government’s case appeared too weak for a civil court, since no act of
sabotage had taken place. All were found guilty of various breaches
of law, including conspiracy, and six were executed. Dasch received
a 30-year prison term and Burger life imprisonment. In addition,
hundreds of German aliens suspected of being Nazi sympathizers
were arrested, and the assets of Axis-controlled companies were
expropriated and sold. Because three of the saboteurs had been wait-
ers, the FBI ordered all hotels, restaurants, and clubs in Washington,
D.C., to dismiss any German or Italian nationals working in service
positions.
In April 1948, President Harry S. Truman commuted both sen-
tences, and Dash returned to Germany amid much public hostility.
Neither the book that Dash wrote justifying his actions—Eight Spies
against America (1959)—nor his attempts to return to the United
States proved successful, and he died in Germany in 1991. Burger
faded into obscurity following his return.PEARSON, ROBIN (1955– ). A British academic who served as a
long-term penetration agent for the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung
(HVA), Robin Pearson was recruited while a visiting student from
Edinburgh at the University of Leipzig in 1977. According to his
HVA handler, Bernhard Kartheus, Pearson (code name armin) ap-
peared a likely candidate at the outset, given his strong communist
sympathies. His initial assignment of spying on other British students
in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) expanded to include fel-
low academics as his own career progressed. Of particular interest
were those with ties to East European dissidents and to the British
Ministry of Defence. After assuming a position in 1985 as a lecturer in
economic history at the University of Hull, Pearson developed a plan
for sending students to the GDR, where they might be recruited as he
had been. When knowledge of his 12-year undercover work came to
light in September 1999 (his was one of only two HVA files involving
Britons that survived intact), Pearson was suspended from his teach-
ing responsibilities. The British solicitor general, however, declined to
press charges, and he was soon reinstated at the university.
PERGEN, JOHANN ANTON (1725–1814). The founder of the
first secret police force in Austria, Johann Anton Pergen was born in
342 • PEARSON, ROBIN