Arnold Weiss
American intelligence officer (1924-2010)
Arnold Hans Weiss (July 25, 1924 – December 7, 2010) was a German-born refugee from Nazi Germany who emigrated to the United States, where he became an intelligence officer working for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. He played a key role in the discovery of the last will and testament of Adolf Hitler, which was dictated during the last days of the war in Europe and laid out the succession of leadership following his impending suicide, as the Red Army overtook Berlin and encircled the Führerbunker.
Early life
Born in Nuremberg as Hans Arnold Wangersheim on July 25, 1924, he grew up in an orphanage after being placed there as a child following the divorce of his parents. A Jewish organization arranged for him to be sent to a family in Janesville, Wisconsin when he was 13 years old. Both of his parents escaped from Germany on their own, his father to Brazil, while his mother also emigrated to the U.S. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison and changed his surname to match that of Howard Weiss, a star football player for the school's football team.
Military career
Weiss served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, but his training as a tail gunner ended when the plane he was in crashed and severely injured his legs. His ability to speak the German language led to his being recruited by the O.S.S. for service in Germany. Serving with the Counterintelligence Corps in the months following the fall of Nazi Germany, Weiss questioned many members of the Nazi hierarchy in advance of their trials. Weiss's unit was given the responsibility of confirming Adolf Hitler's death, and together with Hugh Trevor-Roper located Wilhelm Zander, who had been Martin Bormann's adjutant, using information that had been obtained by contacting members of his family. While being questioned, Zander described the circumstances in Hitler's Berlin bunker in the last days before he committed suicide. Under interrogation, Zander disclosed that he had been sent out of the bunker in order to transport a series of documents, which included an attestation to Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun.
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This entry incorporates text from “Arnold Weiss” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.