The Girl from Berlin: Gruppenführer's Mistress

by Ellie Midwood

I sat down on one of the iron chairs and crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for him to speak first. Compared to my first time in the infamous Gestapo jail, I felt a little more confident. Reinhard walked towards another chair across the table from me, still intentionally slowly turning pages of the file he was holding.

  “Well, it sure is nice to see you. Especially here.” He lifted his ice cold blue eyes at me. He reminded me of a shorter version of Heydrich. Needless to say that I hated him as much.

  “And why exactly am I here?” I decided to play an offended victim until I found out all the facts.

  He laughed.

  “Playing dumb won’t help this time, Jew-girl. We found your fingerprints on the wireless radio that used to belong to one of the Resistance members. You have one way out of this jail now – right to the gallows.”

  Shit. They have the radio. But he also said ‘Resistance members,’ which means Adam didn’t tell them who he is working for. I hope they didn’t do anything to him!

  “I don’t understand what you’re talking about. And I demand a lawyer to be present at my interrogation. I’m a member of SS, not some street criminal, and deserve a respectful treatment.”

  “A lawyer?” Reinhard laughed even harder. “We can certainly do that! And I’ll tell you what, I’ll get you the best one here. How about Doctor of Law Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner, who was so upset about our recent confrontation? I would enjoy so much to see what he’s going to do to you when he finds out that you were working with the Resistance all this time.”

  “Dr. Kaltenbrunner is in Vienna.”

  “Oh no, he’s not. He was just having a meeting in this very building with Reichsführer Himmler, Obergruppenführer Heydrich and Gruppenführer Müller. I’m sure that he would love to pay twenty minutes of his time to such a pretty spy.”

  I shrugged.

  “Very well. Go call him then. I’m sure that with him here we’ll clarify everything in less than five minutes.”

  I just wanted Reinhard to leave the room so I could put the cyanide in my mouth.

  “You still don’t realize what you got yourself into, do you?” Reinhard leaned towards me. “I don’t know if you’re sleeping with him or not, but when he sees this, he’ll personally strangle you.”

  “I’m not going to argue with you about anything until I see Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner here or my lawyer.”

  “Fine. You asked for it, Jew-girl.”

  As soon as Reinhard left the room, I quickly clicked off the hidden section of the cross and got the little white capsule out. I had only looked at it once before, when I was putting it inside. That little thing contained such a lethal dosage of cyanide that it would kill me within seconds if I crushed it between my teeth. My hand slightly shivered as I was carefully placing it between my gum and back teeth. I touched my cheek, making sure that the capsule was invisible from the outside. Now if someone would hit me on the face from that side, I’d be dead. I chuckled: they had my fingerprints on the radio, and as Reinhard said it, I only had one way out of this jail – to the gallows. So did it really matter how exactly I’d die?

  I put my cross back in order, took it off my wrist, clenched my hands around it and rested my forehead on my hands, silently saying prayers that I learned when I was a little girl. Those were the Christian prayers of course, unfortunately I didn’t know how to pray in Hebrew. I wasn’t praying to God to take me to heaven – Jews don’t believe in Christian heaven, we believe in heaven on Earth, but for some reason all of us now lived in a Jewish hell. I was praying to God to keep Heinrich safe, to take care of my parents and to help Adam. Talking to somebody, even though this ‘somebody’ didn’t answer to me directly, was comforting.

  The noise behind my door made me straighten in my seat. I put my hands down on my knees and was waiting patiently for the door to open. But even though I tried to look as calm as I could, my heart was racing inside my chest. I wasn’t surprised to see Reinhard come in, and even Dr. Kaltenbrunner following him with a stern face. But the third man, which closed the door behind himself, I expected to see the least. Chief of the Gestapo, Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller.

  “She demands a lawyer,” Reinhard smirked, nodding in my direction.

  “A lawyer?” The Chief of the Gestapo didn’t look intimidating at all, especially standing next to the almost seven feet tall leader of the Austrian SS; Heinrich Müller looked more like a kind grandpa who you used to love visiting during the summer. Only I knew very well that his appearance was more than deceiving. “She can have a lawyer. We’re not some kind of barbarians here after all, right? Herr Gruppenführer, would you be so kind to represent this young lady over there?”

  “I still have no idea what is going on,” Dr. Kaltenbrunner replied without taking his eyes off me.

  “Neither do I,” I added firmly.

  Meanwhile Müller moved the chair for Dr. Kaltenbrunner.

  “Herr Gruppenführer, please, take a seat, while agent Reinhard here will explain to us both the details of this very interesting case. As I understand the young lady is being accused of espionage and high treason?”

  “That’s right, Herr Gruppenführer,” Reinhard replied with visible pleasure. “She was working with the members of the Resistance, and taking into consideration her position of an SS-Helferin here in SD, she most likely shared a lot of classified information with her friends from the Underground.”

  “Those are empty allegations, nothing else. I never had any connections with the Underground.”

  “Give me that.” Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner roughly grabbed my file from Reinhard’s hand, which made the latter make a little step back. I guess he still remembered how his last meeting with the leader of the Austrian SS ended. Only this time my former savior would most likely take his side instead of mine.

  “And what’s the story with the fingerprints?” Müller asked Reinhard, who finally regained control of his voice again.

  “We found her fingerprints on the wireless radio that one of her ‘friends’ tried to get rid of. He’s currently in custody and is being interrogated as well.”

  “He told you it was her radio?” Müller continued.

  “No.” Reinhard frowned. “He insists that it was some other woman who was helping him. But he’s most likely lying. Our best agents are working with him now, soon he’ll tell us everything.”

  “Frau Friedmann.” This time Müller was addressing me. “How can you explain your fingerprints on the wireless device?”

  “My fingerprints can’t possibly be on the wireless device, Herr Gruppenführer. The only wireless devices that I’ve ever touched are within the walls of this very office and if no one stole the radio from here, than the possibility of my fingerprints being on some other device is zero.”

  “You certainly sound very confident about it, Frau Friedmann.” Müller slightly smiled at me. “But what about those pictures that Dr. Kaltenbrunner is holding in his hands right now? Are those her fingerprints, Herr Gruppenführer?”

  “Yes. They are partial, but still identifiable.” He wasn’t looking at Müller, he was looking at me, and his eyes were almost black now with hardly masked anger.

  “They couldn’t possibly be taken off the radio. I can swear my life on it.” I desperately needed him to believe me. “I’ve never touched any other radios except for the official devices here in SD.”

  He looked at me a little longer before going back to the papers in the file.

  “Well, what does it say?” Gruppenführer Müller looked over Dr. Kaltenbrunner shoulder with interest.

  “She’s right actually. The fingerprints were taken off the handle, not the radio itself. And a partial fingerprint on one of the locks. Someone either tried to wipe them off or they were already there before someone else started using it.”

  “Well, that changes everything, doesn’t it?” I crossed my arms over my chest. The cyanide in my mouth had given me the confidence of someone who was about to die any minute soon and therefore
wasn’t afraid of anything anymore.

  “And how exactly does it change everything?” Dr. Kaltenbrunner mirrored my pose, leaning back in his chair.

  “I could have touched that suitcase anywhere. By accident.”

  Reinhard laughed and Gruppenführer Müller just smiled.

  “You touch a lot of other people’s suitcases on a regular basis?” Dr. Kaltenbrunner asked me again with obvious sarcasm.

  “No, of course not. But you have to admit that it could have happened.”

  “This is ridiculous.” Reinhard smirked. “She’s just wasting our time. Let a couple of my guys work with her for an hour, she’ll tell you everything.”

  “I don’t remember asking your goddamn opinion!” Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner yelled at obviously intimidated Reinhard. “Get the hell out of the room, you’re annoying the crap out of me! God dammit!”

  With those words he smashed his fist on the table with such force, that Reinhard decided to leave before the second hit would land on his face. Even I jerked in my seat, for the first time seeing Dr. Kaltenbrunner this angry. I was glad that he at least took his emotions out on an unanimated object instead of hitting me on the head, and I had a feeling that he was very close to it. I know I would be, if I suddenly found out that someone who I was basically risking my life for (and that’s exactly what he was doing while planning Heydrich’s assassination) was all this time lying to my face.

  Even Gruppenführer Müller didn’t feel too comfortable in the presence of this giant with such a volatile temper, and decided to step outside ‘for a smoke.’ Meanwhile Dr. Kaltenbrunner took a deep breath, obviously trying to take his emotions under control, and then looked at me again.

  “Let’s pretend for a second that there is such a miraculous possibility. Where could you have possibly touched the handle of the suitcase which by quite a wondrous coincidence belongs to the member of the Resistance?”

  “I couldn’t possibly remember it now. I need time to think about it.”

  “You have five minutes. Think.”

  I shuddered in the inside from the thought of what he was going to do after five minutes were up and covered my eyes with one hand. I couldn’t concentrate under his stare.

  Where could have I touched the suitcase? I couldn’t just make some story up, it had to be a real occasion which could be proven by somebody. Suitcases. Where were most of them normally found? Train stations. I took a lot of trains in the past several years, but I definitely didn’t touch anything during my trips. Besides, it had to be within a certain time frame, because my fingerprints were still fresh on it. Lately I’ve only been going to Vienna to meet with Dr. Kaltenbrunner. I could feel how his eyes were burning a hole through my head. Oh God, he’s going to kill me!

  Stop it. Concentrate. Vienna. Train. Train station. And suddenly it hit me. Train!!! The train that almost got derailed and I helped a woman with her suitcase! Max was with me, he can confirm it! Yes!!!

  I lifted my head high, hardly concealing a smile.

  “Herr Gruppenführer, I remembered.”

  I saw how he straightened a little in his chair and leaned towards me.

  “I’m all attention, Frau Friedmann.”

  Before saying anything that could compromise us both I leaned closer to him over the table and whispered, “This conversation is not being recorded from the outside, is it?”

  I knew that the Gestapo would sometimes record an interrogation with someone who they felt had important information, and then attach it to their file as reason for their execution.

  Dr. Kaltenbrunner shrugged. It wasn’t his Gestapo and he didn’t know. I decided to speak as secretly as I could considering the situation.

  “When I went to Vienna about a month, maybe two months ago, we had a little accident with the train. It almost got derailed as I was walking towards my coupe, and all the luggage fell from the top shelves. There was a woman with a baby there and I saw her struggling with her suitcase, so I decided to help her because she had her hands full. I tried to pick up her suitcase, but it was very heavy. And then Hauptsturmführer Max Stern, who also works here in SD-Ausland, he by accident was on the same train as me, he helped me with that suitcase. I remember it so well because it was very heavy, and I even jokingly asked her if she had rocks in it. She said it was her husband’s books. She said he was a professor of philosophy. That’s the only suitcase I’ve touched recently.”

  “What were you doing in Vienna?” he asked me slowly. I knew that he had to ask me that if the conversation was indeed being recorded. It would be suspicious if he didn’t; so I had to be very careful with my response.

  “I have a lover in Vienna. Please, don’t tell my husband.”

  A slight grin finally touched the corners of his lips.

  “I won’t. What was your witness’s name again? Max Stern?”

  “Yes, Herr Gruppenführer.”

  He pressed the button under the desk, and one of the SS guards opened the door waiting for his orders.

  “Call here Hauptsturmführer Max Stern. He works in SD-Ausland.”

  “Jawohl, Herr Gruppenführer!”

  After the SS guard disappeared behind the door, Dr. Kaltenbrunner walked behind my back and started to get hair pins out of my braid, until it fell down to my waist. He checked for any other pins, then took the cross from my hands, undid my belt and checked my pockets.

  “What are you doing?” I finally asked, very much confused by such odd behavior.

  “If your story doesn’t prove itself and we find you guilty, you won’t be able to kill yourself before the real interrogation takes place. And take your stockings off, too. Some women strangle themselves with them.”

  Thank God he didn’t check inside my mouth, I thought.

  “I’m not going to kill myself. I’m not guilty of anything. How stupid would I be to try and wipe my fingerprints off the radio but then leave some on the suitcase?”

  Judging by his look he was also thinking of this little dilemma, which was now doing me a big favor. I started to hope that maybe I’d be able to persuade him to my innocence after all. But Dr. Kaltenbrunner was a very hard nut to crack.

  “Are you going to take off your stockings yourself or do you want me to do it?”

  His smirk and steady gaze made me blush as I was undoing the clips holding my stockings under my skirt. Of course he didn’t even think of turning away.

  “And the garter belt, please.”

  “Are you serious?!”

  “Absolutely.” He grinned even wider. “You have no idea how inventive you, women, can be, trying to escape prosecution.”

  “Well, turn away at least.”

  “Unfortunately I can’t.” He was almost laughing at my embarrassment. “According to the rules I should be facing you. Or you can attack me from the back.”

  “Me? Attack you?” I couldn’t believe my ears. He was definitely playing one of his sick games with me.

  “Take it off.” He made a move towards me. “Or I’ll help you take it off.”

  “Alright!” I almost screamed jumping to my feet.

  I was so glad that the official SS-Helferin uniform skirt was pretty long, and was allowing me to at least cover half of my legs while I was struggling with my garter belt under it. Finally I took it off and threw it into Gruppenführer’s hands.

  “Mm, still warm,” he said, feeling it with his fingers.

  “You’re such a…” ‘Dirty pervert,’ I thought, but decided not to finish the sentence, and just sat on my chair with my back to him. He laughed.

  Finally the door opened and the SS guard let Max inside. Seeing me in the chair next to Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner obviously astonished him. Dr. Kaltenbrunner meanwhile gave all my belongings to the guard and motioned him to close the door.

  “Your name is Max Stern, right?”

  “Yes, Herr Gruppenführer.”

  “Do you know this woman?”

  “Yes, Herr Gruppenführer. Annalise and her husband
are our good family friends.”

  “Our?”

  “Mine and my wife’s, Ursula.”

  “Did you take a trip with her to Vienna recently?”

  “Yes, only… We didn’t take a trip together. We accidentally saw each other on the train and separated as soon as we arrived. I had to deliver some documentation to the office in Vienna, and Annalise said she had some personal business to take care of. I offered her a lift, because I had a car with a driver waiting for me, but she said someone was picking her up.”

  That someone was Dr. Kaltenbrunner. He looked at me. So far, so good.

  “And what happened inside the train?”

  Max’s brow furrowed.

  “I don’t understand what exactly you mean, Herr Gruppenführer.”

  “Something unusual happened? Something worth noticing?”

  “Oh yes, our train almost got derailed as we were leaving Berlin. Someone forgot to change the railroad point, and the train had to make an emergency stop. That was it.”

  “What happened as soon as the train stopped? Second by second, please.”

  Max looked very confused by such a strange question, but nevertheless proceeded.

  “Well, as soon as it stopped, all the passengers almost fell onto each other. We almost fell too. The luggage fell down, and I helped some passengers to get it back up. Then we went back to our coupe.”

  “Did Frau Friedmann touch any suitcases?”

  “Yes, she actually did. She tried to help a woman with a baby to put her suitcase back up, but it was way too heavy for her to lift it above her head, so I helped her.”

  “What was in the suitcase?”

  “I don’t know, Herr Gruppenführer, I didn’t ask her to open it. She said it was her husband’s books.”

  “A woman travels with a suitcase full of her husband books and it doesn’t cause your suspicion? You’re an SD agent, for God’s sake! You should open any heavy suitcases that seem suspicious!”

  “I’m sorry, Herr Gruppenführer. I didn’t think of it.”

  I held my breath for a second, trying not to smile. It looked like Dr. Kaltenbrunner started to believe me.

  “One more thing: were you wearing gloves?”