Latest news with #NaziCollaboration
Russia Today
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Incoming MI6 boss' grandfather was Ukrainian Nazi ‘Butcher'
The Daily Mail has revealed that the grandfather of Blaise Metreweli, who is expected to become the first woman to lead the foreign intelligence service (MI6), was a Nazi collaborator who oversaw atrocities in occupied Ukraine. Metreweli's father, Constantine, was naturalized in British-administered Hong Kong in 1966. The London Gazette identified him at the time as Dobrowolski, known as Constantine Metreweli, of uncertain nationality. In a story published Thursday, the Mail confirmed that Constantine was the son of a German-Polish Ukrainian man – also named Constantine – who worked for the Nazis and was implicated in the mass killing of Jews and other atrocities during World War II. The newspaper said it had reviewed 'hundreds of pages of documents held in archives in Freiburg, Germany, detailing the extraordinary – and blood-soaked – life and times of Dobrowolski, which are themselves worthy of a spy thriller.' According to the records, Dobrowolski Sr. was born into a family of noble landowners in what is now Ukraine's Chernigov Region. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the estate was violently plundered, leading the younger Constantine to become a fierce enemy of the new authorities. He was imprisoned in 1926 for anti-Soviet and anti-Semitic agitation. He joined the German occupiers at the first opportunity in 1941, and earned the nickname 'Butcher' for his brutal actions. He is believed to have been killed in 1943. His wife, Barbara (née Varvara Andreeva), married Georgian-born David Metreweli in Yorkshire in 1947. The Mail alleged that the Russian government is attempting to exploit Metreweli's family history in an effort to discredit her appointment. While Russian media reported on the announcement of the first female MI6 chief and her family's ties to Ukraine and Hong Kong, the British media appears to be the first to make the Nazi connection. 'Ms. Metreweli cannot be judged for the sins of her grandfather,' the paper stated. 'One of our nation's most formidable intelligence operatives, she has served her country with distinction on dangerous operations for MI6 across Europe and the Middle East for two decades.' Western nations sheltered thousands of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators after World War II. Many of them were recruited by the CIA to take part in covert operations against the Soviet Union, with a guerrilla war in western Ukraine continuing into the 1950s. In 2023, Canadian lawmakers gave a standing ovation to SS veteran Yaroslav Hunka during a visit by Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky. In Kiev, historical figures associated with wartime nationalist movements, including war criminals, have been honored as national heroes.
Telegraph
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
New MI6 chief's grandfather was Nazi spy known as ‘The Butcher'
The grandfather of the new head of MI6 was a spy for the Nazis who was known as 'The Butcher', it was reported. Blaise Metreweli was appointed earlier this month as the first female spy chief in the Secret Intelligence Service's 116-year history. According to an archive of documents reported by the Daily Mail, her grandfather, Constantine Dobrowolski, was a Nazi collaborator who boasted of killing Jews. Dobrowolski, who was Ukrainian, defected from the Red Army to become Adolf Hitler's chief informant in the Chernihiv region, the newspaper reported. Ms Metreweli, 47, never met her grandfather. He stayed in Nazi-occupied Ukraine when his family fled the Red Army's liberation of the region in 1943. Documents uncovered in a German archive reportedly show that Dobrowolski was known as 'Agent No 30' by the Nazis. At one point the Soviet Union put a bounty on Dobrowolski of 50,000 roubles – worth about £200,000 now – and called him 'the worst enemy of the Ukrainian people'. According to the newspaper, Dobrowolski wanted revenge on Russia for killing his family and seizing their estate in the revolution of 1917. One file reportedly contains a handwritten letter from Dobrowolski to his Nazi superiors signed: 'Heil Hitler'. In another, he boasts of 'personally' taking part 'in the extermination of the Jews' and killing hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers. A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesman said: 'Blaise Metreweli neither knew nor met her paternal grandfather. Blaise's ancestry is characterised by conflict and division and, as is the case for many with eastern European heritage, only partially understood. 'It is precisely this complex heritage which has contributed to her commitment to prevent conflict and protect the British public from modern threats from today's hostile states, as the next chief of MI6.' Ms Metreweli grew up abroad before studying anthropology at Cambridge, where she was in the winning crew in the 1997 Boat Race. She joined MI6 in 1999 and served the agency in Europe and the Middle East for two decades. Ms Metreweli currently holds the position of 'Q', the head of the service's technical branch, made famous by the James Bond films.
