[JFK'S NAZI SPY LOVER]: [ARVAD INGA] (1913-1973) Danish ...

[JFK'S NAZI SPY LOVER]: [ARVAD INGA] (1913-1973) Danish journalist and Hollywood gossip columnist who (falsely) claimed to have had three personal meetings with Adolf Hitler and who also (accurately) entered into a romantic relationship with John F. Kennedy during World War II. These two matters led to J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI investigating Arvad as a potential Nazi spy. A fascinating group of T.Ls.S., some of them carbon typed retained copies, etc., all relating to the Nazi's own investigation of Inga Arvad within the Reichs Chancellery and of claims (published in various articles Arvad authored) that she had been received by Adolf Hitler on several occasions, including (in chronological order) a carbon typed retained copy of a letter from Dr. Helmuth von Feldmann, a senior member of Joseph Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda staff, one page, 4to, Berlin, 26th March 1936, to the German Embassy in Copenhagen, replying to their request of December 1935, via the foreign office, for further information regarding Arvad and informing them that she was crowned as a Beauty Queen in 1932, then married 'a supposed Egyptian prince [Kamal Abdel Nabi; in fact a diplomat] in Paris, who was imprisoned soon after', returned to Copenhagen penniless and worked as an amateur journalist writing novellas for women's magazines before developing a relationship with the Jewish filmmaker [Paul] Fejos, obtaining a leading role in a film which failed in Denmark, and also stating 'In Germany she allegedly had relationships with Mrs. Goebbels and Mrs. Goring' and that 'Danish correspondents were astonished to report that she received an interview with the Fuhrer, even though she had no assignment and no relationship with Berlingske Tidende', and in concluding adding that the Foreign Office has also been informed; a T.L.S. by Herluf Andersen, a Danish journalist, one page, 4to, Copenhagen, 17th August 1936, to Adolf Hitler, in German, explaining that he has been invited to attend the Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg, and is currently working for the right-wing Berlingske Tidende, and would like to take the opportunity of his visit to meet Hitler for a personal interview, adding that the questions will be submitted ahead of time so that Hitler can decide whether he answers all of the questions or not, as well as choosing any other topics he may want to discuss. With two official stamps, one from Adolf Hitler's Private Chancellery, to the head, and accompanied by two further related covering letters; a carbon typed retained copy of a letter from Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz (1904-1973, German diplomat who served as an attaché for Nazi Germany in occupied Denmark during World War II and who was instrumental in Danish resistance groups rescuing 95% of Denmark's Jewish population ahead of their intended deportation in 1943), three pages, 4to, Copenhagen, 10th September 1936, in German, expressing the view that the embassy has always rejected requests for interviews with Hitler from Danish press representatives, and complaining of the underhand tactics used by Inga Arvad following one brief meeting she had with Hitler in November, remarking that she is only regarded as a casual journalist in Denmark 'who knows how to turn occasional interviews and articles into a business' and that she had offered the article following her meeting with Hitler to the highest bidder from the major newspapers, adding that there is outrage and a mood of incomprehensibility within journalistic circles of how it was possible that Arvad, married to a Jew, managed to obtain an unauthorised interview with Hitler, and concluding that Herluf Andersen would be a more suitable candidate to interview the Fuhrer; and a brief T.L.S. by Wilhelm Wolf (1897-1939, Austrian politician and historian, the last Austrian foreign minister before the de facto annexation of Austria by the Nazi German Empire in 1938), one page, 4to, Berlin, 18th September 1936, to the Secretary of State and head of the Presidential Chancellery, in German, returning various enclosures, and with various pencil annotations, one stating, in full, 'For the attention of the office. According to the report here from Copenhagen, Frau Arvad is supposed recently to have had an audience with the Fuhrer. Do we hold any information about this?', to the verso of Wolf's letter is a T.L.S. by Werner Kiewitz (1891-1965, German diplomat, a ministerial adviser in the Reichs Chancellery), one page, 4to, Berlin, 1st December 1936, in German, stating, in part, 'The files of the Presidential Chancellery show no evidence that the Danish woman, Frau Inga Arvad, asked for, and had, a conversation with the Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor. Jung, a counsellor in the Reich Chancellery, informed me, in answer to a telephone enquiry, that - according to papers held there - Frau Arvad was merely received by the Fuhrer at the end of 1935, but that, on the other hand, there is no trace of an audience in September 1936 on the files. The Reich Chancellery has, in addition, obtained from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a copy of a report from the German embassy in Copenhagen, dated 10th September 1936, and as a result, is now in the picture as to the background of the journalist Frau Arvad. Care is to be taken that Frau Arvad is not received again. It is also impossible to tell from the files whether the Dane, Herluf Andersen, perhaps had an opportunity to talk to the Fuhrer, on the occasion of the Reich Party Rally, to which - according to his letter - he was invited. It can certainly be seen from the above that there are further steps to be taken in this matter'. An intriguing group of documents linking two of the 20th century's most famous political leaders, Adolf Hitler and John F. Kennedy, via a Danish journalist who may have been a Nazi spy. Each of the documents with file holes to the left edges, some tears, a few small areas of paper loss, and light overall age wear, generally G, 6

 

The life and career of the Danish journalist Inga Arvad would appear to be a tangled web of fact and fantasy. Her claim of having been Hitler's guest at the 1936 Summer Olympics, and of having been received by him personally on three occasions, are simply not true based on the evidence of the present documents.

 

In one article she wrote her description of Hitler was later translated into English as 'You immediately like him….The eyes, showing a kind heart, stare right at you. They sparkle with force'. Another source claims that, on meeting Hitler, Arvad asked the Fuhrer whether he was wearing a bullet proof vest. His response (one that seems totally unlikely and without foundation) was 'Frisk me', which Arvad claimed to have done, and found that he was not wearing any such protection. The Beauty Queen also claimed that Hitler had told her that she was a 'perfect example of Nordic beauty'.

 

Arvad further claimed to have been close to Hermann Goring and Joseph Goebbels and their wives, as referred to (and effectively dismissed) in the present documents. The journalist, in a scoop, broke the news of Hermann Goring's engagement to the German actress Emmy Sonnemann in 1935, having obtained the information over luncheon at the home of an ambassador. Whilst that may have been true, Arvad's subsequent claims that she attended Goring's wedding would seem to be totally unfounded. Writing of the events immediately before the ceremony, Arvad recalled visiting Goring's home, pronouncing 'It looked like a museum….Among the [wedding] presents I remember: a rare little bird in a gold cage sent from the Emperor of Japan, quite a number of wild boars, a lion cub, emeralds as big as bird's eggs, even a painting from Hitler'. She also claimed to have befriended Joseph Goebbels at the wedding, who apparently went on to secure her interviews with Hitler. There is no photographic or primary documentary evidence to support Arvad's claims regarding her attendance at the wedding and, had she done so, it would certainly have been noted within the present documents.

 

As a result of the (fictious) articles Arvad had already published, apparently demonstrating her close relationships to Hitler and other members of the Nazi hierarchy, she attracted the interest of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI as a resident alien working, at the time, in America as a journalist at the Washington Times-Herald. In November 1941, while John F. Kennedy was serving as an ensign in the United States Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence, he and Arvad began a romantic relationship. When Hoover discovered the affair, the FBI extended their investigation through wiretraps, employing the use of listening devices when Arvad and Kennedy were together. Their affair was intense, although not without obstacles, the largest being that in the minds of the FBI, Arvad was a Nazi spy. 

 

Had Hoover and his FBI agents had access to the present documents at the time of their investigation they would have surely quickly realised that, in fact, Arvad did not have the access she claimed to Hitler, Goring and Goebbels and their concerns of her being a spy would have been readily dismissed. This, in turn, may have allowed Arvad and Kennedy's love affair to blossom further, and the future American President may well have had a different First Lady at his side on becoming President.