Eskenazy hung up, turned to his associates, and with a sober tone said: “Who is not armed?” Each of them looked at him and pulled open their jackets, showing their weapons.
* * *
Back in Haifa, Simon pulled out a photo of Schmidt for his associates to see. “I’ve sent this photo to Eskenazy,” Simon said. “You’ll find Eskenazy at the phone number I gave you. And keep in mind, Belgrado Street. We’ve got a chance that it might be staring right at us.”
In Buenos Aires, Eskenazy looked at Shmuel and Max and said:
“If we come across either one or both, there is no rule as to whether we capture them alive or otherwise decide what to do. But we will need to get rid of the bodies. We’ll need to pile them on the floor-boards in the back of the car and drive to the country maybe twenty miles out of Buenos Aires. Then bury them.
Eskenazy looked at them and said: “Let’s go!”
. 18 .
BELGRANO
In Buenos Aires, Eskenazy greeted Sam Silver and Shimen Pargament. Now Joseph Eskenazy had Shmuel, Maxie, plus these two—including him, five altogether. He had sent his other two associates on another mission. He thought that with him, the five he now had should, without a shadow of a doubt, surely be sufficient. This, he felt was even more certain especially since they were armed with photos of both Schmidt and Dunst. In addition, Eskenazy was also confident because he knew that this personal group of his were all Krav Maga trained personnel.
Eskenazy drove around a bit and, of course, circled Belgrado Street. Belgrado was about four blocks long, beginning to end. The street was bound by cul de sacs at either end with two cross streets in-between. Although the entire neighborhood of Belgrano was rather blighted, Belgrado Street seemed opulent by comparison—an oasis in the desert.
“No doubt,” Eskenazy said, “they escaped with plenty of money. Look where they might be living. They paid that Ghost good money for protection. But no matter how anonymous they wanted to be and still want to be, they would probably never resist good living and would only want the best jobs.
“I think we’re on the right street. Let’s park it and wait. Look, there’s a café on the corner—there diagonal to us. Sam, you go and sit at the café. Get something to eat or order coffee.”
Sam did as Eskenazy suggested. They all waited and waited and watched and watched but no dice. They carefully scrutinized the faces of every man who passed by, but no luck. After about an hour, Sam paid and walked away. He didn’t return to the car. He walked around the block and approached the car from the rear. As he was walking up to the car, a door opened onto the street from one of the building hallways and out stepped Albrecht Schmidt! Sam could see instantly that it was him, and didn’t hesitate. He took out his pistol. It had a silencer over the muzzle in position—the gun ready to be fired.
Schmidt looked up. Sam said: “Albrecht, hello.” Schmidt stopped in his tracks, and with no hesitation Sam said:
“In the car.”
As though the car door had a mind of its own, it opened. Sam pushed Schmidt into the car as Shimen pulled Schmidt in from inside. Schmidt did everything he was told without the slightest attempt to put up a fight. Sam thought:
‘That’s kind of like walking into a gas chamber when told to do it especially when the other person telling you to do it is armed and you’re not. Isn’t it?’
Eskenazy was sitting in the front, also revolver in hand, with Shmuel next to him. Sam joined them. Shmuel started the dialogue.
“Telling me story for Freundel Dunst or I killing you here, now. Right now!”
“No, no shoot. I telling you. He living in mine building. In dis street in dis building.”
“Vhat floor?”
“Mine floor. Tsvei door down in hallvay. Numer Zex. No shoot.”
At that point, not hesitating, Eskenazy nodded and Kovner’s boy, Shmuel Kishnov, put two bullets directly into Schmidt; one into his chest, the other into his stomach. At the same time Sam’s compatriot-shadow, Shimen, along with Sam, pushed and pulled and finally Schmidt was laid out on the floor-board of the car as they had previously planned. Sam then slammed the door shut. As the door closed, Eskenazy drove away. As he was driving, he looked at Shmuel and said:
“One down, one to go.”
* * *
Simon contemplated the news and without skipping a beat said: “You see gentlemen, yet, we are not gentlemen. We are feral. We are animals. That is the truth. Because when you treat someone like they treated us, forcing us to be helpless animals—and they did without any human concern—and continued to torture us without any hesitation or let-up, then you turn that tortured and murdered man into a rabid animal. And he will do to you what he learned from you.
“It’s as Eskenazy, Shmuel and Maxie, Shimen and Sam have just done, and what they apparently are now planning to do to Dunst. There is nothing I can do to stop it. If I could I would stop it, but the truth is that in my heart there is a feeling of ‘good’—it was deserved! In a way, I hate myself for feeling it, but I do feel it even though I would never do it that way—and then again I wonder if I’m really happy that they got what was coming.”
The next evening they were there again—Eskenazy with Sam and Shimen, on Belgrado Street hunting for Dunst—with Shmuel and Maxie doing the walking in the neighborhood. But now they had the address. Eskenazy remembered Dunst from Buchenwald where Dunst would assist Blome who experimented with euthanasia projects, anthrax, and nerve agents like Sarin that they actually sprayed on people.
“I’d recognize him anywhere,” Eskenazy proclaimed to Sam and Shimen sitting in the parked car. “When he answers his door, I’ll know if it’s him immediately. But this time we don’t kill him immediately. We should have gotten more information from Schmidt. We will need to get as much information as we can from Dunst about any others before we do him.”
“Joseph,” Sam said, “we shouldn’t go into the building. We got Schmidt directly in front of the building. And it worked very well. Let’s do the same with Dunst. We wait for him in the Street and wait to see if he is coming out of the building or walking toward the building to enter. It’s then that we’ll get him.”
Eskenazy saw the logic and agreed. As fate would have it, suddenly Eskenazy could swear it was Dunst in the flesh walking down the street.
“Oh God, yes, that’s him coming down the street. Hasn’t changed in more than a decade. Hasn’t changed a bit. Same way he walks. He walks like an emperor—proud, superior. See it? Sam, get out of the car now. He’s a half block from us. Walk toward him, pass him by then turn quickly and get him from the back. Force him to the car. Shimen, do the same as before. When he’s at the car, push the door open and this time Sam will pull him in.”
“No, no,” Shimen said. “Look, Shmueli’s on it. He’s got him.”
Shmuel, like a predator had instantly recognized Dunst and deftly moved toward him. Shmuel whirled around, forced his revolver into Dunst’s back and pushed him toward the car.
Again, the door opened as though by itself as if the door knew what to do. In went Dunst with help from Sam who was pulling him in.
“Don’t say a word or you’re dead,” Eskenazy ordered.
“Okay, vat you vant? Here, you taking money. I having money. I giving you.”
“You are Freundel Dunst,” Eskanazy said. “I know you. I saw you for many days when you visited Buchenwald. You with that Sarin experiment, helping Blome. All the prisoners were scared to death. I was there. Oh yes, I saw you.”
“You going to killing me.”
“Probably.”
“Vat you meaning? You meaning maybe you no killing me?”
“You’ve got to tell us names. Where are the others? If we kill five others maybe you live. Where can we find them? We know you know.”
“I no knowing five. But I knowing two. Ist two good to having me going?”
“It depends which two.”
“I believing dis two vill be interest to you. Deese ist Werner Krug
er. Kruger, he vas Alois Brunner’s assisting man. Brunner vas too assisting to Adolph Eichmann und den he vas Commandant of Drancy Camp ver vas Jews das people. He ist vone to gassing tousands Jews in 1943. Kruger he helping Brunner und goot helping mit Eichmann too.”
“I know Drancy,” said Max, who, for the first time, uttered a sound. “It was an internment camp for Jews who were waiting for transport to Auschwitz. The camp was located outside of Paris. They had more than fifty-thousand Jews there including thousands of children—more than five or six-thousand children. Only a fraction survived.”
They all were silent after Max’s description. But Dunst continued:
“I never meeting him but I knowing from him. I knowing he ist vone who he disappear but I knowing dat tzvay year back he use dis help by people in dis Vatican, in Rome, to going to Syria. I hearing he, Alois Brunner, hast changing hist namen—vas changing to Georg Fischer—Dr. Georg Fischer. At Vatican day laughing. Day knowing Syria vill protect—no extradition. But I having namen of man for bribe. You giving money und he helping. I knowing hist namen. Mit him you getting Brunner.
“So far, you’re doing good,” Eskenazy said. “Who else? You said you know about two. Who’s the other one?”
“Dis man, hist namen ist Hermann Streicher. Streicher main assist to Ludolph von Alvensleben. I knowing Streicher he doing much execution in Poland. He vone who helping Alvensleben make “Valley of Death” mit zex, zeben tousand Polish killed. I hearing he too mit new namen. New namen ist Franz Engel und he go to Buenos Aires. Tzvay, two years back, in yahr 1956 he moving to Santa Rosa de Calamuchita in Platz Cordoba, Argentina, un Ish hearing he be now in Buenos Aires. I no knowing vhere. I not knowing address exact. Dis ist everything I knowing. Ist good? No?”
“Are you sure there’s nothing else, Eskenazy prodded?”
“Dis ist only two I knowing. No more. If you no killing me, I vork for you und finding more namens.”
Eskenazy contemplated the offer. He thought that Dunst, in fact, might be able to do just what he said he could do. However, Eskenazy also thought that Dunst would have to be watched every second and that would be an impossible task. In any event, the Nazi’s had killed Eskenazy’s brother who was caught in a net during his stay in Berlin and then perished in one of the concentration camps. No, Eskenazy felt it was also personal and that Freundel Dunst would need to be erased in order for the planet to be a little bit rid of its poison. And it didn’t matter whatever implicit agreement Dunst felt had been struck.
“We will talk more,” Eskenazy said. “But not here. We will drive some distance and talk more when we get there. Sit here quietly and there will be no trouble.”
So, Dunst sat between Sam and Shimen while Eskenazy drove the car with Maxi and Shmuel in the jump seats. Eskenazy then nodded to Shmueli as Shmueli blithely shot Dunst and killed him right there and then, where he sat between Sam and Shimen.
* * *
With Simon, it was all about on to the next project; that is, Sam and Shimen had returned from their mission in Belgrano, Buenos Aires, and had just given Simon a blow by blow with respect to how it was all accomplished—that is, the Schmidt and Dunst episodes.
“There are two things I regret so far,” Simon said. “First is that we can’t seem to get a fix on where Blome himself is. Muller we know was killed in 1945. But Blome, He’s the smart one, like Mengele. Neither of them trusted Hudal’s so-called safe escape-plans with all of the secondary sites. Mengele and Blome and some others obviously discarded Hudal’s secondary sites and developed their own plans. So, with Mengele and Blome as well as with these others, we have problems. We have trouble tracking them. My second regret is that I now know about assassinations that will perhaps be attributed to me. Henceforth, if there are any more shall we say erasures, I’m not to know about it. Please.
“One thing I do know and that is that these Nazis were particularly psychotic sadists which was their typical mode of operation. Even when they weren’t in the throes of this kind of craziness and perhaps more tranquil, their typical mood and attitude which for them was so-called being normal, comprised a tenacious perniciousness with solely intrusive thoughts about killing.”
Finally, Simon, rather than showing his agreement and admiration of Shmuel, began considering other issues.
Then to Sam and Shimen he declared:
“Okay, enough. My friends, look how much effort went into finding Schmidt and Dunst. Something is wrong with the correspondence of our wishes and goals as they relate to implementation. At this rate, even though there are really no limitations to the statute-of-limitations when it comes to evil and evil-doers, nevertheless, I say we need something equivalent to Truman’s bomb. Something equivalent so that rather than putting in maximum effort with minimum results, instead we need to create a paradigm that allows us to gain maximum results with whatever is the degree of effort we put in. We can call this paradigm the minimax-solution. So, Sam, Shimen, how do you see it? Am I right?”
“Simon,” Shimen answered, “Sam and I along with Joseph, Maxie, and Shmueli, have been talking about this since we did the deed in Belgrano. Yes, it required tremendous effort and the reality of it all, is that all we got was—two. Now, since you’ve brought it up, it gives us a chance to proclaim that to work like that is practically working against ourselves. With the amount of energy we put into this, it should have been a hundred and two, not just two.
“So, Simon, of course you are right,” Shimen added. “We’ve all been contemplating it. The only thing that comes to mind is a saying: ‘Cut off the head of the snake!’ And I’m not even sure what I mean by it. Who is the snake? I guess we could say it is Hudal. Alois Hudal.”
“Or,” Wiesenthal picked it up: “Perhaps Hudal is the snake but it might be another if not him.”
At that, Wiesenthal impulsively said: “I’m going to New York. I want to be with all of those who got us the microfilm and who also provided the counterfeit one. This means I want us all to convene: Imi Lichtenfeld, Jimmy McKay, Shmel Kishnov and Max Palace—all from the continent. Maybe Hugh, maybe not. We may need him to be at the Vatican. I will depart from Tel Aviv. We will all convene along with Alex Kaye and his group in the Bronx. Then we will all together discuss the snake and the head of the snake.
“In the meantime, Sammy, Shimen you both will come with me and I’ll call for Joseph to arrive from Buenos Aires on his own. I want Alex and all the rest to hear what has happened, what we’ve already accomplished, and what we are now thinking.”
* * *
Simon had Alex Kaye informed of the plan and Al set out to prepare lodging and so forth, where else but at the motel—the Van Courtlandt Motel.
What Simon didn’t yet know was that they would also be joined by the Wharton family and by Gloria, Gloria Messer that is, and probably also by Detective Loris ‘Mac’ McIver, and Detective Lyle Davis, not to mention some other police such as Mac and Lyle’s detective soul-mates, their sidekicks, Detectives Jack Lehrman and Harry Harrison.
Obviously, this was going to be quite a group—even if you don’t count Willy and Stevie. But then Alex had second thoughts. He realized that the motel would not be suitable for such a large group and so he decided instead to convene at the Concourse Plaza Hotel located a stone’s throw from Yankee Stadium on the Grand Concourse and 161st Street in the Bronx. He was familiar with the Concourse Plaza because he had attended a New York Police Department conference in the ballroom of the hotel.
At the same time on the other side of the world, Alois Hudal was about to receive visitors from Buenos Aires. They were Albecht Schmidt’s mistress who was accompanied by Freundel Dunst’s wife. They were arriving from Buenos Aires more or less directly to Rome, and then immediately to the Vatican.
. 19 .
MENTONE
“I am Marlena Jollenbeck, she announced to Alois Hudal. I am the friend of Albrecht Schmidt.”
“And I, Herr Hudal, I am Frieda Dunst, the wife of Freundel Dunst, of whom I’m sure you
are aware. We are here because both Albrecht and Freundel are missing. They each disappeared within a day or two of the other. We are frantic because we know they both were in deep hiding and we were trying to be certain that they were actually in protected seclusion.
Marlena and I have also known for some time that each of them was always on the lookout for anyone of who may have been hunting them. I say ‘hunting’ because I know what I am talking about. I know what I’m saying. And we believe that you, too, know with what we are concerned. We’d like to know whether you have any information for us. Do you? Please be frank.”
Hudal paused and looked at them seeming to be considering something serious. Frau Dunst, obviously an educated woman, had relayed information that made him certain that they had both been assassinated. But he didn’t tell them that. What he did was attempt to pose as a calm interlocutor while actually he shuddered within. And his interest in Frau Dunst’s intelligence was evidently focused because she was talking to him in Italian and German and he answered in both languages.
“No, I haven’t heard about it except for what you have just told me. I cannot venture even a guess. I can understand that you both might think no good has come of it, but about this we cannot be certain. Of course, I share both your concern and imaginings but the truth is, I have absolutely nothing to report. However, I promise you the moment I do hear something I will contact you both. You have my word.”
With that, the ladies had no choice but to depart. They bade farewell to Hudal, who again assured them that the moment he heard anything he would let them know.
As soon as they departed for Buenos Aires, they lamented the trip to Hudal and in German complained to one another all the way on their flight home.
“Marlena, the trip has been a waste of time. They are gone and gone for good. Marlena, stop weeping. I know you are hurt. But keep in mind, each of them did horrible things during the war and there are people out to get them. To our misfortune, well perhaps to yours, we know they got them both. For me, Marlena, Freundel was an impossible man to be with. We were married for twenty miserable years. I confess this to you. Twenty terrible years. Freundel was an overly sensitive man, especially with regard to feeling humiliated in response to the slightest, what he would label as an ‘offense.’ He would take umbrage to the slightest affront to his so-called superiority—to his masculinity. I again confess to you that this superiority of all the Nazi higher-ups makes me sick and has always made me sick. They are all, all of them, disturbed people!”
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