Elyesa Bazna
Elyesa Bazna (1904 - 1970) was German spy, active during the Second World War. His codename was "Cicero".
Bazna was Albanian by birth and hated the British. He offered secret information to the Germans, through the German ambassador, Franz von Papen. He was a valet to the Yugoslav ambassador to Turkey, and later to a German counsellor who fired him for reading his mail.
From 1942 he was the valet of the British ambassador Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen in Istanbul. Bazna began photographing secret British documents. Bazna approached the German Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and indicated that he wanted £20,000 (GBP) for 56 documents he had photographed initially. He became a paid German agent in 1943 and leaked important information, about Operation Overlord.
He left the service of the ambassador when he feared betrayal (Allen Dulles). He was paid by the Abwehr with counterfeit British Pounds (see Operation Bernhard). He unsuccessfully tried to sue the German government after the war for outstanding pay.
His memoirs were entitled I was Cicero.
