Trent Park spy mansion opens as World War II museum

Trent Park, a country house north of London where Britain secretly listened to captured Nazi officers during World War II, has opened as a museum.

The new Trent Park House of Secrets museum tells the story of German-speaking covert listeners, most of them Jewish refugees, who transcribed conversations recorded from bugged rooms, windows and gardens.

During the war, the British government turned the house into No. 11 Camp for high-ranking German prisoners of war. The prisoners were held in comfort, while microphones hidden around the property fed conversations to listening rooms in the servants' quarters.

Museum director Giuseppe Albano said Trent Park was part of a network of intelligence houses linked to Bletchley Park. He said intelligence gathered there was used by the British government to help shorten World War II.

The house held 84 generals and 22 lower-ranking officers between 1942 and 1945. They included General Dietrich von Choltitz, the last Nazi commander in Paris, who arrived in late August 1944 after surrendering the city.

The museum displays some wiring left after the government removed the bugs at the end of the war. Visitors can also hear actors read from released transcripts. Albano said some material remains classified.