The Girl from Berlin: Gruppenführer's Mistress

by Ellie Midwood

  I came up to my husband and awkwardly hugged him by the waist.

  “Is everything alright?” I lifted my eyes to his.

  “Can’t be better, sweetie.” He was smiling brightly at me. I guess he didn’t see me dancing with Dr. Kaltenbrunner. Thank God he didn’t. I let go of him and joined the conversation, all of a sudden feeling very tired. There had definitely been too many events for one night. I just wanted to go home.

  Chapter 3

  Ingrid and Rudolf couldn’t be happier. It had already been a week since they had begun regularly sending messages to their superiors in the United States based on the transcriptions of Gruppenführer Müller’s conversations, always timely and accurately done by Adam. The Soviet commanding officers were also safe and relatively sound, working at the ammunition factory somewhere in South Germany. I thought that both Dr. Kaltenbrunner and Müller were more than satisfied with that fact, former – because he didn’t have to deal with such a ‘waste of time,’ latter – because he didn’t have to find excuses why he needed to attach them to the rest of the regular soldiers instead of taking care of them himself.

  It was Sunday, and we were having one of our ‘after mass tea parties’ at Rudolf and Ingrid’s. This time Adam was with us as well, since he brought the whole file full of transcripts, which Rudolf was going through as we were speaking. Sometimes he would even click his tongue in satisfaction and say, “This is priceless! Great job, Heinrich! Great job!”

  Heinrich would just smile and wink at me. I wasn’t even trying to hide a proud smile: not too many Aryan Germans, if any, especially occupying such a high rank in Nazi Germany, would risk their life for the people considered to be the enemies of the Reich. But he did. Because to him they weren’t just Jews or Communists, they were people, same people like he was, with families and friends, with someone waiting for them at home, people who deserved to live as much as he did.

  I could understand why Adam was working for the Allies – he was a formerly persecuted Jew and wanted to prevent his people from following his fate, the same reason why I joined the team. I understood why Rudolf and Ingrid were playing spy games for the past seven years – they were Americans and it was their job, to help the Allies fight the Nazi regime from within.

  But Heinrich didn’t have to do what he was doing by any means. He was a German. A purebred Aryan German, from a purebred upper middle class German family with no black sheep amongst them whatsoever. He had quite an impressive resume within SD, a long list of appreciations and awards from his superiors, and could have just enjoyed his life like the rest of them did. But instead he joined the US counterintelligence team, married a Jewish girl and swore to keep fighting for every single life he could possibly save. That’s who he was, my husband. My rebel. My hero.

  I smiled at him and took his hand in mine. He smiled back at me and put his cup back on the coffee table. Adam shifted uncomfortably in his chair; I noticed that he always felt awkward whenever Heinrich and I would display any kind of affection towards each other. I guess he still wasn’t used to the thought that I was married to the German officer, even though that officer was working for the Allies. When he, Adam, was leaving the country after the decree of the elimination of Jews from basically every sphere of economic life came into power, I wasn’t even dating anyone and despised everything concerning the Nazi Party. Being my dancing partner, he was my closest friend back then, and we spent more time working together than with our families. Maybe he thought of me more than just a friend, I didn’t know and I never asked. He would never say anything either.

  “How much time do you think will pass till Müller notices the device?” Ingrid asked Heinrich.

  “I hope he never does.” He laughed and then became serious. “We have to be very careful with all the messages we send though. I know the Gestapo from within, and they are anything but stupid. If Müller notices it, he might not even say anything and keep making believe that nothing happened. He might trick us and start spreading disinformation without us knowing it. That’s why we have to double check everything suspicious coming from his office. He might want to give us a bait and as soon as we swallow it, we’re done for. Be very, very careful with screening all of this information you’re getting.”

  “We always are,” Ingrid said confidently.

  “Is there any way for me to know that he found the device?” Adam asked. “After all I’m the one who can actually hear all the sounds in the office, are there any pointers I should look for?”

  “Yes.” Heinrich nodded. “If you hear a very loud noise and scratching right near the speaker as if someone’s touching it, that’s number one and the most obvious one. Another one is if you hear a click and the sound disappears for some time and then comes back, which means he turns it off and on. And then just pay attention to his manner of speech and intonation, if it sounds too rehearsed and unnaturally loud, he’s putting on a show for us. That’s about it.”

  “All right, I’ll listen very carefully to everything going on there and will let you know right away if something doesn’t sound right.”

  “We really appreciate your help, Adam,” Heinrich said very seriously. “You know, you’re the best radio operator we’ve ever had. And you’ve become our very good friend.”

  Adam smiled shyly at him and lowered his eyes. “Thank you, sir.”

  He never left the habit of addressing both Heinrich and Rudolf ‘sir’ and Ingrid ‘madam.’ Only me he was calling by my first name, just like he used to when we still danced together.

  “Well, I’d better get going then,” he said, quickly getting up from his chair. “I still have to send out yesterday’s mail.”

  ‘Yesterday’s mail’ meant the coded messages that Rudolf prepared for him to transmit today.

  “Do you want me to give you a ride?”

  I quite often offered Adam my services as a personal driver whenever he needed to go someplace far to use his radio. Normally I would drive him either to some secluded area but not too far from a busy road and he would exchange the messages with the US agents right from the car, or to some building in the former Jewish ghettos where no one would pay attention to us.

  “If it’s not too much trouble.” Adam smiled at me.

  “Don’t be silly, of course not.” He did have his own car, but mine (or better say Heinrich’s) was way less suspicious. SS plates on it had a tendency to make it invisible for the possible Gestapo agents searching the area. “Let me just finish my tea.”

  “Sure, take your time. I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

  Adam said goodbye to everyone in the room and left. Ingrid meanwhile turned to my husband.

  “Try not to befriend any of your co-workers.”

  Both he and I were very much surprised by such an unexpected statement coming from the American agent.

  “Why not?” Heinrich frowned at her.

  “Affection and any personal attachments are the qualities that should be completely disregarded by any good agent. They quite often lead to failure.”

  “I don’t understand what you mean.”

  Ingrid sighed.

  “You can’t allow any personal feelings to stand on your way while doing your job with the Secret Service. They create weak spots. See, Rudolf and I, even though we pose as husband and wife, never allowed any kinds of feelings to be between us except for the mutual respect for each other. This way if one of us gets compromised, the other one will get a chance for survival. We wouldn’t give away any information if someone from the Gestapo would hold a gun to the other’s head. Can you say the same about your wife?”

  Heinrich and I exchanged quick looks. Ingrid just nodded.

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Your wife is your weak spot as it is, don’t make any more of them befriending our subordinates, especially radio operators. They tend to die more often than the rest of us.”

  _______________

  Still thinking of Ingrid’s words I was driving towards the former Ghetto,
following Adam’s instructions since I didn’t know it as well as he did. His wireless radio was in the trunk of my car, neatly packed in the suitcase. When we finally pulled up to the building he planned to use, we made sure that the narrow street was absolutely deserted, and only after that Adam got out of the car and took the suitcase from the trunk.

  “Don’t wait for me here, there’s another exit on the other side of the building that you can use. It’s quieter in there,” Adam told me through my driver’s window.

  “I’ll park the car and come upstairs with you.” Sometimes I would do that so while he was exchanging messages with the Americans I could look out the window for any possible suspicious activity. This time I decided to do the same.

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I want to. What’s the number of the apartment?”

  “Thirty six. I won’t lock the door.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  After watching Adam disappear behind the front door, I circled around the shabby building and found myself in a small yard with the dirt road leading back to the main street as I figured. Judging by the bushes surrounding it, no one had driven a car here since the time when Germany was still a republic. I shook my head as I stepped on the ground covered with dirt and garbage, and proceeded inside the building trying very hard not to scrunch my nose. The smell here well suited the look, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the back yard was sometimes used as a lavatory by the new habitants of the area.

  When I opened the door to the apartment with my elbow (I forgot my gloves in the church, and now gave myself a mental note not to touch anything inside the apartment), Adam was already working with the radio with his headphones on. I decided not to bother him and went directly to the window, leaning on the wall next to it and slightly moving the stained and moth-eaten curtain away. Everything seemed quiet. For two years already we would perform the same routine in different places, and they were just not fast enough to get us. Adam always worked with an incredible speed.

  But this time was different. My eyes widened as soon as I saw a black car quickly approaching the building from the front. There was no way it could be the Gestapo so soon! But I didn’t want to take a risk. I rushed towards Adam and shook his shoulder.

  “Adam, let’s get out, quickly! The Gestapo’s here!”

  He took the headphones off his head and stared at me.

  “What???”

  “Let’s split up.” I already stuffed the sheet with the coded messages in the pocket of my dress, shut the suitcase with ice cold hands and grabbed the handle. “I’m the one with the car, I’ll try to get this thing out from the back and you try to get away through the roof. The next building is very close, jump on its roof and try to make it out.”

  I was already at the door when Adam tried to take the radio away from me.

  “Annalise, wait! Leave the radio, get out alone!”

  “Just go, Adam!!”

  “No, leave it to me!!!”

  He yanked the handle out of my hands and ran upstairs, while I rushed downstairs as fast as I could. The apartment was on the third floor and the only chance to outrun the Gestapo was by taking the back exit, jump into my car and pray to God that they didn’t send a second car to block the backyard. But if they caught me in the hallway before I could escape through the back exit, I’d be dead.

  The adrenaline was pumping in my blood as I almost jumped the last three steps leading to the hallway. I could see them running towards the building within twenty steps of me; I quickly turned to the back exit, run outside, got into my car and clenched onto the steering wheel, praying that the dirt road was clear. I saw one of them running after me in the back yard in the rear view mirror and getting his gun out. Then I floored the accelerator and turned the wheel all the way to the right, surprisingly safely making it to the main road despite all the gun shots behind my back.

  I was driving way too fast through the backstreets of Berlin feverishly thinking where to go. Hopefully that agent who was trying to shoot at me didn’t see my license plates. Hopefully Adam could escape through the roofs. Hopefully he’d get rid of that goddamn suitcase before someone would catch up with him. We could have just left it in the apartment of course, as if one of us would get caught with it, the Gestapo would have the biggest evidence they could possibly use against us. Without the radio on our hands it would be very difficult to prove anything. Unless, of course, they decided to torture us. I shuddered.

  “Shit!!!” I never cursed but this time was appropriate. I just remembered that I had a coded message stuffed in my pocket, the message that Adam was supposed to burn as soon as he would be done with transmitting. Normally he would learn them by heart, but this time they were extremely lengthy and he had to use the paper. The paper with Rudolf’s handwriting on it. With his and probably Ingrid’s fingerprints on it.

  With a shaking hand I got the piece of paper out of my pocket and not knowing what else to do, started tearing it piece by piece and stuffing it in my mouth. The paper tasted very weird and was very difficult to swallow without water. I tried to chew it in smaller pieces. Now all I could do is drive home and hope that Adam was able to escape.

  _______________

  I was sitting on the bed while Heinrich was pacing the room from time to time running his hand through his hair. His gun, fully loaded, was laying on the nightstand next to me. I took another sip from the glass he gave me. I hated brandy but at least it stopped me from shivering uncontrollably.

  “Did they see you?” He asked me once again.

  “They were running towards the building. There was no light inside the hallway, so I don’t know. Maybe they just saw that it was a woman. I don’t think they saw my face.”

  “Do you think they remembered your plates?”

  “I don’t know, Heinrich. I really don’t know anything.”

  I put the glass aside and covered my face with my hands, feeling absolutely helpless and desperate. The unknown was the worst part. He sat on the bed next to me and pressed me to his chest.

  “It’s alright, sweetie, everything’s going to be alright. If they come here, I’ll shoot them all. They won’t get you, I promise.”

  “You can’t shoot everybody in the Gestapo.”

  “I know I can’t. But that’ll be enough to get you out of the country. I’ll drive you to the border of Switzerland, you’ll go get your parents and all of you will go to New York. As a matter of fact, let’s go now. Pack a small suitcase and let’s go. Why wait?”

  I lifted my head and looked him in the eyes.

  “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

  “Annalise, I’ll have to stay here. If I leave together with you, they’ll go after my family. You know how things are done in the Reich.”

  “Then I’m staying too.”

  “No, you’re not. Let’s go.” Heinrich got up and tried to pull me on my feet, but I pulled back with all the resistance I had.

  “No, Heinrich. I said I’m staying here with you.”

  “Annalise, they’re going to kill you! Don’t you understand?!”

  “Maybe they won’t! Maybe they won’t find out that I have anything to do with it. Besides, even if they do, at least I’ll be able to save you. I’ll tell them that you never knew of my connections with the Americans. You have an impeccable reputation here, they’ll believe me.”

  He frowned at me, shaking his head.

  “Don’t even think of it! Don’t even think of sacrificing your life for me. You should save yourself.”

  “The Allies need you, Heinrich. You’re the one who should save yourself. Think about the importance of the job you’re doing.”

  “Screw that job! It’s not worth my wife’s life for God’s sake!”

  I got up from the bed, walked up to my husband and put both hands on his face. I saw tears in his eyes and it made me start crying.

  “Heinrich, I love you more than anything. I’m staying with you, no matter what. If we die, we’ll die
together. But there’s no way I’m leaving you!”

  Then we grabbed each other into the tightest embrace and just stood like that for what seemed like an eternity. Neither one of us wanted to let go first.

  _______________

  They didn’t come for me that night. They didn’t come for me for the next couple of days, and I started to hope that maybe I was safe after all. But then they stopped right in front of my desk, and as soon as I lifted up my eyes at them, I knew that was it.

  “Frau Friedmann, you’re going to have to come with us.”

  Barbara was looking at our colleagues from Amt IV, simply known as the Gestapo, with her eyes wide open. It was not every day they came to arrest their co-workers. I sighed, put away my pen and slowly got up from the chair. Well, it happened after all.

  I followed them through the familiar hallways of the Reich Main Security Office building, wondering what they had on me. If someone thinks they identified me from the picture, that’s one thing. They can be mistaken and I can argue that. But if they found my fingerprints on the suitcase that I so recklessly touched or followed up my license plates, I’m done for. I clasped the cross on my wrist with cyanide hidden in it in my hand, hoping that they would leave me alone so I would be able to put the capsule in my mouth, just in case. Then if something went wrong, all I’d have to do was to bite on it.

  They brought me to the basement, and I suddenly caught myself experiencing the most terrifying deja-vu: several years ago I was brought to the same basement, but my charges of concealing a Jewish identity was a walk in a park compared to the charges of high treason and espionage. They took me to the already familiar hall with several interrogation rooms and, after the guard locked the door behind us, they walked me inside one of them, right to the hands of my menacingly smiling interrogator – Ulrich Reinhard. I wasn’t surprised that he probably jumped on my case as soon as he saw it. After all he swore to kill me.