“Have you forgotten that I’m married?”
“No, I haven’t, but Kaltenbrunner clearly did,” Adam replied angrily. “And if you stay here, he’ll get to you in no time.”
“He won’t get to me, Adam, at least not against my will.”
“Oh really?” Adam sarcastically raised his eyebrow. “So what he was doing to you in the interrogation room was consensual?”
I had to admit, he had a point there, but after Dr. Kaltenbrunner came to my house begging for my forgiveness, I was more than sure that he had learned his lesson and the situation would not repeat itself.
“No, of course it wasn’t, but trust me, he won’t do it again. And he’s right, you do have to leave the country, Adam, because if the Gestapo agents see you walking freely on the streets of Berlin, they’ll throw you back into the camp in a split second, and then neither me, nor Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner will be able to help you. Please, come by my house tomorrow and I’ll help you with the money and clothes.”
“No.”
“Adam, you have to leave!” I almost screamed at him. “You can’t stay here anyway, you can’t even talk to me right now, if someone sees you, we’ll both get arrested again and then that’s it, end of story. You can’t work for Rudolf and Ingrid anymore either, you got compromised, there’s no point for you to stay!”
“Yes, there is.” The stubborn boy shook his head and looked at me. “I know that I can’t help the American intelligence anymore, but I’m going to join the Resistance then and look after you from a distance. Don’t worry, I won’t bother you so as to not incriminate you or your friends, I’ll just make sure that that Nazi bastard keeps his hands away from you, that’s all.”
“Adam…”
“Goodbye, Annalise.” He quickly turned away and left before I could say something else.
I stood motionless for some time, but then remembered that the first act was supposed to start any time now, and walked back inside the opera house. I took my seat next to Heinrich who kissed me on my cheek and told me once again how beautiful I looked tonight, sipped a little bit of champagne he gave me, but inside my head I kept hearing his voice: ‘She’s mine. Mine!’
_______________
I was doing paperwork at my desk, when Standartenführer Schellenberg’s adjutant walked in, looked at all five SS-Helferinnen who I was sharing the room with, and asked who Annalise Friedmann was. After I rose from my place and indicated that it was me, he ordered me to follow him. When we reached Standartenführer’s office, I was already sure that I was in some kind of trouble, even though I couldn’t understand why. Meanwhile, the adjutant announced my presence, and after Schellenberg dismissed him, disappeared behind the door.
“Heil Hitler!” I raised my hand out of habit just like Heydrich demanded from all of his subordinates.
The young Chief of SD-Ausland just smiled at me.
“You don’t have to do this with me, Frau Friedmann. Can I call you Annalise, perhaps? I think it shall be easier.”
“Whatever you find suitable, Herr Standartenführer, is fine by me.”
“Good. Sit down, please.” He pointed to the chair across the table from him.
I sat and straightened out my skirt. He didn’t seem upset or angry, so I guessed I wasn’t there because I did something wrong; neither was I asked to bring any documentation with me, so it wasn’t a business matter as well. What did he want from me then?
“Annalise, I have a big problem, and I hope you’re the person who can help me.”
“If it is in my powers, I’ll be more than glad to assist you with whatever it is you need help with.”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure it is.” He flipped the file laying in front of him open, and I saw that it was my personal file, the one that every office worker of the RSHA had, with personal characteristic, vital accomplishments, fingerprints and basically everything else that Amt I or Personnel and Organization office wanted to know about the Reich Main Security Office staff. “It says here that you’re a very good wireless radio operator, isn’t it so?”
“I’m afraid I can’t make such judgements about my own work, but if it says so in my file, I believe that my superiors consider it true.”
“You don’t have to be modest about your work, Annalise, I need you to be truthful with me. How fast do you make transcripts from the radiograms?”
I smiled. “Very fast, Herr Standartenführer. As a matter of fact I’m the fastest in my department.”
“Very good. Next question is this: it says here that you know how to operate teletype quick and without mistakes, and that you’re also a very quick stenographer?”
“Yes, it is true, Herr Standartenführer.”
“Excellent. And this brings us to question number three: it says in your file that you speak two foreign languages, English and French, is it true? And if it is, to what level?”
That information was put into my file recently, after I spent almost two years practicing with Rudolf in English, and with Heinrich in French, since the latter used to live in Paris for quite a long time and spoke it almost flawlessly. Surprisingly, both languages came to me very easily, and I was now able to read, write and communicate in both almost freely.
“I speak both, Herr Standartenführer. Most of the time I understand almost everything that is being said.”
“Really? Let’s try your English first then.” Schellenberg gave me another smile and asked me several questions in English concerning different spheres, mainly political and military. It seemed like he was very satisfied with my replies, because he kept nodding and smiling wider and wider. “Fantastic. And where, if I may ask, did you acquire such an excellent Harvard accent? You see, I’m speaking Oxford English, but your American pronunciation is really fascinating.”
Crap. Now I understood why Himmler appointed Schellenberg to the position of the Chief of the Intelligence – no detail would pass him unnoticed. And how was I supposed to explain the origin of my ‘excellent Harvard accent?’ By the fact that my teacher was an American Secret Service agent and a Harvard graduate? That’ll work well.
“My husband taught me both languages. I was simply imitating his speech, that’s all. I think his tutor, when Heinrich had just started his career in SD, was from the United States.”
Standartenführer Schellenberg seemed to be satisfied with my reply, because he just nodded and skipped right to asking me some other questions in French. After I passed that little test as well, he closed my file and put both hands on top of it.
“Last question, Annalise. Can you make coffee?”
“I suppose I can, Herr Standartenführer.”
“Wonderful! You see, the reason why we were just having this conversation is that I’m in desperate need of a good secretary, who can do a better job than my lousy adjutant.” By the way Schellenberg rolled his eyes I realized that he wasn’t too happy about his immediate subordinate. “I need someone fast, efficient, smart and preferably bilingual. In the course of my work I’ve noticed that women are much better than men when it comes to multitasking, so after going through many files of SD-Ausland SS-Helferinnen staff I came to the conclusion that you would make a perfect candidate. You’ll be working under my immediate command and basically just help me out with all the files and documentation, teletype, radiograms, translations, everything. The best part of course is that it’ll be reflected in your salary as well.”
Schellenberg smiled again and so did I, but for another reason: the best part was that such an appointment was giving me unlimited access to every single top secret document going through the hands of the Chief of the Intelligence, and it was as good as finding treasure in your backyard.
“So what do you say? Think you can manage that?”
“I would be honored, Herr Standartenführer.”
“Great. You’ll start tomorrow then, I’ll have a table set for you in my anteroom by then with everything you need. Today try to finish all the work that you still have left and spread the rest b
etween the girls. Sounds good?”
“Yes, Herr Standartenführer.”
“Fine then. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I left Schellenberg’s office still smiling as if I won a lottery. I couldn’t wait to share the great news with Heinrich. The Americans were supposed to send us a new radio operator any day now, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect.
_______________
They say that with great power comes great responsibility. In my case with my new promotion came great responsibility, and I hardly had time to take care of all the papers and radiograms, which were continuously dumped on my table by different employees and my boss himself. For the first couple of weeks I had to stay overtime to finish the day’s work, just to find double amount of paperwork the next morning. But little by little I started to organize my working time more efficiently, invented a new filing system allowing me to get and process the needed papers faster, and finally after a very stressful month with a lot of coffee, very little sleep and fingers hurting from typing all the time, I was able to leave office at five, like all my less busy colleagues.
Standartenführer Schellenberg was very happy with my work and never missed a chance to praise me every time I would do something even before he would ask me to do it. I’d already learned his working habits and principles, and knew which correspondence needed to be handed to him immediately, which orders needed to be copied and re-sent to which organizations and their supervisors, which radiograms deserved his immediate attention and which could be put aside for him to go through on the way home.
The only person who at first had some doubts about my new appointment was Reichsführer Himmler, who would stop talking immediately as soon as I would enter Standartenführer Schellenberg’s office and throw suspicious looks at me. However, when the Chief of SD-Ausland told him that I was worth three adjutants put together and that he trusted me like he trusted himself, Reichsführer seemed to relax a little and at least tolerate a woman in such an important position.
Very soon Herr Schellenberg started taking me with him on different trips, sometimes using my services as a radio or teletype operator whenever he needed something top secret to be transmitted directly to Reichsführer’s office, sometimes I was helping him with stenography or just organizing his papers. It turned out that a lot of people who Walther Schellenberg was dealing with were quite hesitant about a woman being present at their conversations, but my boss didn’t seem to leave them much of a choice.
He was actually the best chief anyone could ask for: demanding but just, highly intelligent and always respectful, very professional and always attentive to details. He was a great judge of character and already after ten minutes of talking to someone would give me a complete characteristic on that person later in the car, pointing out their strong and weak sides and how we can use each to our advantage.
The only flaw in working with Schellenberg for me personally was that I couldn’t figure out what he was thinking at all. With Heydrich it was always very simple: everyone knew that he was a careerist always hungry for power, cruel, inconsiderate to others and ready to step over yesterday’s colleagues to reach for a new level of power. Heydrich was purely evil.
Schellenberg on the contrary was always in good spirits, smiling, joking, but at the same time I could swear that he was thinking twenty steps ahead of everything. It was impossible to get inside his mind and understand what was going on in there. I personally witnessed how he could say one thing and do the complete opposite if it was in his interests, not due to an evil nature, but just because he needed such a thing to be done as an intelligence agent. It seemed to me that he was always playing a game of chess, but with people instead of wooden figures on a board.
Rudolf and Ingrid couldn’t be happier about me timely delivering them one piece of information after another, but were always sure that their superiors on the other side were carefully handling it and double checking everything in order not to get compromised because of the falsified information; with Schellenberg I could expect anything.
Chapter 8
Berlin, February 1943
I was almost done with typing an order for Standartenführer Schellenberg, when my former colleague from SS-Helferinnen staff Barbara walked into the anteroom, looking very anxious.
“Annalise, stop whatever it is you’re doing, and let’s go to the conference hall. The new Chief of the RSHA is here, and he ordered everyone to be present at the meeting.”
The news was more than surprising: after the power struggle with Heydrich, I was more than sure that Himmler would leave the management of the RSHA to himself and wouldn’t appoint anyone to this position. Everybody was probably thinking the same because no rumors were spreading about any candidates even being considered to such a position.
“They appointed somebody?”
“Oh yes, and from what I heard, he’s even worse than Heydrich. Already fired a third of the staff from the other offices!”
“Really? Worse than Heydrich? Is it possible?” I raised my eyebrow at her, smiling.
“We are about to see.” Barbara sighed.
I left the order in the typing machine and followed my friend to the conference hall, where most of the SD-Ausland staff were already nervously awaiting the arrival of our new Chief. It was a smaller conference hall, and this time SS-Helferinnen staff were sitting on a side by the wall, and I noticed right away that no one dared to take the seats in the first row, obviously intimidated by the rumors of the new RSHA Chief’s temper. Standartenführer Schellenberg saw me and motioned me to sit in the front; Barbara tried to sneak out in the back too, but I grabbed her arm and made her take a place next to me, whispering to her that there was no way I was going to sit there alone. Thank God our boss made several other girls join us, and now they were sitting clinging to each other like sheep expecting to be slaughtered.
In less than a minute the new Chief of the Reich Main Security Office arrived as I understood, because everybody suddenly stood up from their seats and froze in attention. I was very interested to see who Himmler had delegated the office to after all, but since I couldn’t turn my head to take a look, I stood there with my colleagues listening to his firm steps on the wooden floor as he was making his way to the podium in the front. However, as soon as he turned around and loudly dumped a pile of papers on the table in front of him, I almost laughed. The new Chief of the RSHA was SS Gruppenführer Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner.
Already wearing a new green uniform with insignias of SD on it instead of his always black SS-Totenkopf, he looked at the hall full of his new subordinates from Amt VI and grinned.
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. As you already know, I’m your new Chief now, so let’s get two things straight right away: number one, I don’t want to hear ‘This is not the way we did things with Obergruppenführer Heydrich, we did it differently.’ Since now on you do things my way, you do them fast and no questions asked. Number two, I don’t care how much your former boss loved Amt IV and allowed its staff to stick their noses into every other offices’ business, I demand absolute and unquestionable following of subordination in your own sphere of work. In other words, you’re the external intelligence, you do your intelligence work, and therefore no files are allowed to be shared with the Gestapo under no circumstances unless approved by me personally.”
Someone from the first row seemed to have an objection to this new order.
“Excuse me, Herr Gruppenführer, but Herr Reichsführer said—”
“Get out.”
The officer clearly didn’t expect such an answer and was standing and looking at his new boss not knowing if he was serious or not.
“I said, get the hell out.” The officer quickly left before causing any more trouble for himself. “Rule number three, do not interrupt me when I talk, I don’t like it.”
I heard how Barbara quietly whispered “Oh, God!” under her breath. I tried not to smile too obviously. Most of my colleagues were already petrified of
Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner.
“Reichsführer delegated this office to me on one condition from my side: that I can reorganize the mess that Heydrich left after himself the way I want it. So Reichsführer clearly approves of the way I’ll be doing thigs here, and if some other ‘smart’ guys still have doubts on this matter, the door is right there, close it behind you, because I don’t want you in my office.” SD-Ausland staff exchanged looks but everybody stayed in their places. The Austrian smirked. “No one? Good. I’m glad we clarified that. Let’s get to some staff reorganization then.”
Everybody started shifting in their seats, since they had already heard the rumors of how a third of their colleagues from other departments were fired or replaced by Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner. Nobody wanted to become a part of this statistic. Meanwhile the new Chief of the RSHA took a paper out of a file in front of him and started reading the new appointments.
“Chiefs of the departments will be the following. Department A – Organization and Administration: remains the same. Department B – Espionage in the West: Standartenführer Erich Geisler. Department C – Espionage in the Soviet Union and Japan: remains the same. Department D – Espionage in the American sphere: Oberführer Heinrich Friedmann. Department E – Espionage in Eastern Europe: Obersturmbannführer Paul Meinhardt. Department F – Technical Matters: remains the same.”
I glanced at my husband sitting in the front row, who was looking as surprised as I was by his sudden promotion both in job title and rank. I wondered what was behind such a generous gesture though, because Dr. Kaltenbrunner definitely didn’t belong to the type of people who were doing good right and left just because they were so kind. Just like Standartenführer Schellenberg, he always had a hidden motive.
The Girl from Berlin: Gruppenführer's Mistress Page 13
