The Counterfeit Traitor

By David Lehman

When an obscure writer named Alexander Klein died in August 2002, the wire service obituary identified him as the author of The Counterfeit Traitor, a book I loved in high school. First published in 1958, it tells the story of Eric "Red" Erickson, an American-born, Cornell-educated Swedish industrialist who masqueraded as a Nazi sympathizer in order to gather vital intelligence on German oil production facilities during World War II. A great movie based on the book and bearing the same title, with William Holden and

Lilli Palmer in the lead roles, was released in 1962. Seeing it as a fourteen year old made me pick up the book. On rereading it after its author's death, I find the story still riveting. "To convey the drama and suspense of these years of espionage, I have taken the liberty of utilizing fictional techniques, such as the recreation of full dialogue scenes," Klein notes. But the story remains not only true but real.

The book lacks the gadgetry and fireworks of the James Bond novels. All it tells is the truth of how espionage really works. One of the reasons Germany lost World War II was lack of fuel. It was lack of fuel that doomed the Nazis' western offensive during the bitter winter of 1944-45. Albert Speer's industrial machine was building synthetic gasoline plants as fast as it could, but allied bombing raids would just as swiftly cripple them. This could not have happened without the technical information Erickson and his

confederates in Germany relayed to Allied intelligence. Appendices provided by the author underscore how important was Erickson's work behind the lines. For further proof one can always go back to the New York Times of June 3, 1945, where an article appeared under the headline, "Swedish `Pro-Nazi' Duped for 3 Years: Blacklisted by US, He Sent Allies Secret Data on Synthetic Gasoline Plants."

Unlike a Hitchcock allegory of espionage-such as The Lady Vanishes," say, in which an attack on a train becomes a paradigm for British response to Nazi aggression in the years just prior to the war-The Counterfeit Traitor relies on no MacGuffin, no convenient plot device or cache of secret documents. In addition to courage and resourcefulness, Erickson had a prodigious memory for detail, and the only documents that figure in his story are the letters he agreed to write for German businessmen who cooperated with Allied intelligence. In the event of a German defeat, these letters would protect the men and their families from partisan reprisals following the war. Discovery of such a letter by a convinced Hitlerite would have fatally compromised Erickson's mission and would have sentenced the bearer as well as the Swedish spy to certain death. The fate of one such letter proves pivotal in the movie version of The Counterfeit Traitor.

The movie emphasizes and greatly embroiders Erickson's romantic love affair with Marianne von Mollendorf, the wife of a prominent German official, who was working undercover for allied intelligence. The story is told at the expense of a second affair Erickson conducted, an expedient one with a passionately pro-Nazi widow. There are other significant changes in the translation of book to movie. In the movie William Holden is a reluctant spy, pressed into service by the threat of blackmail. He needs to be converted to the cause, and Marianne helps convert him with her idealism. The clincher

comes when Erickson witnesses firsthand the brutally efficient Nazi response to a sit-down strike by famished Polish workers. The hanging of a man to make an example of him and break the will of the strikers is a powerful scene. It also deepens the movie's martyrology and underscores the constant danger Erickson was in.

The real Marianne von Mollendorf was executed by firing squad at Gestapo headquarters, and when she was, Erickson was made to watch. This much is true. In what might be an invention but a brilliant one, the movie's Lilli Palmer is made to be a devout Catholic who feels pangs of conscience for passing along information that may have led to civilian deaths. She wishes to ask for forgiveness and goes for that purpose to the confession box of the church. But it is not the priest but a suspicious SS officer who kears her confession, and this is how the movie accounts for Marianne's capture and eventual execution.

It was by chance that Erickson was made to watch it; the hoax he and his superiors had concocted to justify his visiting oil refineries all over Germany had taken him to meetings with top Gestapo officials, including Himmler himself. But Erickson himself could not know why he was witnessing the group execution in which he saw Marianne die. Could it have been staged for his benefit? Did they suspect he was a spy, and was this spectacle a sadistic prelude to a grilling by torture? How much did they know of his meetings with Marianne? Or was his adrenaline rush of terror the reflexive

self-protective paranoia of the spy? Among the most exciting pages in the book tell what went through Erickson's mind in this scene. The dawning realization that Marianne did not betray him makes this one of the more powerfully poignant of Hollywood love affairs.

When you discover or rediscover a good novel or nonfiction book that serves as the basis for an even better movie, and both are little known, the obligation to spread the news is matched only by the pleasure of sharing the enthusiasm. Read The Counterfeit Traitor if you can find it, see the movie if it turns up on TV or in a maverick video store, and remember you heard about it here first.

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