The Journey of Anna Eichenwald

by Donald Hunt

  The day passed quickly. It was cold and clear. The group kept the fire going and at one time or another they all took turns napping, anticipating the escape. Marlene could only imagine life without constant fear. She longed to know of Anna and hoped she would find out soon enough. As evening approached, Trey opened a bottle of Bordeaux and proposed a toast to the success of their mission and the eventual restoration of French sovereignty. By 9:00 p.m. they were all wrapped and ready.

  A few minutes later, Pierre appeared and led the group down to the marina. As they positioned themselves in the boat he asked Trey and Werner to man the oars and told the Eichenwalds to sit forward. He warned that a colleague had told him the German patrol boats seemed to be more active in the past two days. The boat would have to go about 45 minutes with rowing power. Then it should be safe to use the outboard. They had a hand held battery operated search light for signaling the Sub. The code was two short and a long.

  The sea had four-foot swells. Marlene felt relieved when Pierre started the outboard. His small hand-held compass kept them on the dead west bearing. Using their speed recorded on the motor and time traveled, Pierre had a rough idea of their four mile target position.

  When the boat reached three and a half miles, Pierre slowed and Trey started the code flash signals…short, short, long…short, short, long. The H.M.S. Aberdeen was an attack class submarine with a crew of 80. She was commissioned in June 1940 and had seen combat only once. Her mission was to track and destroy German U-boats and protect shipping lanes for supply ships coming from the U.S.

  First officer Jonathan Smithwick was on the periscope. Captain Eric Stewart was in command. As soon as Trey started the code, Smithwick picked it up.

  “Captain, I’m seeing the signals about 500 meters off the starboard bow.”

  Stewart wanted to take another few moments for his radar officer to scan for any vessels in the area. Suddenly the radar officer spoke.

  “Captain! I’m picking up a signal about 3,000 meters north-northeast moving directly for us.”

  The captain quickly walked to the scope.

  “What size vessel? What’s the rate of approach?”

  Radar replied, “Small and closing rapidly.”

  The captain suspected it was a German patrol boat designed for rapid deployment in coastal waters. If so, it would have no more than a 50 caliber deck machine gun. British intelligence had not identified any German surface torpedo boats. He gave the order. “Surface…surface.”

  The captain turned to his staff seaman.

  “Mackenzie, get your crew up fast and man the deck gun.” “Aye, sir!”

  The deck gun was 90 mm cannon that could fire one round per second with a range of 2000 meters.

  A German shore patrol had seen Pierre’s boat leave the coast and had notified shore surveillance command. Shore command deployed two search craft for the chase. These boats were not equipped with radar but were headed in the general direction of the rendezvous. The second boat was about 20 minutes behind the lead craft. Pierre had cut his outboard for fear of overrunning his position. Suddenly he heard the approaching German boat.

  “They’ve found us!”

  The resistance workers had small side arms and knew the patrol boat would capture them or simply blow them out of the water. Hanz and Marlene were clinging to each other. It was too dark to see much, but the roar of the enemy motor launch was now very loud. Then the lights of the German boat were visible in the far distance and heading for them.

  Suddenly, about 200 meters from Pierre’s boat, the nose of the Aberdeen burst out of the ocean like a breeching whale. The wake almost capsized his boat. Everyone clung to the sides. In less than a minute, the H.M.S. Aberdeen had surfaced. Within another 90 seconds, the deck gun was manned. Mackenzie and crew began to hear the ‘ratta-tat’ from the German patrol craft. They were not certain if they were being fired on or if Pierre’s boat was drawing the fire. The German captain quickly realized he was facing a British submarine rather than a 12 meter fishing boat. As he turned his craft to escape, his gunner began firing at the sub. The deck cannon had an electrical turret and swung to face the Germans. The 90 mm cannon then burst into action…‘bam..bam..bam..bam’. It delivered four rounds in four seconds with two direct hits. One round hit a fuel tank and the patrol boat burst into flames. The explosion bisected the boat and both sections began to rapidly sink. The deck gun had done its job…the enemy swallowed by the sea.

  Almost simultaneously, the Aberdeen had launched a large raft to get the Eichenwalds. Within minutes they were on the raft with Werner and transported to the sub. Hanz turned to give a triumphant wave and thumbs-up to Pierre and Trey, but they had disappeared into the night.

  * * *

  Christian Engel had been given a deferment from military service because of his position as chief of the Trauma Service at the University Hospital. It would have been unusual to place a man of his talent and experience in a field hospital. Now Christian was facing the most daunting task of his young life. He had a sense that time was becoming critical. He had no call obligation for the week-end of January 21st and decided to visit his sister in Leipzig. He had purchased a ten year old Mercedes coupe and enjoyed driving it in the country. Leipzig was about two hours from Berlin by auto.

  Christian had visited Leipzig several times in the five years his sister Sarah had lived there. The city was famous for being the place where Bach lived and worked for 27 years. It was also the birthplace of composer Richard Wagner. The historical attractions were of no interest to Christian. He cared only about Anna’s safety.

  Sarah Engel was three years younger than Christian. She idolized him as she was growing up. She had earned a degree in economics and had moved to Leipzig for a position with the Bank of Leipzig. Before her move she held a position in marketing for Germany’s largest steel producer. After the ‘Night of Broken Glass’ Sarah joined efforts to rescue Jews from the Nazi pogrom. Initially she helped in the emigration and relocation effort. That program had been stopped by the Gestapo. Relocation was now to ghettos and concentration camps. Sarah had never met Anna but was anxious to meet her.

  Christian reached her apartment that evening and the two had dinner at a local café, one of Sarah’s favorites. He was anxious to learn details of Anna’s relocation. He ordered a stein of beer and a glass of wine for Sarah.

  “We’er going to have to make our move soon. Anna’s parents have apparently escaped Germany or at least they have disappeared. The SS may arrest Anna any day. One reason they have not already is that she saved the life of one of their officers a few years ago. What is the status of her documentation?”

  “Just yesterday I collected her papers, so your timing is good. They are amazingly authentic looking. Thank God we have some talented people working against the Nazis. She was born in Lubeck, north of Hamburg, almost to the Baltic. She will need to study the area. I have found an open position as a nurse’s aide. She can make enough to live on and can stay with me until she finds a flat, but the sooner the better. The Gestapo could easily connect me to you.”

  “Sarah, I can’t thank you enough. You will quickly grow to love Anna as I do. In normal times she would be you sister-in-law.”

  Sarah nodded, “Yes, I know.”

  Christian had always appreciated and loved his sister, but never so much as now. He leaned over the table and kissed her cheek. “Thank God for you.”

  Anna sat in her apartment on a dreary Monday evening looking at her identity papers. She realized that her life might very well depend on her becoming Heidi Brendler. She had five days to make the transition. On Friday evening, Dr. Anna Eichenwald would disappear and on Saturday morning, Heidi Brendler would surface. She would cut her hair and change her look. She wanted nothing to connect Anna to Heidi. She had visited a second hand book store to find study guides to help her learn more about the history and geography of the northern m
ost section of Germany where Heidi was born. She bought second hand clothes and shoes. She made certain to discard everything in her apartment that might connect her to Christian. She burned every note, every picture, and every scrap of paper. And she destroyed all the gifts he had given her. The Gestapo would search every inch of her apartment. Anna knew she could not remain a Jew. She must become a Christian. She would have to think, talk and act like a Christian. Only Jews were being sent to ghettos. Only Jews were being sent to slave labor camps. Only Jews were being sent to death camps.

  The following day was routine. There was morning surgery and clinic. On Wednesday she would run the mid-week mortality-morbidity conference. It was Wednesday afternoon when she finally had time to sit down with her secretary, Theresa. Anna wanted to tell her everything but knew she couldn’t. The two women had grown very close. Theresa had become a sister, mother, advisor and friend all wrapped in one person. Anna took Theresa’s hand and looked down, her eyes filling with tears.

  “I love you, my friend. I have learned so much from you. God bless you.”

  Theresa had known since the passage of the Nuremberg Laws that this day would come. Still, she was unprepared.

  “When?” she asked softly. “Friday,” Anna replied.

  Theresa said nothing. She could only pray that Anna would be safe.

  Christian and Anna had planned to meet away from the hospital early Saturday morning. He would drive her to Leipzig. When the morning arrived, it was still dark outside. Anna stood like a shadow in the gray light coming through the windows and took one last look around her apartment. No matter what happened, she knew she would never see it again. She closed the door behind her, locked it and headed down Unter den Linden. She surreptitiously dropped the door key into a storm drain and never changed her step, proceeding to the corner of Middelstrasse and Friedrichstrasse. There, she stood in the doorway to the State Library. A light mist began to fall. The few people on the street looked like ghosts in a gray world.

  Christian’s black Mercedes slowly passed by the arched entrance to the Library but it did not stop. He circled the block to make sure he wasn’t being watched, then stopped at the entrance. The girl in the doorway got into the car.

  “Good morning,” she said. “I’m Heidi Brendler.”

  Chapter 14

  Resistance &

  The White Rose Society

  As Werner Heisenberg was making his presentation on nuclear bomb feasibility to the Reich Research Council in Berlin, transplanted Italian physicist Enrico Fermi was planning a full-scale chain reaction pile at the University of Chicago. The pile would be built in the form of a sphere and made of graphite bricks. Graphite was the best way to slow the neutron bombardment from the uranium. Holes were drilled into the graphite to allow passage of rods of uranium oxide to be inserted. The entire apparatus would be housed in a wooden building yet to be built.

  The ‘control’ of this experiment in nuclear fission would be by cadmium sheets attached to wooden handles. There were ten slots in the graphite pile where the cadmium sheets would be inserted. The neutrons released by the uranium could not penetrate the cadmium. The building would be constructed on the squash courts under the west stands of Stagg Field, the unused University of Chicago football stadium. The university had long since given up football in favor of academics.

  The final piece to this potentially explosive puzzle was Arthur Compton, an experimental physicist who was co-coordinator of the nation’s war research effort. The final decision to proceed with the experiment was his. The amount of potential radioactive material could be huge. None of the scientist believed a large explosion would occur, but they were not certain. Fermi did the control calculations and Compton took the gamble. Amazingly, he decided not to tell the University President, a lawyer, as he didn’t believe a lawyer could understand nuclear physics.

  By mid-November the assembly team, under the direction of Fermi, was working 24 hours a day, in 12-hour shifts, to complete CP-1 (Chicago Pile – One). The scientists presented a strange picture leaving the site covered from head to toe with graphite soot. They looked more like coal miners than physicists.

  Finally, the colossal experiment was ready. December 2, 1942 dawned bitterly cold with a high of zero degrees F. Fermi decided to have one of his assistants control the cadmium plates by hand. One of Fermi’s associates, Leona Woods, had designed a neutron release baron trifluride counter to monitor the process. All were more than aware that a war was on because the day before, gasoline rationing had begun in Chicago. There was a device that transmitted the boron readings with loud clicks so the intensity of the pile would be known instantly. The last critical cadmium plate was controlled by George Weil, a young research physicist.

  Mid-morning on the red-letter day, Fermi gave the order to begin. One by one, the cadmium sheets were removed. The last one controlled by Weil was the mother-lode. Fermi was calculating the rate of increase as Weil moved the last plate out of the pile. When it was half way out, the rate of the counter increased and then leveled off. It was clear that once the final cadmium plate was completely out the, pile would go critical.

  One of the physicists in attendance was Leo Szilard. Years earlier, he had the idea of a chain reaction. He had believed that under the proper circumstances, neutron release would cause an atom to split, causing further neutron release each time with a release of energy. Now his idea was becoming reality. It was Szilard, a Hungarian Jew, who had most feared that Hitler would get a bomb. He was relieved to learn that Hanz Eichenwald had defected, but he also knew there were other very talented physicists left in Germany.

  Fermi was instructing Weil to remove the last cadmium plate 6 inches at a time. Each time, the chatter of the counters would increase their clicking, and each time Fermi would make new calculations with his slide rule. Finally he nodded for Weil to move the plate all of the way out. He turned to Arthur Compton.

  “This will do it! The trace on the recorder will climb and continue to climb. The process will become self-sustaining.”

  The clicks on the counters became more and more rapid. Then they were producing a dull roar. They could not keep up with the process. Fermi raised his hand. “The pile has gone critical,” he yelled.

  The neutron intensity was doubling every two minutes. Left uncontrolled, within 90 minutes the pile would have melted down, killing everyone in the room.

  At four and a half minutes Fermi ordered it to be shut down. For the first time men had controlled energy release from the atomic nucleus. What Ernest Rutherford had once called ‘moonshine’ was now reality.

  The last two men to leave the pile were Szilard and Fermi. They shook hands. Szilard had hoped atomic energy might lead men away from war. Now he knew this would not be the case.

  “This day will be a black day in the history of mankind,” he said to Fermi.

  * * *

  Albert Speer was Hitler’s confidant and architect, serving as minister of Armaments and War Production. It was to Speer that Werner Heisenberg made his final appeal for funds for the fission project. Speer took the information to Hitler who seemed to have little interest and even less understanding of the potential of nuclear energy. Hitler simply did not have the intellect to grasp the revolutionary nature of nuclear technology.

  The fear of Allied scientists and military planners was never realized. Germany never got off the ground in any real effort to produce a weapon of mass destruction through nuclear fission. The mass destruction of human life was far greater than all of the bombs produced by all of the nations of the world, a conflagration laid at the feet of one evil man.

  * * *

  The H.M.S. Aberdeen remained submerged through most of the journey across the channel to the submarine base at Portsmouth on the southern coast of England. The Eichenwalds were shown to Captain Stewart’s stateroom. They were excited but emotionally drained. Each fell into a deep sleep. Werne
r was exhausted as well but knew this would likely be his one and only time in a submarine. One of the officers who spoke limited German gave him a brief tour. The sub traveled at a speed of 12 knots west-northwest to the coast of England, a distance of 20 nautical miles. She followed the coastline the remaining 50 miles to the Portsmouth sound. Once in the sound she surfaced, and then went into dock.

  Chaim Weizmann and his wife Vera were waiting dock-side as the Eichenwalds departed the ship. Before leaving, both Hanz and Marlene thanked Captain Stewart, Hanz with broken English and Marlene with smiles and German phrases that were appreciated if not understood. As they stepped on the dock Chaim embraced Hanz and shook hands with Marlene.

  “Welcome to your new home and country,” he said with his polished German. “We are relieved you are here. There is so much to discuss, but I must take you to be debriefed by the military.”

  Hanz smiled broadly. “Whatever it takes,” he said. “We are so blessed to be free!”

  Soon after, Hanz, Marlene and Werner were transported the 100 kilometers to Oxted, a London suburb. The British Intelligence Service had a facility there which included what was once a small hotel now converted into a guest house for visiting officers. The interrogations took two days. Twelve hour interviews with each person. The interrogating officers were men who had lived and worked in Germany. The Eichenwalds had no meaningful military information except for the bomb project. But Werner was very helpful to the Brits, giving them a comprehensive view of the resistance and underground operations. Werner was to have close surveillance for six months. He could pose a threat if he was in fact a counter intelligence plant. They had been able to corroborate much of his information with data already in their possession. From the beginning, Werner’s plan was to return to Maria. But he also was determined to help the Allies defeat the Nazi Reich. Although they did not share this with him at the time, the British believed he would prove a valuable asset to them in forming future invasion plans. He was transported to a military installation for surveillance and six months of language school.