Undercover: trusted men and women of the Abwehr. The German Intelligence Service

From 1 to 22 July 1946, the German Intelligence Service, founded by the Abwehr during the Occupation under the direction of Lieutenant Kurt Merck, was on trial at the Dijon court of justice. Kept at the Côte-d’Or departmental archives, the records of this little-known trial enable us to understand how the Service operated, to grasp the profile of the agents working on its behalf and the recruitment methods used, as well as the techniques for infiltrating organisations linked to the Resistance. The various investigations carried out in preparation for the trial reveal ‘ordinary’ forms of betrayal in the context of the Occupation, essentially linked to material motivations, and bear witness to the high degree of infiltration of the Resistance achieved by certain agents, with tragic consequences for many clandestine organisations, whether movements, networks or maquis.