the MfS regional administration of Neubrandenburg. A recipient
of the GDR’s Service of the Fatherland Award, Szinda died on 23
September 1988. His life story, Das Leben eines Revolutionärs (The
Life of a Revolutionary), was recorded by Helmut Sakowski and later
appeared in print. This standard communist panegyric contains few
insights into his career.– T –
TANNENBERG. A covert action designed to cast Poland as the insti-
gator of World War II, Operation tannenberg was prepared under
the direction of Reinhard Heydrich of the Sicherheitsdienst. Ac-
cording to the plan, immediately prior to the German invasion, SS
men posing as Polish insurgents were to storm three targets in Upper
Silesia near the Polish frontier: the customs house at Hochlinden
(now Stodoly, Poland); the forestry station at Pitschen (now Byc-
zyna, Poland); and most importantly, the radio station at Gleiwitz
(now Gliwice, Poland). Yet when Alfred Naujocks and his team
entered the station on 31 August 1939, their unfamiliarity with the
broadcast equipment meant that the brief anti-German call to arms
was heard only in the immediate region. Nevertheless, the body of a
murdered Polish sympathizer, Franz Honiok, was left behind to give
credence to the staged event. Gestapo head Heinrich Müller had
supplied some dozen concentration camp inmates—referred to inter-
nally as Konserven (canned goods)—whose corpses, clad in Polish
uniforms, were distributed at the sites as well.
Appearing before the Reichstag the following day to explain
why the Wehrmacht had been mobilized, Adolf Hitler referred to
the provocations of Polish soldiers inside the German border, while
members of the foreign press were invited to inspect the Gleiwitz
facility. Although it had no discernible impact on the Anglo-French
declaration of war, Heydrich never expressed any regrets over the
operation. See also JABLONKA PASS.
T-APPARAT. A short-lived covert unit of the Kommunistische Partei
Deutschlands, the T-Apparat (Terror Apparatus) was established in
1923 to spark a communist insurrection through acts of terror. It was
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