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OBERDÖRFFER, MANFRED (1910–1941). An Abwehr opera-
tive killed during a mission to Afghanistan, Manfred Oberdörffer
was a specialist in tropical diseases who had participated in several
expeditions to Africa and Asia. His objective in Afghanistan was
to reach the Fakir of Ipi, an Islamic leader hostile to British rule,
in order to foment an uprising on the Indian frontier. In mid-July
1941, disguised as a leprosy study group, Oberdörffer (code name
kell) and Friedrich Brandt, a lepidopterist (code name arma),
were en route to Gorwekht but had been betrayed by their chief
Waiziri contact. In an ambush in the Logar valley south of Kabul,
Oberdörffer was killed and Brandt wounded. The Afghan patrol
confiscated all of their equipment, including the Survey of India
charts essential to the assignment. While the German legation was
officially rebuked for the Logar incident to preserve the appear-
ance of Afghanistan’s neutrality, the German minister received
a private apology from the Afghan premier. The premier further
assured Germany of Afghan support in the event of armed conflict
but strongly insisted that, given the vast British spy network and
German ignorance of the region, similar ventures be avoided in
the future.
OBERG, KARL (1897–1965). The supreme SS and police commander
in occupied France, Karl Oberg was born in Hamburg on 27 January
1897, the son of a professor of medicine. A volunteer during World
War I, he received the Iron Cross First and Second Class for service
on the western front. After the war, he was involved in various right-
wing activities before joining the Nazi Party in 1931 and the SS (the
following year, becoming an early recruit of Reinhard Heydrich
for the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service). Oberg’s rapid rise
ended in 1935 because of friction with Heydrich. Returning to the SS,
he held positions in Mecklenburg, Hanover, and Zwickau prior to the
outbreak of World War II.
Responsible for the harsh measures taken against Jews and
Poles as the SS and police leader in Radom, Poland, Oberg was
transferred to Paris on 7 May 1942 as the personal representative
of Heinrich Himmler. This move altered the relationship to the
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