Rudolf Bailovic

Rudolf Bailovic (born 1885 in Sarajevo) was a Serbo-Croatian interpreter and cryptographer, of Austrian descent, who was head of the Balkan Referat of General der Nachrichtenaufklärung during World War II. Bailovic held the civil service rank of (German: Regierungsrat) and became Oberregierungsrat in 1944.^[1] Bailovic was considered an anti-Nazi, who held anti-Nazi views, and refused to wear German decorations, when in uniform. Bailovic was also a Turkish interpreter and spent significant time in evaluation, providing intelligence.

Military career

Bailovic was an Austrian cryptanalyst. A colonel in the Austro-Hungarian Army, who served as an officer in Trieste and was director of the Austrian cipher bureau during World War I.^[1] He was considered a middle ranking official of the Austrian cipher section, by Fenner, before and during World War II. During the Anschluss, Bailovic refused to surrender the keys of his department to the Nazis when Austria was subsumed. Subsequently, he was relegated to a minor position in the Austrian civil service. General Erich Fellgiebel and Fritz Thiele, recognising his potential, ordered Wilhelm Fenner to Vienna, to bring Bailovic, along with seven of his colleagues back to Germany, to be employed as cryptanalysts and evaluators. In the final tally, only 4 people came back with Bailovic, that included Joseph Seifert, the then current director of the Austrian cipher bureau. Upon their landing in Germany, a Forschungsamt official met the party at the airport where the Forschungsamt (abbr. FA) official offered money to Bailovic to work for them, which Fenner found disturbing.

Bailovic initially worked for the FA, which was the Luftwaffe's chief Hermann Göring private cipher bureau, specifically for the Nazi Party.^[2] Bailovic worked at the FA unit, for several months, when he quit and was known to be employed by Inspectorate 7/VI by Autumn 1941, when he ran the Balkan section.^[2] During this period, the results from solving both codes and cyphers in the Balkan section were generally forwarded to KONA 4, the Signals unit assigned to the Balkans theatre.^[3]

Bailovic ran the Bailovic Party inside In 7/VI, that was an anti-nazi clique. After the 20 July plot, the Grupperleiter Major Lechner, who replaced Major Metting as commander of In 7/VI, was a fanatical Nazi. The Bailovic Party, held the most able personnel, but dwindling Balkan traffic meant the unit was superfluous. With a new Nazi leader in Major Lechnet, and the plot to kill Hitler occurring, the group was to be disbanded. Bailovic was removed from the unit, along with several others, with Lechner being posted to the west to become commander of KONA 6.^[1]

In Oct 1944 Bailovic moved to the OKW/Chi, also as head of a section dealing with Balkan traffic. Towards the end of the war, he became an administrator, as Balkan message traffic dwindled by its nature, and became progressively rarer, as the war reached its conclusion.^[2]

References