84 Avenue Foch

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Number 84 Avenue Foch was a building in Paris used by the Gestapo during the German occupation of Paris in World War II.

The location is found on Avenue Foch, a wide residential boulevard in the XVIe arrondissement which connects the Arc de Triomphe and the Porte Dauphine.

During the German occupation of northern France, the buildings at numbers 82, 84 and 86 of the Avenue Foch were taken over by the counter-intelligence branch of the Gestapo, known as the Sicherheitsdienst, or SD.

Number 84 was used for imprisonment and interrogation of foreign agents captured in France, such as those of the British Special Operations Executive. There were frequent transfers of prisoners between number 84 and Fresnes prison on the outskirts of the city.

The second floor housed the SD's wireless section controlled by Josef Goetz, from where the 'radio game' with SOE was conducted, using captured wireless sets and codes to transmit bogus messages.

The fourth floor was taken up by the office and private quarters of SS Sturmbannführer Josef Kieffer, who was in charge at number 84, and the office of his assistant.

On the fifth (top) floor were the guardroom, an interpreter's office, and cells for the confinement of prisoners under interrogation.

A senior interrogator at number 84 was Ernest Vogt, a Swiss-German civilian who since 1940 had been attached to the SD as a civil auxiliary in the capacity of translator and interpreter.