New museum opens at UK mansion where jailed Nazi officers were spied on to glean secrets
ENFIELD, United Kingdom — Upstairs, Nazi generals enjoyed wine and lounged in elegant rooms. Downstairs in the basement, a team of covert listeners followed their chatter, gleaning vital insights into Germany’s war plans.During World War II, Trent Park, a country house north of London, was turned into a camp for high-ranking German prisoners of war.Now it has become a museum called Trent Park House of Secrets, which highlights the role of the team of German speakers, most of them Jewish refugees, who transcribed tidbits from the prisoners’ bugged conversations.“Trent Park is one of a network of intelligence houses, let’s call them, the most famous of them being Bletchley Park,” museum director Giuseppe Albano told AFP.Depicted in the Oscar-winning film “The Imitation Game,” Bletchley Park, north of London, was a country house where mathematician Alan Turing cracked the code on encrypted Nazi messages.For Albano, Trent Park is “on a par in…
Trent Park, a historic country house north of London, has been transformed into the “Trent Park House of Secrets” museum, opening to the public. During World War II, the mansion served as a top-secret prisoner-of-war camp for high-ranking Nazi officers. Unbeknownst to them, their conversations were bugged by a team of German-speaking Jewish refugees, providing crucial intelligence to the British government. Museum director Giuseppe Albano stated that Trent Park is “on a par in terms of the military intelligence that was gained and… was used by the British government to shorten the length of the Second World War.” The intelligence gathered included details about the development of V-2 ballistic missiles, which helped delay their deployment, and admissions of atrocities, such as General Dietrich von Choltitz's confession, “the worst job I carried out was the liquidation of Jews.” The museum showcases recreated listening rooms and some original wiring, recognizing the vital, previously unacknowledged contributions of the listeners.
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