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LOTZ, WOLFGANG
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Lotz’s position in Egypt; Lotz seemed to Osman somewhat naive about the dirty business of espionage. Lotz, inwardly savoring the irony of these words spoken to the foremost Israeli spy operating in Egypt at the time, thanked his friend and promised to be more careful. Lotz indeed kept up his pretense, and even got a reputation as a rabid anti-Semite—which only made him more acceptable to former Nazis and high Egyptian officials alike. Lotz’s friendships with key military figures proved invaluable. He was able to visit even closely guarded top-secret bases near the Suez Canal. He and Waltraud were allowed access to airports where the Egyptians deployed their newly arrived MiGs, and they took photographs of the aircraft at close range with their pilots standing proudly by. Arms depots, air hangars, communication centers—all were open to him. At one point, Israel wanted to learn more about the Russian surface-to-air missile (SAM) base being built near the Suez Canal city of Ismailia. It was entirely off-limits to people like Lotz. But he went there anyway, and when stopped he protested that he had no idea where he was, adding that if there were any problems, the military base commander could call generals Gahourab and Osman. The commander did so, and they indeed settled the matter for Lotz. The Egyptians boasted to Lotz about the clever way they mixed real fighter planes in with dummies on the airfields in order to confuse the Israel Air Force. Lotz dutifully complimented them on their ingenuity, and reported it all to Tel Aviv. Lotz obtained a list of every single German scientist living in Cairo. He recorded their Cairo addresses and the locations of their families in Germany and Austria. Through high-placed sources, he gained precise details of the exact role each man played in the Egyptian armaments factories. From Lotz, the Israelis were pleased to learn that the Egyptians were having great difficulty finding a reliable guidance system for their missiles. The Israeli spy maintained his horse breeding and horse racing charade, so much so that his planned riding establishment was actually established. Large numbers of his high-ranking friends went to observe and admire Lotz’s creation; they drank champagne and divulged military and state secrets. Lotz contributed to the Damocles Operation, the Mossad campaign of threatening German scientists working in Egypt, mainly by writing threatening letters in an attempt to induce them to leave Egypt.