United Kingdom: Nazi granddaughter heads British foreign intelligence
The paternal grandfather of the future head of British foreign intelligence, MI6, who had just been appointed to this post, was a Nazi spy who deserted from the Russian army and was of Ukrainian origin.
The British Foreign Office clarifies that Blaise Metreweli never met his maternal grandfather. Photo: Sipa
Blaise Metreweli, 47, was appointed in mid-June to become the first woman to head the Secret Intelligence Service, Britain's foreign intelligence service. Her family information was revealed by the Daily Mail . Little had been revealed about her past or personal life until now, despite having spent most of her career in the anonymity of the intelligence services.
According to a tabloid investigation published Friday, which traced his origins through documents archived in the United Kingdom and Germany in particular, his grandfather's name was Constantine Dobrowolski, who was a zealous Nazi spy during World War II, operating in Ukraine. He joined the Russian army and was sent to the front, where he joined the Nazi German side.
"She never knew her grandfather."Nicknamed "The Butcher" or "Agent No. 30" by commanders of the Wehrmacht, the army of the Third Reich, he notably contributed "personally" to the "extermination of the Jews," as he himself claimed in letters exchanged with his superiors, discovered by the newspaper. His wife fled to the United Kingdom during the war with their two-month-old son - the future father of Blaise Metreweli - where she remarried in 1947, taking the name of her new husband David Metreweli.
According to the BBC, Constantine Dobrowolski also appears on a list of people wanted by the KGB in the 1960s as foreign intelligence agents and "traitors to the motherland." When contacted, the British Foreign Office, which oversees MI6, indicated that she "never knew or met her paternal grandfather."
"Blaise's ancestry is marked by conflict and division and, like many people of Eastern European descent, is only partially understood," he added. "It is precisely this complex heritage that has contributed to his commitment to preventing conflict and protecting the British population from modern threats from hostile states," the ministry added.
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