Embedded Files
Henri Kurd, the worlwide representative of the Roulette X, was involved with Michel Holzmann, a rather shady person, extensive records of whom are kept in the NIOD[1] and the Amsterdam City Archives.[2]
Michel Holzmann was born on January 18, 1891, in Charkow, Russia and was expelled from Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Turkey after a string of legal cases involving bribery, blackmailing or fraud. He settled in Spain in 1934 and became, among others, the representative for Koolhoven Aeroplanes from Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he, his wife and his son fled to the Netherlands using a temporary Dutch passport.
In the Netherlands, Holzmann tried to pick up his trade, but being hindered by his travel restrictions and lack of nationality, he ran his deals through the Firma H. Kurd, which at that time had nine employees. Holzmann had gotten to know Henri Kurd in Constantinople. Although we have already seen a Firma H. Kurd in 1922, Holzmann stated[3] that the Firma H. Kurd was established on October 31 1936 for trading in technical and nautical articles (for example: radio vacuum tubes, steel products). He did not restrict himself to these articles, one of his great deals involved woolen blankets ordered from five Dutch factories. Before that time, Kurd was mainly involved in vegetable oils, fats, flour, tobacco, tea and fruit.
In January 1938, Henri Kurd teamed up with engineer Alexander Pawlowitsch Bourdt (aka Burd, Burde, Burdt) who had run the Osteuropäischer Waren-Lloyd GmbH in Berlin in the 1920s.[4]
The Bourdt-Kurd connection was established by Holzmann and Henri kept Holzmann informed about the status of his contract with Bourdt.
Bourdt was born on January 14, 1870 in Charkow, Russia and fled to Germany after the Russian revolution. He had contacts with Vickers Ltd[5] in 1924 but was denied entrance to the UK in 1931.[6] In mid-1938, Bourdt was living in the Netherlands.[7] He tried to set up various trade deals, one of which involved Kriegs-Back-Öfen (army baking ovens) for Siberia, to be supplied by an unnamed factory in Dordrecht, The Netherlands. There was a manufacturer of industrial baking ovens in Dordrecht, the “N.V. Bakovenbouw voorheen H P den Boer”, who had already exported stationary baking ovens to Russia in 1927, but its first mobile baking oven was only made as late as 1950 for the Dutch army. Given the secrecy of the correspondence, Kriegs-Back-Öfen might be code for something else: Dordrecht was also the seat of Aviolanda, a subcontractor of Koolhoven Aeroplanes. The same correspondence also mentions that Schwimmkräne (floating cranes) were discussed in Paris with “gentlemen from Marseille”. The cranes were to be made by the Smulders/Gusto Shipyard in Schiedam. In March and April 1938, Bourdt also acted as an intermediary between “Berlin” and the P. Smit Shipyard in Rotterdam concerning armor plates, and Edgar Brandt of the Société d'Exportation concerning matériel 81 mm et 120 mm (which must refer to mortars) and 2 million cartouches. He also tried to broker a deal between P. Smit Shipyard and Machineimport USSR for two passenger ships and he made a list of possible Italian arms, airplane, and ship manufacturing contacts (Piaggio, Breda, Scotti). A 1939 note in the Holzmann files[1] even mentions Harland & Wolff of Belfast.
The involvement of Henri Kurd in these deals is not always clear, but he did have direct contact with Koolhoven.
No reference to the Roulette X or Fabien Carli could be found in the NIOD or Amsterdam City archives.
The Kurd files of the Dutch Security Agencies are not public until 2034, and some of the Bourdt files are closed until 2064.
Holzmann was accused of supplying arms and planes to at least one side of the Spanish Civil war using France as a transit haven.[2] Because this would jeopardize the neutrality of the Netherlands, Holzmann was evicted in March 1939. By that time, the Dutch right-wing press had published a series of antisemitic articles about him. According to Holzmann, this was a major reason for his eviction. His eviction raised some questions in de Eerste Kamer (Dutch Senate), which spawned even more newspaper articles.[8] Holzmann went to London, carrying a letter of good conduct that the Dutch authorities had provided, just to get rid of him. Although Scotland Yard was investigating Holzmann, he managed to set up a company “Produmet” with Oliver V.C. Hoare, the brother of Sir Samuel Hoare, a member of the British War Cabinet. In February 1940, Produmet tried to arrange for some small ships to be built in the Netherlands,[9] but they soon realized that the timing was bad.
For the rest of the war Holzmann lived in Buenos Aires.
In 1946 he went to the USA.[10]
To my surprise, the NIOD inventory lists a thank-you note from Prince Bernhard to Michel Holzmann. Every Dutchman of a certain age raises his eyebrows when Prince Bernhard is connected with a military plane dealer.
But the thank-you note from July 2, 1938 was just a secretarial pre-printed letter acknowleding the reception of a birthday card by the Prince.
The Amsterdam policy noted that Holzmann sent Prince Bernhard a birthday card every year, and used photocopies of the thank-you notes to show-off.[11]
Notes
Notes
NIOD (Dutch Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies) archief 097b M. Holzmann, inv.nr. 19. Not available online. Note the initals of A.P. Bourdt and H. Kurd are mixed up in the register.
Rapport Politie Amsterdam, December 1, 1939 and Request by Holzmann to prevent eviction, March 2, 1939
UK Commons: 12 February 1931 Written Answers: Trade And Commerce
Among others: Algemeen Handelsblad, June 15, 1939
Letter of Produmet Ltd to H.R. de Voogt, February 2, 1940, Stadsarchief Amsterdam,
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