Secret Memorial For Nazi Spies Removed From Federal Land
National Park Service employee Jim Rosenstock was shocked when he heard about a memorial dedicated to six executed Nazi spies residing on federal land. After seeing the slab of granite for himself in Washington, D.C., he needed to find out who was behind the site, The Washington Post recounted on Friday.
A group called the “N.S.W.P.P.” dedicated the memorial “in memory of agents of the German Abwehr executed August 8, 1942.” Rosenstock believes that N.S.W.P.P. stands for for the National Socialist White People’s Party, which was previously known as the American Nazi Party.
The agents mentioned on the plaque were sent by Hitler to the U.S. with bombs and other supplies in order to show America’s vulnerability. Their leader, George John Dasch, and a comrade turned in the other six spies to the FBI. They were found guilty by a secret military commission and executed.
The memorial likely stood on Park Service ground for more than 20 years before its discovery, according to the Post. It was removed under the watch of a museum curator in 2010 and now resides on a shelf in a storage facility in suburban Maryland, the Post reported.
Contact Erica Snow at [email protected] or on Twitter @ericasnoww.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO