***
The Guard commander explained that the artifact had arrived in what seemed like a regular bomb, except that it dropped from the bright June sky into the middle of the Wolfsschanze parade grounds with no planes in sight. And it did not explode, opening instead like a flower to display a tube inside. When it was clear that the thing was not about to detonate, a brave SS guard opened the tube. Inside was a large rolled-up sheet of film with a message in German.
The guard commander handed the film to Himmler who started reading it with first a surprised and then disgusted expression.
“Himmler, read it aloud.”
To: The leadership of Nazi Germany
From: The Great Caliph
We are holding you responsible for the well-being of all Jews under your jurisdiction, including those located in your allied and conquered countries.
You are hereby ordered to immediately stop all persecution of Jews under your control now or in the future. If you continue to act against the Jews, we will kill at least 100 Germans for every Jew you harm.
You will supply the Jews with adequate amounts of food, medicine and clothing to keep them in good health until such time as you will transfer them to us.
We eliminated a large portion of your special troops assigned to exterminate the Jews but as a show of goodwill did not touch the Wehrmacht or German civilians.
You are to confirm the receipt of these orders using the procedure outlined below. If we receive no confirmation within 10 hours, we will destroy a major military target in Germany.
May Allah be with us
Signed: The Great Caliph
Hitler was seriously angry. He sputtered trying to express what he felt. ”Whoever had the gall to do this will pay a high price,” he yelled. “We will never succumb to demands from the Judeo-Bolsheviks.”
His rage exhausted him before he decided what to do with the strange artifact.
“Mein Fuhrer,” Himmler said quietly, “I suggest that we wait for Goering. He should be here by evening.”
“No.” Hitler was calmer now. “We go to Berlin. I want a full analysis of this” - he pointed at the film and the capsule - “by our experts. I will want to hear what options you, the Generals, and Goering propose tomorrow morning.”
“This will be past the deadline given by the message.” Himmler was uncharacteristically subdued.
“Who cares!” yelled the Fuehrer as he strutted out of the bunker on his way up to the car waiting to take him to the nearby airfield. Himmler had no choice but to follow the great leader.
They were airborne for about five minutes when the co-pilot entered the cabin and saluted. “Mein Fuhrer, we received a voice message. It is still repeating.” Hitler made a gesture of acceptance, and the pilot switched on the cabin speakers.
A calm male voice repeated a warning: “The Wolfsschanze will be annihilated in less than a minute. We recommend that everyone close their eyes to preserve vision.”
“What is this - another bad joke?” Hitler was looking from the pilot to Himmler.
When the flash came, everyone in the plane wished they had obeyed the instructions to close their eyes. The plane shook with an enormous shock. None of them saw the large, mushroom-shaped cloud rising above Wolfsschanze.
Hitler ordered the pilot to turn around. He must personally see the damage done to his headquarters. “Land on our airstrip,” he barked into the intercom. There was no response. After a minute or so, when still nothing happened, he sent his secretary to the cockpit to repeat his order. She came back as the plane was banking into a turn. “The pilots did not hear the order. The intercom is out, as is the radio and some of the instruments in the cockpit,” she reported.
They could not land on the airstrip. A huge fire was consuming the surrounding forest. Visibility was limited by smoke, and updrafts made the plane barely controllable. After seeing what he could, Hitler decided to land at the closest place that had an aircraft to take him back to Berlin. They landed in Warsaw, escorted by a fighter plane from the base there since their aircraft hadn’t responded to radioed challenges. They had not been shot down only because the Luftwaffe fighter pilot sent to intercept them had correctly recognized the markings as the Fuehrer’s personal plane.
On the flight to Berlin Hitler was morose and quiet, except to swear at the Jews and at Goering from time to time. The loss of his devoted and trusted Wolfsschanze guard bothered him not at all. He was annoyed by the fact that the Luftwaffe seemed unable to protect this most important command center. He had ordered Goering to have a Luftwaffe patrol in the skies above Wolfsschanze. Why hadn’t they reported anything?
Himmler was hopeful, as he always was when Hitler was angry with Goering that his position in the leadership was improving.
Another message was waiting when they reached Berlin. This one had been received on the General Staff frequency using the current code.
“You witnessed another show of our good will. The destruction of Wolfsschanze was delayed until after Herr Hitler’s departure. We exterminated a minimum number of German military personnel.
If our orders are not obeyed exactly as given, we will destroy one of your cities.”
By now it was close to dawn, an hour before the deadline. Hitler, ever the opportunist, announced to his aides, “We’ll start talking to these barbarians in order to gain time. We’re bound to learn something that will help us. Promise them whatever they want. They have no way of verifying our promises anyway. Nothing will stop us from solving the Jewish problem.” Hitler cheered up at the prospect.
***
At about midnight of the same day the Israeli Chief of General Staff was reporting to the government. “We started the persuasion phase,” he said. “A one kiloton tactical device destroyed their headquarters near Rastenburg. This was a target of opportunity we decided to attack. It gave Hitler a good demonstration of what will happen if he doesn’t follow our instructions. We will use a seven kiloton bomb, in case the first one did not persuade them. We are also destroying the rail-heads at as many concentration camps as we can reach. This is a list of possible targets for the second bomb and our recommendations.” He pulled out a sheaf of papers from his briefcase and gave a page to every member of the cabinet.
It was a list of German cities, with Potsdam at the top and Munich at the bottom.
The Industry and Infrastructure Minister had a question: “I have doubts about the use of a second nuclear weapon. If used once, on Wolfsschanze, it may slip the attention of their scientists. What if they investigate the larger attack we are planning? Will it not advance their research into atomic bombs?”
“It may indeed,” responded Amos Nir, “but what choice do we have? We probably could bomb a couple of sensitive targets with conventional bombs, or we could drop an air-fuel bomb on a town. This sort of bomb would cause serious damage, but nowhere as impressive as a nuclear device. It would also have the disadvantage of being easily copied, assuming the Nazis analyze what happened. We don’t want to go to war with them – just make them do what we tell them, and do it immediately. To achieve this we must shock the leadership into believing our story or at least convince them to obey us. I think that the risk of this spurring their scientists into a fast development of their own device is real, but acceptable. We will have to deal with this if and when it happens.”
***
General Wilson had his reply at about ten in the evening of Monday, June 23, 1941. The radio message from London was short and to the point: “Provide immediate transportation and assist the Palestinian Ambassador with all his needs.” – at the Israelis’ request their existence was to be kept top secret and all future references were to be to “Palestinians”. Since a copy went to Cairo, Wilson was notified by the Cairo RAF wing that, as previously arranged, a Bristol Blenheim was on its way to the Gaza airstrip. It was scheduled to arrive the next morning. The plan was to refuel, pick up the Israeli Ambassador and immediately take off for London, only stopping to refuel a
t Malta. The Israelis promised an air umbrella for the bomber all the way to Gibraltar with, in their estimate, a safe course directly over Libya and Morocco, potential Italian, French or Luftwaffe interference notwithstanding.
Wilson sent the agreed upon code to the Israelis. Now it was out of his hands. He hoped that this alliance would help Great Britain win the war quickly. In any case, the danger to the home islands had diminished once the Germans attacked the Soviets. If it wasn’t for the U boats, Britain would be in great shape. The German submarines were taking a heavy toll on British shipping. Food and oil were hard to get by on the islands, their availability in the other parts of the Empire not being of great help.
Wilson forced himself to go back to the matters at hand. The Vichy Commissioner for Syria had made contact with Wilson’s HQ earlier in the day. Wilson was hopeful that surrender would be negotiated soon. There was not much sense in continuing the slaughter of the French forces in Syria. Apparently the Commissioner figured out that to save his troops they either had to retreat or surrender. Any show of resistance left the heroic units dead by means unknown and the rest so demoralized that resistance seemed absolutely futile. The General planned to respond to the negotiation invitation early the next day, Tuesday, June 24.
***
A ministerial committee was negotiating with Hitler. The group was led by the Prime Minister with the Foreign and Defense Ministers at his side. They consulted a variety of advisors - the Chief of General staff, several historians, and a professional police negotiator being the most important. They also had the resources of the Holocaust remembrance organizations at their disposal. The negotiations were less complicated than anyone could have anticipated. In the original history, Hitler consistently approached conflict by trying to bully opponents, making empty promises, and doing as he pleased in secret. This time, events on the ground were known almost immediately, which gave the committee an enormous advantage.
“Let me summarize the situation,” Amos Nir said. “As of yesterday night, Monday, June 23, the Nazis promised to take good care of the Jews, like we required of them. Their only condition was that we remove these Jews from Europe immediately. I propose that we explain to them that they have to organize the transportation of Jews by rail to major ports on the Mediterranean and from there by ships to Palestine. We damaged some of the railheads near large concentration camps, but this should not impede their efforts for very long.”
“You are assuming they intend to keep the agreement?” wondered the Foreign Minister.
“Not at all. On the contrary, I believe they are preparing to execute their original plans as we speak. According to the history we know, the Nazis stirred up a pogrom in Lutsk, in the Ukraine, on June 25 - tomorrow. This may or may not happen on schedule. We’ve changed history sufficiently that historical records are now unreliable, becoming more so by the minute. We just have to watch carefully and respond as soon as there is sufficient data to indicate cheating.”
The negotiating team was satisfied with the proposed solution, and the experts concurred.
***
Mid-morning, Tuesday, June 24, 1941, found Hitler meeting with his General Staff, Goering and Himmler. With the aid of giant maps on the conference table and on the wall, Field Marshal von Brauchitsch, the Commander in Chief of the German Army, explained the army’s advances on the eastern front. Goering was beaming as if the whole success of Barbarossa was his doing – which annoyed Himmler immensely. Undeniably the Luftwaffe had eliminated the Soviet air force very efficiently and was of great help to the Wehrmacht on the ground. On the other hand, he had no explanation for what happened at Wolfsschanze: both the delivery of the message on film and the method by which the base was destroyed remained a mystery.
Hitler was quite satisfied with the army’s progress against the Soviet Union and soon dismissed the generals. Only Goering and Himmler remained.
“Send them in,” he said into the intercom.
Four people entered the conference room: Professor Dr. Fritz Koenig, Joseph Goebbels, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Alfred Rosenberg. Hitler gestured for them to be seated at the huge table. Koenig looked a bit nervous; he was not accustomed to the presence of The Fuehrer.
“We will begin with Dr. Koenig,” Hitler announced. “Please report your findings.”
Koenig got up and spread a number of large photographs and diagrams on the table. He was in his late fifties, medium height, medium build and nondescript looks. His appearance was deceptive. Fritz Koenig held doctorates from several universities - including Harvard, Cambridge and Heidelberg - in several disciplines, including physics, chemistry and engineering. He was a veteran Nazi party member, a senior scientific advisor to the SS since 1938 and was highly valued by Himmler.
“I would first like to make a general comment,” he began, “on the state of the artifacts. I was given three to examine. One of them looked like some kind of optical device, the other was a transparent film, and the last was a metal structure that resembled a five petal flower about one meter tall and approximately fifteen centimeters in diameter when closed.” Koenig went on for several minutes describing and analyzing different parts of the devices.
“Now to the film. This is most interesting. We’ve been unable to determine what it’s made of. It’s a polymer, very strong, somewhat elastic, flexible, transparent, extremely tear-resistant and fire resistant. I never saw anything like it and have no idea how it was made. I wish I could meet the people who produced it. If we knew how it was synthesized…” he finished wistfully.
“Are you sure you never saw anything similar to this film?” Goering asked. “What about photographic film, or Plexiglas?”
“Well, it is much stronger than nitrocellulose, which is the material of photo film, and it does not burn, like photo film will. Our chemical analysis showed no resemblance to nitrocellulose or Plexiglas. I have to admit that it showed nothing at all – the material did not dissolve in either acid or alkaline liquids. We tried mass spectroscopy by cutting off a tiny piece of the film and burning it. The results were inconclusive. This film is composed of a bewildering array of elements, some of which we can’t identify.”
“Are you saying that we could not match or copy this material if we wanted to?” Goebbels asked.
“I regret that is true, Herr Goebbels, at least for now,” Koenig carefully responded. “I know of no industrial nation in the world that could make such a material. The same goes for the writing – it is made of microscopic carbon particles imbedded in the film and we don’t know how this was done either.”
Hitler was thinking and did not say anything for a few minutes. Finally he got up from his chair and started pacing along the long wall of the room in front of the picture windows. “Dr. Koenig, thank you for your time. Continue working on this problem. I want to know who made these things. The Fatherland must have this knowledge as soon as possible.”
Koenig left the room, giving the Nazi salute and a “Heil Hitler”.
“Now to the other matter,” said Hitler. “What is the situation, Himmler?”
Himmler smiled obsequiously: “I have Obersturmbannfuhrer Eichmann waiting outside. He planned the actions and will update us.”
Eichmann was called in. He saluted the Fuehrer with a brisk ‘Heil Hitler’ and smartly clicked his heels.
“You may sit” said Hitler. He didn’t like people standing while he was pacing.
“Mein Fuehrer,” Eichmann began, “since yesterday SS units have been on the move into the Baltic countries and the Ukraine. We expect to be able to start full scale operations on Friday. In the meantime we moved a number of SS officers ahead of the main force with orders to encourage the locals to start a cleansing on their own. The Wehrmacht is aware of our objectives and is assisting.
“According to the projections I have now, we should be back on the original schedule by the end of July. The total delay caused by the incident with the Einsatzgruppen will be negligible in the long run.”
Hitler stopped pacing and took his place at the table. “Eichmann, I commend you on the good job you have done for the Fatherland. My secretary has instructions for you.”
Eichmann left.
“Ribbentrop, how are the negotiations going?”
“Mein Fuehrer, I told them, as you instructed, that we will do no harm to the Jews and will treat them well, but only if they remove them immediately. They responded with a detailed set of instructions on how we are supposed to handle the Jews. We are to round them up and transport them to the port of Brindisi in southern Italy. From there we are to ship them to Palestine. They want us to use our own ships, promising that none would be harmed by the British while on this mission. They also claim that British ships will participate in this action.”
Himmler smiled. “Well, here we have an opportunity to do just what we planned, with these people none the wiser. Who can blame us if all the Jews die on the way to Italian ports?”
“There is a small problem,” responded Ribbentrop. “These people, who we call the “Caliphate” for convenience sake, also warned us that if any Jew dies for whatever reason, they will kill 100 Germans. This includes Jews in territories occupied by us or by our allies. We’re to be held responsible for every single one, protecting them under threat of death to our citizens.”
Himmler made a dismissive gesture. “And how will they enforce this threat or even know when a Jew is harmed? Besides, nobody knows how many Jews live within our domain and where exactly they are at the moment. The threat is phony - we can disregard it. I hope you agreed to their conditions.”
Goering stirred in his seat for the first time since the meeting began. “My people examined the site where Wolfsschanze used to be. Do you know that trees were shattered and burned in a radius of more than five kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion? All the bunkers are either dust or collapsed, including the main Fuehrerbunker which was fifteen meters underground with a roof three meters thick. We estimate that the bomb contained close to two thousand tons of high explosives. Obviously such a bomb could not be delivered by aircraft.
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