1946 Spy Used Seduction to Distract from Nazi Ratlines in Andorra

Historian Claude Benet has uncovered a 1946 intelligence report detailing the activities of a Spanish police agent at Andorra's Hotel Mirador, who allegedly distracted French and Republican spies amid networks smuggling Nazi fugitives through the country.

The document, found in the departmental archives of Perpignan, was signed on 16 May 1946—one year after the end of World War II. An anonymous informant described "Conchita Carbonell, aged about 35, blonde, fairly stout," who was staying at the Hotel Mirador in Andorra la Vella. Initially flagged as an agent of Franco's 2a bis counterintelligence service, further checks suggested she worked instead for the police of Barcelona's Civil Government.

According to the report, Carbonell's role involved flirting with—and if possible seducing—French and Spanish Republican intelligence operatives in Andorra. The aim was not primarily to extract information but to divert their attention, wasting their time and energy so they could not focus on more critical targets. The informant noted: "Given the way she acts, I would not be surprised if she was sent to Andorra to draw the attention of people working for French or Spanish Republican intelligence services, thus diverting surveillance from those agents—who would otherwise have more time to deal with more important agents currently handling the passage of German escapees."

This intelligence surge in May 1946 stemmed from active escape routes, or "ratlines," ferrying Nazis toward Latin America. Benet previously located a related Perpignan report on the 15 May 1946 arrest of Hans Senekowitsch, a German naval lieutenant, by gendarmes near Andorra la Vella around 10:30 a.m. He had crossed the border in the Castelet sector via an organised network. Passeurs reportedly guided such escapees to Soldeu, then by car to Spain, disembarking at the Hotel Andria in La Seu d'Urgell.

The informant ultimately dismissed Carbonell as ineffective, calling her "too noisy to be a good agent" and lacking great intelligence—though he speculated this perception might have been her deliberate ploy. The report did not reach Benet's earlier publication, *Traces de la II Guerra Mundial a Andorra*.