Albert Meems (28 February 1888,

Nieuw-Buinen Nieuw-Buinen is a village in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is a part of the municipality of Borger-Odoorn, and lies about north of Emmen. The village was first mentioned in 1840 as Nieuw-Buinen. It is a peat excavation village which was f ...

– after 1957, possibly in India) was a Dutch spy for Germany in the Second World War, "one of very few German agents who successfully moved in and out of the UK during the Second World War without being detected". Meems was the son of Okko Meems and Hindekien Veentjer, factory workers in Borger. In the 1930s and during the war, Meems lived in

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

.De gebroeders Meems
in the chapter "Strauchs agenten in het R-Netz", pp. 8-10 in: Frans Kluiters and Etienne Verhoeyen, ''De Abwehr n Nederland (1936–1945)'', Netherlands Intelligence Studies Association, 2006/2016. (in Dutch) He spent a lot of time in India where he worked as a livestock dealer sourcing animals for European zoos. Meems worked as a spy for Germany in the First World War and re-enlisted as part of 'Nest

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

' in 1938. Nest Bremen was an outpost of

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Abwehr The (German language, German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', though the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context) ) was the German military intelligence , military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ...

. Reference is made to Meems in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

of 4 June 1922 when a consignment of "elephants,

baboon Baboons are primates comprising the biology, genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys, in the family Cercopithecidae. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow ba ...

s and snakes" valued at more than US$100,000 arrived by ship. Meems is described as "a trapper and hunter of wide experience" who put the shipment together. He was reported as having gathered the animals during a one-year expedition in Burma.

Second World War

From October 1939 to April 1940, Meems, who had the nickname "Dickert" ("fatty") made four visits to London, and always stayed at the Grafton Hotel in

Tottenham Court Road Tottenham Court Road (occasionally abbreviated as TCR) is a major road in Central London, almost entirely within the London Borough of Camden. The road runs from Euston Road in the north to St Giles Circus in the south; Tottenham Court Road tu ...

. It was not until 1944 that Meems' work came to the attention of

MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...

after other members of Nest Bremen were captured. After interrogation one of his commanders described Meems as, "...clumsy, bluff, half-educated fellow who spoke English, German and Dutch all mixed together – a most amusing and companionable man with an endless fund of tales on the tricks of his trade". Another colleague, Emil Genue, said of Meems - In 1942 Meems was dispatched to India but was unable to journey further than

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. Then in 1944 an

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

file notes that Meems was sent with another agent to

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

in order to establish a radio station, "which they failed to do". They were also tasked with giving an agent named De Kerr a radio set but "they were unable to do this because they could not locate him". He was arrested in 1945 in the American Sector of Berlin at the age of 57.

Later life

On June 15, 1949, a special court in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

found Meems not guilty beyond doubt of the accusations levelled against him and he was set free. It appears that Meems returned to India:

The Norwalk Hour ''The Norwalk Hour'' is a daily newspaper published in Norwalk, Connecticut, by Hearst Media Services, Connecticut. It primarily covers and serves the city of Norwalk. History The newspaper was founded in 1871. It was published under the titl ...

of 29 May 1957 reported that the Darien-Mercara (India) Committee were going to gift an elephant from Darien to the children of

Mercara Madikeri (), earlier called as Mercara is city and headquarters of Kodagu district in the Karnataka state of India. It is recognised as one of the world's eight "hottest hotspots" of biological diversity and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. ...

. The article states that Albert Meems, animal exporter of

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

, described the selected elephant as 'a very nice animal'. His younger brother A.B. Meems (August or Aike Berend Meems, *11 May 1891) was also a German collaborator and spy. For being a ''Verwalter'' (a person who took over leadership of expropriated companies, mostly of Jewish owners), Aike was sentenced to 5 years prison on May 29, 1949. He died 19 March 1955 shortly after his release.Frans Kluiters and Etienne Verhoeyen
Supplement
with vital data of persons mentioned in "De Abwehr in Nederland"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meems, Albert 1888 births Year of death missing Dutch spies for Nazi Germany People from Borger-Odoorn