Johnny Jebsen

In a 2012 reassessment of the Allies' use of double agents in World War II, historian Ben Macintyre called Jebsen a hero.

In July 1944, Jebsen was moved to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. When he arrived he had broken ribs and was malnourished, but still harboured thoughts of escape. He told Allied soldiers, also held in the camp, that he had been accused of helping the British and when he had refused to talk, his financial fraud had been investigated. Eventually, he got a message to London via British Commando Jack Churchill, but the War Office had no record of Jebsen's name and so the plea for help was ignored. In February 1945, Gestapo agents removed Jebsen from Sachsenhausen, the last sighting of him, and he is presumed to have been murdered soon after. Several attempts to find him after the war were unsuccessful and he was declared legally dead on 17 February 1950.

On 29 April 1944, Jebsen was abducted from Lisbon, Portugal, and driven overnight to France. Aloys Schreiber, the head of German counter-intelligence in Lisbon, had invited Jebsen to his office on the pretext of discussing his pending War Merit Medal. After a brief struggle, Jebsen and his friend (Heinz Moldenhauer) were overpowered and bundled into a car.

Through 1943, Jebsen, Popov and Popov's brother Ivo (also an agent, codenamed DREADNOUGHT) ran an operation to recruit double agents from Yugoslavia. Ivo Popov identified potential candidates who were told they would be working for the British. First, they were sent to Berlin, under the care of Jebsen, for training in the spy school, before ultimately ending up in Britain (via Spain and Portugal) to work for MI5.

In 1940, Jebsen arranged an introduction between a senior Abwehr officer in Belgrade and Duško Popov, whom the Germans hoped to recruit as an agent. The meeting led to Popov's recruitment, upon which he instantly offered his services to the Allies as a double agent. It is likely that Jebsen knew this early on and often passed information to Popov, who believed it was intended for Allied hands.

Jebsen attended the University of Freiburg during the 1930s, where he became close friends with Duško Popov. During this time, both showed distaste for the Nazi regime that was emerging in Germany. After graduation, Jebsen moved to England, intending to study at Oxford University, although it appears he never did this. Over the next few years he moved amongst the London social set, befriending P. G. Wodehouse amongst others.

Jebsen was born in Hamburg in 1917, heir to the shipping firm Jebsen & Jebsen. His parents, who both died while Jebsen was still a child, were of Danish origin, but held German citizenship after they had moved the company to the country. Early in his life, Jebsen considered his citizenship a convenience, with deep roots remaining in his Danish ancestry. During childhood, he visited England and became enamoured with the country, adopting the mannerisms and the language.