Have you ever heard of Erich Héberlein? And of a kidnapping that occurred in Toledo in June 1944 by the Gestapothe secret police of Nazi Germany? The journalist from La Tribuna de Toledo Marta Tomé … was highlighted, under the title “Heberlein Objective”the kidnapping perpetrated by Adolf Hitler’s regime in the city of three cultures in the heart of Franco’s Spain.
—How did the idea of Objectif Heberlein come about?
— I hadn’t heard of him until his name appeared in an article reporting a Gestapo plot in Toledo. “To Toledo?” The Gestapo? Did he come here? I didn’t understand anything. Then I asked my husband’s grandfather, who had worked here all his life, and he told me that he had lived in Casco, in Corredorcillo de San Bartolomé. I was curious and looked at several books, but it was always the same thing: he had been kidnapped for disobeying Hitler’s regime. The Gestapo comes to Toledo, they kidnap you, send you to concentration camps and no one thinks to write about it? Then I met Heberlein’s great-niece who lent me some documents and I pieced together the whole story.
— What really motivated your kidnapping?
— Disobedience. He was a diplomat at the German embassy in Madrid, a very important city in Spanish domestic politics during World War II. However, ultimately he did not like the Nazi regime, even though he worked in a Nazi administration. When he returned to Germany and saw what was happening, he said he would not stay there. He then returned to Spain on sick leave and, although Germany repeatedly asked him to return to the ministry, he decided not to return.
— What does this affair reveal to us about the real relations between Franco’s Spain and Nazi Germany?
— That Germany and Spain were very united. This is something that all historians know. It is true that there was a very strong ideological sentimental union. Spain protested the kidnapping, but very discreetly.
—Why was this kidnapping by the Gestapo in Spain kept silent?
— Because although he was a senior official, the person was not very well known. And also because the Gestapo worked “alongside” the Spanish police. They themselves signed an agreement in 1928, which came into force ten years later, to charge the Spanish police. The Gestapo functioned here as it wished. They didn’t even need to ask permission, they could do whatever they wanted. In addition, this man was very careful and, upon his return to Spain, he did not dedicate himself to spreading or spreading it.
— Are there still episodes to discover between Nazi Germany and Franco’s Spain?
– Yes of course. There were 30,000 Germans living in Spain at that time and this happened to more people because disobedience was paid, the Gestapo didn’t let it happen. This was a common practice and an example so that Germans living in Spain would not get out of control.
—How long did it take you to rebuild the operation?
— About three years. I first set out in 2017 to publish several articles in La Tribuna, but I ended up abandoning it due to lack of time. Then in 2022, the current editor-in-chief of the newspaper told me that I needed to tell this story. I saw it as complicated because I needed to know a lot of questions that I couldn’t find, but little by little I made contact with national and especially international archives and, now, I was able to publish it.
—Beyond the kidnapping itself or the relationship between the Nazi and Franco regimes, have you encountered anything that surprised you more than expected?
— I was surprised by everything, by the fact that Spain looked away, by the fact that he was one of the protagonists in relations between Spain and Germany and, above all, by his diplomatic role, which I did not know was so important. This man has a life like in a movie.
—What type of reader do you think will be particularly interested in the book?
—I didn’t write it with a specific audience in mind. It depends on what each person likes to read. It is true that this is not a novel, but a historical essay, but anyone interested in history or intrigue will enjoy it.