Agent Cicero: Hitler's Most Successful Spy

Hitler promised to give this spy a villa after the war was over—but instead he paid him hundreds of thousands in counterfeit money

This is the story of the most successful German spy of World War II, the Albanian Elyesa Bazna—an untrained opportunist. While working as a valet to the British ambassador to Turkey in Ankara Bazna photographed top secret material, which he sold to the Germans for vast sums. He became the most highly paid spy in history. However he never got to enjoy his ill-gotten gains, for the British banknotes he demanded came from "Operation Bernhard," the counterfeiting project set up by the SD, the Nazi foreign espionage department. Cicero even stumbled across "Operation Overlord," code-name for D-Day. Because of in-fighting between various German departments, full use was never made of the information. Having accessed recently released British Secret Service files, Mark Simmons analyzes all the eyewitness accounts, and captures the feverish atmosphere of neutral Ankara, a hotbed of spies and intrigue.