Devil's Guard- The Complete Series Box Set

by Eric Meyer

  “Very well.”

  I heard the men muttering about their platoon commander being in the shit again, it was entirely possible too, I wondered what I was being accused of this time. I went into Muller’s outer office in the monastery, the orderly sent me straight in and I saluted. Kriminalkommissar Wiedel was with the CO, whose face was red with anger. The Gestapo man was as calm as ever.

  Muller spoke first. “Hoffman, I’ve had my attention drawn to some of your reports of the actions you’ve been involved in since you’ve been here. I’ve checked the reports from other officers and talked to the men. Do you have anything to add to what you have already said?”

  I thought hard, what the hell could I have said that would have given the wrong impression?

  “No, sir.”

  “I see. Well, I am pleased to inform you that I have decided to promote you to Obersturmfuhrer, effective immediately.”

  “What, er, I see. Thank you, Sir, thank you very much.”

  If I had made a list of the one hundred things least likely to happen to me, promotion would be at the very top.

  “Congratulations, Hoffman. It is unusually early to promote an officer this quickly, but your actions have been a credit to the regiment and to the SS. See the quartermaster and he will issue you with new rank badges. That’s all, dismissed.”

  I saluted. “Heil Hitler.” He returned the salute and I left the office. How things could change, one minute I was on Muller’s shit list, the next he promoted me to Obersturmfuhrer. I was walking away, feeling slightly dizzy when Muller’s office door opened and Wiedel came out.

  “Congratulations, Hoffman.”

  “Thank you, Sir. Was it von Betternich who pushed the Major?”

  He smiled thinly. “He may have mentioned something, but believe me, the merit of your actions spoke for itself. As a matter of interest, I wanted to speak to you about your young nurse, Fraulein Thalberg.”

  My pleasure at the promotion turned to an icy feeling in my stomach.

  “She is well? Has something happened to her?”

  “Do not concern yourself, she is in perfect health. At least, as far as the Russian efforts are concerned. You know of her politics?”

  “She told me her father was a communist, yes.”

  “Quite so. However, she is on a watch list that I brought with me from Berlin. She has certain unwise political views herself, did you know that?”

  I was about to say I didn’t when I thought to that time in the restaurant, she’d mentioned something about the treatment of the Jews.

  “I suspect she may be a little outspoken, that is all, no more than that.”

  “People have been shot for being a little outspoken, Hoffman.”

  I reeled. “Is she in any danger?”

  “No, not at the moment. But listen to me, the Reich has stern policies in place in certain areas.”

  “You mean the Jews?”

  “Yes, that is one such area. It is not advisable to question the State in these matters. Or even the wishes of the Fuhrer.”

  “What is happening with the Jews, Sir? It’s not the first time that I’ve heard someone mention this.”

  “They are being resettled, Hoffman.”

  “So why is that a problem?”

  Wiedel was silent for a few moments.

  “Take my advice, Obersturmbannfuhrer, forget the Jews and do not make any enquiries. It would be sensible to pass that message on to Fraulein Thalberg. People meddling in State affairs risk everything, do you understand? Everything! Good day to you, Hoffman.”

  He walked away, leaving me more puzzled than ever. I rejoined my men and we spent the rest of the day making repairs to our equipment, the re-arming and refuelling that were part of the routine after any action. After the evening meal we had time to ourselves, the men had a camp fire blazing outside the church and coffee brewing in a battered kettle. I joined them and nursed a mug of coffee, feeling more confused than ever. The business with the Gestapo and the SD was obviously more ominous than I had realised, of course they had their teeth into Heide, I knew that now. I wished they’d all go away and leave me to fight a simple, straightforward war.

  “Mundt, what have you heard about the Jews?” I asked my sergeant abruptly.

  He looked up and by the light of the fire I saw his eyes narrow.

  “Nothing, Sir.”

  “Nothing? How is it that none of us knows anything? Where have they gone?”

  Mundt shrugged. “No idea.”

  “For Christ’s sake, man, they can’t have disappeared into thin air. How many are there in the Reich, a million, two million. Where are they?”

  “Begging your pardon, Sir, but I prefer not to talk about the Jews.”

  I was wasting my time, I knew that. But something was odd, they’d been bullied and beaten, their property confiscated in many cases. They’d been thrown out of their jobs and evicted from their homes. The same had happened to the communists and anyone else the Fuhrer blamed for the problems of Germany under the Weimar republic. It was cruel, sure, but the politicians said it was necessary. But what had happened to these people, especially the Jews, where had they gone? I recalled when I was very young seeing communists and Nazi stormtroopers brawling in the streets, but Jews never, they seemed like well-behaved model citizens. I decided to speak to Heide, she obviously knew something. Despite what Wiedel had said, I wanted to know what was happening in my own country, I had a right to know, didn’t I? But I thought of the dark, mysterious power of the Gestapo and the SD. Perhaps I didn’t have that right, I remembered instinctively asking Heide to keep quiet in public about the Jews. My heart told me I wanted to know, my head told me that some knowledge could be very dangerous. At least war was simple, kill the enemy before he killed you.

  In the morning we had an early start, von Betternich and Wiedel climbed into the back of the Kubelwagen with me. We left the camp just after dawn, Voss drove with Mundt and Merkel crammed into the front with him. We drove for an hour to the city of Kharkov, just outside the city we bumped into the camp of SS Der Fuhrer Panzer Grenadier Regiment. It was a farm, it must have been prosperous before the war, the farmhouse looked to be in good repair and quite large. The sentry stopped us at the gate to the farmyard but Wiedel showed him his Gestapo identification disc and the man waved us through. The ground was littered with half-tracks and equipment, men working on the vehicles, a few standing in line at the cookhouse for breakfast, just like our own HQ at Korenevo. A soldier stood guard at the door of the farmhouse, his MP38 at the ready. Once more, Wiedel showed his Gestapo disc and we were waved through. An orderly knocked on the door of the CO’s office, the two security men and I were shown in. Mundt and the others stayed outside.

  “Good morning, Sturmbannfuhrer,” Stettner said coldly, nodding at Wiedel and me.

  “Obersturmbannfuhrer, Sir, I was promoted.”

  “I see. Congratulations,” he said sarcastically, “what can I do for you?”

  He wasn’t on his own in the office, the Sturmscharfuhrer sat on a chair by the blazing log fire, a rifle on his knees, a Kar 98 with a telescopic sight. He took his time but finally got to his feet, a Sturmscharfuhrer was the highest rank of NCO in the SS, he wasn’t about to let any officer forget his status.

  “This is Sturmscharfuhrer Artur Winckmann, he keeps things in order for me around here. Now, tell me what you want, we are very busy!”

  The two security men were on thin ice. Stettner was senior to both of them and he was a line officer in the middle of a major military action. Strangely, I noticed that he was still sitting on the ornate, gilt throne, it was obviously a treasured possession of his. But a little over-ostentatious, I thought, for an SS officer, more suited to a nobleman. Was that what he thought he was?

  “Sir, you said you would have your regimental journals and movement records ready for us to inspect, we were interrupted by the Russian attack. We’ve come to look at those documents now.”

  “Then I am afraid you h
ave wasted you time. They were lost during the Russian counterattack.”

  There was silence in the office. We all knew what should happen next, a formal enquiry, officers and men questioned, a search mounted for the missing documents, equally we all knew that it would not happen. The CO was blatantly hostile to von Betternich and Wiedel and we all knew that in this place he could please himself. Perhaps he really did think of himself as a nobleman after all.

  The SD man and the Gestapo officer exchanged glances, and then nodded formally at Stettner.

  “In that case, we need not waste any more of your time,” von Betternich said. “Thank you, Sir. Heil Hitler.”

  We all three saluted and left the office, I could swear that Winckmann was grinning from where he stood near the fire. Outside, we got into the Kubi and Voss drove away and into the centre of the city.

  “We have some administrative matters to attend to, Hoffman, we’ll drop you outside the hospital and collect you in two hours, your men will be perfectly safe with us,” von Betternich said.

  “Yes, thank you, Sir”

  I rushed through the doors and asked the clerk on the desk about Heide.

  “She is on the ward, Herr Obersturmbannfuhrer.”

  I went through the double swing doors, the familiar smell of ether, urine and unwashed bodies hit me full in the face but she was there, she looked up, saw me and came towards me, then stopped a metre away.

  “Jurgen.”

  “Heide.”

  Then she was in my arms and we ignored the cheers, jeers and catcalls from the patients in their beds.

  “I thought you might have been killed,” she said.

  “No, it’ll take more than a bunch of half-arsed Russians to kill me, Heide.”

  But she saw through the bravado and didn’t smile. “I’ll see the sister and get someone to cover for me, how long have you got?”

  “Two hours.”

  “Then we must make full use of the time we have. One moment.”

  She came back after three minutes with another nurse who gave me a cryptic smile and walked on into the ward to take care of the men.

  “Come with me, there is somewhere quiet we can talk,” she said.

  We went up two flights of stairs and she opened the door into a tiny room with just a chair and a bed.

  “This is the on-call doctors’ restroom, it is where they sleep when they may be needed at short notice.”

  We looked at one other for all of five seconds, then we were in each other’s arms, kissing, caressing and tearing the other’s clothes off until we were both naked. We fell on the bed and her hands were all over me, our mouths clamped together, I pulled my mouth away and bent to kiss her beautiful, firm breasts, the nipples were hard and erect. Then I put my hand down and felt between her legs, she was already wet with arousal, her own hand was on my penis, softly stroking me.

  “Fuck me, Jurgen, now, my darling.”

  I entered her and we held each other tightly as I moved my hips gently backwards and forwards, she held me, almost as if I might want to leave. I showered her with kisses and she reciprocated, we worshipped each other’s body, revelling in the sheer beauty and innocence of this most basic yet magnificent fulfilment of our needs, a tiny temporary oasis away from the filth, terror and horror of the war. Our bodies clamped together even more tightly as we made love for what seemed like an eternity, then all too soon it was over as we both surged to a climax. Afterwards we lay together, touching and holding in wonder at the newness of the love we had found.

  “You know I shall never let you go after this, don’t you, Jurgen?”

  “That suits me, my darling. I’ll be happy to stay with you forever.”

  But we both knew that our forever was an illusion. We constantly had to check our watches, I only had a half hour left. We slowly got dressed.

  “This damn war, will it never end?” she said to me. “I hate this place, the dirt and squalor of Russia, the snow and the cold, the dark, I want you to take me away somewhere it is always warm.”

  “I would if I could, you know that, Heide?”

  “Yes, I do,” she gave out a huge sigh. “These fucking Nazis! You’re not a Nazi, are you Jurgen?”

  I was able to reply honestly to that one. “No, I am not and never have been.”

  “Yet you joined the SS?”

  “Of course, I was in the Hitler Youth, it was an honour to join such an elite regiment as SS Deutschland.”

  “But some of your people are so brutal, Jurgen.”

  “Which people?”

  She hesitated for a moment, but then she went on. “I was stationed first at a hospital in Poland, there was an SS unit there, they were called an Einsatzgruppe.”

  “Yes, one of our Task Forces, probably on anti-partisan duties.”

  “They boasted that they were rounding up Jews, not partisans, Jurgen. Rounding them up and shooting them, murdering them.”

  “Perhaps they were partisans.”

  “They were women and children, children as young as two and three, together with their mothers. I saw the bodies. And then there were the camps.”

  “Camps?”

  “Yes, concentration camps.”

  “I see, they’re used to intern political prisoners, that’s all.”

  “No, there are dozens of trains travelling east every day, packed with Jews, they take them to the camps and then they disappear. Jurgen, they’re murdering them!”

  “That’s ridiculous, why would they do that, they’re German citizens?”

  But even as I was denying it, I sensed the truth of what she’d said. I had known Jews in my childhood who had long disappeared. The Reich propaganda maintained that they were parasites that should be cleansed from the earth. Until now, I’d assumed it was just words, that they were being sent to territories somewhere far from the Reich. Then I remembered Wiedel.

  “They’re watching you, you know. The Gestapo.”

  “I don’t care, I’m going to write to the Fuhrer, he has to be told of this.”

  I was horrified. “The Fuhrer, are you totally mad?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing happens in the Reich without the Fuhrer’s consent. You would just be advertising your opposition to the government, to the Fuhrer himself.”

  “So what can I do?”

  “Please do nothing for now, my darling. When the war is over we will make our voices heard together.”

  “You mean when the war is won?” she said anxiously.

  I didn’t reply.

  “Is it that bad?” she asked.

  I think for the first time since I’d joined the SS I faced reality. The enormity of our government murdering our own citizens, Jews and communists, the overwhelming odds we faced on the Eastern Front, and they seemed to be getting worse. I hadn’t been here long, but I had seen and heard enough to know the way things were going.

  “We haven’t lost yet,” I tried to reassure her. “Just be prepared for any eventuality.”

  She gave me a pale smile, the message was obvious, look out for yourself. We both had to get back to our duties. We kissed long and hard, and made promises to each other, then I said goodbye to her at the hospital entrance. The half-track was waiting outside.

  “You look thoughtful, young man,” von Betternich said, “is anything wrong?”

  “No, I’m fine,” I said, trying to appear relaxed, but I got the impression that there was little about me he didn’t understand. I shivered, hoping that his and Wiedel’s protection of Heide would continue for now. If it didn’t, I worried for her future. And I realised that I loved her, it was not just the aftermath of wonderful sex, I loved everything about her, the way she looked, the way she talked, the way she smelt, the way she styled her hair, the way she walked. I knew that I would lay down my life for her. I felt that it might just come to that too, with all of the complications that surrounded our relationship.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Man has discovered in na
ture the wonderful notion of that all-mighty being whose law he worships. Fundamentally in everyone here is the feeling for this all-mighty, which we call God (that is to say, the dominion of natural laws throughout the whole universe). The priests, who have always succeeded in exploiting this feeling, threaten punishments for the man who refuses to accept the creed they impose. When one provokes in a child a fear of the dark, one awakens in him a feeling of atavistic dread. Thus this child will be ruled all his life by this dread, whereas another child, who has been intelligently brought up, will be free of it. It's said that every man needs a refuge where he can find consolation and help in unhappiness. I don't believe it! If humanity follows that path, it's solely a matter of tradition and habit. That's a lesson, by the way, that can be drawn from the Bolshevik front. The Russians have no God, and that doesn't prevent them from being able to face death. We don't want to educate anyone in atheism.”

  Adolf Hitler July 1941

  We drove through along the snow-covered tracks back to Korenevo. I felt as if this dismal, dreary place had become the epicentre of my world. If the Soviets wanted it, they were welcome to it as far I was concerned. The men must have known that Heide and I had made love, I knew that people have something about them when they have just been to bed with someone they are passionate about, a faraway look, maybe even the smell of their body, the sweat of a man mixed with that of a woman. They just knew, but tactfully they kept their silence. When we got back to the regiment, von Betternich and Wiedel asked me to follow them to their office. They had taken the same office as before, the Soviets had even left the furniture as it was. Their orderly had got a fire going in the grate and it wasn’t totally freezing in the office, though not as warm as Stettner’s luxurious quarters. Von Betternich limped in and sat behind the desk, Wiedel stood in front of the fire warming his hands and I was left standing rigidly in front of the desk, once more the naughty schoolboy about to be told off by the headmaster.

  “It seems we have much to discuss, Hoffman.”

  “Yes, Sir.” About Heide? Surely not!

  “We are nearing some conclusions about this shooting business, give me your impressions.”