He could hear the fear in her voice.
“They’ve got us,” he said. As he grew nearer he realized his mistake. They were not Gestapo or even SS. The men wore brown quilted uniforms. They were Russians.
He realized with irony that it wouldn’t help them. This was almost worse than the Gestapo. He wanted to race through, but there were too many of them, and he was already slowing down. He grasped desperately for a plan, and then he smiled, thinking of his treasured friend Schaefer.
“I’m going to get out,” he said. “As soon as I do, you must get into the driver’s seat.” She nodded, not understanding his plan.
He came to a stop and opened the door, immediately stepping out with arms high, shouting. The Russians watched him in surprise, frozen just for a moment by his strange conduct.
He took a step toward them. “Go!” he screamed, as loud as possible. He waved his arms, shouting and jumping.
A Russian raised his rifle at him, and Erik knew he had just a moment. “Go!” he screamed again. He heard the engine rev, and the car took off behind him. A Russian raised his rifle, rotating it toward the fleeing car. Erik charged the soldier, hitting him hard in the chest and driving the man to the snow. The rifle went off harmlessly, firing into the woods behind them.
Erik felt the blows on his back and legs, the screaming in a foreign tongue. Blood was already filling his mouth. He waited for the telltale shots, but there were none. He was pulled to his feet. The men screamed. Others were shouting and pointing toward the rapidly disappearing taillights. Another soldier raised his rifle, but the car was too far away, already turning around a bend. The lights flickered and then disappeared.
One of the Russians who looked like a commander questioned him in broken German. Erik answered, “Ja. SS.”
The Russian issued a command Erik didn’t understand, and the men circled him again, rushing him at once. He managed to hit one of them in the face, knocking him back, but the rest pulled him down, dropping him to his knees.
He raised his hands to heaven and closed his eyes. The blows rained down on him. “Good-bye, Trude,” he whispered. He fell forward into the snow, a blissful darkness overwhelming him as he lay in the cold, dark night of the winter.
Corina Mueller stood near the front of the long line. They were next in the queue. The building was full of loud, clamoring Germans, jockeying for position, for a seat, a ticket to safety. Greta was next to her, then Karl, and Erik’s parents.
“What is taking so long?” she asked, tugging on Karl’s coat. “I thought we had first-class tickets.” She hated waiting in lines, particularly with these cattle.
Karl turned. “Everyone must go through a pass check. It won’t be but a moment longer.” Beyond the yellow line a group of officials stood seated behind a wall of wood and glass. One of them motioned to Karl, and he stepped forward, waving for the others to follow him.
“Who are you, and where are you going?” asked the official.
Karl handed the gentleman their papers, and the official scrutinized them. When he was done finally, he handed the paperwork back to Karl, saluting the colonel smartly.
Karl stepped forward past the line and then led them down a hallway toward another room. He opened the door to yet a larger space, Corina saw with dismay, packed even more tightly, a throng of screaming people all with their hands in the air, holding their tickets and their passports, trying to push their way past a line of guards.
Karl led them around to the left. “Don’t worry,” he said. “We don’t have to sit through this.”
They passed a line of guards. One of them tried to stop Karl, but he showed his paperwork to the soldier. The man took one look at the documents, then at Karl’s uniform, and he saluted and allowed them through.
They walked along a roped-off section past the throng and up to the gate of the gangplank. Corina saw with relief the passageway up to their ship. Finally, this nightmare would be over. Karl handed the paperwork to another guard, who inspected their tickets and the papers. He shook his head.
“I don’t have five first-class spots,” the guard said. “Only three.”
“But we have five tickets,” said Karl.
“No you don’t,” said the guard. “You have three first-class and two third-class tickets.”
Karl looked down in dismay, shaking his head. “I told those idiots five. It looks like there is a mistake here.” He turned to Erik’s parents. “I’m sorry,” he said, wringing his hands and shrugging. “You’ll have to go back and wait. I’ll make a call and get this sorted out.”
“When will Erik be here?” asked Peter. “You said we would meet him.”
“He’s on his way,” said Karl. “He was only a couple hours behind us when we left.”
“Why couldn’t we have waited for him?” asked Anna suspiciously.
“I told you we had to get here and secure our spots,” said the colonel. “Don’t worry.” He pointed back at the crowd. “Just join the group there and keep an eye out for Erik. We will get on board and secure our spots. I’ll get everything cleared up with the shipmaster. There’s plenty of room in our cabin for all of us.”
He pulled out another ticket and handed all three to Peter. “Give this to Erik when he gets here,” said Karl.
Peter took the tickets silently. Corina stepped forward and hugged both briefly, kissing Peter on the cheek. “Don’t worry, Papa,” she said. “Everything will be all right.”
She saw his suspicion, so she flashed him her best smile. They would learn soon enough that Erik wasn’t coming, but no matter. They wouldn’t be on this ship—the third-class line was far too long—but she had provided for them. They had tickets. They would assuredly get on one of the vessels, perhaps the next one. Karl’s plan had worked perfectly. She turned, admiring him. He was so clever.
“Say good-bye to your grandparents,” she said to her daughter. Greta embraced both.
“But why can’t they come with us?” she asked.
“There’s a mix-up with the tickets. But don’t you worry; we’ll be back together soon.”
Greta nodded in her innocence, listening to her mother faithfully. With a final nod to her in-laws, Corina grabbed her daughter’s hand and they walked up the gangway with Karl. They were led onto the deck and then up three more flights of stairs to an interior door. A steward escorted them down a long hallway, stopping at a door. He opened it with a key, allowing them to step into the cabin. The room was beautiful, spacious with a large bed and mahogany paneling. An exterior door led out to their own private deck.
“Oh, Karl,” she said. “How delightful. I didn’t know we would be going in such style. You think of everything.”
Karl winked at her. “I promised you.” They stepped outside while Greta investigated the cabin. Karl looked to make sure her daughter was busy, then he moved forward, placing his hand at Corina’s back. He drew her to him and kissed her deeply, passionately. She felt the fiery excitement again. He was a real man.
“Tell me again where we are going,” she said. She knew the itinerary by heart, but she enjoyed the thrill of hearing it again.
“First Hamburg and then south. I have a car waiting for us. All the arrangements are made. We’ll cross the border into Switzerland the day after tomorrow. I have new names for us all, so we can stay as long as we want, or we can travel on. I have a set of Portuguese papers also, and a source for documents to Argentina. There are many Germans there already, and they are sympathetic to our way of thinking.”
“How will we afford all that?” she asked.
“I told you I’ve been taking care of that for years. All the money you will ever need waits for us in Switzerland. I have plenty to get us there.”
“We can really do anything? Have anything?”
He nodded.
She giggled in joy. Karl was so strong, blond, handsome. He was everything she’d ever wanted. “I hope we won’t always have to be in hiding,” she said with a pout “I want people to know who
you are. Who we are.”
He smiled. “Don’t worry, my dear, where we’re going we will be heroes. I told you, I’ve taken care of everything.”
She moved into his arms again, kissing him. “Oh, Karl!” They embraced, holding each other closely, and then turned to smile tolerantly at the chaotic scene below them. Watching the masses battling like rats for a spot on the ship.
Corina looked up and let the winter sun stream down on her face, enjoying the warmth, dreaming of her future.
Trude drove the car cautiously down the snowy dirt road. She had traveled for days without stopping except for gas and a little food. She’d slowly made her way across smoldering, war-burned Germany.
She’d fled danger, but now she was approaching it again. She had to be careful. In the distance, she finally saw what she had been seeking. A tank loomed, facing her. She crept forward slowly, not wanting to make herself a threat. She smiled to herself. How ironic it would be to be killed now at the end. She saw the soldiers standing around the massive green vehicle. As the car approached she caught their attention; rifles were raised.
She stopped the car about fifty meters away from them. “Careful now,” she said to Britta.
She stepped slowly out of the car, hands up, beckoning with her head for her daughter to do the same. They walked forward together, step by step, under the rifles of the soldiers.
One of them yelled at her. She did not understand. She took another step, then another. The soldiers spread out, walking toward them now, weapons at the ready.
One of them called out, speaking a few broken words of German. She answered them with one word: “Juden.” The soldier turned, speaking rapidly to the others. He lowered his rifle, his face softening. He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small square package. As she stepped forward, he handed it to her. She looked down. It was chocolate. The Americans crowded around them, touching them, pressing food into their hands. Laughing. “Don’t worry,” said the soldier who spoke German. “You’re home.”
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
KÖNIGSBERG
Königsberg was the historical center of East Prussia. Founded in 1255 by German Teutonic Knights, during the Northern Crusades, the city was the most important eastern city in Germany, the center of Prussia’s historic past.
The city contained Albertina University (founded 1544), a fourteenth-century cathedral set on an island, and a busy Baltic seaport. Königsberg was a crossroads of German, Polish, and Lithuanian culture.
During World War II, the city was an important starting point of the German invasion of Poland, and the subsequent invasion of the Soviet Union. Königsberg was badly damaged by Allied bombing in 1944 and was one of the first areas reached by the advancing Soviet army as it invaded Germany near the end of the war.
The city held out for three months under siege by the Russians but ultimately surrendered one month before the end of the European portion of World War II. Before and during the siege, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of citizens attempted to escape East Prussia, many by ships, including from the port of Königsberg. The effort was organized under the code name “Operation Hannibal.” Those who were able to secure passage on the overcrowded ships faced substantial dangers at sea, where Russian submarines and aircraft sank dozens of German vessels. Untold thousands of Germans perished in the Baltic Sea, including aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, which went down in January 1945 with the loss of 9,343 people and which left 1,239 survivors—the greatest single loss of life from a ship sinking in the history of the world.
THE SS
The SS, or Schutzstaffel, was a branch of the Nazi party, dominating substantial portions of German life under Adolf Hitler. The SS was under the control of Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, one of the top deputies under Hitler. The organization was divided into three branches: the Allgemeine SS, the Waffen-SS, and the SS-Totenkopfverbände.
The Allgemeine SS was the general branch, dealing with administrative issues, and the security police forces, such as the Gestapo. This branch was the most numerous until the Waffen-SS expanded during the war.
The Waffen-SS was originally called the SS-Verfügungstruppe and was created as military units to supplement the German army. This branch began the Polish war with only three regiments but grew to thirty-eight divisions by the end of the war, a growth from a few thousand men to a half million. Renamed the Waffen-SS after the war in France, this military arm gained in power and influence throughout the conflict. The Waffen-SS was known for its zealous fighting spirit and for committing atrocities against civilians, political individuals, and Jews. Although these events were more widespread than any actions of the regular German army, the Waffen-SS is often mistakenly grouped in with the most insidious elements of the SS, including the Totenkopfverbände, the concentration camp guard units. Just like in this book, Waffen-SS officers and men who were punished for some transgression in duty were at times transferred to the concentration camp system to serve as staff.
The Totenkopfverbände-SS was the branch of the SS that administered the concentration camps during World War II. Although all SS branches are tainted by Nazi atrocities, this was the branch most directly involved in the deaths of over eleven million victims, including six million Jews.
SOLDAU CONCENTRATION CAMP
Soldau Concentration Camp was established in Polish territory that was annexed into East Prussia after Germany invaded Poland. The camp was formed around buildings that had served as barracks for the Polish military. Many members of the Polish intelligentsia were liquidated at the camp shortly after the invasion of Poland.
The camp, subsequently divided into three sections, served primarily as a transit center for Jews and others moving from parts of the Reich toward Auschwitz and other death camps. Of those who stayed in the camp, thirteen thousand out of thirty thousand perished.
Soldau was evacuated by the Germans, with the remaining inmates moved to other locations in Germany. Many died during the nightmare retreat in the cold and snow. The Russians occupied the empty camp on January 18, 1945, and it was used by the NKVD (the precursor of the KGB) to hold Germans and other enemies of the Soviet Union. The camp was closed in late 1945.
PORTRAYAL OF KARL AND CORINA
Some readers may be bothered by Karl and Corina “getting away.” Although their safety and future was not assured (see notes above regarding evacuating from East Prussia), the reality of postwar Germany is that many prominent Nazis escaped any justice. A substantial number of powerful and wealthy individuals were able to escape to neutral countries, with many finding their way to Argentina and other South American countries. Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele are but two notable examples. Eichmann was eventually brought to justice by the Israeli secret service, but Mengele and others lived out their lives in German microcommunities, often in the open and revered as heroes by other war criminals.
GERMANY AND THE NAZIS
Many people want the Nazis to be a unique part of history, an evil unlike any other, which could never be repeated. The reality is that the Germany of the 1930s and ’40s was among the most intellectual and advanced populations in the world. The people were regular mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, neighbors.
Perhaps the greatest crime of the German people was not committed by the leaders, the concentration camp guards, or others directly involved. The true atrocity was the responsibility of the millions who allowed it to happen, and who passively sat on the sidelines as the world burned. As nationalism begins to burn anew in the world and a new age of dictatorship appears on the rise, we must all be careful to not repeat the mistakes of the past.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2016 JW Photography
James D. Shipman is the bestselling author of three historical novels, Constantinopolis, Going Home, and It Is Well. He was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and began publishing short stories and poems while earning a degree in history from the University of Washington and a law degree from Gonz
aga University. He opened his own law firm in 2004 and remains a practicing attorney. An avid reader, especially of historical nonfiction, Shipman also enjoys traveling and spending time with his family.
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