may have continued to have setbacks from the condition when in Australia.

Within the realm of Annette's undercover activities in Australia, unanswered questions abound. This is so mostly because she was too clever to allow her guarded persona to be penetrated. Also, it was especially critical that Annette did not become involved with possible internment proceedings when the war commenced. The most basic requirement for Annette was the securing of her uninhibited freedom and complete disassociation with the German community when war was declared. 
Then, with the known Nazi party members and sympathisers having left the country or interned, her expanded role with German intelligence would quietly launch.

Whatever had been devised as Annette's future espionage role however, had undertaken a discreet revolution as her period of residency in Australia passed three months. This vital renovation of her potential importance to German intelligence commenced when Annette made contact with radio station 2NC in Newcastle. She would have discussed with the station's management her interesting resume of employment and travel experiences. Her presentation would have been supported by her self-confidence, extensive general knowledge, and quite possibly some personal charm to round off her suitability for broadcasting.

The production material Annette had on offer to 2NC was exceptional. Her international encounters were unusually diverse for the 1930s, and to potential radio audiences the locations she knew well were probably little known, other-side-of-the-world places that would have offered a convincing element of exotic fascination. 
And this was precisely the strength of what Annette's experience had to contribute – something unique, unexplored and worldly. She potentially offered an untapped source of consumer global intelligence, and the lady herself had experienced it, not as a fleeting tourist, but as a hands-on resident acutely familiar with unheard of tribes, cultures and working conditions.

In addition to offering 2NC an interesting new program, Annette tendered a complete package. She would be the researcher, writer, producer and on-air hostess – 2NC could leave the entire project to Annette without requiring overlapping staff which would add costs to an interesting, but minor, programming series of ten or fifteen minute ‘talks'. In her discussions with 2NC 
management, Annette probably ‘came out of left field' 
with a proposal centred on a product very few people could offer. The 2NC management would have assessed Annette's suggestions knowing that in the event of disappointing audience feedback her program could be quietly discontinued.

Annette's New Enterprise – A Footing for the
Ultimate Spy

The first reference to Annette in the 2NC radio programs appears on 1 July 1938, on which date she was scheduled to deliver a short talk on African tribes – with which of course, she would have had more than basic familiarity. However, her broadcasting for 2NC, while it gained her a toehold in radio work, was clearly very limited and more regular work in the industry would have to wait. Her 2NC talks appear to have been of ten-minute duration, broadcast fortnightly.

Still, Annette had accomplished a highly unusual measure in her move to a new career. She had only been in Australia a few months, and there was probably an army of qualified local individuals vying to enter the highly-prized broadcasting industry. The extreme level of unemployment resulting from the Depression may have been easing, but competition for jobs remained fierce, and radio was not an exception.

On moving into
The Manor
, Annette developed a particular friendship with Miss Violet Maddox, the Chairwoman of the Theosophical Society's Radio Broadcasting Committee. In 1926 the Society had established radio station 2GB and initially managed the station. It is very likely that Miss Maddox was influential in Annette's training and employment in broadcasting. 
Whatever her degree of impact, Annette commenced her short but challenging broadcasting career using her European and African experiences as a basis for travel talks.

She also became a fashion expert, but just where her expertise in this area of interest evolved is unknown. 
Perhaps she had an interest in fashion, embellished by her European travels, which were extensive for a single young lady in the 1930s.

Trans Radio was an agency through which training for radio announcers was offered, and subsequently positions at radio stations could be negotiated. Annette received some training through Trans Radio and in late 1938 she was contracted by the Sydney department store, McDowell's, to produce a small fashion segment in the 
‘McDowell's Hour', a weekly broadcast on radio station 2UW.

In January 1939 Annette commenced a new role with radio station 2GB. Dorothea Vautier had been a regular presenter on the station for several years. Her marriage took her to the United States from where she relayed back to 2GB interviews with Hollywood personalities. 
Annette replaced her in what was a decisive juncture in her radio career. She hosted her own fashion program, and some of the finer points of both her personal and fashion values were revealed to her audiences in an article published in the 14 January 1939 edition of the
Australian
Women's Weekly
, the country's largest selling women's magazine. This article, including her photograph, is the only known pre-World War II printed reference to Annette.

The article was titled:

HOW TO DRESS STYLISHLY … AND CHEAPLY – 
FRENCH DRESS ADVISOR TALKS ON FASHION 
PROBLEMS.

While Annette acquired her French citizenship through marriage, she was not exactly the home-grown French citizen implied. However, in the creation of 2GB's new fashion celebrity, there was a difference – Annette was introduced to her new audience not as Annette Wagner, but as Renee Laval. The name change probably resulted from the assumption that a dress design expert was more likely to be French than German, or, that events in Europe may have reduced the appeal of a German name.

The
Australian Women's Weekly
article included fashion statements that may be equally appropriate today. But it also offered an interesting insight into Annette's personality. How she obtained the position in the wake of the highly popular Dorothea Vautier is not understood as nothing in her identified background would suggest she had suitable qualifications to discuss developments in the fashion world. However, a little knowledge plus clever tactics will often prove the better of the more conventionally experienced, and in this regard Annette was very well equipped. An early paragraph in the article, whether intended or not, reveals a clever sales pitch to a broad audience. All women want the ‘utmost', and ‘Renee' says almost everyone can obtain it:

Her aim on 2GB is to demonstrate how girls and women can achieve the utmost in feminine charm with the slimmest of slim purses.

The following paragraphs from the article are presented as being quotations from Annette. Her English pronunciation appears to have been reasonable, but the language in the article suggests it may have been jointly constructed with a journalist.

She knows that to wear, simply and elegantly, every garment, whether it be a 10 shilling or 10 guinea outfit, is the gospel of distinctive dress, and she achieves this at remarkably little cost.

Serenely confident and secure in her own personality, clothing and individual style, she can afford to evade those extravagant vagaries of fashion to which women of poorer judgement and discrimination invariably succumb.

Any woman can approach beauty and elegant graciousness through the way lines and colour are manipulated to her advantage. She must introduce herself to herself and take stock of her liabilities as well as her assets.

To enhance and make the most of our good points, and to distract attention from our bad is to be a pleasing and attractive vision.

But the majority of us ignore by what means this is accomplished, and we therefore find ourselves wearing garments and colours that are either definitely unbecoming to us, or that fail to achieve the distinctive outline whereby we are shown to our best possible advantage.