Erna Eifler

Erna Frida Eifler (born 31 August 1908, Berlin - died 8 April or 7 June 1944, Ravensbrück concentration camp) was a German steno typist secretary who became a communist, resistance fighter, Soviet GRU agent (known as a Scout in Soviet parlance) and courier.

In 1942, Eifler, along with GRU agent (and husband) Wilhelm Fellendorf, was trained by Soviet intelligence in sabotage, wireless telegraphy and parachuting. with separate missions to contact members of a Berlin-based resistance organisation that was later known as the Red Orchestra ("Rote Kapelle") and conduct spying operations. Eifler's task in Berlin was to re-establish contact with Ilse Stöbe and through her, contact Rudolf von Scheliha, Unable to complete their separate missions, they travelled to Hamburg where they were hidden by Fellendorf's mother. There they made contact with Bernhard Bästlein and hid at the safehouse of Viktor Priess. The couple were eventually arrested by the Gestapo. After completing a Funkspiel operation, Eifler was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp where she was executed in 1944, aged 35.

Life Eifler grew up an orphan, the third child, after her father, Hermann Eifler, a lithographer died in 1919 and mother died in 1922, leaving her and her four siblings orphaned. After attending school, Eifler completed a commercial apprenticeship to train to work as a stenographer. In her youth, Eifler joined the Young Communist League of Germany. and worked in collaboration with the chemist in the AM Apparat, a department of the KPD that collected intelligence on factories and other works. During this period, she also worked as a stenographer in Wilhelm Bahnick's group in the BB apparatus (Betriebs-Beobachtung, operational observation department) of the KPD, while using the name "Gerda Sommer".

In February 1935, Eifler returned to the Soviet Union where she worked for the 5th Department of Red Army intelligence. In August 1939, Eifler was deployed to work in the Netherlands. where she described how she and here husband worked with Gerda Sommer (the alias Eifler was using). Panndorf and Börner formed the other operational group. Each group arrived with identity documents, food stamps, money and a wireless telegraphy radio set. After about 10 days, the couple reached Berlin. While there, Fellendorf and the other two agents were to scout military objects as well as determine troop strengths and movements. She had been given Stöbe's address, as well as those of Emil Hübner and his daughter, Frida Wesolek.

Unable to get permanent accommodation, Eifler and Fellendorf decided to go to Hamburg where Fellendorf's mother lived, in the hope of finding some communist connections. (German:V-Mann, plural V-Leute), they were arrested prisoners, who were committed to spying activity for the Gestapo, who promised severe punishment such as the death penalty, if they refused. for the Gestapo. He had given away the position of the radio sets and they'd been confiscated by the Gestapo. Bästlein thought they were initially provocateurs and made no secret of the fact. and his brother Heinz, they hid Eifler and Fellendorf at Marie's apartment which was used as a safehouse. While there, Eifler and Fellendorf prepared a 5-page report titled: "General Staff of the Red Army, Dept. V, for the attention of Gen. Bolshakov" dated 10 September 1942 that contained a meticulous description of the activities of the parachutists up to that point. along with Marie and Heinz Priess in Hamburg on 15 October 1942. On 20 October, she was taken by train and jailed in the Alexanderplatz prison in Berlin, escorted by the Gestapo, where she was subject to enhanced interrogation by Gestapo officer Walter Habecker. was a common counterintelligence technique where controlled information was transmitted over a captured agent's radio, where the agent's parent service had no knowledge that the agent had turned. It was undertaken for a number of reasons that included poisoning the source by conveying deceptive material, discovering important intelligence and identifying networks. The operation continued until March 1945.

On either 8 April or 7 June 1944, aged 35, Eifler was shot dead in Ravensbrück concentration camp.