“Hallelujah is absolutely right. I know just the firm who could handle it.”
“When I married Herr Hoffman, I just wanted revenge. Now I want justice. Do you really think my notes could make a difference?”
“Absolutely. You would probably have to be deposed. With some help, I’m going to break this conglomerate wide open.”
“But this enterprise group, Zersetzung Gruppen KG, is so powerful. I read about them every day in the papers here.”
“They don’t own everyone or everything,” Alexander stated.
This outcome was more than Alexander could have hoped for. If the corrupt conglomerate or executives were exposed, he and Hallelujah would not have to hide forever. For surely they were involved in the break-in at his house, and the threats.
“Back then, they secretly referred to themselves as the Unternehmen Gruppen or U-Group for short,” said Eva.
“Why is that?” asked Alexander.
“Because that name was reminiscent of the U-boats that did so much damage to the Allies during the war. They thought that was clever. Only they were hidden underground, not undersea. They got prosperous profiting off other people’s misery. The names I have gathered date back to the war. By now the organization no doubt has tentacles that reach into the higher echelons of German commerce. You’ll have to follow the money trail to see where it leads, no matter where it leads. Do I have your promise?”
“Yes,” Alexander stated. “I will get justice for you and for your family. I’m familiar with this firm. As a matter of fact, at one time they did a transaction with my firm. They were a bit on the shady side, with a seemingly bottomless pit of cash. And now I know where it comes from.”
The nurse appeared at the door. “Mrs. Grandcoeur, you have another visitor. Your son Aaron is here.”
Aaron’s eyes lit up when he saw his mother. Hannah’s love for her son was reflected in her own eyes.
“Aaron, I’d like you to meet my new friends. Alexander Stone and Hallelujah Weiss, this is my son Aaron.”
Aaron shook Alexander’s hand and smiled at Hallelujah.
“Did you bring the files?”
“Yes, Mother. Everything is right here.”
“Please give them to Mr. Stone. He will make sure they go to the right place.”
Aaron handed over a large briefcase to Alexander.
“My mother has held on to these for a long time. She never told me what was in this briefcase, only that I should guard it with my life.”
“Son, I will tell you the whole story, but now my friends have a big job to do.”
Alexander lifted some of the files out of the briefcase.
“I’m afraid some of the papers may have yellowed with age,” Eva said.
“But they’re still legible,” Alexander asserted.
He sat down and reviewed the information in the files. His finger paused at one listing.
“This name is familiar, Abraham Hammerman. An Abraham Hammerman is one of the founding partners and former CEO and Chairman of my hedge fund firm in Berlin, Hammerman GmbH. He still serves on the supervisory board, but his son has taken over his position. Mr. Hammerman was my mentor. I know him very well.”
Hannah shook her head. “No, that is not possible. His wife Madeline was my mother’s best friend. But you say you know this man? It can’t be the same person. Abraham Hammerman was killed during the war.”
“Did he live in Dahlem?”
“Yes, I saw Mr. Hammerman’s wife after the war. She was the one who told me my parents and brother were dead. Hers was a sad story. When she was taken, she had just found out she was pregnant. She hadn’t even told her husband. They were separated when they arrived on the train at the camp. He went one way, she another. They had to leave all their clothes and jewelry before they went into the showers. But of course, at that time they had no idea where they were really headed.
“There was a beautiful red wool coat Mr. Hammerman had just bought his wife,” Eva continued. “She was very proud of that coat. And she had to leave that behind. Then when she was walking into the shower area, she was pulled out of line by a guard who said, “Come with me.” She was confused in all of the chaos. They were all confused. But she went with the guard and later found out she had been singled out as part of a group of women to be used for the officers’ pleasure. Some were sent to service the soldiers on the front. In her case, she had caught the eye of an SS officer, one very high up in the command chain, when she first came into camp. And she became his woman. At first she resisted. She refused to submit. But she didn’t have a choice if she wanted to save her child. And he led her to believe she held her husband’s life in her hands. Later, much later, the officer told Madeline her husband was dead.
“She said she was little more than a prostitute. She did some light cleaning and worked in the kitchen, but her living conditions were far superior to that of the average prisoners, who barely survived in cold, unsanitary, crowded barracks, who could never get enough to eat and were subject to daily pre-dawn roll calls and the cruel and capricious whims of sadistic officers.
“She felt ashamed, but she had no choice if she wanted to save the life she was carrying inside her. Later, when she told the man she was pregnant, she lied and said it was his child, and when the baby was born—a little girl—he arranged to move the child to a farm outside the camp and paid the farmer’s wife to care for her. If Madeline hadn’t been protected, she would certainly have been subject to Dr. Mengele’s experiments on pregnant women. And she stayed alive because one day she hoped to be reunited with her daughter. The officer promised her if she continued to please him, he would take her to her daughter. He never did.”
“What happened next?” Hallelujah prompted.
“At some point the officer was promoted and transferred back to Berlin, and the new commandant established a brothel beside the main gate of the camp to provide incentives to prisoners. Typically, the women were not Jews, but in Madeline’s case, since she had been the officer’s woman, they made an exception. She was forced to work in the brothel. The Jewish prisoners were not sympathetic to her plight. Her officer eventually came back to Auschwitz, but by then she had become a liability to him, so she remained in the brothel until the camp was liberated in January 1945.
“She was ashamed to tell me. I knew something about shame. So I understood her dilemma. She chose life. Her Abe had gone the other way in line, the way of my father before he was shot, so naturally she thought she knew his fate. Then, after the war, she found Abraham’s name on a list of victims, so she knew what the SS officer had told her about her husband being dead was true.
“She was liberated by Soviet troops and had to make her own way back home. She was happy to put as much distance as possible between herself and Max. That was the SS officer. But she was also getting farther away from her daughter. She met an American soldier while she was at the displaced persons camp, and she enlisted his help to find her child. When they found her, she was very grateful. There was nothing for her in Berlin, so she married the American, and the three of them moved to the United States. He’s passed away, but she is still living in New York.”
“Did they have other children?” Hallelujah asked.
“No, she was unable to have more children because of the things that happened to her at the camp after her officer left.”
“I am quite sure this is the same man,” Alexander said. “I know the family. Abraham’s wife Madeline was killed at Auschwitz. Or so he believed. It’s the same name. Abraham and Madeline Hammerman. That can’t be a coincidence. He didn’t like to talk about the war, but once, many years later, he told us his name had been on the list of the dead but that he had escaped.”
“How did he do that?” Eva asked. “I heard it was almost impossible to escape Auschwitz.”
“He was selected to be what they called a Sonderkommando, the Jewish prisoners forced to move the people into the showers, pull their dead bodies out, burn them in the ovens
, and then bury the ashes. It was the worst of all jobs, to have to betray your own people. They became complicit in the horror. They were there to keep order, to reassure the people that everything was okay. And they would be there until their usefulness was finished and then they would go the way of those they’d shepherded to their deaths.
“Your story about the red coat rings a bell with me. Abraham told me one of his first jobs at the camp was to sort through the clothes of the women and children who were sent to the showers, to look for hidden treasures, diamonds sewn in the hem of a coat, paper money or coins in the pockets, and so on. He came upon his wife’s red coat in a pile and took a brief time to mourn her. Then he grabbed the coat, escaped on a burial detail, and joined the resistance. At that point he didn’t care if he lived or died and wasn’t afraid of getting caught. He told one of the other Sonderkommandos to say he had joined the line of victims into the shower because he didn’t want to live without his wife and he couldn’t do this job. That must have been how his name ended up on the list of murdered. That coat kept him warm on cold nights when he was on the run in the forest with the partisans. And the way he tells the story, there were diamonds and cash sewn into the hem of the coat which help fund partisan activities. He still carries a scrap of that red coat wherever he goes, as a reminder of his departed wife. He keeps it in a pocket of his coat or suit jacket or slacks. He even had it in his tuxedo when he married his second wife.”
“I wonder how many times that happened in the war?” Hallelujah asked. “People lost to each other forever because of a cruel twist of fate.”
“He spent many years alone until he finally remarried,” Alexander explained. “His wife has since died, but he has spent decades trying to gain restitution from the German government for his losses and the losses of others. He works with the governmental organizations and the State of Israel to try to set things right. And he had the means to do it. But, like many victims, he hasn’t been very successful. Many of his paintings have ended up in German museums, and there has been no proof that he ever owned them, until now. He started his business again after the war with money from the sale of the diamonds and the remainder of the cash sewn into the lining of that red coat. He was a smart man, and he built our firm into one of the world’s top hedge funds. He will see that justice is done.”
Alexander studied the list of items stolen from the Hammerman household, the paintings, antiques, and jewelry. Even the Hammerman mansion was appropriated by a Nazi officer.
Eva’s eyes filled with tears. “Mr. Hammerman is alive? And he thinks his wife was killed during the war?”
“Yes, it was a great tragedy. He never stopped loving her.”
“Nor she him,” Eva added. “I know because I am still in touch with Madeline Hammerman. As a matter of fact, her granddaughter is a ballerina in New York, like she used to be. She will be coming to Berlin soon to perform in Swan Lake. Madeline is coming with the family, including her daughter, Ana, who is named after my mother. We have arranged a visit while she’s on the continent.”
Hallelujah reached out to touch Alexander’s hand. “Do you realize what this means? That Mr. Hammerman’s wife is still alive. And the girl must be his granddaughter. From a daughter he never knew he had. You could arrange for him to be at the performance.”
“Of course I could arrange—”
Eva interrupted. “But what if it’s a coincidence? What if it’s the wrong Abraham Hammerman? It would be such a disappointment. To get one’s hopes up and then have them come crashing down. It would be like losing her all over again.”
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Hallelujah said. “I believe God has had a hand in this, in helping us find you and these files”—she turned to Alexander—“and in helping us find each other.”
He smiled. “I believe you’re right. We must get back to Berlin right away to get this information into the right hands.”
“But if someone is chasing us, why would you go back there?”
“That does not matter. We will do the right thing, no matter the cost. And Eva, will you testify to what you have written?”
“It’s what I had always intended.”
“Let me take notes on what I’ve heard today,” Hallelujah said. “And will you tell us Madeline’s story?”
“I would be happy to.”
“I would like the world to know your stories. I would like to put them in a book. May I have your permission?”
Eva smiled. “I would love that.”
Alexander shook Aaron’s hand again and bent down to kiss Eva.
“Should I call you Eva or Hannah?”
“From now on, I think I am Hannah. It’s been too long since she disappeared.”
“Mother, what does he mean?” asked Aaron, who had been patiently listening to her tale. “Your name isn’t Hannah.”
“Son, it’s a complicated story. One that is long overdue to be told. Come closer. Let me tell you about your other family.”
“Hannah,” began Hallelujah, picking up one of the larger stones. “You should take one of the diamonds, perhaps for your Ana.”
“My Ana is married, but her daughter is about to become engaged.”
“Then please, take this. This should stay in the family.”
Hallelujah placed the diamond in Hannah’s hand, and her fingers closed around it. The old woman expelled a long breath.
“Hallelujah, let’s let Hannah and her son have some time alone before you interview her. But before we go, I’d like to have a little word in private with her myself.”
Hallelujah and Aaron left the room.
Chapter Seventeen
Madeline’s Story: The War Years
As told by Hannah Grandcoeur
to Hallelujah Weiss
Life as she knew it, as a prima ballerina and a cherished young wife with an adoring husband, was over. Fate and her religion had landed her in this hell called Auschwitz, from which there was no escape.
Their plan to immigrate to America had gone up in smoke. Julian Hirschfeld had arranged it with Abe, but on the day they were due to leave, they were rounded up, told to bring only what they could carry, directed to the synagogue, and from there to an overcrowded train of terrified people headed to an undetermined location.
When Abe had asked why they were being deported, the SS man explained, “to work.” That seemed to satisfy Abe. Work was a concept he understood. As long as they were able to work, they would be okay. In his mind, any obstacle could be overcome. She could tell he was putting up a front for her benefit, so she didn’t tell him her news about the baby. Under normal circumstances, he would be thrilled, but a baby at this time would be a dangerous complication.
When they arrived at the camp, they were separated in the selection process. Abe went one way; she went another. It made sense to separate the men from the women and children. That was the Orthodox way. After all, they sat separately in the synagogue. But the moment her best friend’s husband Julian was shot in the head, everything changed. In all of the chaos, she lost track of Abe. It was up to her to be strong and protect her unborn child. She’d tried to calm Ana, but her friend was distraught and half-mad, holding her screaming baby.
Madeline had to leave her new red coat outside the showers. She hated to do that. It had been a special gift from Abe, and there were diamonds and American dollars sewn in the hem, but there were men armed with machine guns and automatic rifles and fierce German shepherds patrolling the area. Barking dogs and men barking orders and armed men in the watchtowers left her no choice. They were told to leave their clothes in the undressing area, and that after their shower they would receive a meal and be given their work assignment.
Then, minutes before they were to enter the showers, a guard pulled her roughly out of line. “Come with me.”
“Madeline,” screamed Ana, who had never left her side. “Please, stay with us. Where are they taking you?” That was the last time she ever saw her friend.
Were they taking her to Abe? What did this mean? She could really use a shower after that long, grimy train ride. She was going to lose her place in line, and the guards were shouting to hurry, hurry, the water was getting cold. Maybe there was a mix-up in her papers. The guard knocked on the door of a barracks and turned her over to a female guard inside.
The woman perused her naked body contemptuously. Then she directed her into the bathroom. “Clean up. There’s bath soap, shampoo, powder, and perfume. You can use the makeup. There’s a nightgown that should fit you, in the closet. Take whatever you need. You’re a very lucky girl.”
Madeline tilted her head in confusion. She didn’t feel lucky. She and the others who had entered the work camp were being treated like dogs. Why was she being singled out? Right now, she craved the comfort of the crowd. Maybe it had all been a mistake. Well, if she was being freed, she would have to insist that Abe come along. For a moment, she thought she heard screams in the distance, but the scalding shower water drowned out the cries.
When she had toweled off, she walked into the closet and noticed that all the clothes were sheer nightgowns. She chose a deep rose silk gown. She picked up the brush on the dressing table, brushed out her hair, sniffed, and spritzed herself with the expensive perfume on the table. There was a pair of fluffy bedroom slippers in the closet, so she put those on. Now she was ready, but ready for what?
The female guard stepped into the room. “Come with me, now.” Madeline followed her. They walked out the door to a waiting truck and drove outside the gate. Minutes later, the truck stopped, and she was taken into what looked like a small wooden house nestled in the woods and hurried into the bedroom.
“Wait here on the bed,” the guard instructed.
Madeline did as she was told. What choice did she have? Five minutes later, a well-built blond-haired man, about her age, a man she might have found attractive under other circumstances, entered the bedchamber. He was in the uniform of the SS, very distinguished-looking. She rose when he came in. What was she supposed to do now? Did he expect her to bow? Salute? What was proper?
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