imprisoned at Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen. Because of his artistic
skills, the Sicherheitsdienst compelled Edel to work in the forging
of English bank notes under the auspices of Operation bernhard.
Transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp in the last months
of the war, he was liberated by Allied troops and remained in Austria
for several years, working as a book illustrator and writer. With his
move to East Berlin in 1949 came a number of positions, notably
as an executive member of the writers’ association of the German
Democratic Republic, as well as several state awards. His two-
volume autobiography, Wenn es ans Leben geht (When Life Itself
Is at Stake) appeared in 1979. Two years later, Edel (code name
thomas) became an informer for the MfS focusing on literary mat-
ters. He died on 7 May 1983 in East Berlin.EGLI, KARL-HEINRICH. A Swiss intelligence officer who spied
for the Evidenzbüro during World War I, Karl-Heinrich Egli headed
the geographic section of the army’s general staff as well as its main
counterintelligence arm. In 1909, under his direction, a reciprocal in-
telligence-sharing arrangement developed with the Austrians, which
not only continued in defiance of Switzerland’s declared neutrality
with the outbreak of World War I but was considerably strengthened
after Italy’s entry into the war. Dressed in civilian clothes, Egli was
even given tours of the Austrian front lines. When this relationship
was uncovered in December 1915 and publicized in the francophone
Swiss press, military authorities were compelled to suspend Egli along
with Moritz von Wattenwyl, the director of Swiss military intelli-
gence. This “Colonels’ Affair”—as it became known—culminated in a
military tribunal, which, lacking any concrete evidence, absolved both
men of the most serious charges. In March 1916, they received a mild
punishment followed by an honorable discharge.
EICHE. See SKORZENY, OTTO.
EICHMANN, ADOLF (1906–1962). The chief of the Jewish Office
of the Gestapo during World War II, Adolf Eichmann was born in
Solingen on 19 March 1906 but moved to Austria during his youth.
His engineering studies left uncompleted, he worked at various jobs
before being persuaded by his compatriot Ernst Kaltenbrunner to
92 • EGLI, KARL-HEINRICH