by Stan Hayes
“By 1941, I had had plenty of time to realize how wrong I had been about Hitler and Germany. We had heard far too much about what was bein’ done to th’ Jews, both inside Germany and out, for me to believe anything but th’ worst as far as Hitler’s ultimate goal was concerned. It was world domination, pure and simple, right out of that crazy little book of his that I had read in Spain. And in Hitler’s world, there would be no Jews. Absolutely no one outside my family knew that my mother was Jewish. Had it been known, I’d have been sent back to Germany and put in a concentration camp. Or killed, like millions of others. It was simple; I’d picked th’ wrong side in what was already bein’ called th’ Second World War. What I didn’t know was what I was goin’ to do about it.”
Chapter XXVI. Next Stop Baltimore
“In June, Bremen ordered Kramer to call on Dr. Thomsen, th’ Chargé d’Affaires at th’ embassy in Washington. Since Germany and th’ U.S.’ recall of their ambassadors in 1938, he had been in charge of th’ embassy. It turned out that Viereck, th’ embassy’s intelligence chief, had seen reports of our contacts with th’ Irish Republican Army in New York. Th’ IRA, as it’s called, is a secret organization that’s dedicated to runnin’ th’ British out of Northern Ireland. They hated th’ British then, and they still do today.
“Kramer had first contacted their leader, Sean Russell, while he was in New York in 1940 to see what they might be able to do for us. Russell told him that they could do a lot, sabotage and assassinations and so on, as long as th’ money was right. To drive home his point, he said that they had men who would undertake th’ assassination of Winston Churchill and members of his cabinet, which would be suicide for th’ assassins. This didn’t interest Kramer at all, since his style was to work as inconspicuously as possible from th’ inside, but he duly reported it to Bremen, and one way or another it got back to th’ embassy.
“By then, after th’ failure of th’ Luftwaffe’s bombin’ to pave th’ way, Hitler had given up on invadin’ England. He had decided instead to invade Russia, and did so on June twenty-second. Viereck saw th’ IRA’s suicide assassins as a way to deal a catastrophic blow to th’ British war effort without an invasion. He worked through th’ Chargé to have Bremen order Kramer to th’ meetin’. He met with Dr. Thomsen, and Viereck, who sat quietly while Dr. Thomsen asked Kramer to investigate th’ likelihood of th’ IRA’s success in assassinatin’ Churchill. Over Kramer’s strong objections, th’ Chargé instructed him that if he was convinced that th’ IRA could bring it off, he was to negotiate th’ price and terms. This instruction, he stressed, came directly from Berlin. He meant that it came from Hitler himself. One of his staff had presented th’ ‘opportunity’ to him, Thomsen said, and he was most enthusiastic at th’ thought of eliminatin’ Churchill, th’ inspiration for England’s determined resistance to Nazi Germany. This absolutely floored Kramer, but now he had no alternative but to get on with it.
“After Russell died in one of our u-boats on th’ way to Ireland, Kramer met with th’ New York IRA leaders, and was told that Churchill would die within sixty days of th’ delivery to them of five million dollars in cash. They guaranteed th’ success of th’ mission, sayin’ that th’ money would be returned if Churchill lived past this deadline, but that they would still carry out th’ assassination. It came to light after th’ war that what they’d planned to do was to go after Churchill durin’ his August meetin’ with Roosevelt at Placentia Bay in Newfoundland, usin’ an IRA-connected crewman from either th’ USS Augusta or HMS Prince of Wales, th’ ships that would bring them there, as th’ assassin. As ordered, Kramer reported th’ terms to th’ Chargé, but suggested that three million be paid in advance, and two million on th’ mission’s successful completion. Th’ Chargé agreed. If th’ IRA accepted these terms, Kramer was to come to th’ embassy to pick up th’ money for delivery to him.
“They went along with th’ deal. When Kramer advised th’ Chargé of his acceptance, he was told to be at th’ embassy at noon on July 3rd, a Saturday. He was to bring two large suitcases, into which th’ money would go. Th’ strategy was for him to appear to be stoppin’ by th’ embassy at th’ end of a routine trip to Washington, and gettin’ out of town in time to miss th’ congestion of th’ July 4th holiday. He was to do everything as usual, takin’ th’ train from New York and back, usin’ taxis to and from th’ railway stations, not showin’ th’ FBI surveillance teams anything at all out of th’ ordinary.
“Kramer wasn’t happy at what his role in this undertakin’ had turned out to be. He told me, over and over, that he should have never contacted Russell in the first place, but, havin’ done so, should never’ve reported th’ contact to Bremen. ‘It was a vast error in judgment, Wessel,’ he said. ‘We are not the Gestapo. If this madness succeeds, we’ll make Churchill a martyr. If it fails, we open ourselves to exposure and massive retribution directed by Churchill himself. These people, all of them, are maniacs. Hitler. Thomsen. Viereck. There’s no real difference among them. They’ve no interest in the welfare of the German people. This is hubris; pure, simple, and out of control. And the Irish madman who’s volunteered for this could just as easily shoot Roosevelt, intentionally or not. The IRA offered that deal- they’d kill both of them- but the price was too high- ten million.’
“He was miserable at havin’ set this business in motion; it was murder, and it would harden th’ British will to prevail against us even more than th’ bombin’ of their cities had done. Churchill was like God to th’ English people. Added to th’ growin’ awareness of th’ persecution and massacre of Jews, doin’ this would set much of th’ world permanently against th’ Reich, at a time when its resources were bein’ stretched to th’ limit by th’ invasion of Russia. Th’ charade of hirin’ th’ IRA to do it would immediately be seen through, and th’ allies’ security forces would run down every suspect with a vengeance. This would certainly include our operation.
“Emil was convinced that his natural German compulsion to report our activities in detail had signed th’ death warrant for German intelligence in th’ U.S. He was inconsolable; he showed no interest in th’ work that we had goin’ on. He literally began to fall apart before my eyes, as I tried to do both his work and mine. As th’ day for th’ embassy visit grew closer, he spent more and more time in bed. I finally talked him into havin’ a doctor come in to examine him. Th’ verdict wasn’t good news; th’ doctor diagnosed his condition as advanced heart disease. Th’ Churchill plot, apparently, had just brought it to a head. He put Emil into th’ hospital on th’ spot. That meant that I’d have to take his place in Washington; before th’ ambulance arrived, he called th’ embassy, and got Dr. Thomsen’s approval for th’ substitution. While he avoided sayin’ anything about it, I think he knew that he’d also have to send me to th’ IRA with th’ money.
“I left for Washington th’ Monday before th’ pickup day, and checked into th’ Statler Hotel, where Kramer always stayed. Since I didn’t know any of th’ people with whom he did business, he’d arranged a few ‘busy work’ appointments for me, callin’ on th’ offices of consular and embassy commercial attaches and on Senator Reynolds of North Carolina, with whom he’d managed to become friends. I found myself wishin’ that I’d be able to do more of this part of th’ job, even though it looked like circumstances would make that unlikely. Things in Europe and th’ Pacific were movin’ fast, and th’ people I saw that week were pretty well convinced that th’ U.S. would be drawn into th’ war before much longer. At that time, though, nobody but Japan’s top politicians and military officers knew then would happen at Pearl Harbor in December. Th’ diplomats of th’ Axis countries- Germany, Japan and Italy- and their staffs would, of course, be leavin’ Washington as soon as war was declared. And U.S. security forces, particularly th’ FBI, would start takin’ much more notice of people like Emil and me, operatin’ illegally on behalf of th’ Axis.
“I had started thinkin’ about what all this would mean to me durin’ th’ trip. As
an American citizen, I had th’ option of simply turnin’ my back on th’ Abwehr, leavin’ town and findin’ a new job. If I chose to do that, however, and th’ Axis countries won th’ war, I’d be high on th’ list of traitors to th’ Reich who would be hunted down and executed. And th’ idea of returnin’ to Germany didn’t interest me at all; th’ more that I had learned about how Hitler and th’ Nazis had changed things, th’ more that I knew that I wanted no part of that. Sittin’ there in th’ Statler, I began to realize what a tight spot I was in. Playin’ around in th’ spy game put me into th’ middle of a real mess. Now, what would happen in th’ next few days would seriously affect th’ rest of my life.
“Until that day, I’d never imagined that Emil’s vision of Germany and th’ U.S., my two home countries, bein’ at war again would ever come true. I hadn’t realized how deep th’ anger of th’ German people ran, against th’ outcome of th’ last war, against th’ Jews, against th’ idea of bein’ seen by th’ world as a defeated people. I finally realized, lookin’ back on everything that had happened since I came back to th’ States, how deeply Hitler’d tapped into this anger. It was frightenin’ to think about, and it was frightenin’ for me to think about bein’ one of th’ nation of people that Hitler could drive into doin’ what I now knew was bein’ done, all over Europe. But I kept thinkin’ about it, over and over, th’ way you do when you’ve cut yourself shavin’, but can’t help goin’ back over th’ same spot, like you could undo th’ cut.
“Meantime, I had a date with three million bucks. I’d bought two three-suiter leather bags in New York, and gave ’em a once-over with some steel wool to take th’ new look away. Along with what I’d need for th’ trip, I’d shoved enough old clothes, towels and stuff in them to fill them up. I looked at them, stacked one on top of th’ other in a corner of th’ room, too big to fit in th’ closet, and tried to imagine ’em full of money. I was in an incredible situation, and it was all I could do, sittin’ there alone in a hotel room, to make any kind of sense out of it atall. I finally gave up. It just didn’t make sense to me.
“Turnin’ onto Massachusetts Avenue, my cab pulled up in front of th’ embassy a couple of minutes before noon. As th’ driver dropped my bags and turned to leave, th’ front door opened. A tall man about my age looked at me, then down at my bags, then back at me, with cool blue eyes. ‘Hauptmann Wessel.’
“ ‘Yes,’ I said.
“ ‘Please to follow me.’
“He took my bags and walked down th’ long hall, stoppin’ at an open door about halfway down on th’ right. Settin’ one of th’ bags down, he rapped lightly. ‘Your Excellency,’ he said to th’ white-haired man seated at th’ large desk on th’ far side of th’ room. ‘Hauptmann Wessel is here.’
“It was Dr. Thomsen, the Chargé de Affaires. ‘Thank you, Johann,’ he said, gettin’ up and walkin’ towards us. ‘Please handle the Hauptmann’s luggage.’ Smilin’ as he extended his hand to me, he said, ‘I am Hans Thomsen, Hauptmann. Thank you for assisting in this mission.’
“ ‘It is my pleasure, Herr Doktor,’ I said.
“ ‘Herr Kramer’s condition has not improved?’
“ ‘No, sir. His situation, according to the doctor, is very serious.”
“ ‘Will he be able to meet with the Irish?’
“ ‘I don’t think so. I think it would kill him,’ I said.
“ ‘Then you must take his place. It is appropriate that a hero of the Kondor Legion should do so. This mission must not fail.’
“ ‘I understand.’
“ ‘Johann will be here soon with your bags. We’re fortunate to have had the cash available for this opportunity. Another operation for which it was procured was canceled. Please make certain that you create no unnecessary suspicion in your handling of the bags. They will be quite heavy, but you will always handle them yourself. You appear to be strong enough to make them appear to be of normal weight.’
“ ‘I see no problem with that, Herr Doktor,’ I said. ‘With luck, the opposition will take no notice of me.’
“ ‘Let us hope so. If you are followed, you must evade anyone who attempts to follow you when you reach New York.’
“ ‘I shall.’ Johann returned with the bags, which as expected were very heavy. A cab had already been hailed for me, and I took my leave, wavin’ off the driver’s assistance with the bags and puttin’ them into the back seat beside me. It was a damn tight fit.
“As we pulled out into th’ street, my mind raced. Th’ more I thought about it, th’ more I understood th’ amazin’ opportunity that had opened up for me. A hero of th’ Reich, for th’ most part because th’ Reich needed heroes at that moment… who th’ fuck, I asked myself, wants to be a hero of this Reich, anyway? One of th’ bags sat beside me, its buckles at my elbow. I unbuckled th’ bag’s straps and slipped its latch. I eased th’ top half up a couple of inches and looked inside. And there it was; more money than I’d ever hoped to see. Checkin’ th’ driver’s eyes in th’ rear view mirror, I slipped one of th’ nearest bundles out and closed th’ case. Holdin’ th’ bundle between my knees, I pulled a bill out for a close look. It was a genuine, not-too-new, United States hundred-dollar bill. I made my decision right then; I became a millionaire, three times over, in th’ gray velvet back seat of a 1939 DeSoto.
If I wasn’t bein’ followed, either by U.S. or German security people, I could solve my own problems, and save Churchill’s life, by just disappearin’ with these two big bags of cash. But should I try to go underground in New York, or take my two bags full of new future in another direction? As these thoughts flew around inside my head, we kept movin’ toward Union Station. Before I knew it, we were there. I made th’ decision on th’ spot. I paid th’ cabbie, walked directly through th’ station to th’ other side to catch another cab. For better or worse, th’ money was mine, and Churchill was out of danger, at least from this operation.
“I walked out to look for another cab. My idea was to go to another Washington hotel until I could work out a plan to keep out of sight. I didn’t know who, or how many, they’d send after me, but I knew they’d be there, and soon. Th’ first thing I saw outside th’ station entrance was a bus. Th’ sign on th’ front said “Baltimore.” Sump’m told me to get aboard. I slid th’ bags as close as possible to th’ bus’s baggage compartment, stood there while th’ driver put them in, and got on th’ bus. Th’ driver collected th’ $3.50 fare from me and my fellow passengers, took his seat, and we were off. We pulled up in front of th’ Graham, which th’ driver had recommended at my request for a good downtown hotel, a little over an hour later.
“I registered usin’ a Pennsylvania driver’s license, which I had gotten through a source that Kramer didn’t know about, that identified me as Moses Kubielski of Upper Darby. I had also gotten a copy of th’ late Kubielski’s birth certificate, and usin’ those documents applied for and was issued a Social Security card in that name. I kept th’ license and Social Security card back to back between a couple of photos in my wallet. As things developed, I was to be Moses Kubielski for quite some time. I had gotten a little less nervous about th’ bags’ weight, cautionin’ th’ bellman to be careful with my ‘book samples.’ Th’ Graham was obviously used by a lot of salesmen, and he seemed to handle their weight as though it wasn’t anything out of th’ ordinary, bringin’ them up on a cart. I tipped ’im four dollars, which he appeared to think was about right.
“I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so I called room service and ordered a hamburger and a beer. It was four o’clock. By four o’clock tomorrow they’d be lookin’ for me, and I could only hope that they wouldn’t be lookin’ right under their noses. I had a lot of thinkin’ to do in a hurry, beginnin’ with findin’ a place for th’ money. I felt pretty certain that I could put it a Swiss bank and have it kept secret, but I wasn’t sure. Then I needed to be somewhere that they wouldn’t think to look for me for awhile. From what we’d been hearin’, th’ U.S. and Germany would be at wa
r within a year; as soon as that happened, they’d have a lot less interest in findin’ me or th’ money, and a lot less people around to do it. So those were th’ things I had to do immediately; hide th’ money and drop out of sight. Part of th’ droppin’ out of sight would be changin’ my appearance, but I couldn’t do that until I got out of th’ hotel.
“I found a listin’ for a Swiss bank, Credit Suisse, in th’ yellow pages. I’d need to get there as early as possible on Monday. Until then, I’d lie low and try to put th’ rest of th’ pieces of this puzzle that I’d made for myself together. And I’d have time to regret th’ spot in which I’d put Emil. I felt pretty bad about that at first, his bein’ so sick, but th’ old guy was a dedicated Nazi and totally professional, and he wouldn’t have lost a minute in doin’ what he had to do in th’ event that I’d somehow become expendable. He’d fight his war, for th’ Reich, and now I’d fight mine, for me. And I felt good about stoppin’ th’ Churchill assassination attempt before it got started. I also felt sure that th’ U.S. and th’ Allies would defeat Germany, so I was fairly confident that I could pull this off and stay alive.
“It seemed to me that my best chance to go unnoticed would be to stay in a large city, even if th’ embassy, or Emil, filed a missin’ persons report. My experience in Berlin and New York was that ordinary people, doin’ ordinary things, became faceless in a big city. With a new name, some change in my appearance and some kind of everyday job, I thought I could fade into th’ background and be pretty damn hard to find. Since I was already in Baltimore, I figured I’d stay there until I saw any reason to move.
