outside of Verdun, he tried to commit suicide but only managed to
blind himself and mutilate one side of his face. A month later, on 30
October 1944, he was hanged at Plötzensee Prison.SÜTTERLIN, HEINZ and LEONORE. See RUNGE, YEVGENY
YEVGENIEVICH.
SUNRISE. The secret negotiations that brought about the unconditional
surrender of German forces in northern Italy in 1945, Operation
sunrise received its name from Allen Dulles, the U.S. Office of Stra-
tegic Services (OSS) station chief in Bern. His main German counter-
part was Karl Wolff, the senior SS officer in Italy. In early March, at
their first meeting at an OSS safe house in Zurich, Wolff maintained
that he was acting on his own initiative and making no demands for
personal immunity. His stated purpose was “to end useless human
and material destruction.” On the Allied side, however, the Soviet
Union objected vehemently, fearing betrayal by the Americans and
the British through the conclusion of a separate peace, while Wolff
encountered strong opposition from his SS superiors, Ernst Kalten-
brunner and Heinrich Himmler, who were engineering their own
exit strategy. Meeting with Adolf Hitler in Berlin, he successfully
pretended his aim was to persuade the Americans to join with the
Germans against the Soviets.
Although Dulles had initially been instructed to terminate discus-
sions with Wolff, the order was reversed on 26 April; three days later,
surrender documents were signed at Allied headquarters in Caserta.
The SS general also received special protection from Dulles’s aide,
Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz, in face of the threat posed by Italian
partisans. This bold operation had particular significance, for not only
was a costly last-ditch stand by German forces averted, but these troops
were prevented from finding sanctuary in a rumored Alpine fortress and
waging a guerrilla campaign. See also WAIBEL, MAX.
SYSTEM DER INFORMATIONSRECHERCHE DER AUFKLÄ-
RUNG (SIRA). The electronic databank of the Hauptverwaltung
Aufklärung (HVA), the System der Informationsrecherche der
Aufklärung (System of Reconnaissance Information Research) origi-
nated in 1969 with the acquisition of a Siemens mainframe computerSYSTEM DER INFORMATIONSRECHERCHE DER AUFKLÄRUNG • 453