The Journey of Anna Eichenwald

by Donald Hunt

  Chapter 17

  Observing a Mad Man

  In October 1944, Heidi Brendler spent her energy going from day to day and trying to deal with the helotry of her life. It had been three months since she had been involved in an underground mission. Although willing, deep down she was grateful Landis Koller seemed to be ignoring her. And in reality, he was ignoring her. Since the execution of Max, he had felt the need to shield her from the obscenity of war and the possibility of capture, torture and execution.

  Germany was being bombed daily. Leipzig somehow avoided the bombardment, though the ball bearing plant took a minor hit causing some damage. The people moved and worked like a ghost community. They went through the motions of life, almost in a robotic way. One exception to this was Sarah Engel. She seemed to have a limitless supply of optimism and energy. In all of the degradation, she remained indefatigable.

  When she moved to Leipzig, Heidi brought two books on ancient history and the Hebrew Torah. Many nights, she read her books by candle light, seeking answers to the cataclysm engulfing the Jewish people. Information from one of the books by Flavius Josephus illuminated a time in A.D. 70, not unlike her own, when one million Jews were killed or taken as slaves by the Romans. It was a dark time for the Hebrew people. They were cut off from the Temple just as she had been cut off from the Synagogue. The Jewish people of that day had lost nationhood. The extreme darkness Heidi was experiencing seemed to parallel the nadir of that time. She now believed the circumstances in Germany represented the judgment of God on her people. She felt abandoned. She determined that when God abandons a society, holiness disappears, wisdom evaporates, and love ceases to exist. This is what Germany looked like to Heidi in 1944.

  The more she read, the more Heidi came to believe that the Creator of the Universe, the One the Hebrews called Yahweh, was sovereign in the world. She also believed Him to be just. But where was this justice in light of the expanse of human suffering she was witnessing? In Hebrew, the word ‘Satan’ literally meant adversary. She understood Satan to be God’s adversary. And yet it seemed the Lord was allowing his adversary to attack her people through a man who had once been only a down-and-out vagabond in Vienna. This man rose only to the rank of corporal in WWI. He was a derelict in post war Munich. This man, an Austrian, was now the German Fuehrer. And he personified a maniacal hatred of Jews.

  Since the time of her ancient forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the pattern had repeated itself. God had guided and protected her people as long as they were faithful to worship Him and Him alone. When they abandoned their worship of Him, He abandoned them. The ancient text was clear. The Lord had made unconditional promises to the patriarchs. Abraham had traveled to the land of Canaan, and there, God had promised to make him and his descendants a ‘great nation’ and to give them the land. But Palestine, the land of the promise, was now in Arab hands, and the Hebrews were being slaughtered by the millions.

  Heidi believed the promises and concluded that the abandonment was temporary. She continued to worship the Lord her God as a sovereign and just God, true to all that He had promised. Except for Sarah she was alone in Germany. She was anonymous. Her survival depended on it.

  * * *

  After the shameful forced suicide of Field Marshal Rommel, all semblance of nobility in the German military was lost. The officers who were not involved in the assassination plot were forced to stand by while their comrades were hauled before the farcical trials in the People’s Court. This was possible because Hitler created a so-called ‘Court of Honor’ where all Army officers thought to be involved in the plot were expelled from the military so they could not receive a court martial. The Court of Honor was not permitted to hear an accused officer in his own defense. The only evidence presented came from the Gestapo. The presiding generals of this court included Field Marshal von Rundstedt, who had been relieved of several commands, and General Guderian, the renowned Panzer tank commander. Together they turned over several hundred of their comrades to certain execution after drumming them out of the Army.

  The general staff, as a meaningful entity, had come to an end. The men who had stood by while Hitler murdered his colleague Ernst Rohm in 1934, who stood by while Nazi policy murdered thousands of disadvantaged children and millions of Jews, who stood by while Germans ignored the rules of the Geneva Convention and committed countless war crimes, were now just as guilty of the crimes as if they had ordered them. With the execution of their colleagues, there was no more opposition to Hitler. Many of these generals knew the evil of the man before whom they groveled. In the final stages of the war, General Guderian made this observation of the Fuehrer:

  “In his case, what had been hardness became cruelty, while a tendency to bluff became plain dishonesty. He often lied without hesitation and assumed that others lied to him. He believed no one any more. It had already been difficult enough dealing with him: it now became torture that grew steadily worse from month to month. He frequently lost all self-control and his language grew increasingly violent. In his intimate circle he now found no restraining influence.”

  The last meaningful effort to rid the world of the Austrian Corporal turned Supreme Commander failed by a simple act which was of ominous significance. Colonel Stauffenberg had placed the powerful bomb three feet from Hitler and exited the room with four minutes to detonation. In the next two minutes Colonel Brandt, who was sitting next to Stauffenberg, stood to get a better view of the maps on the heavy oak table. As he did, the briefcase containing the bomb was in his way, making it difficult for him to stand. It was then that he reached down and moved the briefcase to the outside of the oak table support. It was this support that took the brunt of the massive explosion and shielded Hitler from its force, saving his life.

  Sadly, even at this time, the majority of the German people still believed that Adolph Hitler might lead them to victory, so complete was his hold over the German mind and soul.

  Chapter 18

  Beginning of the End

  Normally fall was a beautiful time in Leipzig. The days were crisp and clear, and the nights produced a light frost. Maple and oak trees adorned the city landscape and parks were dotted with swaths of bright orange and yellow. The aroma of burning pecan and pine filled the brisk evening air. This was Sarah’s favorite time of year. She loved a crackling fireplace even if her own apartment did not have one. There was an enormous hearth in the bank’s lobby that filled her appetite.

  Rationing kept most food items in short supply. For weeks, Sarah and Heidi had been saving some items to enjoy on a Friday evening at home. Heidi had acquired flour and yeast for fresh bread and saved a bottle of Bordeaux. Sarah had a small pot roast and vegetables. She also found a pumpkin for a pie and bread.

  Heidi left the hospital about 4:00 p.m. and dropped by her flat to get her items. Along her walk she noticed a flight of geese high overhead and heard their distinct honking. She marveled at their ‘V’ formation, the aerodynamic flight pattern that allowed them to travel hundreds of miles without stopping. Every hour or so, the lead goose in the formation would drop back and be replaced by a fresh leader. But the leader always had the same motive – get the group safely to their destination with no malice toward any other creature. Heidi pulled her scarf tightly around her neck and thought that men could learn much from the geese.

  She wanted to be at Sarah’s place before 5:00 p.m. so she could make the bread. She needed an hour for it to rise and an hour to bake. The recipe was one her mother had obtained from her friend Paula Herzog at the Pumpkin Bakery. Heidi had used it only once back in Berlin when she cooked for a Jewish holiday. Over the years, she had enjoyed the fresh hot pumpkin bread at the bakery. She was hoping to duplicate that. As she walked, her thoughts drifted back to her time with Christian and the joy of loving him. It seemed like many years ago and yet, only yesterday.

  Heidi looked forward to December. She was scheduled to work in the children’s wi
ng of the hospital. Being around children lifted her spirits and gave her an avenue to escape the horrors of the war. She sometimes though perhaps she should work exclusively with children if she ever returned to surgery.

  She climbed the stairs to Sarah’s flat. At the top, she paused and thought again how fortunate she was to have Sarah as a friend. Sarah was the only person in Germany who knew her true identity. Their times together had given Heidi great pleasure as well as a companion. Sarah opened the door.

  “Well, finally here. And what is this?”

  Heidi had passed a small flower shop on the way and bought a chrysanthemum plant. “I found these on the way. I couldn’t pass them by…a little color to go with our feast.”

  “They’re nice,” Sarah said with a smile. “I’ll take them and your coat. Then we’ll get started.”

  Sarah loved to cook. Heidi did her part reluctantly. She managed to get the flour mixed with the pumpkin, added the yeast and covered the dish with a moist cloth. She placed the dish in the oven which she set at low heat. Sarah had already made-up the pumpkin pie filling. The bread and the pie would be baked together. Sarah had cooked the pot roast the night before so it would only require warming.

  The girls enjoyed a glass of wine while the baking was completed. They both thought frequently of Christian and were now comfortable talking about him. Heidi also shared some of her current hospital experiences. “I’ve been assigned to work on the children’s wing for the month of December. It will be a nice break from war rehab and the elderly. I wish I could work there full-time.”

  “Why can’t you?” Sarah asked, thinking the obvious.

  “Well, everyone prefers taking care of children. They are so spontaneous and refreshing. And besides, they heal and get well so quickly. If I survive this war and ever get back to being a surgeon, I would really enjoy just doing pediatric work.”

  “The war should be over in a few months, Heidi. We’ll rebuild our country. This time next year, you’ll be back in Berlin at the University. You watch.”

  “A mere thought, but I think it will take 20 years to rebuild, maybe even 30. You’re the money girl, you tell me!”

  “Well, unless we get a lot of help from somewhere, it will be 30. That’s the rest of our lifetime.” Sarah lowered her voice to a whisper and continued. “Thanks to the maniac Austrian Corporal.”

  The women enjoyed the home cooked meal, a rare treat of pot roast and fresh bread. They talked little of the war, but each woman thought about it daily. On Friday nights as a routine, the BBC provided a short-wave transmission of updates. Sarah’s transmitter-receiver was in her attic. She had never used the transmitter because the Gestapo had technology to track and pinpoint transmissions. But reception of incoming signals was not a problem. Sarah listened every Friday night. Sometimes there were coded messages from the resistance, so Sarah always listened with pencil and pad in hand. Heidi was eager to listen in. This frequency was intended for Germany and was transmitted in German.

  They moved to the attic just before the 10:00 o’clock broadcast. They took their coats with them as the attic had no heat. There were two sets of head phones. At precisely 10:03 the transmission began.

  “This is the BBC, transmission # 104 from London. In the past three months Allied forces have liberated Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg and France. Enemy forces have fallen back to the Siegfried line west of the Rhine River. The Western Front has been quiet for the past six weeks. Of significant importance to the allied effort is the opening of a second deep water port at Antwerp. This has been accomplished with the completion of the fourth phase of the Battle of Scheldt. British, Canadian and American units have distinguished themselves in this area. Axis forces have continued to maintain defensive positions and posture. This is BBC transmission # 104, signing off from London.”

  Sarah turned the set off and they moved out of the attic.

  “Things seem relatively quiet,” she said. Hopefully it’s a prelude to a major

  Allied offensive.”

  “It can’t happen soon enough for me!”

  * * *

  In the fall of 1944, Sarah’s intuition was right. A massive offensive was being planned, but not by the Allies. The Austrian Corporal – Third Reich Fuehrer - was determined to attempt one last desperate gamble.

  August and September saw the enemy converging on the Reich in massive numbers from the East and the West. The Russian summer offensives brought their troops to the border of East Prussia on the Baltic Sea. By the end of August new attacks had claimed Rumania and the Ploesti oil fields, Germany’s main source of crude oil.

  In the West allied forces, including the U.S. Third Army commanded by General George S. Patton, swept across southern France. On August 23, Patton’s Army approached the Seine River from the southwest, other Allied forces from the northwest, both within a few miles of Paris. On that same day, Hitler ordered his Commander in Paris, General Dietrich von Choltitz, to detonate the bridges across the Seine. These bridges were not only beautiful but were artistic historical treasures, and von Choltitz refused. Two days later Paris fell to the Allies who found that the French resistance was already in control of the center of the city. As soon as Paris was lost, again Hitler ordered the city be leveled using heavy artillery and V-1 rockets. Again von Choltitz refused.

  The following day he surrendered to avoid certain court martial. Thus a defiant Nazi General was responsible for preserving one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Perhaps the most important tactical advance was made by British General Montgomery who drove his Second Army and the Canadian First Army, 200 miles northeast to Brussels. He over-ran Antwerp the next day, preventing the startled Germans from destroying the Antwerp deep water port facility. Having a second deep water facility was critical for the final Allied push into Germany.

  For Germany, the enemy was ‘at the gates’ and her leaders were forced to take drastic measures to find troops to defend the West. The previous age for military service was 18. It had now dropped to 15. By October, another half million young men were found to hurriedly supply the Nazi Wehrmacht. It had been over 130 years since Germans had fought on German soil. The last time was during the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Nations in Leipzig, October 1813. The 15-year old boys were greeted with stirring speeches and the grim reality of their superiors, among others, Field Marshal Model, who said:

  “None of us gives up a square foot of German soil while still alive….whoever retreats without giving battle is a traitor to his people.”

  By the first week in September the Allied advances had ground to a halt. There were two significant problems. One, they had out run their supplies. Two, Allied leadership could not agree on a battle plan to invade Germany. Montgomery wanted to strike in the north into the Ruhr which was the industrial heart of the German Republic. He felt this blow would open the road to Berlin and end the war. Eisenhower rejected the proposal in favor of an advance on a ‘broad front’. Finally, after two weeks of haggling, Montgomery prodded Eisenhower to attempt a bold plan to seize a bridgehead over the lower Rhine at Arnhem. The Rhine River was the only significant natural barrier into Germany. The code name for the attack was ‘Operation Market Garden’.

  The Market aspect of the plan was the use of three airborne divisions dropped behind German lines to capture and hold strategic bridges on the Rhine. The Garden portion was the use of the XXX Corps of an elite British armored formation whose mission would be to advance and support the airborne troops. In all, 34,000 men would be involved.

  The plan failed, both for logistical and tactical reasons. The greatest problem was that the Eisenhower Command Team believed the German forces were spent and that their resistance had been broken. This was a false assumption. Newly appointed Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt rejuvenated his command for battle. A second problem was that the airborne divisions were green and not well trained. There was early success on September 1
7th, day one of the operation. But every day that followed brought negative results for the Allies. After only nine days, September 25th, the 1st Airborne Division received orders to evacuate back across the Rhine. To Eisenhower, this was evidence “that much bitter campaigning” remained. But he hardly was prepared for the stunning surprise in store for his forces.

  December 12th saw the first heavy snowstorm in central Europe. It was a time both Heidi and Sarah enjoyed. They looked for cafés with large fireplaces to add to the warmth of the atmosphere. Sarah would have to face her first Christmas without family. Both of her parents were deceased, and now she was without Christian. It made her especially grateful for Heidi. The two were planning dinner on Christmas Day and were also planning to attend a Christmas Eve service. Even though Heidi did not celebrate the birth of the Christ child, she loved the beauty of the pageantry. To plan their time they decided to try a bistro called das Gleichnis (the Parable). It was in an old 18th century home, actually once an estate, set on a hill on Dresdner Strabe.

  They took a taxi from Sarah’s apartment. Leipzig had experienced only one bombing raid in three months so taxies were allowed to operate. A light snow was falling during the ten-minute ride. The Parable Bistro overlooked a large pond now iced over. The circular drive at the café was preceded by a twisting road over the fourteen-acre estate. Sarah marveled at the grounds. When they arrived, she asked the driver to return for them at 10:00 p.m. They hopped out of the taxi clutching their purses, both filled with money they’d been saving for this extraordinary night out. It was an evening they would not soon forget.

  On that same evening some 200 kilometers to the southwest, another event was unfolding. The senior Field Commanders of the Nazi forces on the Western front were converging on General von Rundstedt’s headquarters. They were loaded on a bus after being relieved of their side arms and brief cases. The bus drove through the snowy countryside for about an hour and then pulled up to the entrance of a deep underground bunker. As they filed into the fortress, down approximately 60 feet, they were told they would be meeting with their Supreme Commander. It was here they were introduced to an offensive battle plan that had been highly secret, one that had been in formulation since mid-September. The code name for the operation was Unternahmen (Operation Watch). The U.S. Military officially called it the Ardennes Offensive, but it quickly became known as the Battle of the Bulge.