484 • SETON-WATSON, HUGH
which he compiled after his release from German custody in April
1945.
Exactly what happened after his arrest is unknown, and the only
record is Seth’s own version. In his book he gives a reasonably plau-
sible explanation for his appearance in Paris in November 1943 with
official Luftwaffe identification papers and for the accusations made
by several British ex-PoWs who had denounced Seth as a Gestapo
collaborator who had worked for their captors as a stool pigeon. Ac-
cording to him, he was imprisoned in Riga, and then Frankfurt, by
the Gestapo, and then handed over to theAbwehr, which intended
to send him back to England as a German spy. This plan apparently
was vetoed by theSicherheitsdienstin August 1944 and he was
transferred to a transit camp, Stalag XIIA near Limburg, to report on
the political opinions of the inmates. After just 10 days he was trans-
ferred to a permanent camp, Oflag 79 at Brunswick, where he re-
mained until January 1945 when Seth aroused the suspicions of the
British officers who discovered a leakage of information to the
guards. Diagnosed as a schizophrenic, Seth was withdrawn in March
and escorted to Berlin to meet Heinrich Himmler and Walter Schel-
lenberg, who suggested that he travel to Switzerland with a peace
proposal for the Allies.
On the night of 11/12 April, Seth crossed the Swiss frontier near
Bludenz and the following day reported to the British military atta-
che ́in Bern. His extraordinary story was accepted and he was later
flown to London for debriefing. After the war Seth was warned that
he was likely to be prosecuted, but evidently he managed to persuade
his interrogators of his innocence. Not only did he win his freedom,
but he also recovered his back pay from SOE for the period he had
spent on what he had claimed was active service on the Continent.
Seth went on to write more than 60 books and, under the name Dr.
Roger Chartham, produced an advice column in a men’s magazine
and marketed a sex aid. He died in February 1985, aged 73, having
returned to Wiltshire from his retirement home in Malta.SETON-WATSON, HUGH.Educated at Winchester and New Col-
lege, Oxford, Hugh Seton-Watson was the son of a prominent histo-
rian, R. W. Seton-Watson. An early recruit intoSection Dof the
Secret Intelligence Service(SIS), he undertook missions in the Bal-