The Girl from Berlin: Gruppenführer's Mistress

by Ellie Midwood

  I kept writing as fast as I could. I was only finishing April, when I heard Heydrich say something again. I heard his adjutant’s loud ‘Jawohl, Herr Obergruppenführer,’ but I didn’t stop writing. I needed to finish May. Sweat starting breaking out in my temples. There were no steps yet. My eyes were jumping from the file to the paper, my hand moving with cosmic speed. Heydrich’s voice, then his adjutant’s ‘Jawohl’ again, and then the first loud step on the wooden floor. I was halfway through. Second step. Almost done. Third and fourth step, closer and louder. I quickly put the paper away back in my pocket and looked at the final dates and places of the schedule, imprinting them in my memory. Fifth and sixth, very loud. I flipped the file closed and put it back in the drawer. Seventh and eighth, almost by the door. I closed the drawer very carefully in order not to make a sound. Ninth and tenth, I made a big step away from the table moving on tiptoes. Eleventh, the door opened. I was standing in the middle of the room, smiling at him. He smiled back.

  “You can go, Frau Friedmann. Herr Obergruppenführer will let you know tomorrow if he needs any clarification or if he has any further requests concerning the paperwork.”

  “Thank you and good night.”

  “Good night.”

  I left the anteroom with a wide smile on my face and the copy of Heydrich’s schedule in my pocket. Oh, it was a good night indeed!

  _______________

  Vienna, April 1942

  We were driving for a good hour already way outside the city limits, and Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner still wouldn’t tell me where we were heading. He seemed to be in very good spirits from the time he picked me up at the train station, but to all my questions he kept saying that I had to be patient for my ‘surprise.’ I had no idea what he was talking about, but Gruppenführer himself seemed to be very excited about it.

  I was still a little shaken up by two recent events both of which took place on the way from Berlin to Vienna: first I had met Max Stern on the platform. He was Heinrich’s colleague from SD-Ausland, and married to my best friend Ursula. He was taking some paperwork to the office in Vienna and was very surprised to see me. I had to lie that I had some personal business to take care of in the Austrian capital. Another event was that we almost got derailed just outside Berlin.

  When the train just started gaining speed, Max and I were walking through the second class car to his coupe (he nicely offered me to share one with him so I wouldn’t feel bored). Suddenly the train stopped so fast that I almost fell on some older gentleman if Max hadn’t caught me on time. It wasn’t just me, some passengers also fell on their neighbors seated across from them. Half of their suitcases fell on the floor, and I thought that we were lucky that they didn’t hit us on the head. After everybody got over their initial shock, they started picking up their luggage and curse the brakeman, although we found out later that it wasn’t his fault; someone had forgotten to change a railroad point.

  Max was helping people behind me to rearrange their suitcases, while I picked up some young woman’s bag; the woman was holding a baby in her arms and couldn’t do it herself. Her suitcase was also on the floor and I tried to get it to the top shelf, but it was too heavy for me to lift above my head.

  “What do you have in there, stones?” I smiled at the woman, still struggling with her luggage.

  “No, my husband’s books. He teaches philosophy. Don’t worry about it, just leave it on the floor, it’s too heavy for you.”

  Luckily Max came to my help and easily pushed the suitcase back on the shelf. The woman thanked us, and we went to our coupe. Thank God the rest of our trip was uneventful. Max offered me a ride as soon as we got off the train, but I told him that a friend was picking me up. Right now I was sitting in that ‘friend’s’ black Mercedes. I don’t remember how long ago I saw a car passing us by, but after he turned onto a dirt road leading somewhere inside the woods, I got completely lost.

  “How long do we have to drive for?” I asked him again.

  “Have some patience, my darling, we’re almost there.” Dr. Kaltenbrunner winked at me, smiling.

  Even though I’d got to know him pretty well by now and could even go as far as calling him my friend (or at least co-conspirator), I was still aware of the true nature of this man, who was more than capable of absolutely terrible things. For a second a thought occurred to me that in my current position I was at his complete mercy, and if it came to his mind to rape and kill me right there in the woods, nobody would even know where to look for my body. What if he changed his mind about the whole Heydrich assassination idea and decided to get rid of the only witness – me? I shifted uneasily in my seat and kept looking at the scenery outside. It was pretty unsettling: we were driving in the middle of nowhere, but it seemed like Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner knew the road perfectly. How many times did he take a ride here, I wondered, and the main question is why?

  “Are you nervous?” His question took me aback. He must have really had some animalistic instincts, if he could sense my fear so fast.

  “Should I be nervous?” I asked back, trying to smile brightly. I was nervous. Very nervous.

  “You’re with me, aren’t you?”

  That was supposed to sound reassuring, but to me it sounded more like the main reason to be afraid. Nevertheless I smiled even wider and nodded. In a couple of minutes Dr. Kaltenbrunner finally stopped the car and turned it off.

  “That’s it. We’re here.” He turned to me. “Time for your big surprise.”

  He’s definitely going to kill me, I was sure of it now. At least I didn’t see any other reasons why he would bring me in this wild forest. Meanwhile, he opened his door, walked around the car, opened my door and courteously offered me his hand. I was glad that I was wearing gloves, because he couldn’t feel how cold my hands had become. I wonder how he’s going to do it though: is he going to shoot me or strangle me? I hope he’ll shoot me.

  “Now you’ll to have to close your eyes.”

  Right. The same reason why SS soldiers make their victims face away, so they wouldn’t be looking at them. I never suspected that Gruppenführer was so sentimental though. Oh well, I guess I haven’t escaped the fate of my fellow Jews, previously executed by the members of the same organization, whose leader was going to finish me off now. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

  “Good. Now no peeking till I tell you to open them.”

  “Alright.”

  I heard his steps in the direction of the back of the car and the sound of the trunk being opened. He had both his gun and service dagger on him, so what was in the trunk? Thanks to all the horror stories about Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner’s favorite games in the Gestapo interrogation rooms told to me by my husband, I was now absolutely terrified. Is he going to torture me before he kills me? What did I get myself into?

  Dr. Kaltenbrunner dropped something very heavy on the ground, and that something made an undistinctive noise. I was afraid to look and kept my eyes shut tight. His steps approaching again and something dragging on the dry leaves still covering the ground from last year. He stopped right next to me.

  “You can open now.”

  I opened my eyes and involuntarily gasped. Smiling Gruppenführer was holding a man by the scruff of the neck, and judging by the black hood over the man’s head and his tied hands and legs, he wasn’t brought here by his own will.

  “Who’s that?” I definitely couldn’t understand what was going on but silently thanked God for still being alive.

  “Your big surprise.”

  Dr. Kaltenbrunner slightly shook the man and the latter let out another muffed grunt. I realized that he probably had a gag in his mouth.

  “Don’t be rude, say hello to this beautiful lady,” Gruppenführer addressed the man. “Oh, right, I forgot, you can’t talk. Let’s take this thing out so we can all have a nice and productive conversation.”

  He lifted up the hood on the man’s head just enough to get a cloth out of his mouth, and put the hood right down. Grup
penführer Kaltenbrunner clearly didn’t want him to see us.

  “What do you want?”

  Those were the first words out of the man’s mouth; he was speaking with a distinctive accent that I couldn’t quite place. Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner gave him a hard smack on the back of his head.

  “I think I told you to say hello to the lady first, you dirtbag!”

  “Hello,” the man said without any enthusiasm.

  “Hello,” I replied, still completely confused about the whole situation, and then addressed Dr. Kaltenbrunner. “Who is he?”

  “He is, my darling, your new best friend. Right, Marek?”

  I figured that Marek was the man’s name. Polish?

  “I don’t even know who you are and what you want from me.”

  Another smack followed, this time a harder one.

  “Be nice, I’m trying to save your unworthy life here, you pig.”

  “I’m sorry,” Marek replied with even less enthusiasm than before.

  “That’s better.” Dr. Kaltenbrunner turned to me again. “Now your – and mine – new best friend here, our good buddy Marek, is a member of the Czech Resistance group, isn’t he?”

  “Are you from the Gestapo too? I’ve already told them everything.”

  “Of course you did. And in my inner pocket I have an order for your execution for being a member of the anti-government organization. Now you, my friend, have two choices: option one, you keep being rude and stubborn, and I execute this order right here and now with no problems. Option two, you agree to work for us, and I let you go.”

  “You’ll let me go?”

  “Not only will I let you go, I’ll have my man drive you all the way to the border of your shitty country and even let you go back to your anti-governmental activities. On one condition, of course: your first anti-governmental activity will be appointed by me personally, and you’ll find the way to do it.”

  “What’s the catch?”

  “The catch is that your wife and two kids are still in the Gestapo jail, and if you decide to mess with me, they’ll be right here where you stand now, but six feet underground. Got it?”

  Marek sighed. Even though Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner gave him the illusion of having two options, he didn’t leave the poor man a choice.

  “What do I have to do?”

  “Now we’re talking!” Gruppenführer laughed and roughly patted Marek on the cheek with his gloved hand. I thought that it was good that he was wearing the hood over his head. “You’ll have to form a group of your other Resistance members and assassinate Obergruppenführer Heydrich during his next visit to Prague.”

  “Heydrich?” The disbelief in Marek’s voice was more than obvious. “Are you two Germans? Or you’re from the Resistance too?”

  “You can think either way. The only thing that matters is that we want him dead and your goal is to make this happen. Understood?”

  “Yes.”

  Marek sounded much more cheerful now. He wasn’t given the usual Gestapo requests to sell out his friends from the Resistance, neither was he in any way collaborating with the Nazis against his own government. More than that, he was given a chance to assassinate the worst enemy his country ever had, who they called ‘The Hangman’ because of all the executions and atrocities he brought on their territory since he got appointed on the position of the Protector of the Reich in Bohemia-Moravia. Marek was more than happy about the deal he just made.

  “Good. Now listen to what I tell you and listen carefully. Heydrich’s next visit to Prague will be on May 26, right after he comes back from Paris.” Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner winked at me in silent appreciation of obtaining this information he was now sharing with the Czech. “So it gives you and your friends about a month and a half to plan and prepare everything. From my intelligence source I also know about two of your buddies who interest me the most: Jan Kubis and Josef Gabeik, who are currently being trained in Britain for different diversion tasks.”

  “I only know Jan, not the other one,” interrupted Marek.

  “It doesn’t matter, they know each other and that’s all we need. According to the intercepted messages, which your Resistance and the British have been exchanging lately, very soon they will finish their training and will be dropped on the territory of Czechoslovakia by a British plane.”

  “Excuse me for interrupting, Herr… I beg your pardon, I don’t know your name…”

  “You can call me Herr Himmler, if you like. After Heydrich reached a position of being a Minister and succeeded him in rank, he wants Heydrich dead as much as I do.”

  I could hardly suppress my laughter. I finally relaxed a little, realizing that I would most likely survive this day. Marek appreciated a joke as well and let out a little chuckle.

  “Excuse me for interrupting, Herr Himmler, but if your source of information is the Gestapo, which I think it is, you sure understand that both parachutists will be immediately intercepted as soon as they land…”

  “Let me take care of that,” Gruppenführer confidently promised. “Now after they land you take them in and make sure they have everything necessary for the assassination. I understand that they’re bringing some good quality British equipment with them, a couple of bombs, guns and other ammunition, and we can definitely use all of it.”

  Marek nodded under the hood on his head.

  “Now you realize that it’s a one-time opportunity and you can’t possibly fail?” Gruppenführer’s voice now sounded borderline menacing.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. Because if you do, I’ll find you even in the North Pole and will make sure that your death will be slow and agonizing. But before I’ll personally execute all your family members all the way to the most distant cousins twice removed. Got it?”

  Marek nervously gulped. “Yes, sir. I understand.”

  “I’m glad we’re on the same page.” Dr. Kaltenbrunner smiled. “Let’s get down to our plan then. I was thinking for some time what would be the best way to get to Heydrich. And do you know who helped me find the decision? This beautiful lady over here.”

  “Me?” I was quite surprised by his words.

  “Oh yes, my darling. You.” I finally understood now why he kept calling me ‘my darling’ all the time: he didn’t want Marek to know my name. Or maybe he just liked saying that. “It was you, who first gave me that idea when we were talking about his habits. It was you, who pointed it out that his worst attribute (God knows out of how many!) is his incredible arrogance. All the power that he recently gained definitely went into his head, and he started thinking that he’s invincible, both for his political opponents and external enemies. It was you, who told me that he always drives around in an open car on the territory of his newly obtained Protectorate, just to rub Czechs’ faces into his confidence in his terror policies. He started to think that nobody would ever dare to even think of an assassination.”

  Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner suddenly burst into laughter.

  “God, Marek, I envy you! I wish I could go with you just to see the look on his face. That would be such a priceless sight!”

  I absolutely shared that last thought of his and grinned.

  “And that’s exactly how you, my good friend Marek, are going to get him with your two parachute buddies.”

  “In his car?”

  “Oh yes. According to my source,” Dr. Kaltenbrunner said with another wink in my direction, “Heydrich always takes the same route each time he goes from his villa just outside Prague to Hradschin, the old imperial castle, which he recently made into his headquarters. The road that he takes turns sharply right as it approaches the suburbs of Prague, so his driver will have to slow down to take the bend. And that’s exactly where you will have him right in the open, ready to get shot, stabbed, thrown a grenade at or whatever it is you wish to do to him. Have several people from both sides of the road, so you’ll be able to finish your mission if one of you gets shot by him or his driver; don’t forget, he’s not
stupid and will most definitely return fire as soon as he realizes what’s going on. And he’s a damn good shooter.”

  “I understand.”

  “One more thing. When my man drops you off at the border, he’ll give you a small package with liquid substance in it. Do not touch it with your bare hands under any circumstances, and take care of the container as if it was your firstborn. And when your friends land with their ammunition, make sure to soak all the bullets, bomb parts and other weapons in it before you go on your mission.”

  “Why?”

  “Some toxic thing I got my hands on not that long ago. Even if you hit him with one bullet with that substance on it, he’ll slowly die of an ailment, which will be potentially unrecognizable to doctors. Even the autopsy won’t reveal anything. The experiments proved it highly effective. That’s all you need to know.”

  “I’ll personally take care of all the ammunition,” promised Marek.

  “Excellent. Well, that about sums it up. Any questions?”

  “After we’re done… Will you release my family?”

  “As soon as I see Heydrich’s dead body with my own eyes, I’ll personally open the door to their cell.”

  Marek nodded in satisfaction. “Thank you, sir.”

  “No, Marek.” Dr. Kaltenbrunner smiled. “Thank you. Now get back in the trunk, I’ll drop you off at the hunters’ hut not too far from here, from where my man will pick you up. And don’t try to run, if he doesn’t catch you first, the wolves sure will. There are a lot of them around here and they’re hungry as hell.”

  “I won’t run, I promise.”

  “I know you won’t. Just letting you know of the possible consequences.”

  With those words Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner effortlessly dragged the tied man back to the trunk, and once again I was more than impressed with the immense strength he possessed; Marek was not a small guy, but Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner handled him so easily if he was a five year old child. After closing the trunk, he walked up to me, smiling.