ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the contested legacy of Heinrich ‘Gestapo’ Müller, a leading figure in the Nazi SS who is presumed to have died in Berlin in 1945 but whose body was never found. This led to rumours that he had survived the war. Goleniewski’s evidence pointed to a group of former Nazis who were possibly now operating as Soviet agents in postwar Germany. But the German security services did not pursue these leads. The CIA suddenly took a greater interest in Müller after a Czech defector Ladislav Bittman recounted that Czech intelligence had planted stories in the German press as disinformation on Müller’s potential whereabouts. This was investigated both by the CIA and by former CIA office Tennent Bagley in a private capacity. The chapter concludes by assessing the claims by Bagley and French writer Pierre de Villemarest that Müller was kidnapped by Czech intelligence in South America, as well as evidence from other Czech defectors that a network of former Nazis were active in the state and security apparatus.
