Prisoner 441

by Geoff Leather

  Picking up another large sheaf of papers, Prosecuting Counsel, started to read from another record.

  ‘Elsie Heidmann, Sir Martin Grevelle told the jury she was the Accused’s mother, was a good looking woman but I feared she was not confident in herself for she chose systematically to disfigure or humiliate any of the prisoners she felt were a threat. She relied on her husband, Gurt, to fight for her if needed. All the prisoners were aware of his sadistic temper. In one instance, a young girl had been caught by her talking through the wire enclosure of one compound to a friend and she horse whipped that girl’s face until it was unrecognisable. I did the best I could for her as she told me the story. She died of blood poisoning several days later. Many inmates told me that Elsie Heidmann stood alongside Mengele on the arrivals platform pointing to healthy women who would normally be useful but suggesting they were unsuitable despite Mengele’s decision to keep them. When I asked why, each related their opinion that those chosen were pretty.

  Prosecuting Counsel then confirmed that the extracts he had read were just a small part of the evidence against the Accused’s parents, Gurt and Elsie Heidmann. He then walked to the Judge, Mr Justice Hugh Davey, and handed him the two sets of papers. He then gathered copies and handed one each to member of the jury.

  ‘You have before you in those papers the complete evidence that the deceased, Solomon Isaacs, gave to the War Crimes Tribunal in 1945 with corroboration from others. I want you to read that evidence very carefully before I continue.’

  He then turned to Mr Justice Davey and asked for the jury to be given time to read the papers before he continued. The Judge turned to the jury and ordered lunch for them and dismissed them until the following morning at ten am. As Captain Campbell rose with Stewart and Nadine Solomon to leave the court room, he did not envy the members of the jury having to read the horrors within those papers.

  **

  ‘I hope you have now seen that motive is clearly established. Now let me turn to the actual shooting.’

  Sir Martin Grevelle took a bundle of papers from the desk in front of him and passed one copy to the Judge and further copies to members of the jury. He then started to read from the detailed resume of the Report of Proceedings that took place on the 17 April 2006 at the Southwark Coroner’s Court into Solomon Isaacs’ murder pointing out the murder scene in the hotel, the weapon used, a Walther P38, a vague description of fleeing gunman. Surprisingly, he then admitted that none of this evidence, in itself, pointed to the Accused as the murderer but then he produced a copy of the murder investigation file that the Defence had tried to suppress.

  ‘I am in serious difficulty here, members of the jury, when I read this and that will become apparent when the accused tells you his story. So, let me call our first witness, Mr Jonny Wightman.’

  ‘Jonny Wightman, you were one of the last people to see Mr Isaacs alive. Did he say anything to you before he died?’

  ‘Yes. He started to whisper in my ear, “I recognise……”

  ‘Do you know who he may have recognised?’

  ‘To begin with I had no idea but under my breath I promised Solomon, Mr Isaacs, I would find out.’

  ‘You knew Solomon well, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes. During the time we spent together getting the manuscript ready for publication, I found out a great deal about the man and his life.’

  ‘Did he tell you anything about what happened immediately after his release from Belmarsh?

  ‘Objection, Your Honour, this is pure hearsay. The Defence cannot possibly ask the Deceased in cross-examination if this is true or not.’

  Mr Justice Davey asked both barristers to approach the bench. After a huddled argument, he agreed to allow a continuation of this evidence as the Crown were prepared to call corroborative evidence from members of the police involved.

  ‘After Solomon was released, he began to write his memoirs but became aware that he was under surveillance. He was being followed everywhere he went. I told him it was probably just standard procedure after being released from Belmarsh but he was certain it was more than that.’

  ‘After his death, did you investigate this further?’

  ‘No. Not at first. We, Solomon and I, knew there were loose ends in his book, so I tried to fill in the gaps. I had nothing concrete to tell the police, so I didn’t advise them of what I was doing.

  ‘Did you find the Accused in those with possible grudges?’

  ‘No. I eliminated all of my possible suspects, one by one. I then came to a dead-end until a colleague I have known for years in the police force came to see me, at my request, and I showed him ‘my incident room’ as I had come to call the sitting room in my apartment.’

  ‘What transpired from that meeting?’

  ‘We concluded that somewhere hidden in Solomon’s manuscript was a new suspect that I had overlooked. Someone who didn’t have a place in the manuscript but may have a motive and the means. I met with Captain Campbell and he gave me his notebook and I suddenly noticed his comment when Solomon was recalling some of his evidence. He’d written something to the effect that Solomon had become very agitated at this point.’

  ‘In itself, it wasn’t surprising, but I started to look into all matters relating the Accused’s life. I discovered that the Accused had as a baby been smuggled out of Germany at his parents requested before they arrested and sent to Auschwitz.’

  Jonny then went on to describe all he’d discovered.

  The police investigation was not being rigorously pursued. He was also able to find out that the Accused had at some stage owned a Walther P38 similar to the murder weapon which was never found.

  Chapter 67

  Central Criminal Court London

  Defence Counsel, Sir David Thornfield, rose.

  ‘I call Mrs Olga Davies.’

  Olga walked to the witness stand. The jury watched her intently as she cast her eyes over them and then turned her attention to Mr Justice Davy. At 81 she stood dressed in a plain light grey two piece with silk scarf wrapped loosely around her shoulders. Her hair was snow white and cut short. Her blue eyes sparkled despite that gravity of the evidence she was about to give. The Judge invited her to sit after she gave her oath. The jury watched as she carefully lowered herself into the chair and took a sip of water and glanced at her husband, Rees, for support. He smiled at her.

  ‘Mrs Davis, what is your relationship with the accused?’

  ‘I am his mother.’

  ‘That’s not strictly true. Is it, Mrs Davies?’

  Olga looked at her son in the prisoner’s dock and then at the Jury.

  ‘No, I’m sorry. It is complicated.’ Olga then related in great detail, as she was instructed to do by Sir David Thornfield, the events of escaping Nazi Germany and then finding her family here in Britain where she had come to escape had been killed by those she had run away from. Whenever she missed something out, he reminded her. The whole courtroom was silent, hanging on the description every dreadful event. Every now and again, she’d stop and wipe a tear from her eyes as the memories flooded back. It was clear to every member of the jury that this woman had endured almost as much as anyone else in the courtroom and survived.

  Prosecuting Counsel tried to curtail her evidence with various interruptions as to relevance in this murder case but Mr Justice Davy would have nothing of it after it was put to him by Sir David Thornfield that his client’s best interests were served by a full disclosure of his background history and in any case when he gave evidence in his defence the Court would know him better.

  When Olga stood down and walked to the back of the Court, she saw her son smiling at her as if to say, thank for everything, Mum.

  Sir David Thornfield then called the Accused.

  ‘Your former name was Avyar Smit?’

  ‘Yes. I anglicised it by Deed Poll as soon as I was 18 and entering University. I am Vernon Smith.’

  ‘You have heard your mother’s evidence. I assume there was nothing new in
what you heard.’

  ‘That is correct.’

  ‘When did you start actively looking for your real parents.’

  ‘I started to ask questions as soon as I entered the London School of Economics. I was studying law and that opened up new lines of enquiry.’

  ‘Can you tell the jury in detail how and what you discovered?’

  ‘As you have heard from my mother, my real parents, Gurt and Elsie Heidmann, were taken by the regime and transported to Auschwitz. That was the last record I had of them. For years, I accepted that they must be dead. They must have known that we had escaped and I reasoned that if they were alive they would have found a way to contact me.’

  ‘So, what happened to make you start looking again?’

  ‘After University, I joined the Metropolitan police force. It was here that I learned how to carry out proper painstaking thorough investigations always looking for clues that may have been overlooked or dismissed as not being relevant. I became quite a good lateral thinker.’

  ‘Is this why your rise through the ranks was swift, do think?’

  ‘I’m sure it helped.’

  ‘Look at the document that the Usher has handed to you. Do you recognise it?’ Vernon Smith nodded.

  Sir David Thornfield started to read the document directing the power of the contents to the jury.

  Inspector Vernon Smith on the 26 June 1973 displayed outstanding courage and a complete regard for his own safety when faced with a dangerous armed man who did not hesitate to use his weapon. Inspector Smith approached the man who fired and hit him in the shoulder. He drew his weapon and fired a warning shot and continued to advance towards the gunman and wrestled him to the ground before he was able to fire again.

  ‘Were you rewarded for this act of bravery and am I right that this award is only given where the risk of death is deemed extremely high?

  ‘Yes, to both questions. I received the George Cross, Sir.’

  Sir David started to read from another document, this was dated December 1982.

  Inspector Vernon Smith entered the building ordering his colleagues to remain outside. He was in the entrance hall and about to summon support when he was confronted by a man who produced an automatic machine pistol. Despite the circumstances Inspector Smith had the presence of mind to advise his assailant that the gun was still in a locket position, in the time it took the gunman to glance down, Inspector Smith was able to take the upper hand as a spray of bullets ripped into the ceiling and shattered the glass screen behind them. His colleagues were then able to enter and overpower the gunman.

  ‘Were you rewarded on this occasion?’

  ‘I received the George Medal, Sir.’

  ‘Now turning to your family, you said you started to make enquiries whilst studying law at the LSE, did these produce any results?’

  ‘Not really. What they did do was eliminate certain lines of enquiry, such as missing persons and those released from Russian camps in the 1950s, so that later I knew where not to look.

  ‘So, am I to assume that your eventual position in the Metropolitan police gave you access to files that would otherwise be forbidden for, say members of the jury, to see?’

  ‘Yes, that is correct.’

  ‘Can you tell the court about your research.’

  ‘It may come as a surprise to this court that there are still many aspects of activities today relating to the immediate aftermath of World War II that remain classified. It very soon became apparent to me that I would have to delve into the Allies’ intelligence network to discover, if I could, to see what happened to my mother and father. Britain, the US and Russia raced to bring secure Nazi scientists for themselves and that allowed war criminals to escape justice and all these activities remain classified even though the majority of the participants are now deceased.

  Auschwitz was deep in the Russian held territory as they fought their way to Berlin. Whilst the British and American had access to pursue war criminals, most sought refuge in the West not wanting to be caught and summarily executed by the Red Army. My problem was very simple, most of the Soviet era archives are still classified or simply cannot be accessed. Also, much of the intelligence community’s work with the Nazis before, during and after the war is still classified.’

  ‘Inspector Smith, so what did you have to do to get behind this curtain of secrecy?’

  ‘To begin with, I had to find the names of those British Intelligence officers who interviewed camp survivors and potential war criminals. That wasn’t difficult in my position.’

  ‘Why wasn’t that difficult?’

  ‘When a telephone call comes from an Inspector in the Metropolitan police, doors tend to open.’ He looked towards the members of the Jury to seeing nodding heads of understanding.

  ‘And you opened quite a few doors, I believe. Tell the Court what you discovered.’

  ‘All were dead ends until one day, sometime during the night at home, I received a series of copy papers that were dated 1945 and 1946. I had them examined privately. I didn’t want my personal life to become an embarrassing subject of the Met. No forensics, no fingerprints, no postal details were found after examination. Nothing. Someone had been very careful to conceal their own identity.’

  Sir David delved into his bundle and produced copies. He handed one to his client and another to Mr Justice Davy and the Court Usher handed copies to each member of the Jury.

  ‘Inspector Smith would you tell the court what is the significance of these papers, please.’

  ‘First of all, they were copies in English, German and Russian and I had experts ensure that all three copies were exact translations. They were. The first few pages contain the names of a few inmates who escaped from Auschwitz.’

  ‘Do you recognise any of those names, Inspector?’

  ‘Yes, my father, Gurt Heidmann and my mother, Elsie Heidmann.’ Sir David turned to papers again.

  ‘What else do these pages contain?’

  ‘On the right-hand side, there is a column headed “recommended action taken”.’

  ‘Please read to the court the manuscript words against your parents’ names in that column.’

  ‘Execution by firing squad.’

  There an audible intake of breath as they realised that Inspector Vernon Smith was holding his head in his hands and crying. He pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed his face.

  ‘Do you want some time, Inspector?’ asked Mr Justice Davy.

  ‘No. I’m fine now.’

  ‘Is there any evidence in those papers to confirm that the recommendation was carried out?’ asked Sir David.

  ‘No.’

  ‘So, what did you do next?’

  ‘I had heard of Simon Wiesenthal and decided to visit his Documentation Centre of the Association of Jewish Victims of the Nazi Regime in Vienna in Austria in 1961. As you know he managed to survive the Janowska concentration camp and the Krakow-Plaszow concentration camp.. This labour camp was near Auschwitz. I believed that he may have some records that I could inspect. I had been told that he had been active in helping refugees in their search for lost relatives.’

  ‘So, you arranged to visit the Documentation Centre?’

  ‘Yes. I was allowed to inspect some of their records.’

  ‘What did you discover?’

  ‘The records show that the largest and the most notorious of the death marches took place in January 1945 when the Soviet army advanced on occupied Poland. Nine days before the Soviets arrived at the death camp at Auschwitz, the SS marched nearly 60,000 prisoners out of the camp towards Loslau, thirty nine miles away, where they were put on freight trains to other camps. Wiesenthal’s records show that approximately 15,000 prisoners died on the way in sub-zero temperatures. Some residents of Upper Silesia tried to help the prisoners, and many prisoners also escaped and regained freedom between Auschwitz and Loslau.’

  ‘Was there any record of your parents reaching Loslau?’

  ‘No and there w
as no mention of them being liberated by the Russians in Auschwitz either.’

  ‘So, Inspector Smith, at this point, they had disappeared altogether.’

  ‘Yes, completely, but….’

  ‘I am sorry to interrupt this evidence but aren’t we getting off the point with this elaborate journey of Inspector Smith’s, your Honour?’ said Sir Martin Grevelle rising to his feet and tucking his hands under his gown behind his back. ‘I have listened very patiently for some time now and I am sure your Honour would like to move on.

  Mr Justice Davy lowered his glasses and looked expectantly at Sir David Thornfield.

  ‘Sir David, we already know that the Accused’s parents were eventually captured. Why is this journey of search necessary?’

  ‘Your Honour, it is necessary to show that the Accused’s parents where not part of the Nazi regime and were never anything other than pawns caught up in a vicious circle of degradation and despair as were thousands of other. However, I ask that you indulge me a little further as I am sure you will agree that I should nullify the Prosecution’s assertion of motive.’

  Sir David picked up two pieces of paper, with the Wiesenthal Documentation logo at the top of each page, from his table and approached his client.

  ‘Inspector Smith will you read to the Court and the members of the Jury the content of this document.’

  This is the Testament of Ifran Klein made this 24 day of March 1945. I have tried to recall accurately all the events that took place on my journey from Auschwitz to the Displaced Persons Camp. If you are reading this I am probably no longer of this world and cannot answer any of your questions but what I say is a true account of my last days in my journey to freedom. One can never forget, such experiences stay with you in detail all the days of your life.