The Austrian: Book Two Read online

  “Reichsführer, I am sorry to inform you, but I’m inclined to refuse your generous offer.” I pronounced every word loud and clear, without a single shade of doubt in my voice. “I am more than satisfied with my current position and would much rather work under someone’s leadership, than become an acting Chief of the RSHA myself.”

  Himmler was looking at me for what seemed like several of the longest minutes of my life, before saying at last, “Are you still sick, Gruppenführer?”

  “No, Reichsführer. I am, in fact, perfectly well, and understand the possible implications my words might have.”

  “I don’t think you do, Gruppenführer,” Himmler replied coldly, a deep scowl knitting his brows together. “Go rest for the remainder of the day, as you’re talking absolute nonsense. I will see you tomorrow morning, first thing. And don’t even think of coming to a meeting with me drunk again.”

  I had just opened my mouth to assure him that I wasn’t drunk at all, when he pointed at the door and barked, “Dismissed!”

  I slowly turned around and walked to the exit, when abruptly he called out to me in an icy cold tone, “Gruppenführer! Haven’t you forgotten something?”

  Of course I have. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it for some reason. Without lifting my eyes, I struggled to raise my hand, which all of a sudden felt like it weighed a ton, in the usual salute.

  “Heil Hitler, Reichsführer,” I muttered.

  “You’re disgracing the SS with your saluting.” Himmler said sternly, his arms still crossed over his chest. “Do it the right way, Ernst.”

  I inhaled a full chest of frosty air, straightened completely and with all the defiance and resentment I felt towards him at that moment, I clicked my heels and saluted sharply, almost yelling, “Heil Hitler!”

  “That’s right. And don’t you forget that.”

  _______________

  Nuremberg, August 1946

  “Don’t forget your papers for court,” Henry, my guard, reminded me once again while I was getting dressed in my suit. “Today is the most important day, when you can give your last statement before they make their verdict.”

  “I might as well say nothing at all.” I chuckled bitterly. “I know my verdict by now. What’s the point to all this? I’d rather they didn’t drag time and got this over with already.”

  Henry only lowered his eyes and didn’t reply. He escorted me to the entrance of the courtroom and, before handing me to another guard who was holding my tie, he pressed my hand slightly and nodded, expressing his silent support. I smiled at him, put my tie on, took the papers from his hands, and stepped through the doors to the unusually quiet courtroom. After I took my seat between Keitel and Rosenberg, I noticed that all of my co-defendants wore an air of deep concern, and even the regular banter that everyone used to exchange after the solitude of their cells, was absent today. It seemed like everyone was concentrated only on the papers they held, as if words meant anything at all. I sighed and decided to study the ceiling instead.

  When it was finally my turn to read out my final statement, the last words that I was to speak in that courtroom, I got up, straightened my jacket and took a deep breath.

  “The Prosecution holds me responsible for the concentration camps, for the destruction of Jewish life, for Einsatzgruppen and other things. None of this is in accord with the evidence nor with the truth. The accusers, as well as the accused, are exposed to the dangers of a summary proceeding. It is correct that I had to take over the Reich Main Security Office. There was no guilt in that itself. Such offices exist in governments of other nations too. However, the task and activity assigned to me in 1943 consisted almost exclusively toward the reorganization of the German political and military intelligence service, though not as Heydrich’s successor. Almost a year after his death I had to accept this post under orders and as an officer at a time when suspicion fell on Admiral Canaris of having collaborated with the enemy for years.

  Offices IV and V of the Reich Main Security Office were subordinate to me in theory only, not in fact. The chart shown here of the different groups and the chain of command leading from them, is wrong and misleading. Himmler, who understood in a masterly way how the SS, which for a long time ceased to be an organizational and ideological unit, could be split up into very small groups and be brought under his immediate influence, so far as it served his purpose. Together with Müller, the Chief of the Gestapo, he committed the crimes which we know about today. I emphatically and vehemently state that, contrary to public opinion, I learned only about a very small fraction of the activities of these offices, which were actually under Himmler and his accomplices, and only insofar as it concerned my own special work.

  In regards to the Jewish question I was just as much deceived as other high officials. I never approved nor tolerated the biological extermination of Jewry. The anti-Semitism found in Party and State laws was still to be considered in time of war as an emergence defense measure. The anti-Semitism of Hitler, as we understand it today, was barbarism. I did not participate in either of these forms and maintain, as I shall show, that the discontinuance of the extermination of the Jews is to be traced to my influence on Hitler.

  I know only that in my belief in Adolf Hitler I put all my strength at the disposal of my people. As a German soldier I could only put myself at the service of the defense against those destructive forces which had once brought Germany close to the abyss, and which today, after the collapse of the Reich, are still threatening the world. If I have made mistakes in my work through a false conception of obedience, if I carried out orders, all of which insofar as they are alleged to be cardinal orders, were issued before my time of office, then they are part of a fate which is stronger than myself and which is carrying me along with it. I am accused here because substitutes are needed for the missing Himmler and other elements which were completely contrary to me. Whether my point of view and explanation are accepted or rejected, I ask you not to connect the fate and honor of hundreds of thousands of the living and dead of the general SS, of the Waffen SS, and the civil servants who, believing in their ideal, bravely defended their Reich to the last, with your just curse against Himmler. Like myself, they believed that they were acting according to law.”

  Having said my last words, I nodded curtly at the judges and sat on the bench, not paying any more attention to what was going on around me, recollecting one particular day in my mind; the day which had sealed my fate forever.

  It was a particularly cold January morning, and I was standing by the radiator in my office in Vienna warming my hands, with my fresh coffee cup standing on top of it as well, when Georg knocked on my door. After I told him to come in, he approached me warily, and, with a concerned look on his face handed me a sealed envelope.

  “From Reichsführer Himmler’s office, Herr Gruppenführer.” I took the envelope from his hands, as he shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another.

  “Is there anything else?” I asked him, suspecting what was inside the letter.

  “There’s an officer in the anteroom, waiting to escort you to Berlin. He says he has higher orders not to leave without you…” My adjutant barely whispered, looking guiltily at the floor, as if it was his fault, as if he had failed to protect me like he was supposed to.

  I smiled sadly, broke the seal and started reading Himmler’s order. It would be a lie if I said that I didn’t expect this letter any time soon. I would actually have been more surprised if he didn’t send for me, especially after our last conversation. Then, for the first time, I heard Reichsführer SS scream, throwing his infuriated accusations at me, comparing me to the enemies of the state who refused to follow their commanders’ orders. I stood stubbornly at attention and refused to say anything except for another ‘no.’ He had already threatened me with the Eastern front if I ‘kept being pigheaded and couldn’t recognize the trust that my commanders had in my abilities as the new Chief of the RSHA.’

  “I would gladly serve my Führer and
my Reich in the front, Reichsführer,” I replied, with a smile of relief. “As a matter of fact, I’ve been wanting to ask you for such a position for quite a long time.”

  “I’ll send you to the frontline, from where you’ll be seeing Russkies like you see me now, and not as a commanding officer, but as a regular private. Is that what you want?!”

  “Jawohl, Reichsführer!”

  “Do you know the survival rate on the frontline? About half-a-day. You’ll get shot before you know it.”

  “So be it, Reichsführer.”

  Himmler looked me up and down incredulously as if I had completely gone off my head. That’s what it probably looked like to him.

  “You actually prefer certain death in the frontline to occupying a position, which hundreds of officers here in Berlin would kill for?” he asked me once again, separating every word in the hope that the meaning of it would finally get to me.

  “Jawohl, Reichsführer.” I nodded calmly.

  “You’re refusing your Führer’s generous offer? You’re refusing your Führer,” Himmler finished in a menacingly low voice.

  I had to admit, they got to me, his last words. I felt incredibly guilty, so very guilty that I couldn’t hold his gaze anymore and lowered my eyes, feeling the heat of shame coloring my cheeks. And still, even though my very life depended on it, I pressed my lips together and refused to say a word. They would have to kill me before making me into what I hated most my whole life – another Heydrich.

  “Get out of my office, you traitor of the Reich!” Himmler bellowed after not getting my consent of acceptance to the post even after his ultimate threat. “I can’t stand looking at you another minute! Get out!!!”

  I was thinking about that last meeting of ours, reading Himmler’s military order to summon me to Berlin immediately. I was surprisingly calm, unlike my anxious adjutant, wondering only why Reichsführer had waited for so long before arresting me, or sending me to the front – the order was just for me to come to Berlin, and didn’t say anything of the fate that awaited me.

  I patted Georg’s shoulder affectionately, thanking him for an excellent service with that simple gesture, finished my coffee and went to the anteroom to the plain clothed man, who was awaiting me. He rose from his chair and saluted me, much to my surprise. I expected him to handcuff me, like they always did with all those unfortunates who committed treason against the State. Nothing was more terrifying for the rest of the staff than to watch one of their former comrades being led out in handcuffs, with the military insignia torn off their uniforms and their head hanging low in defeat. I was spared from such humiliation for whatever reason Himmler had.

  “Gestapo?” I asked the plain-clothed man.

  “No, sir. Military police.”

  I nodded, and after a moment of awkward silence, disturbed only by Georg’s nervous shuffling in the doors, I addressed the MP. “So where are you to take me?”

  “I’m not taking you anywhere, sir, I’m merely escorting you. Reichsführer said that we can stop by your house so you can pick up anything you might need.”

  So the Eastern front then. No one needed any belongings going to the gallows.

  “All right. Let’s not waste any time then.”

  He followed me like a shadow to my apartment and stood in the living room while I changed into a full front uniform, took a duffel bag with everything already neatly packed inside, from when I had been enlisted in the army reserve after the declaration of war, and motioned my guard to the exit. He didn’t bother with any small talk on the way to Berlin, only informed me that we were to go straight to the Reich Chancellery immediately after we got off the train.

  It seemed like Reichsführer was awaiting me, as I was admitted to him as soon as I stepped through the doors of his grand anteroom. Himmler was busy writing something, however he gave me one of his enigmatic smiles as soon as I saluted him and stood at attention.

  “What are you doing with that duffel bag, Gruppenführer?” he asked with amusement in his voice. Not quite the reaction I expected.

  I glanced at the army bag lying on the floor at my feet, and back at Himmler.

  “You told me to collect my belongings…” I said, puzzled. “I’m going to the front, aren’t I?”

  Himmler chuckled. “You’re not going anywhere, Ernst. You’re staying right here, in Berlin.”

  Silence filled the room, until I said at last, frowning, “I don’t understand, Reichsführer…”

  “What’s not to understand? The Führer doesn’t want anyone else in the position of Chief of the RSHA. You know how he is, once he gets something in his head, it’s impossible to persuade him to the contrary. He ordered me to bring you here by any means, and make you accept the post, which I am doing right now.”

  “Reichsführer, I think I made myself clear on that matter,” I interrupted him against all military code, however I was more than certain that my fate was decided and therefore I wasn’t afraid to openly go against him anymore. “I will never accept that post. The responsibilities, which it concerns itself with, go against all my humanitarian beliefs, and my honor as an officer and a man—”

  “Ernst, Ernst, stop it.” Reichsführer waved his hand before his face, interrupting me with a calm voice. “Before you give yourself and me another headache, allow me to show you something that will most certainly make the process of your decision-making much easier.”

  He motioned me closer to his table and laid out two papers in front of me.

  “I have two orders here, Ernst. One is for your appointment as Chief of the RSHA, starting January 30th, 1943.” He gave me a pointed look before touching the corner of the other paper. “Another one is to announce that you are an enemy of the State, and subject to immediate prosecution.”

  “I am ready to face any consequences, Reichsführer.”

  “Will you allow your superior to finish, Gruppenführer?” Clearly annoyed with my interruption, he tilted his head, pursing his lips and interlacing his fingers.

  “I apologize, Reichsführer. Only, I don’t see any sense in continuing this conversation if we both know that I won’t change my decision.”

  Himmler eyed me for quite a long time and then asked, “Do you know what the Führer’s order for the ‘Blood Fault’ stands for?”

  I immediately froze in my place, feeling the blood leaving all my extremities at once. He couldn’t possibly threaten me with that. After his next words, I realized that I was mistaken.

  “I assume that you do. In this second order that I was trying to explain to you, before you so rudely interrupted me, in the second paragraph it states, that not only are you subject to prosecution, but, as a high ranking officer, your closest family members will have to face punishment as well. It means that your wife will be sent to one of the working camps for an indefinite time, your children will be set up for adoption to a German family, who will raise them according to the values that their birth parents don’t seem to appreciate; your brothers will be stripped of their ranks and sentenced to hard labor in Dachau, and their wives together with your mother will be sent to Ravensbruck.” Himmler observed me closely, slightly tapping one of his fingers on the table top, and then took his pen in his hand. “You have two orders in front of you, Ernst. You chose, which one am I to sign.”

  My eyes were glued to the one he had just explained to me with such nonchalant coldness that I knew from the tone of his voice that he wouldn’t hesitate a second before putting it into effect.

  “Now, Ernst!” He pressed me irritably, raising his voice once again.

  I slowly stretched my hand out and, without looking at it, moved the order of my appointment to the Heydrich’s post towards him.

  “Wise decision, Ernst.” Reichsführer quickly signed his sharp double ‘H’ under the order and looked up at me, smiling as if nothing had happened. “How much easier it is to make a decision when you don’t have a choice, huh, Ernst? That’s what it’s all about, our wonderful new Reich. We think for people n
ow, because sometimes they don’t see the whole picture, and it’s us, their leaders, who have to show them the right way. They will appreciate it later. You will appreciate it later, Ernst. You will thank me, just couple of years from now, after we win this war. You’ll be standing on a podium before a roaring crowd, and you’ll think of me, and you’ll thank me.”

  I opened my eyes to the courtroom before me, to the panel of judges, to Albert Speer, reading out his final statement and pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes to prevent the bitter tears from falling.

  “Thank you, Reichsführer. Thank you so very much for everything.” I whispered with all the hatred I felt towards him, cursing his name to all the hells of the world.

  Chapter 12

  Berlin, April 1943

  “Thank you very much, Rosamunde, I think I know what Reichsführer wants from me.” I politely tried to get rid of Himmler’s subordinate.

  Frau Friedmann opened the door to my office, but didn’t move any further and just stood there with obvious amusement as she observed how one of Himmler’s secretaries had brought me an order concerning the Warsaw ghetto uprising. The secretary was explaining Reichsführer’s wishes on the subject, all the while smiling and leaning on my table in a very unofficial manner. I gave my personal secretary a one shoulder shrug, indicating that I was the innocent party here, but she only rolled her eyes, barely restricting herself from sneering.

  “Rosalinde,” she corrected me and smiled again. “Please, if you need something else – anything – just call Reichsführer’s anteroom. I will be more than happy to assist you with anything you need, Herr Gruppenführer.”

  “I appreciate that very much, but you can go now,” I repeated with a polite smile plastered on my face.

  Rosalinde beamed at me one last time and proceeded to the exit, not forgetting to throw a hostile glance at Frau Friedmann. The latter only chuckled after closing the door after the girl and folded her arms on her chest.