The evidence that Canaris was playing a double game grew and, at the insistence of Heinrich Himmler, Hitler dismissed Canaris and abolished the in February 1944. The functions of the were taken over by the , part of the Reich Main Security Office and led by SS- Walter Schellenberg. Previous areas once the responsibility of the were divided between Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller and Schellenberg. Some weeks later, Canaris was put under house arrest. He was released from house arrest in June 1944, to take up a post in Berlin as the head of the Special Staff for Mercantile Warfare and Economic Combat Measures (HWK). The HWK coordinated resistance to the Allied economic blockade of Germany.