THE MADAM AND THE SPYMASTER: The Secret History of the Most Famous Brothel in Wartime Berlin, by Nigel Jones, Urs Brunner and Julia SchrammelThe brothel owner Kitty Schmidt began to sneak portions of her savings out of Nazi Germany sometime in the mid-1930s, often by sending her girls to London with cash sewn in their underwear. By 1938, officials had caught on, but thanks to her police connections, she wasn’t formally charged with currency smuggling. If she wanted to flee the Third Reich, it had to be now. Although Schellenberg’s memoirs describe the existence of such an establishment, where all the staff, “from the maids to the waiter,” were spies for the Nazi regime, most of what we know is likely invented. In “The Madam and the Spymaster,” the journalists Nigel Jones, Urs Brunner and Julia Schrammel try to uncover the facts.

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Persons: Nigel Jones, Urs Brunner, Julia Schrammel, Kitty Schmidt, wasn’t, Kitty, Walter Schellenberg, Schellenberg, Albrecht, ” Organizations: Nazi, SS, Prinz Locations: Wartime Berlin, Nazi Germany, London, Italian