A Right to Plunder

by Brendan O'Neill

  As she escorted Brunner through the crowded banking hall to his waiting staff car, she casually asked, “Herr Hauptsturmführer, do you travel much between Berlin and Paris?” His reply was equally casual, “For security reasons, I rarely divulge my plans, but I do intend to travel to Berlin within the next couple of weeks.” Standing at the bank entrance, she said “I would like to visit you in Drancy and see it operating first hand and perhaps I can be of some assistance in advising on the transfer of Jewish valuables.” Getting into the staff car, he looked directly at her, “You will be most welcome to view operations at Drancy camp any time you wish. It is my intention to offer a Jew-free France to the Führer by 1944.” With that, he was gone.

  As she watched the car disappear, she vowed to use all the resources of the small Resistance group and her other contacts in the SS to shadow Brunner. He may think of himself as a hunter but from this moment forward, he too would become the hunted.

  EIGHTEEN

  LYON: 1944

  Emil Darius had survived over two years since his fateful rescue from Drancy. He had very little recollection of the flight from Paris but knew that he was moved always at night time in car journeys by friendly strangers speaking in hushed voices. Staying in ‘safe’ houses and always encouraged to have faith in the resistance. He felt that he would survive this dreadful ordeal and somehow be reprieved.

  Madelaine had close contacts with an organisation founded by a Belgian doctor, Albert Guerisse, who went under the alias ‘Pat O’Leary’. The ‘O’Leary line’, as it had come to be known, was originally an escape route for downed Allied pilots crossing forbidden borders, to assist them in getting to neutral Spain. The American diplomat in Lyon, George Whittinghill, based at the consulate had received word that a young Jewish boy would soon be arriving in the city through the clandestine efforts of those involved in the escape route. Being sympathetic to escapees, he knew that beyond Lyon, the southern section of France had become extremely perilous for fleeing smuggled allies and others, so he organised refuge with a sympathetic Arab group. Emil was not to know how fortunate he was in having the help of Madelaine. Many bribes had been paid and formidable risks taken by the escape network to avoid detection by German patrols and also by the hated Malice, who were very active around Lyon and the south.

  Emil was eventually handed over to an Algerian family in central Lyon. Algeria had been colonised by France and this family, while still retaining their muslim traditions, were very much nationalistic in their French beliefs and resented the German occupation. They were shocked by his skeletal appearance, but welcomed him into their family unit of mother, father and five-year-old daughter. Emil was now growing into a gangly youth, approaching nineteen years of age, with the swarthy features of his father's good looks. Living for most of the time in a small rear room behind the terraced house fronting onto Rue Garibaldi, he was aware that outside his immediate environs, acute danger lurked. Occasionally he walked in the Parc de la Tete D’Or which is a huge open urban area in central Lyon. The Rue Garibaldi was ideal as a location to shelter Emil from the German authorities – a long street with high buildings in a busy business district where he could fade into a background of anonymity. During the past couple of years, he had endured this clandestine environment knowing that his very survival depended on this shadow existence.

  The Germans had a huge presence in Lyon and had escalated the terror throughout the region during the latter months of occupation. The massacre of forty four Jewish children and seven adults at the orphanage school of Izieu on the 6th of April 1944 by the SS had sent shivers throughout the entire population of Lyon. The children, aged between three and seventeen years, were brutally thrown onto trucks like garbage and taken to cellars in Fort Montluc Prison, from there to Drancy and finally to Auschwitz where all were gassed. They were accompanied all the way by Alois Brunner. Roundups were commonplace and the sound of jackboots on cobbled streets resonated late at night throughout the city. Lyon still echoed with the memory of the resistance hero, Jean Moulin, code-named Max. He had coordinated the fragmented opposition to the German occupation by setting up the ‘National Council of the Resistance' in May 1943. Captured and tortured by the Gestapo, he died in July in a suburb of Lyon and the subsequent interrogations and deaths added to the growing sense of outrage and despair. Even talk of German military reversals seemed to fuel their incentive to prolong a pernicious agenda.

  Usually, when Emil ventured out, he was accompanied by his sponsored father, Rafik. This was always a harrowing and dangerous experience as the false identity papers carried by Emil showed him to be Arabic but would not stand up to thorough scrutiny. Emil had learned to speak some passable Arabic from Rafik and when he ventured out to a coffee shop this was always the language he spoke. Rafik worked for a friend of Madelaine Bridon's father in the silk industry and knew his way around the area intimately. The city was full of underground passages called traboules and these were used as a means of crossing streets incognito. These traboules were old walking passageways originally used by the silk merchants to facilitate transporting their merchandise many centuries previously and still survived. The dark shadowy interiors of these long passageways provided refuge and escape routes for members of the Resistance avoiding capture by the Gestapo. Since the German occupation in November 1942, the traboules had become a sanctuary for underground clandestine meetings.

  An air of tension pervaded the city. Resolute Gestapo activity seemed to infiltrate everything. The Funkspiel (radio detection units) were constantly roaming the streets seeking out clandestine wireless equipment. They appeared like an enveloping mist to eschew at all cost. People avoided going past the building 33 Rue Victor Hugo in Place Bellecour, an SS property with a rumoured reputation for torture. Rationing was a further deprivation. Coupons to buy bread were invaluable; cheese was restricted to 75 grams per week and cigarettes were a rare commodity in great demand. The Hotel Terminus in the city centre was sequestered by the SS and its third floor became infamous for interrogation under Klaus Barbie. Informers were everywhere, a pro-Nazi French organisation named the Mouvement Nationale Anti-Terroriste was founded in Lyon and attracted many collaborators. They threatened reprisals and heightened the athmosphere of fear and dread that permeated the city.

  After the massacre at Izieu the previous April, the forays for Emil into the outside world had become a rare occurrence. His existence was solitary and his schooling was of an intermittent nature, supplied by a kindly elderly retired teacher who lived nearby and was a friend of the family. Fortunately for Emil, this man was also an accomplished violinist and he imparted all his skill to the eager youth who was displaying exceptional talent in playing this classical instrument.

  In the midst of his anxiety-laden existence, Emil thought often of his mother, father and twin brother Maurice. He was still haunted by the memory of Drancy and the squalid conditions under which he nearly died. He remembered the angelic lady named Madelaine in his Jewish prayers each evening and particularly on the Sabbath Saturdays. His nightmares were vivid and always of his family going East on a crowded freight train, deep down, he knew they had perished. Following the horrific events of Izieu, the Resistance in Lyon had increased its activity urging the population to oppose, obstruct and harass the Bosch at every opportunity. Emil was to receive a harsh reminder of Drancy camp when a leaflet from the French Resistance was dropped into the house at Lyon. It showed a photo of the Commandant at Drancy, Alois Brunner, as one of the Germans present and responsible for the deaths of Izieu. Emil looked at the features of the dark-haired SS man looking back at him and instinctively he knew that at some future date, it was their destiny for their paths to cross. He folded the leaflet carefully and placed it in a small black wallet with Brunner’s visage etched firmly in his mind.

  NINETEEN

  PARIS: 1944

  The city of Paris was liberated on the 25th August 1944. Shortly before that date, Adolf Hitler, in a furious rage, had telephoned the German c
ommanding officer, Dietrich Von Cholitz, General der Infanterie, with the immortal question ‘’Brennt Paris’’ (Is Paris burning?). To his eternal credit, Von Cholitz had disregarded his Führer’s ultimatum to reduce Paris to a smouldering ruin and saved the city from the fate of other famous European capitals. Hitler had instructed, “The city must not fall into the enemy’s hand except lying in complete rubble”. Von Cholitz surrendered the city largely intact, and for this act of disobedience to his Führer he is regarded begrudgingly by some, as the ‘Saviour of Paris’. In defying a Fuhrer directive, he not only risked his own execution, but also that of his family still living in Germany. Hitler had introduced a new law ‘Sippenhaft’, which exposed family members to harsh punishment in retaliation for refusal to obey an order.

  It was shortly afterwards that the Allied forces had marched into Drancy camp and beheld the true horrors of the Nazi regime. International newsreels exposed the depths of Nazi depravity. Also, at this time the advancing Russians in the east, were uncovering the atrocities of the death camps, Treblinka and Majdanek in Poland. Both of these camps were overrun by the red army before the retreating Germans had time to erase the horrors they had perpetrated.

  Alois Brunner had left Drancy immediately prior to its liberation in August 1944, leaving behind him, human degradation, destitution and every debasing condition possible. His destination was Hungary, where the business of maintaining the industrial killing machine was to continue in Budapest. Despite the German military reverses, the evacuation of the Jewish population throughout the remaining occupied countries was gaining momentum. There was a determination to finish the genocide whatever the cost. He had recently attended a meeting held in Gestapo headquarters Berlin, with executives of the company J. A. Topf & Sohne, who were the suppliers and service engineers of the incinerators to the death camps. They had proposed and designed multiple efficient crematoria where bodies could be ‘layered’ to increase temperature ignition, and as no coffins were used, full capacity was always assured. Ludwig Topf, the chief executive had suggested that a ‘conveyor type’ system be considered to speed up the disposal process. Orders were also given to the company to supply and install new ventilation systems in the gas chambers to accelerate the ‘turn around’ time in exterminations. This was considered necessary as the residue of gas remaining was proving too slow to discharge in order to cope with the volume of the incoming trainloads. He had acquiesced and confirmed his enthusiasm for this ‘progressive’ technology together with other SS commandants present at the meeting. He had no ambivalent or conscientious concerns relating to these extremes. He had contributed an in ititive by suggesting the construction of an enormous ‘ring oven’, but he was told this was not feasible due to capacity loading difficulties. But first, he decided to go back to Berlin, it was time to fulfil the Heydrich legacy.

  On reaching that city and entering the familiar five storey grey stone imposing building which housed the Gestapo headquarters on Prinz-Albrecht strasse 8, he nodded at familiar faces and noted that there was an added air of tension within its corridors. This massive building, with its imposing dark exterior transmitted terror and exuded evil in its very fabric. Torture cells honeycombed its basement and rear courtyard, where perceived enemies of the state had succumbed to the excesses of SS brutality. Heydrich’s dreaded Einsatzgruppen death squads operated from these rooms and received their orders here. Himmler and Heydrich retained prominent offices on the second floor and even ardent national socialists quickened their steps when passing. This building represented the pinnacle of tyrannical abnormality, and harboured within its confines the secret files and information on the vicious repressions which were carried out to advance and achieve a brutal utopia.

  Unquestionably, the tide of war was turning, and time was running out for even the most hardened national socialists. The building seemed to be an enormous information storage area, with female filing clerks (all wearing party arm bands) constantly selecting and updating requirements. Entering a long hallway, draped with the flags of the regime, he found a small room at the back which was unoccupied and where he would not be disturbed. It was his first visit to Berlin since acquiring the Heydrich file and he now wanted to take action. Opening the black leather folder as he had done many times before, he looked at the red wax seal of the thumbprint of Maria Krantz, Heydrich’s sister, and knew what had to be done to release the funds. True to Heydrich’s meticulous attention to detail, the cash amount was itemised in detail, totalling over two million U.S. dollars. The documentation diligently reflected the instructions of the Gestapo chief. The monies from the Darius account at Chase Bank had been lodged to the new account in the name of Maria Krantz, having been authorised on behalf of the Nordhav Foundation. A myriad of paperwork concealing the true recipient added to the obfuscation.

  Following the paper trail, Brunner noted that all the funds had finally been transferred to the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. This bank was dominated by Germans and when victory was achieved it was intended to establish a world system of financial control which would influence political structures and economies of countries. He smiled to himself and thought how machiavellian of the SS Chief to preach and outwardly observe the strict code of SS self-denial, and to privately and secretly enrich himself to such a massive extent. A German stealing anything from Jews who were to be executed or even prosecuted was a criminal offence and could expect severe punishment. Trials of senior SS officers had taken place for these offensives and severe punishment ensued with resultant publicity as a deterrent to others. Theft within the ranks of the SS was seen as fostering a policy of degeneracy and contamination of the ‘pure blood' ideal. Reichfuhrer Heinrich Himmler had warned his SS that any act of self interest, such as pilfering or profiteering by his troops would not be tolerated. Now he, Alois Brunner, was going to be the ultimate beneficiary of the plot and the first move was to locate the whereabouts of Maria Krantz.

  The detailed minutes of the meeting showed that four people attended at the Bank in Paris on that morning of 6th May 1942. They were listed as Carlos Niedermann, Bank Manager, Madelaine Bridon, Bank Executive, Maria Krantz, recorded as Beneficiary, and SS General Reinhardt Heydrich. There was a small handwritten notation by the bank manager recording that Maria Krantz had also brought her daughter, Anna, aged around ten, to the meeting, but that was of no significance to Brunner. His main focus was on the address given for Marie Krantz in Berlin. He decided not to waste any more time; he would visit her that night.

  TWENTY

  BERLIN: 1944

  It was a bizarre world, thought Madelaine. As soon as the meeting with Alois Brunner was finished in Chase Bank, she had sent a message to the address in Berlin for Maria Krantz recorded in Heydrich’s file, warning her of impending danger to her life. She had no way of knowing if she was still living at that address in Berlin, but she felt compelled by a sense of justice to protect this woman and her innocent child. Madelaine took a considerable risk to her own personal position in transmitting the message from the Bank through SS channels, even though there was frequent communication with the SS, questions could be asked, why make such a contact on a personal basis.

  She knew that as soon as Brunner read the file, he would pursue Maria to get her thumbprint and release the fortune that awaited him. She had been impressed by the mother and daughter and liked the dignified quality to their personalities. Maria had an air of calm distinction and graciousness greatly impressing Madelaine. Her courteous manner was not an imposed pretence and the affinity between the two women was palpable. Even though she was older in age, in the brief conversation which took place between them, Maria had displayed an understanding of the basic individual rights to justice and liberty contrary to the restrictive rules now imposed. She was a totally different personality to her brother. Madelaine had even allowed herself the speculation that if circumstances were different, she could be a genuine friend. It was incongruous that Maria’s brother was the col
d supercilious SS Chief feared by most of occupied Europe. Madelaine had spent every fibre of her being obstructing the German occupation forces in Paris yet here she was now alerting a German to a threatening situation. Her humanitarian emotions were always dominant.

  When Maria Krantz opened the door of her second floor apartment in central Berlin responding to urgent knocking, she thought it might be a reply to the application she had made for an increase in the ration allowance. Ration books were issued every two months. Basic foodstuffs such as bread, cheese, fats, jam and canned goods were extremely scarce. Meat was hardly ever available. She was hopeful of getting an extra marken to get eggs. An undercurrent of alarm was gripping the city with hushed talk of further Russian advances in the east. She was surprised to see the tall figure of a young uniformed SS man who saluted her smartly and handed her an envelope. She stood politely to one side as she read the message, ‘A highly informed source alerts you to imminent personal danger for your life from an SS killer. Advise that you immediately leave your present address and most urgent that you leave no tracks. Be aware that this message is authentic and express concern also for your daughter, Anna. Implore you both to leave Berlin without delay’. Shock and fear gripped her. The SS insignia on the document confirmed its authenticity. The SS man enquired if there would be a reply. She shook her head and closed the door. Questions ran through her mind. Who sent this message… who in the SS would want her dead? She lived a very private life with her daughter and only a small intimate group of friends knew where she actually resided. As she looked out on the devastated streetscape below from her high window, her head was spinning but no answers came. Then she wondered if Anna was in danger also. This thought was too much to bear. The message could not be ignored. She would have to flee, but to where and how? Her circumstances were meagre enough and the few friends she had were struggling with their own wartime problems. Berlin had been subjected to relentless bombing raids from the Royal Air Force for months on end and all the basic services were disrupted or non-existent. ‘Area Bombing’ became a policy of the Allies, destroying civilian and building infrastructure and causing immense devastation and fracturing morale.