A German World War II Spy in Briarcliff Manor - Notebook 2024 - 10
The house at 135 Scarborough Road (near the entrance to Walter W. Law's Mansion) where Kertess lived. It still stands but is currently vacant.
His name was Ferdinand A. Kertess and he lived on Scarborough Road, but before going any further we need to understand a little of context within which this was taking place.
Howard Watson Ambruster’s book “Treasons Peace. German Dyes & American Dupes” (the BMSHS has a copy which may be consulted at the Eileen O’Connor Weber Historical Center on the lower level of the Briarcliff Manor Library Building) goes into considerable detail on this matter. A review of the book reads:
One cannot understand the history of the 20th century without understanding the role played in world events by the I.G. Farben company, the chemical cartel that grew out of the German dyestuffs industry. Comprising some of the most important individual companies in the history of industrial capitalism, the firm has dominated the dyestuffs, chemical and pharmaceutical industries before and during World War II. The companies that grew out of I.G.’s official dissolution after the war—Bayer, Hoechst, BASF, and Agfa continued to be decisive in world markets. Among the many products developed by I.G. or its member companies are: aspirin, heroin, novocain, methadone (originally named Dolophine in honor of Adolph Hitler) and Zyklon B (the poison gas used in the extermination centers of World War II.)
Treasons Peace Cover Page
In his text about I.G., Ambruster sets forth the international scope and economic impact of the company, its role as the spine of the industrial war-making economy of the Third Reich, and the firm’s elevation of Hitler to his position of power. As one observer noted, “Hitler was Farben and Farben was Hitler.” Much of the impact that the company wielded derived from its international dominance of the chemical, rubber, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries through its cartel arrangements with partner firms in other countries. Farben’s foreign counterparts had much to do with letting the company and its executives—many of them war criminals of the first order—off the hook after World War II.
Farben’s cartel partners abroad constituted an inventory of the wealthiest and most powerful corporations in the world. In the United States, the major firms with which Farben did business included: Du Pont, the Standard Oil companies, General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Union Carbide, Dow Chemical and Texaco. In turn, these corporate giants wielded controlling political influence in the United States through the elected and appointed officials in their sway. Attempts at reducing Farben’s influence in the United States before and during World War II, as well as efforts at holding the company and its top executives to account for their crimes after the war were neutralized by the cartel’s corporate hirelings and political shills. Many names of the combatants on both sides are important and, for older and better-educated readers, familiar.
On the floor of Congress, California Representative Jerry Voorhis waged a valiant, eloquent and, ultimately, unsuccessful fight to bring Farben to heel. After failing to subdue the dragon of I.G. Farben, Voorhis was defeated for reelection by an up-and-coming California Republican—Richard Milhous Nixon. Helping to preserve a state of “business as usual” for Farben on both sides of the Atlantic was John J. McCloy, eventually the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, head of Rockefeller’s Chase Manhattan Bank and a key member of the Warren Commission that covered up the assassination of President Kennedy.
Treason’s Peace is a vivid, remarkable illustration of the workings of great corporate power both in the United States and abroad. It is must reading for any serious student of political economics and the dynamics of contemporary globalization.
So on with the story. On Friday, November 22, 1940, the Ossining Citizen-Register reported:
Dr. Kertess, Named by Dies Committee as Nazi Agent, Has Resided in Ossining, Briarcliff for Four Years.
The naming of Dr. Ferdinand A. Kertess in the “White Paper” of the Dies Committee as one of the leading Nazi agents in this country today stirred wide interest in this section.
Investigation reveals that Dr. Kertess is living in a $50,000 ($909,075.14 today) home in Briarcliff manor, owned by E.I. duPont deNemours Company which he leased two and a half years ago. Dr. Kertess has been residing in Briarcliff Manor and Ossining for the past four years. Although the family has lived in virtual seclusion, taking no part in the social life of the community, its name has been well known to neighbors and merchants.
Yesterday Dr. Kertess and the Chemical Marketing Company of 10 East 40th Street, New York, of which he is president, were named by the Congressional Committee which contented his company was organized under Nazi domination. Its connection was found early in October, when agents raided the company offices and seized its files.
Denied Statements
At that time Dr. Kertess vigorously denied all statements published in newspapers and threatened libel actions.
The files revealed, the Dies report, which was made public yesterday said, a Nazi master plan for a for a giant post-war network of business in the United States, ruled from Berlin if the European war turns out as Hitler envisions it.
It outlines intent to draw upon all industrial activities in America that are in any way allied with German industry.
The Dies report designated Dr. Kertess also as an influence in the American Fellowship Forum, which it said was organized in 1939 by individuals in New York City “for the alleged purpose of establishing a spirit of fellowship amongst American citizens and also to extend that cooperation to citizens of other countries throughout the world. The Committee investigation also showed that the registration papers were signed by Dr. Edmund Kohl, Dr. P.J. Kesseler and Richard Koch.
Dr. Kertess first moved to the area about four years ago leasing a home in Chilmark Park. In may 1938 he moved to his present home on the old Walter W. Law Estate, Scarborough Road, Briarcliff Manor, formerly occupied by John Hatt.
The home has 15 rooms, five baths and is surrounded by trees, practically hiding it from the nearest highway.
A check of assessment rolls reveals that it is owned by the E.I. duPont de Nemours Co. of Baltimore, Md. Leading manufacturers of ammunition and high explosives. Mr. Hatt, who formerly owned the property, is an official of the DuPont Company, and upon transfer to Wilmington, Del. some two and a half years ago, the property was purchased by his employers. It has been for sale. Dr. Kertss completed negotiations for the lease of the home through a White Plains real estate concern.
The firm which Dr. Kertess headed in New York is purported to be in the business of importing and exporting chemicals from Germany through Holland.
Local residents who have been in the Kertess house reported that there was an enlarged photograph of Adolph Hitler hanging on the library wall.
1928 LaSalle sedan. Not the original car but similar in appearance.
Neighbors report that the Kertess [family] had few visitors, Dr. Kertess [it was] said, drives his car to the Scarborough Railroad Station, where he boards a train about 7 a.m. He usually returns around 6 in the evening picking up the car from the parking space.
The machine is a 1928 LaSalle sedan, green in color, distinguishable by two large foglights on front, and was purchased form a resident of the village. The Motor Vehicle Bureau at Albany, lists its license as 1V 908.
Arthur W. Johnson, Sr. Briarcliff Manor Police Chief 1939-1963
Police Chief Arthur W. Johnson said only one complaint has been made against Dr. Kertess since his residence there, that involving a minor accident in which he struck a parted car owned by Brandon Carey. No formal report was ever made of the accident, and although Mr. Carey appeared before Police Justice Charles P. Robinson for consultation no charges were ever preferred.
The name of Dr. Kertess appears twice on the blotter of the village police, both times on Apr. 6, 1940 when someone at his home reported a grass fire. Firemen responded to one alarm at 9:32 a.m. and a second one at 1:15 p.m., that day. A short time later the fire department received a check of $25 in “appreciation of their work”.
People who have a slight acquaintance with him say he resides with his wife and two small boys both under school age, and employs a small staff of servants.
He is reported to be a native of Germany, but recently became a naturalized citizen of this county.
Kertess was eventually tried and convicted as described in a New York Times Article dated July 3, 1943.
Smuggler of Vital Metals to Reich gets Six-Year Prison Term and a $4,000 Fine.
Dr. Ferdinand A. Kertess, who smuggled vital materials out of this country to his native Germany received yesterday an opportunity to exchange $16,000 for two years of liberty. Although he is reputed to be well off, he passed up the chance, and his attorney said he was forced to do so by lack of funds.
Dr. Kertess was convicted last week of violating the Federal export control laws, a charge to which the Chemical Marketing Company entered a plea of nolo contender. The concern, although owned by Kertess, a naturalized citizen, is being operated by the Alien Property Custodian, who ruled it was merely a disguised agency of the enemy.
Judge Howard F. Corcoran, who as United States Attorney prosecuted Kertess
Yesterday Federal Judge Bascom S. Deever was called upon to fix sentences for both defendants. Howard F. Corcoran, United States Attorney who prosecuted Kertess personally, told the court the man was “too dangerous to allow on the street for the duration of the war,” and recommended six years’ imprisonment and a fine of $4,000 ($72,726.01 today).
Judge Deaver said he would adopt that suggestion unless Kertess wished to pay, immediately a fine of $20,000 ( $363,630.06 today), in which case his prison term would be cut to four years. And that was the opportunity of which Kertess failed to take advantage.
The court fined the Chemical Marketing Company $10,000 ( $181,815.03 today).
Kertess is 45 years old, and has some reputation as a backer of the American Fellowship Forum said to be a Nazi propaganda organization, and as a dealer in metals. His assignment from the Axis was the procurement and delivery abroad of rhodium, iridium, and palladium.
Working deviously and sometimes with the help of unwitting catspaws, Kertess obtained licenses, through fraud, for the export of some of the required metals. These were shipped to Italy and eventually Germany.