designation as a criminal organization by the International Military
Tribunal in Nuremberg, numerous former SD officials found their
way into the Organisation Gehlen, in several instances as freshly
minted Soviet agents.SICHERHEITSPOLIZEI (SIPO). A union of the Gestapo (Secret
Police) with the Kripo (regular detectives), the Sicherheitspolizei
(Security Police) was created when Heinrich Himmler became chief
of all German police in June 1936. To lead the new organization,
he appointed Reinhard Heydrich, who also continued to head the
Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service). Initially remaining within the
Interior Ministry, the Sipo was placed under the newly established
Reichssicherheitshauptamt in October 1939. See also GEHEIME
FELDPOLIZEI.
SIEBERT, BENNO VON (1876–1926). A Russian diplomat who
relayed voluminous documents to the German Foreign Office prior
to World War I, Benno von Siebert was born in St. Petersburg,
Russia, on 22 May 1876, the son of a Baltic German family. After
completing his secondary education in Heidelberg, he returned to
St. Petersburg and attended several prestigious institutions before
his acceptance into the Russian diplomatic corps in 1898. His initial
foreign postings included Brussels, Washington, and London. While
in the United States, he established contact with the German diplomat
Hilmar Baron von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen, who remained his
key liaison until the end of the war, even though the first delivery
of Russian documents did not occur until after Siebert’s move to
London in 1908. Totaling more than 5,000 items and covering a wide
range of topics, these deliveries continued in rapid succession until
the eve of World War I and aroused no suspicion among his Russian
colleagues. Access to these papers was limited to five individuals
including the German chancellor.
Siebert resigned from the Russian diplomatic corps in 1914 and
joined a banking firm in London. The next phase of his cooperation
with the German Foreign Office took place between fall 1917 and
summer 1918 and concluded with a two-week tour of the German-
occupied Baltic provinces to ascertain the mood of the residents. His
detailed report was regarded as highly reliable.
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