BLOCH, ERNST (1898–1945). An Abwehr officer responsible for
the rescue of a prominent Jewish leader in Poland, Ernst Bloch was
born in Berlin on 1 May 1898, the son of a Jewish father and a Gen-
tile mother. A volunteer in World War I who received the Iron Cross
First and Second Class, he subsequently remained on active duty as
a career officer and earned a doctorate in economics at the University
of Berlin as well. In 1935, the new head of the Abwehr, Wilhelm
Canaris, recruited Bloch to direct the Foreign Economic Intelligence
Department, which gathered data on the industrial capacity of foreign
countries. Four years later, Canaris obtained an authorization signed
by Adolf Hitler declaring Bloch of “German blood.”
Moreover, he was asked by Canaris to head a secret mission to
rescue Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, then
living in Warsaw (the long chain of those involved in this effort had
originated in the United States). After locating Schneersohn in late
November 1939, Bloch and his team helped him embark on an es-
cape route that led from Warsaw via Berlin and Riga to Stockholm
and eventually New York City. Afterward, Bloch resumed his pre-
vious responsibilities with the Abwehr until April 1943, when his
request for a command on the eastern front was granted. When the
rejection of his prior Aryanization resulted in his dismissal from the
Wehrmacht the following year, he returned to Berlin and participated
in the final struggle for the city. Bloch died on 30 April 1945 while
attempting to repel the attacks of the Red Army.
BLUM, EBERHARD (1919–2003). The fourth head of the
Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Eberhard Blum was born in Kiel
on 28 July 1919. Raised in Holland, he served in the Wehrmacht on
the eastern front during World War II but was not a part of Fremde
Heere Ost. After finishing his university studies, he joined the Or-
ganisation Gehlen in April 1947 as a personal consultant (code name
hartwig) to the director. Subsequent positions in the BND included
the supervision of the personnel division and a residency in London
from 1964 to 1968. Sharp differences with the new BND president
Gerhard Wessel led to Blum’s abrupt transfer in 1970 to Washing-
ton, D.C., where he remained until his own assumption of that office
on 27 December 1982. Well regarded by his American colleagues,
BLUM, EBERHARD • 43