The phantom in Quaroni’s opera
In March 1941, Subhas Chandra Bose slipped out of Kabul, holding
the passport of an Italian named Orlando Mazzotta, headed for Moscow, leaving
behind the real Italian, in Afghanistan. I had previously covered the tale of Bose’s flight out of British India, and his travels through Russia, Italy, and
eventually to Berlin in Germany. At the end of that article, I mentioned that one
Mr. Orlando Mazzotta worked in Vienna in 1963, and wondered if it could be
Bose. Well, it was not, it was the real Orlando Mazzotta. This is his story.
As it turned out, the son of the real Orlando Mazzotta, himself
an Italian diplomat, fortuitously reached out to me a couple of weeks ago, with
additional details about his father. So here we go - to the Kabul of the early
1940s, where the Axis supporters plotted against the British, while the British
CID leaned on their extensive spy network to figure out what was going on. The ex-Emir
Amanullah was in exile in Italy, and Zahir Shah was in charge. At this fringe
of the British empire, members, and employees of the nations of the Axis - Italians,
Germans, and initially Russians, teaming with many other dissidents passing off
under multiple guises, plotted to bring down the British colonial enterprise. One of those persons was Orlando Mazzotta.
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| Orlando Mazzotta |
While Larissa, the lady with a booming voice and confident
airs concentrated on covert message deliveries (as she did in the case of
Subhas Bose) and socializing with the bigwigs in Kabul, Anzilotti, the front
man, established contacts with collaborators. Mario Ungaro was the commercial
attaché, Adolfo Crescini was the Legation chancellor, and Orlando Mazzotta took
care of the radio operations and cipher work. Ernesto Cagnacci was the
diplomatic courier, in fact a priest himself. A few other Italians working in the
government services and as artisans, completed the Italian population in Kabul.
Well connected to them were Italian civilians - Giovanni Azzurri an engineer
and his wife Valentina. It must be noted here that during the war days, all of
them were involved in undercover activities, and were frequently spied upon by
the British. The legation also housed a Padre named Egidio Caspani, and local
staff to support operations, the most important among them being their
interpreter Muhammad Aslam.
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| Pietro Quaroni |
Crescini, Anzilotti, and Mazzotta were the lynchpins of this
team, during the period 1938-1943. Early on, Quaroni had identified the Faqir
of Ipi as the person who could marshal resources and mobilize a revolution. With
that in mind, Quaroni decided to strengthen his relations with the Faqir.
Afghanistan itself was pro-German, and with about 150 German agents and deep
German penetration into the Afghan ministerial circles, the Axis-leaning Afghan
power was being cultivated. Though Rome was not in full support of Quaroni’s
ideas, they were still in favor of the Legation’s pro-Axis actions.
As we saw, Orlando Mazzotta handled the radio and
communications in the Legation. From the testimony of Aslam, the interpreter
who was arrested by the British in Quetta around June 1941, we can make out
that radio sets were delivered by the Italians and Germans to the Afghan
officials as well as some dissidents, and Mazzotta was responsible for testing
them. The receiver for the legation itself was placed in its dedicated room,
but the transmitter was moved around to ensure it was not detected. Important
messages were delivered at night (Cagnacci was the backup to Mazzotta). In
fact, for a long period, the transmitter was hidden in the house of Padre
Caspani! In addition to routine communication with Rome and others, Mazzotta
used to record Italian news bulletins, do a copy of them in French and Aslam would
then do translations in Pashto (Urdu script) and Farsi. Copies were secretly
distributed to the far corners of Afghanistan, regularly.
Mazzotta first figured in the British secret service radars
in the Mrs. Heilmann case, just after he arrived in Kabul. In Jan 1938, Dr.
Josef Heilman and Elisabeth Heilmann, both German nationals arrived in British
India, Josef being employed as the company doctor for Banke Mille in Kabul. Dr.
Hielmann spoke Italian and was noticed by the British and kept on their watch
lists, as the couple traveled often to Peshawar. In 1939, Elisabeth went to Bombay, and moved
in with Frau Mattke, the wife of a German agent. Elisabeth then met with Chancellor
Crescini who arrived to see her in Bombay. In Oct 1939, Orlando Mazzotta
applied to meet Elisabeth in Bombay with the claim that he intended to marry
her. The Italian Legation in Kabul also stated in the application, that they
would withdraw the request if the Indian government had the slightest
objection. The British refused permission (as they had planned to arrest and
deport Elisabeth). Orlando Mazzotta then sent a telegram to Elisabeth asking
her to visit Sig Silvio Marabelli at the Italian Consulate, in Bombay. One could surmise that Elisabeth was a German
agent or Nazi sympathizer on the run, and wanted to escape from British India.
Whether there was a relationship between Mazzotta and Elisabeth, or if it was just
a ploy to assist her in her escape, is not clear.
The British had as mentioned previously, decided to expel
Elisabeth Heilmann together with some others, suspected to be Nazi agents.
Paperwork was in progress, but in 1940 they discovered that Elisabeth had
already left India. Elisabeth was grouped among German consulate employees,
considered to be ‘leading Nazi concerns’. Dr. Josef Heilmann was later picked
up and interned at Ahmednagar together with other Germans and Italians. He
admitted that he was a Nazi party member, but he claimed that he joined the
party only for the sake of health insurance. In these records, we can also see
a mention that Mrs (Olga) Mazzotta arrived in Kabul in 1941 (probably
erroneous, 1940 seems appropriate).
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| The Italian Legation - Kabul |
Let’s pick up Orlando's story from Roberto’s notes.
In Roberto’s words - Orlando Mazzotta was born in 1911
near Lecce (Italy), then a small city of Apulia region on the heel of the
peninsula, looking onto the coast of Albania, the youngest of seven brothers
and sisters. He left Lecce very soon as his parents died and was
"adopted" by one of his elder sisters, who moved to Marseilles
(France). At age 15 he embarked as a ship boy on a merchant ship, ending up as
a conscript seaman in the Italian Navy, where he was trained as a radio
operator. As such, he embarked on several warships, including submarines,
sailing the seas from Gibraltar to Djibouti, where he found himself, at the
time when Mussolini’s Italy declared war against Ethiopia (1935 -36). In 1938
he was eventually sent to Kabul to serve as a radio operator at our Legation in
the capital city of Afghanistan.
He married by proxy (circa 1939-40) an Italian school
teacher Olga Giurleo, whom he had probably met in Tunis (Olga was teaching in
the Italian school there), and the marriage was later solemnized in the
Catholic chapel, which was part of the Italian Legation in Kabul, in the summer
of 1940. As Italy entered into WWII in June 1940, my father's tasks became more
challenging, including coded communications with the main headquarters in Rome,
and trips across the Indian frontiers to escort the incoming and outgoing
diplomatic pouches. He had plenty of opportunities to travel across the country
and since his face and complexion could easily be mistaken for those of a
native, he was soon entrusted with actions aiming at disturbing and countering
the presence of British forces in the region.
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| Subhas Bose - in the guise of Mazzotta |
Since Bose was leaving as an employee of this Legation, I
paid for his car to the border and provided the minimum necessary funds for the
trip; please telegraph how I must account for the aforementioned sum which
amounts to 1,500 Afghans. I recommended that Bose go directly to the Embassies
of Italy and Germany in Moscow and wait for instructions that will be given to
him to continue his journey and leave Russia as soon as possible. He thanks you
for our help and your message. Some months later he met a surprised
Mussolini, who had not been fully appraised of the developments.
Quaroni’s son Alessandro added in a 2009 speech - Details on
the preparation and issuing the false passport: after many suggestions
exchanged, it was finally decided, after a "Europeanization" of his
looks (the Germans had been prompt to suggest that he could much appear more
Italian than German) it was decided on a casual meeting by chance of my mother,
Crescini and Bose, all having a stroll on the road to Darul Funun, outside
Kabul, as the best opportunity to take a snapshot of a passer-by…. The
substitution of the photograph, exactly to coincide with the Italian official
seal, was not an easy matter for people not having this specific experience: my
father remembers having been very proud of receiving compliments from his
Soviet colleague on the “quality” of the work done!
Anyway, Bose was out of the Kabul scene, and Quaroni had set
into action something which was to have huge repercussions in the future of
British India, his support for Bose’s escape. Bose was by now, settling down in
Berlin, a trifle disappointed though with the lukewarm reception from the
Germans, but well into the process of establishing the Azad Hind Radio, making
visits to Italy, meeting Mussolini, etc., subjects which we have discussed and
covered earlier. During all those years which passed by as well in his
relations with Emilie Schenkel his secretary, Bose went by the alias - Orlando
Mazzotta.
Those are well known to Bose aficionados, but what they did
not know was that the real Mazzotta, Crescini, and Anzilotti were neck deep with
intrigues in Kabul, working hand in hand with Quaroni and masterminding Italian
relations with the furtive warlord, the Faqir of Ipi.
Roberto, born in 1943, had only a general understanding of his
father’s activities but it certainly helped me get a rough idea of Orlando’s
days in Kabul between 1939-43. Roberto feels that his appearance and complexion
was the reason why Quaroni used his passport to get Bose out of Kabul. He
continues - These must have been the reasons on which Ambassador Pietro
Quaroni (in those days the head of a Legation, a lesser diplomatic mission, had
the title of Minister Plenipotentiary) based his decision to grant Chandra Bose
an Italian passport bearing my father’s name.
Of course, under instructions from headquarters in Rome, where Mussolini
received Bose personally to agree with him on ways and - above all - means to
fight against British rule.
He seldom told me about these actions – he was a very
private person. I still remember distinctively that one of his missions was to a
remote area of Waziristan, where the respected fakir of Ipi – Haji Mirzali Khan
Wazir - waged his war as a freedom fighter, against British attempts at putting
Afghanistan under their rule. Presumably, my father brought him financial as
well as propaganda means.
In June 1941, British Indian intelligence picked up and
arrested an interpreter Muhammad Aslam in the Italian Legation – Aslam’s
testimony though rubbished by Quaroni later (he wondered how the British could
have "swallowed the most palpable rubbish" and then made themselves
"ridiculous in Afghan eyes by using it as evidence), is exact, very
specific in detail and damming. Curiously, however, it does not mention the
visit of Bose, or the relations Rahmat Khan (Silver) had with the Legation in
the early part of 1941, something Aslam would have known, since Bose lived in
the Legation at times, during February 1941. I cannot however conclude that
Aslam’s testimony was burnished by the British CID, to build up a case against
the Axis legations of Italy and Germany, it is true in most parts.
Aslam claimed in his statement that several members of
the Italian Legation had visited the Faqir between 1939 and 1941 and supplied
him with money and weapons, including machine guns and a wireless transmitting
and receiving set. He also supplied the British with the names of Afghan
officials and army officers collaborating with the Italians and with the Faqir,
which were then used to bring more pressure to bear upon the Kabul Government.
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| Faqir of Ipi |
Bose as you will recall, lived in Berlin with his Italian passport (Reg. No. 64932) under the name of Orlando Mazzotta - a name he continued to keep for nearly a year. All letters sent by him and minutes of meetings in Germany and Italy mentioned Bose only by his alias Mazzotta. So much so, those anti-British activities which happened in Afghanistan were connected to the ‘Mazzotta Organization’ – An example is the Hur insurrection in 1942 and 1943 when they attacked railway lines. The general belief was that the railway sabotage had been directly instigated by the 'Mazzotta Organization', and the Faqir of Ipi.
It was also mentioned those days or popularly believed that a German and an Italian cryptographer had managed to break the military ciphers used by the British, thus enabling sabotage by the Axis forces. It is believed that the Italian man was Orlando Mazzotta, but no further details are as yet available.
The relations between the German and Italian legations were
also becoming thorny and the Germans eventually took control of the
coordination of the Axis relations with Afghanistan and India. On 13th October
1943, Italy joined the Allied Powers and declared war on its former Axis
partner Germany. Cooperating with the British now, Quaroni was interrogated by
the British, at which juncture he provided details of all the activities of the
Italian legation, but hardly mentioned the role of Orlando Mazzotta. Quaroni
and Mazzotta continued to work at the Legation, and Roberto Mazzotta was born
to Olga Giurleo and Orlando Mazzotta, in the winter of 1943.
As the war wound to a close, Orlando Mazzotta continued to
remain elusively behind the scenes, and the names we see mentioned are those of
Quaroni, Crescini, Anzilotti, and Larissa. With the British and other observers
relating Bose to a fictional Mazzotta, the real one remained hidden behind the
mist, the veritable phantom of the Quaroni opera. Details of Mazzotta’s times
in Afghanistan are still largely unclear and we can therefore make only some broad
assumptions.
By May 1944 Pietro Quaroni was appointed the Italian
Ambassador at Moscow. He later served in Albania, Paris, London, and Bonn and
passed away in 1971. Enrico Anzilotti took over as Minister Plenipotentiary in
Israel, later as Ambassador to Austria, and then Somalia.
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| Roberto Mazzotta |
Alessandro Quaroni, one of
Pietro Quaroni’s sons, joined the diplomatic service and held distinguished
positions, the world over. He retired after his final posting as the Italian
Ambassador to India.
Roberto Mazzotta, Orlando
Mazzotta’s son, the person who has been in touch with me, too served as a
distinguished diplomat in various countries, his last posting was as the
Italian Ambassador to Pakistan.
Personal communication – Roberto Mazzotta, acknowledged with thanks
Muhammad Aslam’s testimony – HOME_POLITICAL_I_1941_NA_F-109-7_41KWPART-IV, Indian National archives
Hielmann case - HOME_POLITICAL_EW_1940_NA_F-5-6, HOME_POLITICAL_EW_1939_NA_F-93KW, HOME_POLITICAL_EW_1941_NA_F-10-58 Indian National archives
India in Axis Strategy—Germany, Japan, and Indian Nationalists in Second World War - Milan Hauner
Pietro Quaroni e l’Afghanistan - di Luciano Monzali
One Man against the Empire: The Faqir of Ipi and the British in Central Asia on the Eve of and during the Second World War - Milan Hauner
Silver – The spy who fooled the Nazis – Mihir Bose
Alessandro Quaroni’s speech – The Oracle – Vol XXXII, Jan 2010 #1
Afghanistan, crocevia dell'Asia. Caspani, Egidio und Ernesto Cagnacci
Pictures
Orlando Mazzotta, Roberto Mazzotta – with permission Roberto Mazzotta,
Italian legation – courtesy Afghanistan - Caspani, Cagnacci
All others – Wikimedia commons
©Ullattil Manmadhan – Maddy’s Ramblings - Do not copy any
portion of this article, without permission, and if required contact
umanmadhan@gmail.com
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