by Pirate Irwin
“And what was his response?”
“He accepted with alacrity. I have seldom seen someone so impatient to switch sides. I was rather alarmed, and not a little offended, as I doubted that anyone in German uniform would have been so willing and so mercenary to do such a thing. That is, of course, until those cowards at Stalingrad changed their tune,” answered Dickensen.
“Quite. In any case, General, you accepted him and sent him on his way to Berlin. Was he aware of the fate awaiting his former camp mates?”
“Yes. I told him the plan because, as he was not returning there, there seemed little point in keeping the truth from him. Particularly as he was now one of ours.”
“And how did he react?”
“He said ‘silly fools’ and that was that.”
Hisses and boos were coming from all directions, aimed at Sebastian, and the judge had to order the court to be silent three times before threatening to have it cleared, which was, Sebastian thought, the best possible measure to take. However, they eventually quietened down, allowing Steiner to carry on his examination of the old General, who despite his advancing years was putting up a tour de force of a performance.
The damage went on and on, as Dickensen confirmed what Victoria had testified to, that Sebastian had made great efforts to be assigned to Eric’s company and, furthermore, agreed that he had seen the note that her stepson had written prior to his suicide.
“Now I believe you had occasion to see the defendant once more. Could you elaborate on the circumstances for the court please?” asked Steiner smoothly.
“Well, I was alerted to the fact that he was on the list of conspirators implicated in the July 20 plot against the regime, and I asked to be personally responsible for his interrogation.”
“So he was a conspirator?”
“Yes, though he pleaded that he had been an informant for us and it could be confirmed by Baroness von Preetz. I, of course, consulted her and she laughed and said that even so, he deserved to be fed to the wolves as he had been responsible for the deaths of her stepson and husband, which countered his services to the state.”
“What was his reaction to that and then the note which I believe the Baroness furnished you with?”
“He sobbed and tried to turn me round, even suggesting that he be sent back to the Eastern Front in one of the punishment battalions. As for the note, well, he was unrepentant, dismissing it as a forgery and then when he finally admitted it was indeed Eric’s handwriting, he sneered and said that he had always thought the boy didn’t have the strength to see the war through. At least, I said to the defendant, he didn’t sell himself to the enemy and then betray those who trusted him twice over. I knew my instinct was right in the first place, that he was too ready to join us, which made him eminently untrustworthy,” he said bitterly.
“Now you understand that these conspirators are regarded as the moral face of Germany, don’t you, General. And that your interrogating of them places you in the firmament of the evil side. Surely a man of your background and culture saw more in common with them than with the Nazis?”
Dickensen nodded sadly. “Yes, but I was serving the state of Germany. That had been my purpose when I fought in the Great War and I saw no difference in what I did in the Second. To me, the conspirators had betrayed Germany, not Hitler, for whom I had little time, but he was the leader, democratically elected, remember, and not by some unholy cabal of disaffected officers, aristocrats and trade unionists. They were the ones who had already tried and failed lamentably to revive Germany after the Treaty of Versailles and I and many others did not wish them visited on us again. It was, I repeat, not because we empathized with Hitler and his bunch of gangsters but because we believed in Germany. I could list for you as many honourable men as there were pretending to be liberators who did not consider a putsch as the reasonable way out. Believe it or not, there were those of us who preferred to see Germany go down in flames like Hitler did, but for different reasons, so we could be totally cleansed of the infamy we had been led like donkeys to perpetrate on the rest of Europe. Thus, to us, the conspirators were an irrelevance and part of an age gone by. Stuart, or Major Murat as he was known then, was a different case altogether.”
Sebastian had to admire the chutzpah of the witness, who had turned the argument entirely on its head and made an honourable case for total inertia, though Dickensen was guilty of worse than that.
Steiner grunted his approval and indicated he had only one more question to ask the witness. “The defendant, unlike the majority of the others, was not hanged, even though he was seen in the Bendlerstrasse and threatened to kill General Fromm, who was trying to restore some order to the chaos. Why was he saved from the disgusting fate of the others where they were hoisted onto chicken wire and took minutes to die as they bounced up and down struggling for their lives?”
“Because Freisler, the judge, was due to pronounce the death penalty on him, when word came from Reichsmarschall Goering’s office that he was not to be executed as he could prove useful in case of ultimate defeat, because he had influential friends in Britain. Another delusion of Goering’s but Freisler agreed and spared him. Still, perhaps this is better where he is judged by his peers rather than a now disgraced state and a questionable court system,” said Dickensen smiling serenely.
“So, Colonel Johns, for that is the name I know you by and I will with the court’s permission continue to address you by during my cross examination,” said Sebastian, who won that point despite Steiner’s objection as Mainwaring conceded that the defendant had a point.
“You said in your testimony that I overrode all your objections to having the two men murdered. I would put it to you, why would I be believed instead of you, who at that point was believed to be the intelligence officer, and therefore privy to all the details on the men in the camp?” Dickensen breathed in deeply on what was his second day in the witness box, as the judge had adjourned the day before, after he had finished his evidence because of his age. Sebastian had been relieved as it gave him more time to prepare his questions for the ageing General.
“Because you threatened to scupper the whole escape plan if you didn’t get your way and the others simply did not want that to happen. As for myself, I in my capacity as the real agent did not want it to be cancelled.”
“So you are saying you actively sought to send these men to their deaths, and I do not mean the two that you allege that I murdered but the remaining group who were going to escape?”
Dickensen cast a glare at Sebastian and swallowed. “I suppose you could say that, yes. But we were in a war situation and I believed that the deaths of a few escapees would be better than a mass execution such as the airmen suffered later in the war. It would serve as a warning to the others and if anything prevent more deaths,” he replied haughtily.
Sebastian grinned and went on. “So, Colonel, did your sacrificing several men work? And could you enlighten the court as to how many escapes followed this doomed effort?”
“How do you expect me to have those sort of details on me? It is an awfully long time ago and I do not carry the facts and figures of one pithy little prisoner of war camp around with me,” he replied arrogantly.
“Well, let me furnish you with those details,” smiled Sebastian. “In that pithy little camp, as you call it, there were 95 escapes from the date of that doomed little effort to the time it was liberated. So I put it to you that your experiment at saving lives and stopping people from escaping was a lamentable failure.”
Dickensen frowned and replied: “Well, it was worth trying at the time. In any case, I couldn’t have done it without your help in deciding not to return to the camp.”
“I’m sure that will be of great comfort to the families of those men. But, moving on, you anticipated what I was going to turn to next. You and I have, and are, at odds over many things, Colonel, not least over the manner of my joining the Wehrmacht. Do you insist the version you gave to the court yesterday was the tru
th? And remember you are under oath, sir.”
Dickensen looked puzzled at being challenged over such a matter and wondered where the catch was, as Sebastian was going over ground that could be highly damaging to him.
“I have no reason to retract my testimony, Murat,” he said firmly.
“Very well. So you would reject as out of hand that you had me brought to your office, and offered me the choice between being sent back to the camp after the escape attempt had been foiled and then telling them that I was responsible for the fiasco, or I could simply be shot and the final option was that I could join the Nazi cause and fight the Bolsheviks. You don’t recall that as the real truth, do you Colonel?” asked Sebastian brusquely.
Dickensen waved his hands in derisive fashion and laughed. “Really, Murat, you have not lost your imagination and ability to invent the truth . . .”
“Just answer the question, and I would ask you to refrain from referring to me as Murat, my name is Stuart,” Sebastian said angrily.
“Well, if you’d allowed me to finish, I would have said no, I do not recollect that version of events, entertaining as it sounds and how very British of you to paint the picture of the traditional cruel and callous German officer,” Dickensen said drily. “Furthermore, as you wish to call me Johns, so I will call you Murat, as that is the name I knew you by,” he added tartly.
“Well, we will agree to disagree on that then, Colonel, and I am referring to your response to whether I volunteered with alacrity as you put it, or my memory of the offer.”
Sebastian bristled at the response and decided to cut his losses and proceed as quickly as possible through the cross examination, because he was not going to get much change out of him, that was clear, as Dickensen might be elderly but he had retained his mental agility and there was no way he was going to budge from his previous testimony, unless he inadvertently contradicted himself.
“You claimed that I said, when you interrogated me, following the July 20 plot that I had been an informant for the state against the resistance.”
“Yes, that is correct,” replied Dickensen.
“Well, answer me this then, Colonel. Don’t you really think that if I had been an informant that I would not have been at the Bendlerstrasse on that fateful night and secondly, and probably more pertinently, that I would not have been arrested? It seems a little strange that having been, as you recall it, an informant, I should be held after such a service to the Führer. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Dickensen looked flustered, his tongue traversing his lips several times, but Sebastian guessed he must have expected such a question and would be prepared for it. “I cannot account for your actions on that day, Murat. As for you being arrested, they were crazy, frenetic days when even I was fortunate to escape detention. I checked your story as I already said with the Baroness and she said she didn’t care what you were.”
“Yeah, feed me to the dogs, I know all that boring routine. So are you telling the court that I was a conspirator or an informant, and if it is the former then don’t you think that is a credit to me that I should plot against the regime that imposed such cruelty on nearly every race and creed in Europe?”
Dickensen made a look suggesting he was getting bored with the line of questioning. “Quite frankly, the matter as to whether you were an informant or a plotter matters not a jot to me. I knew you for what you were, which was a man who would sell his soul, no matter the price, just so long as it would ensure you lived. I don’t really think you had any idea where your morals lay, by that stage you were so confused you probably thought you were still in the British Army,” he chortled derisively.
“Well, thank you for being such a moral guider on that issue, Colonel,” Sebastian said sarcastically. “Tell me, Colonel, could you inform the court what service you were in during the war?”
“I was in intelligence,” Dickensen replied sharply.
“Yes, but what section. I mean Hitler was well known to have endless intelligence units. Was it the Abwehr?”
“No.”
“Well, which one was it?” Sebastian asked harshly.
Dickensen swallowed several times before responding. “Internal security intelligence.”
“That is fine, but it is still a bit general, Colonel,” grinned Sebastian at his own little jest. “What was the title of the service exactly, and I emphasise the word exactly.”
The General lowered his eyes for a brief moment and whispered: “The Gestapo.”
“Sorry, I don’t think the court heard your answer, please repeat what you just said,” said Sebastian.
“The Gestapo,” replied Dickensen falteringly.
“Ah, the Gestapo, that august and well-respected body that treated everybody as equals, especially when they were tied to a chair, having the shit beaten out of them,” said Sebastian savagely. Steiner objected and the judge sustained it, warning Sebastian over his language. “I apologize, my Lord, but some memories are too strong to banish,” he said.
“But you weren’t tortured, Murat, I wanted to just battle it out with you in debating style, lure you into making a mistake. I told them not to lay a hand on you, that you were not likely to crack and I could succeed in getting a confession out of you,” said Dickensen.
“You didn’t need to say that, Colonel, but thank you all the same,” said Sebastian jovially to which for the first time in days he heard a ripple of laughter waft through the courtroom. “You said during your testimony for the prosecution that you did not entertain ideas of joining the resistance because it was made up of all the groups that had led Germany into ruin prior to the arrival of the Nazis. Were you ever approached by a member of the resistance in an attempt to recruit you?”
“No, but then, being in the Gestapo was not exactly a magnet for people to approach one for such a project.”
“Yes, but one of your number, Hans Bernd Gisevius, was one of the main conspirators; did he not try and sound you out?”
“No.”
“So I take it you were regarded as so loyal to the regime that you were not considered a potential plotter. Would I be right in that assumption?”
Steiner broke in at that point. “My Lord, I am mystified at this line of questioning. For a start, the witness is not on trial and secondly, his war record is hardly relevant to the case.”
Sebastian protested that it was relevant as it provided a cause for why Dickensen should bear such malice towards him and that he had worked for a since criminalized unit as laid down by the War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg back in 1946. To Sebastian’s relief, Mainwaring ruled in his favour declaring that it was relevant, though even Sebastian had to admit to himself he wasn’t quite sure where he was taking it.
“I will not keep you long now, Colonel. Have you served time in prison for what you did during the war?” asked Sebastian. That caught Dickensen off guard, particularly as Steiner had assured him that his war record would be kept out of the courtroom, but the interfering judge had dashed those hopes.
“Yes. I served eight years of a 20-year sentence,” he replied mournfully.
“And what was that for?”
Dickensen looked for help from Steiner, but he could not do anything and he simply nodded at the frail general to answer the question. Dickensen tried to hold off answering the question, even considering faking a fainting fit but he knew it was pointless as he would have to return and respond anyway. “Murder, sanctioned by the state, nevertheless. I was only carrying out what I was ordered to do,” he pleaded pathetically.
Sebastian brushed that aside. “How many people, were you convicted of killing?”
Dickensen really was starting to feel the heat now and swayed from side to side in the box. “I don’t remember,” he mumbled.
“Oh come, come, Colonel, don’t be shy. Why, you have shown a most remarkable ability to remember facts about me, and yet you seem to be rather more vague over your own history. So please, tell the court how many people were you convicted of murdering? A
nd I warn you that any obfuscation on your part will be easily found out as I can have the court records sent over from Germany,” said Sebastian.
Dickensen was furious at being taken back over what had been a traumatic time for him and his wife, but he was cornered. “One person. Ingrid Carsten was her name; she was my mistress,” he replied glaring at Sebastian.
“Ah, how quaint. The General jailed for a crime passionnel. I am sure while there you had plenty of time to reflect on the other innocent victims you eliminated. That will be all, Colonel,” said Sebastian harshly. He sat down while the General left the court, though not before they had gazed into each other’s eyes and the look was one of mutual hatred and Sebastian mused that that was probably the first time they had ever agreed on anything.
Steiner breezed into his Chambers, angry at the last part of Dickensen’s testimony being allowed and he was going to use that as part of an appeal should Sebastian escape this time round. He doubted he would but one had to be mindful of every eventuality and hence his impatience to jot down the terms for the appeal. Mainwaring was proving less than helpful, and he had wondered why the government hadn’t tried to have him removed through a diplomatic illness, but they were so nervous these days that they didn’t want anything to seem like a fix, thus he would have to put up with him for the remainder of the trial. That should not prove too long, for he had just one more witness to be called, and as far as he was aware all Sebastian had was a couple of character witnesses and himself, where he, Steiner, would deliver the coup de grace in a duel he had been anticipating with relish since the beginning of the process. In fact, he mused, all the witnesses before were mere bit part actors in their personal battle and were there just to serve the purpose of drumming up the tension so the boundaries of the climactic clash had been well set by the time they came to face each other. The faithful Ellison bounced in without knocking as usual, which further aggravated his mood, but he had to temper it when his clerk announced that the Lord Chancellor was there to see him. “Really? How strange,” said a rather perturbed Steiner, before telling Ellison to show him in. Steiner had not expected to see him until after the case was over, as the government wanted to keep their distance, so he must have something of great urgency to tell him. Kilmuir swept into the room and Adam could tell from the look on his face it wasn’t good news. He turned down the offer of a drink, saying he wouldn’t be staying long enough. “Bluntly, Steiner, some of us are none too impressed by the manner in which the trial is progressing. We fear that Stuart may win and we would like to know what you are going to do to ensure that doesn’t happen,” he said angrily.