Beyond the Shield

by Nachman Kataczinsky

  “Approximately 22,000 Polish officers, enlisted men and civilians were shot by NKVD troops,” the Israeli Foreign Minister said. “This is a list of the participants in that massacre. We probably missed some but not many. If German army officers are going to be executed, then those on this list should be executed as well. And their higher ups need to stand trial for war crimes.”

  Stalin slapped his hand on the table. “This is not going to happen.”

  “In that case, forget about executing anybody without trial,” said Churchill.

  Molotov looked at Stalin. “We agree. All German criminals will be tried.”

  Amos Nir smiled. “I am glad we resolved this problem. In general we have no disagreements. I would also like to propose that we each station forces in Germany for ten years as a guarantee that they actually go through with the denazification program we discussed earlier. If the allies are not satisfied with the progress being made, they will be free to extend the presence of their troops indefinitely in one year increments. This will, of course, require the unanimous agreement of the three allied powers.”

  Stalin smiled for the first time. “What size of an occupation force do you envision?”

  Churchill bristled. “We are not proposing an occupation force. The purpose of this force – which can be quite small - will only be to insure that Germany is getting rid of Nazi influence. We were thinking on the order of about one hundred thousand men in total. Each of the allied powers to have equal representation divided into mixed units with equal numbers from each ally.”

  Stalin nodded. “I can see how the Soviet Union and Great Britain are entitled to be part of this enterprise. I have doubts about Israel. They didn’t contribute much to the fighting and should, maybe, have symbolic representation only. We also propose a much larger force, on the order of four hundred thousand.”

  Amos Nir smiled an unpleasant smile. “Mr. Stalin, you must have extremely incompetent people surrounding you if you think that Israel didn’t contribute to the fighting. Our offer stands. Feel free to reject it and have no representation in Germany.

  “We thought that an international tribunal representing all allies, including France, should judge the Nazi war criminals but we can manage on our own.”

  Stalin shrugged. “We thought that such a burden may be too much for a small country. I was just trying to be helpful.”

  Amos Nir nodded. “I think that we have covered everything. If there are no other proposals, we will have a written copy of the agreement for the parties’ approval in a couple of hours.”

  ***

  Wolf Frumin remembered the good old days, only eight months ago, when he was listening to lectures and studying to be a tank commander. It all seemed so easy and trivial. Now he was dead tired, trying to listen carefully to what the instructor was saying. The course was named “Psychology of Command”; failing would wash him out of the NCO school.

  Wolf was happy when the lecture was over and the class dispersed. He went to the cafeteria for lunch and a cup of coffee.

  “Hi, Wolf! How is it going with you?”

  Wolf looked up from his lunch; it was the commander of his class, a lieutenant. He motioned for Wolf to remain seated and sat opposite him.

  “I’m doing fine,” Wolf responded, “just tired like everyone else.”

  The lieutenant smiled. “That’s how the course is designed. We get you tired for a week and then run some tests. You need to perform well tired and under pressure.” He started on his own meal and ate in silence for a while. “I joined you here not to ruin your lunch but to present an opportunity. This is an informal conversation and won’t influence anything.”

  Wolf looked at the officer and sipped his coffee in silence.

  Finally the lieutenant said, “If I’m not mistaken you are considering joining the professional army. We think you are officer material and suggest that after you graduate from this course, you apply for officers school.”

  “Who is ‘we’?” Wolf asked.

  “Myself, the school commander, and the monitoring psychologist.” The lieutenant smiled. “I hope that’s enough?”

  Wolf smiled. “Yes, that’s enough. The problem is that I’m not sure I want to become a professional soldier. My medical profile is never going to be 97%. The doctors tell me I’m at about 85% now. It might improve but there are no guarantees. So even if I decided to become a professional, my advancement will probably be limited.”

  The lieutenant looked at Wolf carefully. “Being an officer requires no additional physical exertion over what you are already doing. You might have noticed that generals are overall less fit than sergeants. You studied our history and know that some of our senior commanders had missing body parts. Your injury will not hamper your promotion.”

  He was silent for a moment, sipping his soda. “I would advise you to become an officer even if you decide against a military career. We need good armor officers and you would be one. Just to be clear, there’s no pressure. Take your time. This course will be over in three weeks so there’s no reason you can’t apply in a month or two. You will probably also want to discuss this with your family.”

  ***

  Dan McKenzie, who had been the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, waited impatiently in the room Ambassador Kirk used as the foyer of his temporary embassy.

  Finally the door opened and a secretary peeked out. “Mr. McKenzie, the Ambassador will see you now.” Her expression was severe and not particularly welcoming.

  Dan McKenzie followed her into the inner room. She pointed at a door and settled behind her desk. McKenzie noticed the implied slight bordering on rudeness but made no comment. He proceeded to open the door and enter the room. He was familiar with the general layout – this had been the American Consulate in Jerusalem and he had visited a number of times during his service.

  The current Ambassador, Alexander Kirk, got up from his seat behind a modest desk and made a movement to extend his hand. It stopped in mid-motion. He pointed at a chair in front of the desk and sat down.

  After a prolonged silence Kirk finally smiled a somewhat strained smile. “So you are the former U.S. Ambassador to Israel. I was hoping to learn from you.”

  “Ambassador, I am ready to assist you. Just tell me what you need to know.”

  Kirk hesitated. “Was Israel at the time an unimportant country?” He added to himself that this would explain a Negro having been assigned as Ambassador.

  Dan McKenzie figured out what was behind the question. “Mr. Kirk, before I became the Ambassador to Israel I served in several other countries, including the United Kingdom - what you know as Great Britain - as well as in France and the United States had elected a Negro President before that. To answer your question: Israel was an ally of the U.S. in the Middle East.”

  Kirk considered the reply for a moment. “A Negro President? How interesting. I also understand that the Department of State had women employed as senior staff. Is that true?”

  “Depends on what you call senior. We had several female Secretaries of State, including a Black, or Negro, one, and a large number of female Ambassadors.”

  Kirk’s face was expressionless. “Do you have any questions for me?”

  “Yes. Would I and the other U.S. citizens be admitted to the U.S. on our current passports?”

  “According to the records I received from the Consul’s office we’re talking about approximately two hundred people?”

  “No, we have more than two hundred with diplomatic passports but thousands of tourists got stuck here after the transition and thousands have been living here for years. Brigham Young University has a campus in Jerusalem, for instance, and most of their students are U.S. citizens.”

  Kirk was surprised. “In that case I will have to consult. Please contact my secretary from time to time about this.”

  ***

  Stalin sat thinking. Finally, he pressed the intercom button and told his secretary, Poskrebyshev, to admit the head of security, who was waitin
g just outside the rail car compartment. The compartment of the special car was big, with a full-sized desk and a second room that served as a bedroom.

  “Sit,” Stalin pointed at a chair in front of his desk.

  General Nikolai Vlasik sat, managing to stay at attention.

  Stalin examined his empty pipe, thought some more, then said, “You never reported to me about any other intercepted conversations from the bug at the Israeli embassy in Teheran.”

  “Comrade Stalin, just before we left Teheran I was told that another conversation had been recorded that may be of importance. I received the translation only a couple of minutes ago.” He extended several sheets of paper.

  Stalin read the text carefully, then read it again. “Have you read it?”

  “Yes, comrade Stalin.”

  “Your opinion?”

  Vlasik hesitated. “I’m not entirely sure. They’re clearly saying that they received the text of our Ambassador’s message from the same high level agent but never mention a name.”

  Stalin looked at the typed pages again. “It says they got the information from a top security official. This would eliminate Molotov. Do you know what was in the message?”

  Vlasik shook his head energetically. “No, comrade Stalin. I never even heard of any message. All I know is the line quoted there.” He pointed at the pages Stalin was holding.

  Stalin nodded. “Good. Prepare a full list of all the senior security personnel that attended the meetings in Teheran, including your people. On your way out tell Molotov to come in.”

  A minute later Molotov knocked on the door.

  Stalin extended one of the typed pages to Molotov. “Do you have any idea who the traitor might be?” The page he gave Molotov held the quotation from the Ambassador’s message but not the fact that the Israelis got it from a security official.

  Molotov carefully studied the text. “Only three people on my staff knew about the message: the radio operators in Moscow and Teheran and the person who did the decryption. The radio operators would have no idea about the content.”

  Stalin smiled a little smile that caused Molotov to start sweating. “You neglected to mention that you also knew what was in the message.”

  “Comrade Stalin, you surely don’t think I’m the traitor!”

  “No, Vyacheslav, I don’t suspect you. I was just making sure that you know we have a traitor somewhere very close to us. Be careful.”

  After Molotov left Stalin tried to order his thoughts. He knew that the leak must have come from the NKVD. Several senior NKVD personnel from Teheran were returning home on this train. None of them could know the content of the message. It had been presented by Molotov to him and Beria with no one else in the room. Well, Poskrebyshev was there as well, but he trusted Poskrebyshev and the man had no connection to security. The overheard conversation explicitly mentioned a top level security official. That left Beria. Stalin wasn’t happy. Beria was useful in a number of ways besides keeping the enemies of the state, and of Stalin, suppressed. He was responsible for all the special projects being developed in the GULAG system. There were research establishments that were probably known only to Beria and a handful of others.

  The loss of Beria would be felt throughout the system but there was no way Stalin could let the traitor live. Beria’s deputy, Ivan Serov, could probably carry on as the top NKVD security man. Stalin would have to find a suitable replacement to manage the other projects. A simple arrest and execution as a spy or enemy of the state would undermine morale in the middle of a war. Better to have Beria die as a hero.

  Chapter 14

  February 1943

  General Ephraim Hirshson was back in his headquarters in Udine, Italy, examining a map of the Balkans, trying to figure out a way to accelerate the fall of pro-Nazi regimes in the area.

  The most egregious were the Ustashi in Croatia, closely followed by the Romanian regime of Ion Antonescu. The regime of Admiral Horty in Hungary wasn’t good either but not as bad as the other two. Ephraim came to a decision.

  The next day a mechanized Israeli force of about division size started moving from its base near Udine in the direction of Zagreb, the Croatian capital. At the same time several jets attacked Croatian airfields, systematically destroying the Croatian air force.

  A message was sent to Josip Broz Tito, the leader of the largest partisan army in Yugoslavia, with an invitation to a meeting. General Hirshson thought, and the government in Jerusalem agreed, that Tito was the best bet to unify Yugoslavia and keep the peace, as he had in the original history. Both Hirshson and the General Staff in Israel were somewhat surprised at the almost complete lack of resistance from the Croatian government. It looked like the Ustashi and their leader Ante Pavelić knew what had happened to the German troops that tried to attack the Israeli positions in Austria. Possibly they just lost faith in their future when the German civil war started.

  After a single violent encounter with a Ustashi unit in the suburbs of Zagreb, the capital was under Israeli control.

  Tito was flown in from Serbia and met with Hirshson in Zagreb. The meeting was short. Israel offered the partisan leader support, mostly from the air, and weapons to unite and pacify the region. Tito accepted. He was only slightly surprised. Israel had dropped arms from the air to his troops several times before. Communications channels and procedures were established. Tito departed, after declaring his presence and intentions on Zagreb radio.

  Meanwhile Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria had declared his country’s neutrality and withdrawn troops from the neighboring countries.

  That left the problem of Romania. After some consideration the allies decided to wait until after Germany surrendered. This would likely make overthrowing the Antonescu regime much easier. They were hopeful that King Michael would be able to accomplish this as he had in the original history and, if the Soviets didn’t interference, stay in power.

  ***

  Ze’ev Hirshson finished reading his son Ephraim’s email, printed it out and gave it to his wife Linda. “It seems like the boy has a future,” Ze’ev said with a smile. “Go figure, a soldier becomes an international politician.”

  Linda nodded. “You doubted Ephraim had a brilliant future? When he retires he should run for Prime Minister. He’ll make a good one.”

  “No, no, no,” Ze’ev protested. “I want him to join the family business. I have serious plans to expand into another universe and we need his talents. I’ll discuss it with him next time he’s home.”

  The couple was relaxing in the library where they frequently spent ‘quality time’ after dinner. Linda was reading one of her favorite books. “You seem to be obsessed with this alternate universe. The fact that we can go there doesn’t mean we should.”

  Ze’ev put aside the tablet he was using. “True, but look at the advantages. We have access to all the natural resources we need and all the land we need. Why not go there?”

  “I don’t know. How is the exploration going?”

  “We have looked at most of the Middle East from Turkey to North Africa to the Persian Gulf. We found no signs of intelligent life but lots of water and everything is green. I like it a lot and would consider moving there, except there’s no civilization and at our age doctors and hospitals are important.”

  “Yes, that’s true. So can you claim this land now or do you have to prove that there’s no intelligent life on the whole alternate Earth?”

  “We could claim it now. The preliminary regulations that the government passed two months ago state that we can claim any land that is not occupied by intelligent life. I’m waiting partly because the regulations don’t define what constitutes intelligent life. Personally I’m for a definition that relies on the use of language and self-awareness.

  “In any case, only our company can make the gate boxes so we control the gateway to that universe. I’m trying to setup a conglomerate of private companies to develop the planet, with the government’s involvement.”

  Linda looked at he
r husband in silence for a while. “Ze’ev, we have been married for a long time and I know you’re not a megalomaniac. You are also quite lazy and before the event were planning to retire in a year or two. Is this new activity what I think it is?”

  “If you’re thinking of an escape hatch then it is.”

  “And what brought that on?” Linda asked.

  “You did. Remember last year when I was all excited about our air force beating up the Nazis in North Africa and you said, ‘Now they will really hate us.’ I responded that the Nazis couldn’t hate us any more than they already do. You said, ‘Not the Nazis. The Brits.’ I thought about it and concluded you were right. We are helping the Brits, the Soviets, the Americans and even the Germans. The result will be, I hope, a better world for everyone. Except the Jews. The anti-Semites will claim that we’re evil and control the world. That’s what they always say. The hate will grow stronger as Israel grows stronger, like always.

  “The world accepts the Jew if he’s weak and at their mercy. Then they kill some. The Holocaust was a first attempt at total extermination. After that, most of the perpetrators and collaborators, including most nations, felt guilty and treated the Jews with pity.

  “It didn’t take very long for the guilt to transform itself back into hatred and for people to decide that whatever the Jews had suffered it wasn’t enough. The stronger Israel grew the more it was dehumanized and the more anti-Semitism grew. They found the Palestinians, a fake nation created only to destroy Israel, and decided those poor, oppressed Arabs were the true owners of our land. No matter how badly the ‘Palestinians’ behaved and how many they murdered, they were always supported.

  “I believe that this pattern will repeat itself. We will be accused of imaginary crimes, ostracized, dehumanized, and eventually physically attacked. So why not create a safe haven completely inaccessible to any other nation?”

  Linda thought about his long speech. “I agree. It’s a worthwhile project. I’ll help as much as I can. You need to discuss it with Amos Nir. If I am not mistaken, the Prime Minister will be sympathetic to the idea.”