Maria Kruse β? Niako was renowned across Europe for her dance performances in the late interwar period , from to She often performed with little to no clothes; nude dancing , or Nackttanz , was at the time popular and was seen as an artistic expression of modernity and emancipation. For her unusual and exotic performances, she garnered great attention in the international press. Niako is most famous for her involvement in the German arrest of the Polish spy Jerzy Sosnowski in She met and fell in love with Sosnowski in Budapest in , not knowing that he was a spy.
After Sosnowski told her in Berlin of his espionage activities and she learnt of his numerous affairs with other women she panicked and confided with an acquaintance, who unbeknownst to her passed the information on to the SS.
The Abwehr were also already pursuing an investigation into Sosnowski at the time. Niako later withdrew her testimony and might have alerted Sosnowski to his impending arrest but they were both apprehended in early Upon finding out that Niako's information had reached the SS, Sosnowski accused her of being his accomplice, determined to drag her down with him.
Niako was spared from punishment through the intervention of Walter Schellenberg of the SS, who transferred her to his office for unspecified activities, with the threat that the prosecution against her could be resumed at any time she chose not to co-operate with him. Niako had a strained relationship with the Nazi authorities. Her career suffered owing to the Sosnowski affair and she was rarely allowed to perform.
In early she was arrested for treason but shortly thereafter pardoned. She made some further film appearances; her last known acting role was a dancer in the German propaganda film Carl Peters The eventual date of her death is unknown. Maria Kruse [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ a ] was born in Hamburg in Niako characterized her dancing style as a form of Spanish character dancing and she claimed to have spent several years in Spain, studying and practicing local folk dances.
