Trent Park

German officers at Trent Park.
Back row from left to right: Generalleutnant Otto Elfeldt, Generalleutnant Ferdinand Heim, Generalmajor Gerhard Bassenge
Front row from left to right: Generalleutnant Friedrich Freiherr von Broich, General der Panzertruppe Heinrich Eberbach, Generalleutnant Georg Neuffer, Oberst Hans Reimann

Another photo of German officers at Trent Park.
Back row from left to right: General der Infanterie Dietrich von Choltitz, Oberst Gerhard Wilck, General der Fallschirmtruppe Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke, Generalmajor Knut Eberding, Oberst Eberhard Wildermuth
Front row from left to right: Generalleutnant Rüdiger von Heyking, Generalleutnant Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, Generalleutnant Wilhelm Daser

Sir Philip Sassoon died in 1939 and the house was requisitioned by the government for use during the Second World War.[7] Trent Park was used as a centre to extract information from captured German officers. During the Battle of Britain in 1940, captured Luftwaffe pilots were held initially at Trent Park. The rooms at Trent Park had been equipped with hidden microphones that allowed the British to listen in to the pilots' conversations. This provided information about the German pilots' views on a number of matters, including the relative strengths and weaknesses of German aircraft.[11]

Later in the war it was used as a special prisoner-of-war camp (the 'Cockfosters Cage') for captured German generals and staff officers.[12] They were treated hospitably, provided with special rations of whisky and allowed regular walks on the grounds. The hidden microphones and listening devices allowed the British military (MI19) to gather important information and an intimate insight into the minds of the German military elite. An example of the intelligence gained from Trent Park is the existence and location of the German rocket development at Peenemünde Army Research Center, when General Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma discussed what he had seen there. This led to the area being attacked by Bomber Command in Operation Hydra. Intelligence was also gained on war crimes, political views, and the resistance in Germany that led to the 20 July plot against Hitler. Eighty-four generals and a number of lower-ranking staff officers were brought to Trent Park.

More than 1,300 protocols were written by the time the war ended; a selection of these was published in English in 2007 under the title Tapping Hitler's Generals.[13][14] Selected transcripts were dramatised in the 2008 History Channel 5-part series The Wehrmacht. In the episode The Crimes, General Dietrich von Choltitz is quoted as saying in October 1944,

We all share the guilt. We went along with everything, and we half-took the Nazis seriously, instead of saying 'to hell with you and your stupid nonsense'. I misled my soldiers into believing this rubbish. I feel utterly ashamed of myself. Perhaps we bear even more guilt than these uneducated animals. (This in apparent reference to Hitler and his supporting Nazi Party members.)[15]

The transcripts from Trent Park are also included in the 2011 book Soldaten – On Fighting, Killing, and Dying: The Secret Second World War Tapes of German POWs by historian Sönke Neitzel and social psychologist Harald Welzer. In its review of the book, Der Spiegel reports:

Many Wehrmacht soldiers became witnesses to the Holocaust because they happened to be present or were invited to take part in a mass shooting. In one cell conversation, army General Edwin Graf von Rothkirch und Trach talks about his time in the Polish town of Kutno:

I knew an SS leader pretty well, and we talked about this and that, and one day he said: 'Listen, if you ever want to film one of these shootings? ... I mean, it doesn't really matter. These people are always shot in the morning. If you're interested, we still have a few left over, and we could also shoot them in the afternoon if you like.

It takes some sense of routine to be able to make such an offer. The fact that the people involved did not try to keep their activities a secret demonstrates how much the perpetrators took for granted the "mass shootings of Jews", as one of the POWs in Trent Park called it.[16]

Franz von Werra was also interrogated at Trent Park.

Former buildings of Middlesex University adjacent to Trent Park House.

In 1947 the estate became a Ministry of Education emergency training college for male teachers, then in 1950 it became Trent Park Training College, a constituent college of the University of London, Institute of Education a residential, co-educational training college. During the period as a college, famous alumni included Mike Figgis ( film director), David Hepworth (writer and broadcaster and Christopher Rogers (master brewer). [17] In 1951 the entire estate was compulsorily purchased by Middlesex County Council as Green Belt land. In 1965 the Greater London Council took over the administration of the park and the London Borough of Enfield took over the college. Trent Country Park was opened to the public in 1973.[7]

Trent Park Training College became part of Middlesex Polytechnic in 1974, which itself became Middlesex University in 1992. The university's Vice-Chancellor was provided with a residence within the park. Though not so grand as the main house, this nevertheless boasted several small private gardens including a rose garden.

In the mid-1990s, Middlesex University and Southgate Sports and Leisure Trust (SSLT) reached agreement to develop the dilapidated university sports ground. In 1997–8 SSLT built a clubhouse and two artificial grass pitches on the site, which was opened in March 1998 as Southgate Hockey Centre. It is home to Southgate Hockey Club, and provides sports and social facilities to the local community. Middlesex University vacated the Trent Park site in October 2012,[18] and in 2013 it was bought by Malaysia's Allianze University College of Medical Sciences (AUCMS) for £30 million,[19] but the buildings were never developed and the college closed in 2014. The house and 50 acres of grounds were sold to Berkeley Housing Group in September 2015.[20][21] Campaigners wanted a museum opened in the house and were lobbying to ensure that this would become part of the official plan; the Trent Park Museum Trust was successful in this effort.[22][2]

Building of a new housing community began in late 2017, to eventually include 262 homes and flats. Some of the heritage buildings were to be re-purposed into luxury apartments; the plan included a museum on the two lower floors of the mansion, expected to open in 2020.[23] The Middlesex University buildings were removed. Renovation of the mansion was expected to commence before the end of 2019. Landscape restoration on the North Lawn and on the south side of the lake was under way in 2019; a Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS) was being installed in Trent Park. Other landscape work for the park was included in the plan. The former dairy in the park was being converted into apartments, each with a garden or terrace. Woburn Cottage was to be demolished, with the new building to house a gym; an outdoor swimming pool and tennis courts were to be added.[24][25]