lawyer William Donovan, future head of the Office of Strategic Ser-
vices. Leverkuehn’s conscription in 1939 led initially to an Abwehr
assignment in Tabriz, although it ended in failure when his identity
became known to Persian counterintelligence officers. Following a
brief sojourn in Paris for the Foreign Office, he returned to Turkey in
July 1941, establishing a Kriegsorganisation substation in Istanbul
and developing a network of Turkish and Arab agents who supplied
him with a stream of abundant information. The operation came to
an abrupt halt in February 1944 because of the crucial defection of
coworker Erich Vermehren and his wife. Recalled to Germany,
Leverkuehn was arrested by the Gestapo on 16 July—an action that
ironically provided him with an alibi for the attempt on Adolf Hitler’s
life four days later.
In fall 1945, Donovan engaged Leverkuehn as a special consultant
for the compilation of evidence for the International Military Tribu-
nal in Nuremberg. Several years later, he regained his law practice
and helped in the defense of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein be-
fore a British military court in Hamburg. Leverkuehn, who entered
the Bundestag as a member of the Christlich-Demokratische Union,
also became engaged in the early efforts at promoting European
unity. He died on 1 March 1960.LICHT. A major confiscation of private property in the German
Democratic Republic, Operation licht (Light) commenced on 10
January 1962 with an order by Erich Mielke to all regional adminis-
trations of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS). They were
instructed—in strictest secrecy—to seize all unopened safes and lock
boxes in former “capitalist” warehouses and large industrial con-
cerns, castles, manor houses, villas, and museums. Churches, monas-
teries, and “similar cultist places“ were added to the list a day later.
Although Soviet officials had already conducted searches of this
nature in 1945, the bounty again proved considerable. Jewelry, coins,
stamps, handwritings by celebrated figures, stock certificates, and
works of art were transferred to the Ministry of Finance for potential
sale abroad. The MfS also retrieved voluminous Nazi records, some
with the membership lists of “fascist organizations” and information
about Gestapo agents, which were then placed in its expanding ar-
chive. See also KONZENTRATION.
264 • LICHT