Christiaan Antonius Lindemans (24 October 1912 – 18 July 1946) was a Dutch double agent during the Second World War who worked for the Dutch resistance, but defected to the Nazis. Otherwise known as Freddi Desmet,"La ligne de démarcation: Un acte de foi dans la Patrie, Tome XVI, by Rémy, published by Librairie académique Perrin, 1969 a Belgian army officer and SOE agent with security clearance at the Dutch Military Intelligence Division of the SOE (MID/SOE). He was known by the soubriquets King Kong (for his height and build) in the Netherlands, and in Belgium and France as "le Tueur" ("The Killer") "Was Arnhem Betrayed ?", by Loe de Jong, article published in Encounter, June 1981. as he was reportedly ready to shoot at the slightest provocation. There is speculation that Lindemans was a member of Colonel Claude Dansey's Z organisation. "La ligne de démarcation: Un acte de foi dans la Patrie", Tome XVI, by Colonel Rémy, published by Librairie académique Perrin, 1969
He has been blamed"Spy Catcher", by Oreste Pinto, published by Nelson, 1964, pg. 129"Liddell Hart: 15/15/50", [1947–1951],1957, King's College London, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. for betraying Operation Market Garden and as a result helped the Germans win the battle of Arnhem in 1944. The loss of this battle prolonged the war for six months and allowed the Red Army to enter Berlin first."Major Problems in American Foreign Relations, Volume II: Since 1914", by Dennis Merrill and Thomas G.Paterson, published by Cengage learning Inc, 7th edition, 2009, pg. 175
Krist, as he was called by comrades, had worked for the Allies, being personally responsible for the death of at least twenty-seven Germans during the guerrilla war in the outskirts of Antwerp."My Testament", by Capt. Peter Baker, MC, published by John Calder, March 1955, pp. 112-113.
Biography
He was the fourth son of Joseph Hendrik Lindemans and Christina Antonia van Uden. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Lindemans worked alongside his elder brother Jan as a mechanic at his father's garage in Rotterdam. In the summer of 1936, he was injured in a motorcycle accident where he sustained a cracked skull and injuries to his left arm and leg which left him walking with a lumbering, simian-like, gait"Uncertain Horizons: Canadians and their world in 1945", ed by Greg Donaghy, published by Canadian Committee for the History of the Second World War 1997, pg. 53 (described by some as a slight limp and a deformed hand). Tall and heavily built (6 ft 3 and 260 lbs), he was nicknamed "King Kong" (a name given to him by his rowing trainer). He spoke French and German well and some English.
Intelligence services, Resistance work, Escape lines
By his own account, Lindemans started work as an informant for the British Secret Service in the spring of 1940, relaying shipping movements to London. In August of that year, he found work as lorry driver on the Lille to Paris route, transporting petrol for the Luftwaffe. While living in Lille, and through his girlfriend (who later became his wife), he became involved with the French Resistance sometime in 1940. Around September 1942, he established his own escape line in Abbeville, where he was arrested two months later after being denounced by a woman living in Paris, an acquaintance named Colette. He was imprisoned by the Germans for five months and was the only member of his organisation to be detained.
By 1943, his popularity as one of the leaders of the Dutch resistance was its highest. He had begun collecting jewels and other valuables from rich women to provide fighting funds for an underground "escape route" through occupied Belgium and the Netherlands into Spain and Portugal.
Lindemans had regular contact with resistance movements, some with communist tendencies such as the Raad van Verzet or Council of Resistance (which engaged in both communications sabotage and the protection of onderduikers, i.e. people in hiding)Studies in Intelligence, issue 1, published by the U.S Central Intelligence Agency, 1998, pg. 109), the CS VI group of Amsterdam (a clandestine sabotage and intelligence organisation, one of whose members was Dutch Captain Kas de Graaf,Uncertain horizons:Canadians and their world in 1945, ed. by Greg Donaghy, published by the Canadian Committee for the History of the Second World War 1997, pg. 54) the Trouw (Fidelity), the Het Parool (The Spoken Word), the Dutch-Paris escape line run by John Henry WeidnerFlee the Captor, by Herbert Ford, published by Review & Herald Publishing 1994, pg. 243 and evasion networks within the jurisdiction of MI9.The Lindemans Affair, by Anne Lambert under the pen name Anne Laurens, published by Allan Wingate, 1971, pg. 39 Lindemans was a member of one of the 12 recognised units of the Belgian underground army called fr:Les Affranchis (The Liberated, ranked 12,The Wiener Library Bulletin, published by Wiener Library 1956, Volume 10, pg. 9 founded by Camille Tromme), allowing him to possess a machine gun and a revolver.
Arrest of Lindemans brother and pregnant wife
Sometime in February 1944, his younger brother Hendrik ("Henk") was arrested in Rotterdam by the Sicherheitspolizei and held captive at The Hague, to await execution for helping English people escape from the Netherlands. Followed on 24 February"Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 14 November 1945 - 1 October 1946 Documents and other material in evidence, Numbers 257-F to 180-L", vol. XXXVII, published at Nuremberg, Germany, 1949, pp. 298-299 by the arrest of his wife, a French cabaret singer who worked for the French Resistance named Gilberte Letuppe (nicknamed Gilou Lelup) at the Hotel Montholon in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. She had previously worked as an ambulance driver for the French Red Cross) and was three months pregnant with her second child at the time of her arrest.
The arrest was made by two members of the Gestapo, assisted by four heavily armed German soldiers. They searched her bag and her room and found three ID cards, Kommandantur signatures, pass and German employment permits, all stolen the previous day. In addition to the items discovered, three revolvers and a box of ammunition, to be handed over to a French resistance movement in Bordeaux (Lindemans was there at the time of his wife's arrest) were confiscated. Lindemans' wife, a member of Swane's organisation, operated under the aliases of "Anna Van Vredenburgh" and "Yvonne". Among others that were arrested was Victor "Vic" Swane, the head of an escape network.
Letuppe was taken prisoner and interrogated for 11 hours that day. She was beaten with such force in the face that she fell from her chair, but she refused to speak. She was then taken to Fresnes Prison, south of Paris, where she was jailed, manacled by hand and feet, and was given no food or water for four days. She was questioned violently a couple of times (twenty-four), beaten in the face on every occasion. Due to her refusal to speak, she spent the next six months in solitary confinement.
She was registered,"Les oubliés de Romainville", by Thomas Fontaine, published by Tallandier Editions, 2005, pg. 92 at the beginning of August, to be the last woman admitted to Fort de Romainville, a stop before deportation. Her file, numbered 6 862, described her as having been born on 15 September 1922 and being nine months pregnant ("9 Monat schwanger") when she was among the prisoners aboard the last convoy (I.264, 15 August 1944) of deportees from Paris (quai des bestiaux, gare de Pantin) to Germany and, like some of her fellow inmates who were considered unfit for transportation, she was evacuated from the Fort of Romainville on 17 August to a local Hospice in Saint-Denis where she gave birth on 25 August 1944 to her second child, a daughter named Christianne. Letuppe's release may have been ordered by Abwehr Colonel Oscar Reile. He supposedly left Paris on 18 August. The fort of Romainville was under the control of the German military authorities.
Her testimony was later written down by the Allied Information Service (AIS)-SHAEF and used as evidence in the Nuremberg trials.
Abwehr deal: Release of Lindemans' brother and wife
By March 1944, Christiaan was able to initiate contact with the Abwehr operatives in Brussels, due to his inability to pay 10,000 Florins asked by the first intermediary agent in exchange for their freedom, Lindemans agreed to meet Dr Gerhard, sometimes called "Dr German" (pseudonym for Hermann Giskes, who had run the successful Operation North Pole and who could speak perfect English without a trace of a German accent.) in a villa outside Brussels and agreed to become a double agent on condition that his wife and brother were released."German Intelligence Agents and Suspected Agents, Christian LINDEMANS, alias Christian BRANT, German codename KING KONG", 1944 Nov 10-1944 Nov 19, Reference KV 2/233, National Archives Giskes claimed that he performed his part of the bargain,London Calling North Pole, by Hermann J.Giskes, published by William Kimber, London, 1953. Henk Lindemans was released in due course and went as a voluntary worker to Germany where he had some acquaintances"Gerhardt HUNTERMANN: German. As an Abwehr officer in the Netherlands and deputy to GISKES, HUNTERMANN was closely involved with 'Nordpol', the operation in which a number of SOE agents were turned into German double agents. He was interrogated at Camp 020 in 1945", 1945 May 07-1945 Aug 31, Reference KV 2/967, National Archives.
From here on, Christiaan Lindemans (Abwehr codenamed CC) was instructed to renew contact with resistance agents and transmit back to Major Hermann Giskes information about the resistance movement in the occupied Netherlands, France and Belgium. In return, he received large sums of money. During his time as an informant for the German military intelligence service, he was closely shadowed by an Abwehr agent. Lindemans' early denunciations created a Domino effect resulting in the arrest of 267 members of the Dutch and Belgian Resistance. In the wake of the D-Day's landings, Lindemans was said to have "visited" the British sector of the Normandy beachheadTo Win the Winter Sky: The Air War Over the Ardennes,1944-1945, by Danny S. Parker, published by Combined Publishing 1999, pg. 120 and succeeded in getting himself recruited by IS 9 (Intelligence School 9 a.k.a. Nine EyesKiller Elite, by Michael Smith, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson 2006.) Western Europe Area, an Anglo-American"Saturday at M.I.9 The Classic Account of the WW2 Allied Escape Organisation", by Airey Neave, published by Pen and Sword Military 2010, pg. 260 secret agency which worked under MI9,Shot Down and on the Run, by Graham Pitchfork, published by Dundurn Group Ltd 2003, pg. 12 by the end of September 1944, he was a member of exiled Dutch Prince Bernhard's Staff and was appointed liaison officer (with temporary rank of Captain in the Netherlands Forces of the Interior) between Dutch resistance and a British Intelligence unit commanded by a Canadian officer.
September 1944 On 3 September 1944, Giskes left Brussels (en route to his next assignment in Bonn, Giskes' FAK 307 was now attached to Army Group B) and instructed Lindemans to stay in Belgium and make contact with Anglo-Canadian intelligence. He was to offer himself as an agent, the mission was to find out what plans Canadian Intelligence had made for the Netherlands and as soon as possible cross the lines with that information, in that case he was to use a secret code to get past German sentries. Lindemans, involved in the liberation of the city of Brussels, alongside three Belgian police officers, attacked German forces who were still holding out in the North railway station district. Lindemans killed two German soldiers and wounded two others.