Snapshot · Modern Wisdom
Juan Pujol García built a network of 27 entirely fictional sub-agents that Nazi Germany believed were real British spies, cementing his status as WWII's most valuable double agent.
Where this was said
At 34:00 · chapter starts 32:02
In what becomes the episode's undisputed highlight, George narrates the story of Juan Pujol García, codenamed 'Garbo' by MI5 after Greta Garbo for his extraordinary acting skills. A chronically unsuccessful chicken farmer and hotel manager, Pujol walked into the Spanish British Embassy in 1941 repeatedly asking for a spy job and was rebuffed each time. So he walked across the street into the German Embassy, convinced the Nazis he hated Britain, got trained in espionage, and then returned to MI5 with the credentials they'd previously denied him. He built a network of 27 entirely fictional sub-agents whom the Nazis believed were real British operatives, fed Hitler false intelligence that D-Day would occur at Calais — a deception so convincing that German forces were diverted away from Normandy on the most consequential day of the war. [1] — George Mack "Juan Pujol García was a failed chicken farmer and hotel manager who was rejected by MI5 multiple times. So he walked into the German embass…" 32:03 Hitler awarded him the Iron Cross; the British Crown awarded him an MBE — the only person to receive both. He died of malaria in Mozambique in 1949, or so everyone thought, until an elderly man walked into an MI5 reunion bar in the 1980s. He'd faked his death and lived out his years in a Venezuelan bookshop, still afraid of Nazi retribution.
Juan Pujol García was a failed chicken farmer and hotel manager who was rejected by MI5 multiple times. So he walked into the German embassy, faked his devotion to the Third Reich, got trained as a Nazi spy, then walked back into the British embassy with credentials they couldn't refuse. He invented 27 fictional sub-agents, convinced Hitler that D-Day would land at Calais, and received decorations from both sides of the war.
Juan Pujol García is the only person known to have received both the Iron Cross from Hitler and an MBE from the British Crown — awarded by two warring nations simultaneously.
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