The Austrian: A War Criminal's Story

by Ellie Midwood

  Gestapo? No. No, no, no, no, no, I appreciate the offer, Herr Reichsführer, but I’ll have to take a raincheck.

  I managed a tight smile, feverishly thinking of how to get out of this very unpleasant turn of the events.

  “I am truly sorry to disappoint you, Reichsführer, but I’d rather not. Why don’t you delegate it to someone, who…” How do I nicely put ‘enjoys torturing people’ without offending my immediate superior? “Someone who has more inclination and experience in the field?”

  Himmler lifted his eyebrows in surprise.

  “Why, you don’t think you can manage that? I personally think that your degree in law and your deep knowledge of police work makes you a perfect candidate, Brigadeführer.”

  “I appreciate your kind words, Reichsführer, however I think it would take my attention away from the intelligence work, which I would prefer to concentrate on.”

  “But the Gestapo work is also intelligence, only internal.”

  “I really would rather deal solely with the external branch though. I find espionage in other countries much more appealing than… what the Gestapo normally deals with.” I finished my thought as carefully as I could.

  Heydrich smirked, making us both turn our heads to him. He had a smile on his face that I didn’t like right away.

  “Reichsführer, I think what Brigadeführer Kaltenbrunner is trying to say is that he’s too good to dirty his hands with our Gestapo.” Heydrich squinted his icy blue eyes at me with a sinister gleam in them. “Am I right, Brigadeführer? What happened, you don’t want to bloody your hands? Or maybe you don’t approve of our position concerning the treatment of the enemies of the State in our Gestapo?”

  I was eyeing him silently, not having anything to reply. He grinned even wider, deciding to throw a final punch.

  “Or do you sympathize with the Jews, maybe?”

  “Sounds a little hypocritical coming from one,” I muttered, not able to contain myself much longer.

  Heydrich paled with anger, and quickly took his feet off my desk and jumped from the chair, clearly with the intention of taking our never-ending feud to a physical level, when Reichsführer’s voice stopped him in his tracks.

  “Reinhard! Sit down!”

  “But Reichsführer, did you hear what he just said?!”

  “Yes, I did, and you provoked him.”

  Furious, Heydrich slumped back into the chair, crossed his arms over his chest in the most defiant manner and turned away.

  “I’m getting sick of you two always getting into each other’s face,” Reichsführer continued his scorning rebuke. “You are high ranking officials for God’s sake, but you act like two scoundrels! I will not have you arguing constantly and calling each other names. From now on you’ll be acting according to your age and position, so show some professionalism for once, apologize to each other, shake hands and get it over with, once and for all!”

  Both Heydrich and I exchanged withering glares without making a move.

  “It’s an order, not a request!” Himmler raised his voice, meaning business this time.

  Surprisingly, Heydrich held out his hand first. I walked over to him, already suspecting something.

  “I’m sorry, Brigadeführer,” he started loudly so that Reichsführer could hear him, squeezed my hand as hard as he could and added almost inaudibly, “for voicing what you didn’t have a pair to say yourself.”

  “Thank you, Gruppenführer. And I’m sorry for calling you a Jew,” I replied in the same manner, and also added quietly, “and pointing it out. Must be hard enough to look in the mirror every day as it is. I heard you even shot your own reflection once.”

  He yanked his hand out of mine, and we both reached for handkerchiefs simultaneously to wipe our hands. I heard Himmler sigh hopelessly behind my back.

  “Reichsführer, I was mistaken on Brigadeführer Kaltenbrunner’s account,” Heydrich said, looking me square in the eye. “He’ll make a great intelligence chief, both in the internal and external departments. Hand him the Gestapo. And since Brigadeführer is complaining about the lack of qualification and experience, make him supervise the work of our agents until he learns every single thing. And not on paper only, I want him to watch and make reports about the interrogations as well. I want to get those reports weekly, over the phone, with all the details. Or better yet, have him participate in some especially serious cases.”

  “Reinhard, this is completely unnecessary.”

  “On the contrary, Reichsführer! We can’t have a person who has no clue about the whole operation of the department he is going to supervise. And as you know, the best way to teach someone how to swim is to throw them in the middle of the river. I’m only doing Brigadeführer a favor,” he finished with the fakest of smiles.

  The next day, as soon as Otto stepped through the doors of my office, I told him about the events of the previous day.

  “He said he was doing you a favor?” Otto arched his eyebrow.

  He was sitting in the visitor’s chair in my office while I was pacing around the room, smoking my third cigarette in a row.

  “Yes! And the best part is that I have to spend half of my day across the street, in the new Gestapo headquarters, personally inspecting every goddamn corner and every goddamn instrument!”

  “Instrument?” Otto made a face, which I would normally find hilarious, but thanks to Gruppenführer Heydrich I was far from being in cheerful mood lately.

  “I don’t want to talk about it without alcohol.”

  “I don’t want to hear about it without alcohol!” he chuckled. “You actually have to go to their… chambers, or whatever they’re called?”

  “Interrogation cells. Yes, I did have to inspect every single one, and to make my ‘happiness’ complete, the following day Heydrich decided to quiz me on every single tool they use and its purpose, the fucking psycho!”

  “He’s serious on your account, huh?”

  “You don’t know the half of it,” I grumbled, taking another drag.

  “Well, I feel sorry for you.”

  “You’ll start feeling really sorry for me when they start bringing first prisoners there, because Heydrich wants me to be present during the interrogations as well.”

  Otto whistled and suddenly burst out laughing.

  “What the hell did you do to cause all that? Did you fuck his wife or something?”

  His usual humor made me chuckle at last.

  “Not yet, but now I should probably. The bastard deserves it.”

  “So when are they going to start bringing people in?”

  “They just finished reorganizing everything. Within days, I think, judging by how quickly the agents that Heydrich sent from Berlin to teach the Austrian staff, plunged into work. I’ve seen hundreds of reports already on possible Marxists, communists and other anti-government ‘criminal elements,’ as they call them.”

  “The Jews too?”

  “I don’t want to even start on that subject, to be honest. I have thousands of them, the documented ones that is, the Orthodox ones, who Himmler wants out of the country. So I called him and asked, what am I supposed to do with them? He said, get rid of them all. I asked, how? He says, I don’t care where they go but I don’t want them on the territory of the Reich. I say, what if they don’t want to go? To that he replied, the ones who don’t want to leave, send them all to the working camps. I said, we don’t really have working camps in Austria, and the ones that we do have are very small and can’t possibly house all these people. He says, well then we’ll build them a new camp. I say, what kind of a camp? He goes, a big one, where they will live and work if they don’t want to leave Austria. We have a lot of granite quarries that we can use, so we’ll build a camp around them and send all the Jews over there for now. Otto, I am grateful that at least I will not be concerned with that construction, since they have their own office in charge of it, but I’m still the head of the Gestapo, which deals with the deportations. And all I asked for initially
was to allow me to only be concerned with foreign intelligence. I don’t want to have anything to do with all this!”

  “A little too late for those plans, huh?”

  “It’s not funny, Otto!”

  “I’m sorry. What do you want me to say? It’s Himmler, he does whatever he wants. Plus, you weren’t smart enough to hold your tongue in check in front of his favorite protégé Heydrich. I don’t really see how you can get out of all this now. Besides, what are you so upset about? Will you be sad to see them go?”

  “Who, the Jews?” I sat on the corner of the desk and stubbed my cigarette in the ashtray. “No, I guess not. It was our initial goal, to send them out of the country. I certainly won’t miss seeing their lot in the streets. And, besides, all the Aryans who were sitting without work will have a lot of new job positions to take up, new businesses to take care of. We have to think about our people first, right?”

  “You don’t have to ask me, I’m with you.”

  “So it’s a good thing we’re doing then, for the sake of our country and our people,” I kept musing aloud. “We’re not killing them after all. We’re just politely asking them to immigrate to neighboring countries, because since we became part of the Reich they lost their rights to citizenship. They all have a chance to leave freely. Only the ones who break the law and decide to stay, they will be sent to the camps. It’s a fair procedure, isn’t it?”

  “Why do you keep asking me?” Otto laughed. “Aren’t you sure about it yourself?”

  “I think I’m sure.” I gave him a grin that felt guilty for some reason, and a one shoulder shrug. “Just wanted to hear your opinion.”

  _______________

  Nuremberg, April 1946

  “Question one: Give details about yourself. What was your official position in the SD? Where did you know Dr. Kaltenbrunner? Can you give your opinion about the defendant Kaltenbrunner’s personality?”

  I was waiting patiently in my seat while my attorney Dr. Kauffmann was reading out Wilhelm Höttl’s affidavit, my former subordinate from the RSHA, who agreed to testify in my defense.

  “Answer: I was born on 19 March 1915, in Vienna; by profession, a historian. My occupation up to the time of the German collapse was that of a sub-department chief in Amt VI, Foreign Intelligence Department, of the RSHA. After Austria’s Anschluss in 1938, I voluntarily joined the SD. Coming from the National Catholic Youth Movement, I made it my aim to achieve a moderate political course for my country. I made the acquaintance of Kaltenbrunner in 1938; he knew that the above was my aim. In 1940, on personal orders from Heydrich, I was called before the SS and Police Court for having religious ties and for lack of political and ideological reliability, and I had to join the ranks as an ordinary private. After Heydrich’s death I was pardoned and, at the beginning of 1943, I was transferred to the office of Schellenberg, Chief of Amt VI of the RSHA. There I was in charge of matters relating to the Vatican, as well as matters relating to some states in the Balkans.

  When Kaltenbrunner was appointed Chief of the RSHA at the beginning of 1943 I was continually in touch with him at work, particularly since he was endeavoring to draw the group of Austrians in the RSHA nearer to him.

  Kaltenbrunner was a man completely different from Himmler or Heydrich. He was, therefore, by conviction strongly opposed to both of them. He was appointed Chief of the RSHA, in my opinion, because Himmler did not want to run the risk of having a rival like Heydrich. It would be wrong to call him ‘little Himmler.’ In my opinion, he was never in complete control of the large office of the RSHA and, being very uninterested in police and executive tasks, he occupied himself preponderantly with the intelligence service and with exerting influence on general policy. This he regarded his particular sphere.

  Question two: What was undertaken under the SD and what were its tasks?

  Answer: Heydrich organized the so-called Sicherheitsdienst (known as the SD) in 1932. Its task was to give the highest German authorities and the individual Reich ministries information on all events at home and abroad.

  Question three: Do you know about the ‘Eichmann operation’ to exterminate the Jews?

  Answer: I learned details of the ‘Eichmann operation’ only at the end of 1944. At that time Eichmann himself gave me detailed information. Eichmann explained, among other things, that the action was a special Reich secret and was known to only very few people.

  Question four: What do you know about the relations between Eichmann and Kaltenbrunner?

  Answer: I know nothing about the official relations between the two. However, Eichmann may well have had no direct official contact with Kaltenbrunner. He often asked me to arrange a meeting with Kaltenbrunner for him. Kaltenbrunner always refused.

  Question five: What was the relationship between Kaltenbrunner and Müller, the Chief of the Gestapo?

  Answer: I cannot give you any details about their official relations. It is certain, however, that Müller acted quite independently. He had gained great experience in Gestapo matters over a period of many years. Himmler thought a great deal of him. Kaltenbrunner did not think much of him. Kaltenbrunner had neither technical schooling in police problems, nor any interest in them. The intelligence service took up the main part of his attention and all his interest, especially insofar as it concerned foreign countries.

  Question six: Who was in charge of the concentration camps?

  Answer: The SS Main Office for Economy and Administration had sole charge of the concentration camps; that is not the RSHA, and therefore not Kaltenbrunner. He, consequently, had no power to give orders and no competency in these sphere. According to my opinion of him as a man, Kaltenbrunner certainly did not approve of the atrocities committed in the concentration camps. I do not know whether he knew about them.

  Question seven: Did Kaltenbrunner issue orders that Jews were to be killed?

  Answer: No, he never issued such orders, and in my opinion, he could not issue such orders on his own authority. In my opinion, he was opposed to Hitler and Himmler on this question, that is, the physical extermination of European Jewry.

  Question eight: Did Kaltenbrunner intervene in foreign policy in the interest of peace?

  Answer: Yes; in the Hungarian question, for example. When, in March 1944, the German troops occupied Hungary, he succeeded in persuading Hitler to be moderate and to prevent Romanian and Slovak units from marching in as planned. Due to his support I was able to prevent a National Socialist government from being formed for another six months. Kaltenbrunner wanted the old Austro-Hungary to be reestablished on a federative basis. Since 1943 I had told Kaltenbrunner that Germany must endeavor to end the war by peace at any price. I had informed him about my connection with an American office in Lisbon. I also informed Kaltenbrunner that I had recently made contact with an American office in a neutral country through the Austrian resistance movement. He also declared his willingness to travel to Switzerland with me and start personal negotiations with an American representative in order to avoid further senseless bloodshed.

  This is followed by signature, date and certification.”

  Dr. Kauffmann closed the file with the document and looked at the President of the Tribunal. I caught myself smiling faintly, expressing my silent gratitude to my loyal fellow Austrian, who had the courage and decency to give his affidavit as my witness, even though his words wouldn’t mean anything in the end. A tiny drop of this human kindness in the middle of the ocean of hatred directed against me by the whole world touched me to the core. Maybe they would open their eyes, and for once realize that they were judging a living human being, an ordinary man, and not the heartless monster they wanted to believe I was.

  I made a lot of mistakes in my life. I chose the wrong path and believed the wrong leaders. I was guilty of many things, but God as my witness, all that I was not guilty of. However, Höttl spoke the truth that no one wanted to hear. Colonel Amen shifted in his seat, scowling. The President glanced at me and turned away immediately, as if just look
ing at me was offensive for him. I lifted my eyes to the ceiling and smiled again. It all didn’t matter in the end, when I knew that she still believed me and still loved me. And her opinion of me effortlessly outweighed that of the whole world.

  _______________

  Vienna, June 1938

  The whole world was bathing in summer sunlight while I was locked in this goddamn dungeon, buried under a pile of documentation, generously supplied by both Seyss-Inquart and my new subordinates from the Austrian Gestapo. The lists with the people, who were subjects for resettlement, the Jews that is, kept arriving with overwhelming speed day after day. After going through barely a third of them I started wondering if we really had that many Jews in the country to begin with. There were thousands and thousands of them, however, after most of the Orthodox Jews had already been deported in the first few weeks after the Anschluss, that’s when everything started to get more and more confusing.

  I shuffled through the Gestapo files concerning the so-called mixed families. If the Reich policy concerning the Orthodox Jews was quite clear on their account, Reichsführer couldn’t give me any clear instructions on what to do with the assimilated ones.

  “So I have a Jewish husband who is married to an Austrian Aryan woman.” I recalled one of our first phone conversations on the matter. “They have four children, who are considered second degree mischlinge according to the Nuremberg laws.”

  “Yes.” Himmler cleared his throat on the other end of the line. “And your question is?”

  “My question is what do I do with the husband? And with the wife too? Is she a subject for prosecution for Rassenschande? Does the husband fall under the category of subjects for resettlement? I have hundreds of such reports from the Gestapo just from Vienna alone and a small region around it. How do you want me to handle these cases? How do you normally handle them in, let’s say, Berlin?”