A Fight in Silence

by Melanie Metzenthin

  ‘St Georg Hospital is still standing, and I’m sure Professor Wehmeyer would be overjoyed to have you back,’ said Richard.

  ‘That sounds wonderful,’ replied Fritz. ‘First thing tomorrow I’ll get registered and sort out my food coupons. Is there anywhere I can get coupons for something to wear? This uniform’s all I’ve got, and Arthur told me all grey uniforms are completely forbidden now, even if you rip off the insignia and everything.’

  Paula, ever practical, chipped in. ‘We can dye your stuff for you. Clothing coupons are useless now. There’s no material anywhere, not even for newborns at Finkenau. They get swaddled in newspaper if their parents can’t provide baby clothes.’

  ‘I’ve still got a spare suit,’ said Paula’s father. ‘The trousers will be too short for you, but it’ll do. At least you’ll be able to go out in the morning looking halfway presentable!’

  ‘Thank you. So, it really has come down to the final shirt.’ Fritz shot Richard a sideways look, and his friend knew exactly what he was getting at. It seemed an eternity since their biggest problem had been getting hold of petrol coupons and they had joked about never having to share their last shirt because their next would be army issue.

  ‘Still, we’ve got a roof over our heads. At least we’re not living in some bombed-out flat or in a Nissen hut.’

  ‘You’re right there,’ said Fritz, serious again. ‘And I’ve got the biggest and best gift in the whole wide world.’ He stroked Harri’s hair, while the little boy snuggled in close. ‘Everything else will sort itself out.’

  A fortnight later Richard closed the practice early one afternoon. Fritz was still at work, back in his old job as surgeon and as deputy to Professor Wehmeyer. Richard thought there had probably been an emergency, as Fritz usually came home on time to take care of Harri.

  He turned up two hours late, grinning from ear to ear. ‘Look what I’ve got!’ He held out an old sack to Richard and took from it several bottles of beer.

  ‘Where the devil did you find those?’

  Fritz laughed. ‘It was a bit of an archaeological expedition into the cellar of a bombed-out pub. I’d treated the publican this morning because he’d broken his arm in his efforts to rescue all his old stock. Once I’d got him in a cast, I told him he didn’t need to stay in and it was time for me to pack up for the day, so I went with him to help retrieve his goods from the cellar. And here’s my share! I’ve no idea what it’ll taste like – it’s been down there for a good two years, but the bottle tops are still sealed and not damaged.’

  ‘I didn’t think surgeons ever met anyone interesting, just stuffy doctors!’

  ‘It’s the interesting people who take the risks – they’re the ones who end up in hospital,’ Fritz said with a grin. ‘Where’s Harri?’

  ‘He’s gone down to the allotment with my parents and the twins.’

  ‘And where’s everyone else?’

  ‘Paula’s sitting on the balcony with Frau Koch, and her father’s reading in his room.’

  ‘Good! That means we can take over the kitchen and drink our beer without being disturbed.’

  The beer was rather cloudy and it took a few gulps to get used to the taste, but it was drinkable.

  ‘I’d say that either the time in the cellar and the heat of the firestorm have raised the alcohol content or I just can’t take my drink any more!’ said Fritz. The first glass had gone down a treat.

  ‘It’s pretty strong,’ agreed Richard. ‘So when was the last time we had a beer together?’

  ‘Cherbourg. Four days before you were wounded.’

  ‘That’s it. I remember the shelling seemed quite far off then.’

  ‘And now there’s no shelling at all. The world may have been reduced to ruins, but at least there’s peace.’ Fritz poured more beer for both of them. ‘Here’s to peace.’ The doorbell rang as they clinked glasses.

  ‘So much for peace,’ Fritz groaned as Richard went to answer the door.

  ‘Arthur! This is a surprise! Come in.’ He led Arthur straight to the kitchen.

  ‘Hello, Arthur,’ said Fritz. ‘You’ve come at just the right time! Do you fancy a beer?’

  Arthur looked at the bottles on the table in amazement. ‘Where on earth did you get that?’

  ‘Archaeological expeditions into dark caves have always rather appealed, haven’t they? This item is in mint condition – mid-war ware, I should say, 1943, heated through once and then sealed under a pile of stones,’ Fritz said with a grin. ‘Pasteurised beer, you might say! Still drinkable. Help yourself.’

  ‘No thanks.’

  ‘What can we do for you?’ asked Richard.

  ‘I wanted to let you know that we’re going to deal with Krüger on Monday and I’d like you to come with me, Richard. You know your way around the hospital and where the files are kept.’

  ‘What time should I get there?’

  ‘I’ll pick you up here at nine.’

  ‘Krüger will be overjoyed,’ said Fritz drily. ‘Pity I’ll be in the operating theatre. I’d love to be a fly on the wall and see him get what he deserves.’

  ‘He’ll get that all right,’ stated Arthur. He glanced at the cloudy beer in Richard’s glass. ‘You’re really drinking that? I just hope you’re still in the land of the living on Monday.’

  Chapter 60

  On Monday, Arthur collected Richard exactly on time, as promised. During the drive to Langenhorn he asked Richard to tell him again and in detail everything he knew about Krüger. When Richard was explaining what had happened during Georg’s stay in the children’s department, Arthur interrupted him.

  ‘Your son’s deaf? I didn’t know that.’

  ‘We’ve got used to keeping it secret so as to protect Georg. Krüger tried everything to make out it was a hereditary condition, and that would have had fatal consequences for both Georg and Emilia. He even reported me to the Gestapo.’ Richard went on to tell Arthur everything. He told him about Alfred Schär and his unexplained death in Gestapo custody, about being summoned to appear before them, about Harms, who’d chosen to go to the Front rather than be forced to take part in the killing of the sick and the disabled and who had since disappeared somewhere on Russian soil. And he told Arthur how Paula had found Georg a home tutor in Göttingen so that officials wouldn’t find out about his deafness. ‘And hopefully, if the schools really do reopen next week, the deaf and dumb school will be one of them. My father’s going to find out about that today. The building was destroyed in ’43.’

  ‘But your son isn’t dumb.’

  ‘No, he can speak, and if he can see your lips he can cover up the deafness for quite a bit and pass for hard of hearing. But that isn’t enough to cope in a normal school. Lip-reading is very demanding. When it’s just the four of us, we use sign language. It’s mostly Emilia who does it for him – she’s the quickest because she learned how to do it when she was tiny.’

  They completed the journey in silence.

  At Langenhorner Chaussee Richard gave some directions. ‘You’ll soon see the entrance on the right. Drive up towards the church and then bear left.’

  ‘It’s an impressive place,’ commented Arthur.

  ‘At one time it was a wonderfully modern mental hospital where the work really was about helping people. I worked here for twelve years, and for nine of those I was a consultant.’

  Arthur parked in front of the directorate. This was where Krüger, as head of the children’s department, had his office. Arthur put on his cap. ‘I am not going to speak German for him. This man’s getting the official British treatment.’

  ‘So you’re bringing out the McNeil in you?’

  ‘I’m bloody good at that.’

  ‘I can imagine. I remember the expression on your face in that tomb! Back then, I was glad it was me with the gun in my hand and not you.’ Richard grinned ruefully.

  ‘Yes, and then you went and put it away and wrecked my picture of the wicked Kraut.’

  ‘Can’t help it.
I am a psychiatrist, after all.’

  They both laughed then got out of the car.

  Frau Handeloh was still Krüger’s secretary and receptionist. When she saw Richard accompanying a British officer she was noticeably rattled.

  ‘Good morning!’ Richard greeted her in his friendliest voice. ‘We want to speak to Dr Krüger.’

  ‘Herr Doctor Hellmer! I didn’t know you . . . er . . .’

  ‘What’s the problem?’ Arthur’s face and voice were so threatening that she took a couple of steps back.

  ‘I don’t know,’ replied Richard, and addressed Frau Handeloh, still in German. ‘You’d do well to let us see Dr Krüger before Lieutenant Grifford loses patience. This man can be astonishingly unpleasant.’

  Looking scared, Frau Handeloh knocked on Krüger’s door and cautiously put her head around to speak to her boss.

  They heard Krüger’s voice, brusque in the extreme. Frau Handeloh went right into his office and closed the door.

  When she came out again she said, ‘Please go in. Dr Krüger’s expecting you now.’

  Richard let Arthur go first and gave Krüger a long, hard look as they went into his room. His arch-enemy had got up from his leather chair and stepped forward. He wore an immaculate white coat and had clearly come through the bad times unscathed. His jowly face suggested he had been very well nourished either via the black market or by filtering off his patients’ rations.

  ‘Gentlemen, what can I do for you?’ His eyes darted uneasily from Arthur to Richard and back.

  ‘Do you speak English?’ asked Arthur. There was a real arrogance in his tone that Richard had never heard before.

  ‘A little bit,’ stammered Krüger. Richard stifled a moment of mirth.

  Arthur very pointedly placed his briefcase right on Krüger’s desk and took from it the list of murdered children. He then demanded to be shown the corresponding files.

  Krüger looked at the names on the list.

  ‘These children are dead,’ he managed to say in English. ‘The files are in the archive.’

  ‘Then have the files brought here.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘It’s not for you to ask the questions. You follow my orders, is that clear?’

  ‘Yes, but—’

  ‘Your English comprehension is obviously not very good. Dr Hellmer, would you please tell your fellow countryman in his own language what he is to do?’

  Richard nodded. ‘Herr Doctor Krüger, I would advise you to send Frau Handeloh to the archive immediately before you cause Lieutenant Grifford to lose his temper. That would only make this delicate matter worse.’

  Krüger nodded and called for Frau Handeloh. He handed her the list.

  ‘And what have you got to do with all this?’ he hissed at Richard when he thought Lieutenant Grifford was busy looking around his office.

  ‘I gave him that list because I have a problem with doctors who bring our profession into disrepute by murdering those entrusted to their care.’

  ‘I have never murdered anyone,’ said Krüger vehemently. ‘This is insubordination.’

  Arthur came over to Richard and asked in English what Krüger had said, although he had already understood the dialogue in German.

  ‘He believes he is innocent.’

  ‘We’ll see,’ replied Arthur with a wry smile.

  It was a while before Frau Handeloh reappeared with the files. ‘There were only twenty in the archives.’ She looked worried.

  Krüger then repeated this in English for Arthur’s benefit. ‘There were only twenty documents, not twenty-two.’

  Arthur dipped into his briefcase again and took out the two missing files. ‘Twenty-one and twenty-two,’ he said, holding them up.

  ‘He got those from me,’ said Richard with uncharacteristic smugness.

  ‘And how did you get hold of them?’ Krüger said, rounding on him.

  ‘That is none of your business.’

  Arthur leafed through the files, which Frau Handeloh had now placed on the desk, then he looked Krüger straight in the eye and spoke to him in German. ‘It is beneath my dignity to speak your own language with someone of your ilk, but your English is dreadful and I want to be sure that you understand exactly what I’m going to say to you, so today I am making an exception. Here is indisputable evidence of the fact that you murdered every single one of these innocent children with an injection of Luminal. Why?’

  ‘That wasn’t murder,’ retorted Krüger with astonishing self-assurance. ‘It was an act of mercy. If you were a doctor, you would be able to see from these files that all the children concerned were severely disabled or seriously ill. They were not viable. I released them.’

  ‘I am a doctor and I understand fully what is in these files. A little girl with epileptic fits. That is not a fatal condition and, in any case, no reason to kill the child. If you had given her a suitable dose of Luminal, you’d simply have stopped her from suffering the spasms. Here’s a case of infant hydrocephaly. You murdered him so early in his short life that it was too soon to judge what impact the water on the brain was going to have on his future development. In spite of this disability, he might have grown up to live a perfectly enjoyable life. And here’s a case of . . . No, I’m not going to recite every case – that’s for the courts to deal with – but we’re plumbing the depths here and it makes me sick to the core.’

  Then he turned to Richard. ‘Do you want to take over here, or shall I do it?’ He asked Richard this using deliberately informal German so that Krüger wouldn’t miss the fact that they were close colleagues.

  ‘What is it you want me to say to him?’

  ‘Exactly what he said to you in 1941.’

  Richard smiled. ‘Krüger, you are summarily dismissed!’

  Krüger was speechless.

  Arthur continued in German. ‘And not only that. Until the final court hearing you are banned from all medical work. Starting tomorrow, you must report for rubble clearing. Woe betide you if you are not there.’

  ‘You can’t do this!’ shrieked Krüger.

  ‘Yes, I can. And you should be glad that we don’t have the same rules of law as the world you operate in.’

  ‘This is just victors’ justice!’ Krüger was outraged. ‘Hellmer, it doesn’t surprise me in the least to see you hobnobbing with the occupational forces. You always were a blot on our national landscape.’

  ‘One more word from you and you can forget the rubble clearing tomorrow because you’ll be locked up instead.’ Arthur was now at his most menacing. ‘And we’re taking all these files with us.’

  Arthur fitted half of them inside his briefcase, gave the rest to Richard, and they walked together back to the car.

  ‘Could you just drop me off at Hoheluftchaussee?’ Richard asked Arthur. ‘It’s on the way to your headquarters.’

  ‘I can take you all the way home,’ Arthur offered.

  ‘I thought it wasn’t permissible – you know, driving a German around in an official vehicle without good reason.’

  ‘I’ll be the one to decide what is or is not a good reason.’

  ‘Thanks, but it’s fine if you drop me off at the Capitol. I’ve heard it’s reopening soon, 27 July, in fact, and I want to book tickets in advance.’

  ‘Whatever you want.’

  They got in the car.

  ‘I’ve dealt with two types of Nazi to date,’ Arthur said as he started the engine. ‘The whingeing, whining types who make out they knew nothing. Then there are all the others, and they’re like Krüger. This is going to be tough.’

  ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘Because the hearings of crimes against Germans take place in German courts, and I’m not sure that we’ve got all the old Nazi judges out yet.’

  ‘We have evidence. Child murder has always been a crime.’

  ‘I just wanted to warn you. It’s not going to be easy.’

  ‘Nothing’s easy at the moment.’ There was a deep breath from Richard as he leaned back
in his seat. ‘I’ll give you an example. Did you know we’re not allowed to receive any parcels from abroad?’

  ‘No. What makes you think that?’

  ‘My wife’s best friend left for Switzerland nine years ago. It was my children’s birthday last Thursday and she’d wanted to send them a parcel. The post office told her there was a directive preventing any parcel being sent to Germans so she sent a letter instead, but that had obviously been opened and read.’

  ‘I didn’t know any of that. If there’s anything I can do . . .’

  ‘No, Arthur, I didn’t mean that. Please don’t do a thing. You’ve already done so much. It might be better if you distance yourself a bit from us now. Look, we’re not far from Hoheluftchaussee, I can walk the rest.’

  ‘I’m not quite with you.’

  ‘Then I’ll be more direct. We both know that the occupying forces view Germans as the lowest form of life and that you’re all supposed to avoid contact. If you don’t stick to that, sooner or later you’ll get into trouble and could even lose everything. I consider you to be a real friend, but our friendship could cause you genuine difficulties, so that’s what I mean about you distancing yourself.’

  ‘You’re an idiot, did you know that?’

  ‘If you were a psychiatrist, I’d give that some thought, but you only know about general medicine.’

  ‘Richard, listen to me. It’s true that lots of Brits see Germans as the lowest form of life, as you describe it – and you’ll always get that when two countries have been at war – but there are a few who see things rather differently. Now here’s an example: very soon we’ll be providing school meals, and they won’t require food coupons. I imagine that’ll be a relief for a lot of parents. It’s a lousy time to be alive, and it’s worse for you than for me, but I can’t change that. I can’t change the injustices or the big picture in political terms. I can only do what you’ve been doing over the last twelve years, and that’s help the people I care about but do it all on the quiet. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do, whether it suits you or not.’