Nazi Food Package Agency Seen As Front for Espionage

The Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League charged today that the principal agency for handling transmission of food packages from the United States to Germany was a front for Nazi espionage here.

Joachim von Wimmersperg member of the firm of Hopf and von Wimmersperg, who suddenly returned to Germany a few months ago, is a captain in the German Naval Intelligence, the Anti-Nazi League said. His firm handled orders for packages to be sent to friends and relatives in Germany, working through the Deutscher Handels und Wirtschaftsdienst and the Yorkville Kanzlei.

Wimmersperg’s “duties in the United States consisted for the most part of keeping members of the National Socialist Party in the U.S. prepared for any assignment either he or Nazi Consul Draeger gave them,” it was stated. “Considering von Wimmersperg’s position in the German naval forces, it is assumed that espionage became one of the principal duties of NSDAP members here. In particular, von Wimmersperg collected their dues, which were afterwards transferred to Germany by the other member of the ‘firm’ Herr E. O. Hopf, who is still active in New York.

“It is believed that von Wimmersperg’s recent return to Germany came about as a direct result-of the bitter rivalry between members of the consulate and the ‘firm’ for complete command of Nazi activity here. As a compromise, the higher-ups in Germany recalled von Wimmersperg, leaving Hopf to carry on the food packaging service.”