{"id":4381,"date":"2025-06-28T03:57:59","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T03:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/?p=4381"},"modified":"2025-06-28T04:25:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T04:25:48","slug":"uk-government-comments-on-incoming-mi6-chiefs-nazi-family-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/28\/uk-government-comments-on-incoming-mi6-chiefs-nazi-family-links\/","title":{"rendered":"UK government comments on incoming MI6 chief\u2019s Nazi family links"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Foreign Office argued that \u201ccomplex heritage\u201d makes Blaise Metreweli a good fit to lead the spy agency<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"171\" data-end=\"363\">The UK Foreign Office has defended Blaise Metreweli, the first woman appointed to lead the MI6 foreign intelligence agency, after media reports revealed that her grandfather fought for Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"171\" data-end=\"363\">The government argued that Metreweli\u2019s controversial family background has only strengthened her resolve to protect the country from external threats.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"716\" data-end=\"1035\">On Thursday, the Daily Mail published a report revealing for the first time that Metreweli, who is set to become MI6 director in October, is the granddaughter of Constantine Dobrowolski\u00a0\u2013 a Red Army defector who joined Hitler\u2019s forces and was nicknamed <em>\u201cThe Butcher\u201d<\/em> for atrocities committed in Nazi-occupied Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1037\" data-end=\"1307\">In a statement on Friday, the Foreign Office said:\u00a0<em>\u201cBlaise Metreweli neither knew nor met her paternal grandfather. Blaise\u2019s ancestry is characterized by conflict and division and, as is the case for many with Eastern European heritage, only partially understood.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n        <span><strong>Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<figure>\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Screenshot\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/685e6da685f5407bf94a082d.jpg\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/620624-mi6-chief-nazi-grandfather\/\">Incoming MI6 boss\u2019 grandfather was Ukrainian Nazi \u2018Butcher\u2019 \u2013 UK media<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p data-start=\"1309\" data-end=\"1547\"><em>\u201cIt is precisely this complex heritage which has contributed to her commitment to prevent conflict and protect the British public from modern threats posed by today\u2019s hostile states, as the next chief of MI6,\u201d<\/em> the statement continued.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1549\" data-end=\"1740\">According to the Daily Mail, Dobrowolski served in an SS tank unit and later joined the Nazi military police, which took part in the mass murder of Jews, partisans, and political prisoners.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1742\" data-end=\"1876\">Dobrowolski is believed to have been killed in 1943. His widow later moved to the UK, where she married Georgian-born David Metreweli.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Foreign Office argued that \u201ccomplex heritage\u201d makes Blaise Metreweli a good fit to lead the spy agency The UK Foreign Office has defended Blaise Metreweli, the first woman appointed to lead the MI6 foreign intelligence agency, after media reports revealed that her grandfather fought for Nazi Germany. The government argued that Metreweli\u2019s controversial family&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4384,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4381\/revisions\/4384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}