by Donald Hunt
The news traveled quickly once Buchenwald was liberated. Within seven days Allied forces had moved rapidly to within a day’s travel to Berlin. Anna felt it was safe to make the short journey to Buchenwald. Johann agreed to take her in his truck. They were now in Allied occupied territory except that Anna had no documentation of her identity.
During the 20-minute ride they encountered one Allied check point. They were allowed to pass when Johann explained that Anna had been a prisoner and was returning to look for a child. Anna displayed her forearm tattoo to the inquiring corporal, who seemed bewildered to find that human beings were apparently branded like live stock. It was also the first time Anna and Johann had traveled in open country without any sight of Nazi military. This fact alone was testimony to the truth - the war was indeed over - or almost over.
Buchenwald was different and yet the same. There were about 50 workers with the Red Cross team and a medical team from France. Their goal was to save as many of the starving 20,000 in the camp as possible. A detachment of Belgian military had been left to aid in this effort. Most of the Belgian troops spoke some German, enough to help Anna learn what she needed to know. It was quickly apparent that the children were not there. They had been sent to a holding area in Dresden, another 50 kilometers south-east of Leipzig. Anna was disappointed but not discouraged. She was able to accomplish two important things with the aid of the Red Cross. She sent word to her family and she received identity papers.
It had been more than three years since Hanz and Marlena Eichenwald had seen or heard from their daughter. They had settled onto life in England with the academic teaching appointment for their livelihood. They both spoke their new language with thick German accents, Hanz better than his wife. Hanz was highly respected in his field of Quantum physics and had been a stellar addition to the department at Cambridge.
Marlena had made a few friends among the faculty wives, but she knew that as Germans, she and Hans were eyed with suspicion when they were away from the University. They had been able to find a synagogue and had met several Jewish couples there. One man was a physician who had fled Denmark just prior to German occupation.
Not a day went by that Marlena did not think of Anna. They had heard of the death camps and work camps. Marlena prayed that Anna was alive, but deep in her heart she feared the worst. She knew about the gas chambers. She would think of this and shut her eyes and her mind to the thought of her daughter being taken there. Hanz, on the otherhand, was an optimist. He believed that Anna was alive. Perhaps she was being hidden by the underground and they would soon hear from her. A number of concentration/death camps had been in the BBC news reports. Buchenwald was on the list. Hanz paid little attention. Marlena had the names memorized.
The cablegram arrived on a Tuesday morning. It came from the International Red Cross – and from Buchenwald. Marlena did not open it. She couldn’t make her hands move. She knew the Allies had liberated the camp and that there would be a death list. Was this the formal notification of her precious daughter’s demise?
She sat in the main room of the flat and felt the grief descending through her body into her heart. She tried to conjure up old memories of their times together. She tried not to cry.
Hanz came home at his usual 6:00 p.m. When he walked in the door he knew immediately that something was wrong. The house was dark and he called out to his wife.
“Marlena!”
“In here,” was the quiet, labored response.
Hanz walked into the room. He could not see the unopened envelope on the end table. “Do we have news of Anna?”
“Yes.”
“A cablegram?”
“Yes! There on the table.”
Hanz saw the envelope, unopened. “So, you have not read it?”
Marlena was silent and shook her head from side to side. Hanz quickly opened the envelope and his eyes searched the contents. Then he smiled and slowly sank down beside his wife.
“Duleiber himmel!”
Hearing her husband cry out ‘good heavens,” Marlena began to laugh and cry simultaneously.
“She’s alive?”
“Listen,” he said, “I have survived and am well….searching for my child! God is good! Will explain later. Love, Anna.”
Marlena almost shouted, “Anna has a child?” She sat back slowly as the tears flowed. “Anna has a child.”
The International Red Cross was overwhelmed and faced thousands of problems. Other aid agencies were on their way, but it might be weeks before help arrived. Their priority now was to save lives. It would have been a tragedy for a man to have lived through starvation, beatings, torture and abuse, only to die after the Nazis left. But in truth, many had irreversible nutritional problems, typhus, intestinal parasites, or tuberculosis. These were at least the most common problems. Close to 1,000 men needed hospitalization which was impossible. Red Cross workers were putting in 15-hour days and that was all anyone could ask.
When Anna returned to the farm, she filled Greta in on the situation at Buchenwald. There was no sign of Colonel Bishoff or any German soldiers. Greta and Johann had no money of significance but had a small savings of 500 marks hidden in the floor. They gave Anna 75 marks and searched to find her a ride to Leipzig. They belonged to a co-op of 10 dairy farmers who sent milk twice weekly to Leipzig for pasteurization. The driver agreed to take her to the center of the city after dropping the milk delivery. Anna said good-by to her dear friends and vowed she would stay in touch with them when and if the postal service returned to normal.
Little had changed in the Leipzig landscape, but everything had changed politically. The ball-bearing plant had been leveled. Other than that, things looked the same with the exception of the flags with swastikas that used to fly. These were gone, as were the Gestapo and SS. Anna reminded herself as she walked by the University Hospital toward Sarah’s apartment, that the swastika emblem had derived from Sanskrit and its original meaning was ‘good luck.’ That meaning would never be denoted again from the swastika. It would forever symbolize evil. But she was pleasantly surprised to realize too, that this once feared symbol of the Nazi Reich was gone and would never return.
It was about 3:00 p.m. on a beautiful spring day. Fluffy clouds drifted lazily above and flowering plum trees were beginning to bloom. Anna passed the Mendelssohn-Haus, then turned onto Goldschmidtstrasse to Sarah’s apartment. She sat on the front steps. As she thought of seeing her dear friend, she began to smile.
“She’ll think I’m a ghost,” she whispered aloud with a smile.
Anna’s thoughts drifted back to her days in the resistance, working with Landis Kohler and Max. The risks were great and so were the rewards. Many had died for the cause and none more courageously than Sophie Scholl and the students of the White Rose. Anna silently prayed that the bravery of those students would not be forgotten and the freedom from tyranny they sought would always be defended.
Anna kept her eye out for Sarah. She always took the same route home. As a slight breeze blew the strands of thick black hair across her brow, Anna realized she was beginning to think like a woman again. The clothes given her by Greta were thread bare and faded. Anna laughed to herself. At least they were better than prison garb. It was at that instant that Sarah rounded the corner and began to walk towards Anna. Anna continued sitting, knowing Sarah had not seen her, then stood and turned toward her.
They made eye contact. Sarah slowed to a full stop. For a brief moment she seemed confused. Then she let out a shriek and began running. Anna did the same. The two ran into each other’s arms, both in tears. Sarah was the first to speak,
“Anna! Anna! I can’t believe you’re here. I can’t believe you’re safe, alive.” Tears streamed down their faces.
“Yes, yes! Sarah, I’m safe, I’m alive.”
Chapter 22
The Coward’s Escape
The following week was a festival
of non-stop chatter and laughter for the two soul- mates. Anna had only been away for some six months, but a lifetime of events had unfolded in that short time. Sarah wanted to hear everything – the good and the bad. Anna’s description of the rape attempt was particularly difficult for Sarah to hear. As Anna finished the macabre tale, Sarah stared back in shock.
“So, this character hanged himself! Well, a fitting end to his life, I suppose.” She sighed. “This is all so sad, Anna.”
The stories continued over the hours. Anna related her life in Buchenwald, Roland, Erika, and her work in the V-2 production plant. Then she began the story of Eric. Sarah interrupted several times to ask for more details. Finally, Anna went through the chronology of her ‘execution.’ Sarah was stunned. Then she asked Anna to go back to the surgery on Ernst Bishoff. “How close was he to dying? How could a woman do that kind of work?”
Anna, smiling said, “Just like a man. It’s a process that takes many years of hard work with long hours. Doctors enjoy taking care of sick people…there are great challenges…surgery is a particular kind of challenge. Colonel Bishoff was dying and I was there, standing between him and eternity. There was no time to question what to do. I was trained and I used what I knew. That’s the story. It’s not magic.”
“And you saw Hitler, the evil man himself?”
“I did,” Anna replied. “It was a very strange experience. Years before, as a student, I had traveled to hear one of his speeches. I felt his charisma. There were about 40,000 of us at the rally, so we couldn’t really get close enough to see him. But to be in his presence, well, it was foreboding.”
“Do you mind talking about your near-death experience?”
“No, there’s really not much to tell. I was pulled out of work one afternoon and placed in a SS car. I thought I was going to be interrogated about the children, but when the car went in the opposite direction from the prison, I knew their intention was to kill me. It was a bizarre feeling. Your mind is racing, and your heart is pounding. I thought about my parents. I thought about the fact that I was never going to see them again. And I thought of you. A bullet to the head is instant death, and I thought about that too.
We went to this very remote area and I was pulled out of the car. Then Colonel Bishoff told me to walk in front of him and ordered the others to get back into the car. He started talking to me while we walked. It was like being in a dream. One moment you’re sure your life is over. Then the next second, you realize you’ve been spared and you’re not going to die. You make that switch immediately, so you don’t really feel everything at the moment. I mean, it all happened so fast. Believe it or not, I’m still trying to absorb and process what actually happened out there. I do know one thing for certain. I know God protected me. Now for whatever reason, I don’t know. But it wasn’t a coincidence. It was supposed to turn out the way it did. I just have to figure out why.”
Sarah stopped asking questions and Anna didn’t volunteer anything else. She would not speak of Auschwitz. She had decided to take that to her grave.
* * *
The morning after Joseph Goebbels was notified of Roosevelt’s death, he received a telephone call from the Nazi Minister of Finance, Count Schwerin von Krosigk. The fatuous former Rhodes Scholar wished to congratulate the Propaganda Minister and assure him that the death of the American President was a divine judgment. Hitler’s ministers were grasping for straws as they continued reading the stars for signs against the backdrop of the Third Reich’s burning buildings. The ‘sign’ that was most evident was Berlin. It had been reduced to rubble.
The following week, on April 20, a celebration was held in Hitler’s bunker in honor of his 56th birthday. All of the old guard was in attendance, including Himmler, Goebbels, Goering, and Martin Bormann, Hitler’s personal assistant. But the most nugatory one in the group was Joachim von Ribbentrop, a relative latecomer to the Nazi cause. In the 1920’s he was apolitical and was extensively involved with Jewish bankers and businessmen. He met Anna Elizabeth Henkell, the daughter of a wealthy champagne producer, and they married. In 1925, he persuaded an aunt, Gertrud von Ribbentrop, whose husband had been knighted, to adopt him. This gave him the title of an aristocrat. In time, he became Hitler’s foreign minister and a rabid anti-Semite. But feelings toward him were strained and he was resented by the elite inner circle. Goebbels expressed their feelings when he wrote of von Ribbentrop.
‘…he bought his name, married his money, and swindled his way into office.’
Hitler had truly lost contact with reality. He told the others at the party that the Russians were about to suffer their ‘bloodiest defeat’. The generals knew better and urged Hitler to leave Berlin. He refused.
Later that night two of his oldest and most trusted confidants left. Himmler and Goering made their getaway. Goering took with him millions in booty he had stolen from Jewish businesses and stored at his estate. Each man left believing that soon, Hitler would be dead. Each man also believed he would be Hitler’s replacement. They never saw their Fuehrer again.
Although not allowed at the birthday party, another player in the saga had moved into the bunker the previous week. Eva Braun had met Adolph Hitler in 1928 when, as a 17-year old, she began working as an office and lab assistant for Heinrich Himmler at Nazi party headquarters. She had limited contact with Hitler until 1931, after the death of his niece, Geli Raubal. Geli was 23-years old and the daughter of his half-sister. Hitler had become infatuated with her, and in time obsessively jealous, carefully controlling who she saw and where she went. One morning she was found dead, a bullet in her head. The death was ruled a suicide but the pistol belonged to Hitler. Her death left him distraught and depressed for a while. But soon enough, he was back to politics as usual. After this, he began seeing more of Braun but he still paid little attention to her. This time she was the one infatuated. When he did not return her attention, she eventually took an overdose. He could not afford the scandal of being linked to a second suicide while his political future was still unsecured, so he bought her a villa in a Munich suburb. In time, she moved to his mountain retreat at the Berghof near Berchtesgaden and became singularly devoted to him. Evan Braun was never allowed in important political meetings and had little or no influence on his decisions. They never appeared in public together as a couple. Still, she enjoyed a privileged and sheltered life until the end, and she was determined to share his end.
On April twenty-first his last military order was given for SS General Steiner to lead an all-out counterattack against the Russians in the southern suburbs of Berlin. Hitler waited the next 24 hours for news of the Steiner attack, but it was never attempted. The next day he stayed on the phone calling various command posts for news of the action, but no one knew. Steiner was nowhere to be found, let alone his army.
At his last military conference on the twenty-second, his rage was uncontrollable. Everyone had deserted him. He determined that he would take ‘personal command’ of the defense of Berlin. Himmler called and urged him to leave Berlin. Ribbentrop called for the same reason. But Hitler’s response was to call for a secretary so he could dictate an announcement to be read to the German people on a national radio hookup. The announcement - he would stay in Berlin ‘until the end’.
He called Goebbels and invited the Reich Minister of Information and Propaganda, along with his wife Magda and their six children, to join him and move into the Fuehrerbunker, away from their bombed out home in Wilhelmstrasse Garden. He also called his adjuvant, Julius Schaub, to burn papers he wished destroyed.
Finally on the evening of April twenty-second, he called Field Marshal General Wilhelm Keitel and Oberkommando der Wehrmacht Alfred Jodl. Both had been at his side during the entire war. He ordered them to proceed south and take command of the remaining forces of defense. Keitel had always been a lackey and said nothing. Jodl, on the other hand, protested that Hitler was deserting his troops at the moment of defeat, and tha
t he should not abandon them. Hitler retorted, “Well then, Goering can take over!”
General Karl Koller, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, was chosen to inform Goering. There were in effect, two messages for Goering. First, Hitler was going to commit suicide. Second, Goering was to negotiate a peace.
At 3:30 am on April twenty-third Koller flew in a fighter plane to Goering’s estate at Obersalzberg, near Berchtesgaden. Thus began the short struggle for the rapidly crumbling Nazi regime.
Goering quickly reviewed a copy of Hitler’s decree of June 29, 1941, stating that Goering was to succeed him if he were killed or incapacitated. Goering sent for Hans Lammers, the State Secretary of the Reich Chancellery, for legal counsel. All agreed that Hitler was now incapacitated and might soon be dead. Goering had a clear duty to assume leadership of the Reich.
That very evening, the man Hitler had called ‘der treue Heinrich (the loyal Heinrich), Heinrich Himmler, was himself assuming the powers of succession. Himmler was in Luebeck meeting with a Swedish diplomat, Count Bernadotte, the vice-chairman of the Swedish Red Cross. The meeting took place at the Swedish consulate. Himmler stressed to Bernadotte that Hitler would be dead in a day or so, and Himmler wanted to communicate to General Eisenhower that the Reich was ready to surrender - but only to the Allies. RAF bombing had knocked out all power in Lubeck, so a letter was drafted that night by candlelight. Goering was less perfidious. He drafted and sent a telegram to his Fuehrer that evening to make sure of the chain of command. It read as follows:
“My Fuehrer! In view of your decision to remain in the fortress of Berlin, do you agree that I take over at once the total leadership of the Reich, with full freedom of action at home and abroad as your deputy, in accordance with your decree of June 29, 1941? If no reply is received by 10 o’clock tonight, I shall take it for granted that you have lost your freedom of action, and shall consider the conditions of your decree as fulfilled, and shall act for the best interests of our country and our people. You know what I feel for you in this gravest hour of my life. Words fail me to express myself. May God protect you, and speed you quickly here in spite of all.”