World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseFriedel Kuehn was the wife of amateur German spy Bernard Kuehn, who was sent by German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels to US Territory of Hawaii to assist the Japanese in gathering intelligence in Honolulu. She took on the responsibility of organizing and reporting the various pieces of intelligence her husband, daughter, and son gathered, which would be communicated to the Japanese by her husband via flashed signals. She also operated a beauty parlor catering to military wives, where she and her daughter kept their ears open for careless chatter that revealed military secrets. She was arrested by American authorities in Feb 1942, and remained imprisoned until the end of the war. She was deported back to Germany in 1948.

Friedel Kuehn Timeline