Quote Originally Posted by National Archives

Name: Wilhelm Mörz

Aliases:

 MOERZ, Josef NOVAK, Werner MICHELSON: Czech, German. A former police official from Hamburg, MORZ became an agent of the Czech intelligence service and with the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Germans, a Gestapo double agent.

Details:

He was possibly responsible for the capture of two SIS officers in the 'Venlo Incident'. He visited London in 1939 and was reported to have visited again for intelligence purposes in 1940 but extensive investigation, with many false leads, failed to confirm this report

Mörz's case is unique in the Second World War, in that he is believed to be the only German agent operating in Britain to have evaded capture by the Security Services. He was known to the Security Service from 1938 when he was identified from the intercepted correspondence of George Schwarzloh as being a Gestapo double agent in Prague.

There is a 1939 Secret Intelligence Service report into his activities in Prague, where he was suspected of being implicated in the disappearance of British agents. The report comments that Mörz is "well-known to our Organisation as a very dangerous double-crosser." By March 1940, SIS was reporting that Mörz was at large in Holland, and then in June he was spotted in Regent Street. A frenzy of activity ensued, with Security Service staff being despatched to the Post Office to secure copies of the photograph they had of Mörz so that it could be copied to the police; the police searched all possible hotels Mörz might be staying at, and a watch was kept on various clubs and bars in London, which are listed in the file. The night duty officer's report of actions taken that first night, 25-26 June 1940.

Mörz had been spotted in conversation with one Dawn Karland and, when the police located her, the Security Service was infuriated to discover that they allowed her to depart without shadowing her. Thereafter, the file is dotted with frequent reports of Mörz being sighted but, on each occasion, he evaded capture. By September 1940, a weary minute comments that "The police have detained and questioned about a dozen people in the belief that they had caught him.

Nevertheless if he is here, he still evades us…he is in fact one of the cleverest secret agents the Gestapo has…" By 1941 however, the conclusion was reached that he had evaded capture and left the country. as the search was dying down as Mörz was removed from the Police Gazette.
National Archives

Regards,
TBA