“Yes, but, this time, I want to search on a different topic.”
“Please fill out this card and our staff will see what they can find.” Johann walked over to the reception area where he waited for the research. Johann picked up a copy of the October 6th edition of the Economist to read while he waited.
“Would you like a glass of water or a cup of coffee, Herr von Manntoell?”
“Yes, a cup of coffee sounds like a good idea.”
“We have a new pot right next to the water bottle over in the corner.”
“I see it, thank you.”
Johann read the magazine and enjoyed a hot cup of coffee. The article “A better use of the Berlin Wall” caught his attention. He smiled as he read the article. It reported that it was suggested that the Berlin Wall be an open air museum.
Maggie had her own research to do. She met with some old friends who worked for the Simon Wiesenthal Center. She was trying to learn more about the Ahnerbe or the NAZI historical society that tried to build a history of the Aryan race for Hitler. The waiter brought three large beers. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is a Jewish group that identifies NAZI war criminals and notifies the country they reside in to prosecute them. They also work to identify art, money, and other valuables stolen from the Jewish people during the war and return it to the rightful owners.
“Maggie, over here.”
“Monika and Stephen, it is good to see you both.”
“Come sit with us,” Stephen said
“How is your mother, Maggie?” asked Monika.
“She is the same. She is living in a home with medical care.”
“How are you Stephen?” asked Maggie.
“I am great.”
“How are your investigations going?” asked Maggie.
“We are so busy, we sure could use you on the team.”
“We are very busy looking for Harry Männil. We know he is Estonia, but we can’t get back to him,” said Monika.
“So what can we do for you?” asked Stephen.
“I have a murder on my hands and I think there is some connection with the Berlin Society for Theosophy. I think there is also a link to the NAZI Ahnerbe.”
“Well, where do we begin?” asked Stephen.
“This is an area I have spent a great deal of time on,” said Monika.
“The Ahnerbe was simply a criminal organization,” said Stephen.
“That is right. They went around the world stealing priceless artifacts and brought them back to Germany,” said Monika.
“It is interesting you say that, Monika because I think the Berlin Society of Theosophy was a criminal organization that funneled money to individual members of the NAZI Party,” said Maggie.
“That is not surprising. There were a number of these organizations in the German Government while the NAZI Party was in charge,” said Stephen.
“How about the Berlin Society of Theosophy?” asked Maggie.
“I looked for the Society and found nothing in our records,” said Monika.
“In my research it appears that some documents on the society were taken by the Soviet Union,” said Stephen.
“Really, so there are some records?” asked Maggie.
“Yes, but I only found transmittal documents. I don’t know what the transmitted documents were. Here are the two pages of transmittal documents that show the subjects of the documents you are looking for,” said Stephen.
“This is his area of expertise,” said Monika.
“These documents can be reviewed over at the Berlin Town Hall,” said Stephen.
“Really, they are right here in the city?” asked Maggie.
“Yes, they are part of the documents that are slowly being released by the East German Police,” said Stephen.
“Did either of you find anything else?” asked Maggie.
“Isn’t that enough?” asked Stephen.
“I didn’t mean it like that and you know it,” said Maggie.
“Yeah I know what you mean.” Stephen laughed.
“We need to get together for dinner sometime,” said Monika.
“Yes, we will be back in the city in two weeks,” said Stephen.
“It’s a date, we can go to the Italian Restaurant over at Mexico Platz,” said Maggie.
“Great, that will give us more time to catch up,” said Monika.
At the Berlin Document Center, the librarian called for Johann.
“Herr von Manntoell, we have located some documents on your request. You can view them at booth number 3.”
“Thank you very much.”
“Sorry, you must leave your coffee here.”
“Of course, bad habit.”
Johann sat down in the booth with a file box about 24 inches deep. He found about a dozen pages of paper. He pulled all the pages out and sorted through them. He found that the pages were not a complete set and appeared to be loose pages from other documents. He sorted through them by date. He found page three of a memorandum of agreement between the Berlin Society of Theosophy and the Ahnerbe for research. Unfortunately, the other pages were missing. He also found transaction documents that paid money to the society three times for studies. The amounts were for $150,000, $250,000, and $75,000. The documents that supported these payments were missing. Then he found a payment voucher for $1,000,000 for research conducted in Tibet that was signed by his father. This document too was missing the support pages that could have explained the transaction. Another page showed a payment from the society to the family of Uwe Grünspecht, the late director of the organization. This page was also signed by Johann’s father.
After looking through all the documents, Johann wrote down each document control number so he could ask for copies. He walked to the front desk.
“May I have a request form for copies?”
“Certainly, here you go.”
“I will send this to the U.S. Consulate. May I ask you another question?”
“Yes, I will answer if I can.”
“Is there any other organization that might have historical documents for the NAZI Party?”
“The only other organization that might have some is the old East German Police.”
“I read a newspaper article about the release of the documents held by the East German Police.”
“They say they will release documents that don’t identify agents of the secret police.”
“Where would I have to go to request access?”
“The old East Berlin City Hall is where the files have been temporarily located and can be viewed.”
“Thank you, I can’t tell you how helpful you have been.”
Johann caught a taxi back to his family flat. At around 8:45, Silke and Maggie showed up to discuss the latest information from their investigations.
“Let’s sit around the dining room table,” said Johann.
“First, how does it feel to be out of the clinic?” asked Johann.
“It feels good to be out and back at home,” said Silke.
“I went to the Berlin Document Center and found 16 pages of documents from the Berlin Society of Theosophy. None of them were full records, but two of them had my father’s signature on them.”
“That is a breakthrough,” said Maggie.
“Yes, do you have the documents with you?” asked Silke.
“No, the copies have to be requested,” said Johann.
“Oh I remember now,” said Silke.
“I met with some former colleagues. Their research has determined that the Ahnerbe was a criminal organization,” said Maggie.
“What exactly does that mean?” asked Silke.
“It means they went around the world on supposed archeological trips and stole valuable artifacts and brought them back to Germany,” said Maggie.
“So where does that put the society?” asked Johann.
“I think they were another criminal organization. My colleagues agreed with me that they could have been used to provide money to NAZI party member
s,” said Maggie.
“I would like to go to the Berlin papers tomorrow and see what I can find in the older editions,” said Silke.
“Good idea,” said Johann.
“Thanks,” said Silke with a smile.
“If you give me the request for the copies, I can drop it off at the U.S. Consulate,” said Maggie.
“By the way, the librarian and the center told me there might be more documents at the East German City Hall.”
“Really, my friends said the same thing. Looks like we have found some additional information and identified another source,” said Johann.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Maggie arrived at work early as usual. She found two brown envelopes and a note in her box at the station. The envelopes were from the U.S. Consulate in Berlin. She opened them to find the requests for copies were approved and the copies included in the envelopes. The note was from the forensic team; they noticed a suspicious-looking man at the funeral for the von Manntoell’s and wanted to speak to her about it.
She stopped by the forensic lab after she got a soft drink.
“Hello.”
“Hello, Maggie.”
“How are things in the forensic lab?”
“Very busy, I am sad to say.”
“I got your note.”
“Yes, let me get the files. Why don’t we step next door so I can show you these?”
“I’ll follow you.”
“Let’s sit here. While we were reviewing the photos from the funeral, we noticed a peculiar man.”
He laid a picture on the table in front of her. It was of a burly man, well dressed, with a very satisfied smile on his face.
“That’s him. Do you have a name?” asked Maggie.
“No, we haven’t identified him yet.”
“We need you to find this man’s name and address fast.”
“We are already on it.”
“Great work, thank your team for me.”
Before she left the station, Maggie stopped by the desk sergeant, who had an envelope for her.
“Did you guys ever get the list of criminals put away by Albrecht?”
“Yes, I got it this morning. Here you go.”
“Thanks very much.”
Inside the envelope was a long list of criminals that were sent to jail by Inspector Albrecht over the last twenty years. Since the list was so long, she would have to look at it later. She needed to call Johann at his flat.
“Johann here.”
“Hello, this is Maggie. I have your copies from the document center. I’d like to drop by and give them to you and show you a picture. Will you be there for a while?”
“Yes, I will be here.”
“I’ll be by in about half an hour.”
“See you then.”
Maggie walked out to the parking lot beside the police station and drove her car over to Johann’s flat. As she got near, she pulled behind the police car with the officer watching the flat. She walked up to the passenger’s side and got in.
“Maggie, come in.”
“Hammer, how are you doing?”
“I am doing just fine.”
“Anyone interested in our man Johann?”
“Not that I’ve seen. In fact, this whole neighborhood sees very little action.”
“Well, that’s why the old people like it here.”
Maggie got out of the car and walked up to Johann’s building. She buzzed and he let her in. As she opened the door to the building, she saw him on his floor looking down at her. He waved and she waved back. She quickly climbed the stairs.
“Johann, here’s your copies.”
“Thank you very much. I’ll go through them later.”
“Come in and have a seat.”
They both sat down. Johann had two hot cups of tea sitting on the table.
“Johann I would like you to look at this picture and tell me if you have ever seen this man.”
He took the picture and looked at it carefully.
“No, I am afraid not. Who is he?” Johann asked as he handed her the picture.
“He was just someone that attended your father’s funeral.”
“Why ask me if I know him?”
“We don’t know who he is, but it is odd for someone attending a funeral to smile so broadly.”
“You’re right. I didn’t notice that.”
“Our forensic team found it.”
“They are good at their jobs.”
“Yes, they are. Well, I need to go. We are still on for tonight?”
“See you then.” Maggie walked to the café just down the street. She was glad to see the waiter there who had identified Günter.
“Hello, Inspector,” Julian said.
“I’ll take two large coffees to go, please. I was also wondering if you had time to look at a picture.”
“Sure, I have a few minutes.”
“Here is a picture of a man. I would like you take a moment and look at the photo and then tell me if you recognize him.”
She laid the picture on the table next to them.
“Yes, I do recognize him. He has been a customer. I only know his first name, Kurt. He is the man I spoke to you about earlier that was usually with Günter.”
“That is a big help, thank you very much.”
Maggie grabbed the coffees, paid the waiter, and darted to the unmarked police car. Hammer rolled down his window and Maggie handed him a hot coffee as she walked by. He yelled thank you as she walked towards her car. She got into her car and drove back to the station. She radioed ahead that she needed the forensic team to meet her in their office in 20 minutes. Maggie parked her car in the lot and quickly walked into the station. She went straight to the Forensic Lab.
She was greeted by Ingrid. “Deputy Inspector how’re you?”
“I couldn’t be better.”
“We haven’t identified the man in the picture yet.”
“I have his first name. Kurt.”
“Really, how did you find that out?”
“A waiter who saw him with Günter Eckersley.”
“That means he was probably with the East German Police, too.”
“That is exactly what I was thinking.”
“We’ll scrub the photos and see if we can get his full name.”
“I’ll be in my office. Contact me when you find it.”
Maggie walked back to her office and placed a call to the Chief Inspector.
“Chief, the forensic team found a picture of a suspicious man at the von Manntoell funeral.”
“Great, have we ID’d him?”
“We know his first name is Kurt and he was with Günter Eckersley, which leads us to believe he is East German Police.”
“I am glad to hear that real progress is being made.”
“I’ll call you when I have more, Chief.”
“Keep up the good work Maggie.”
She stood in front of her blackboards and wrote the name Kurt under the question mark. She had them both named now, but who else was with them? She called Silke and Johann to reschedule tonight’s meeting for tomorrow. She needed more time to find the residences of Kurt and Günter so she could have them searched. An earlier search of Günter’s flat proved he had not been living there. That meant he had to have another place.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Johann got up early to arrange another visit to his aunt in the clinic. As he dressed, the phone rang. It was Silke.
“I was able to find some news articles in the Berliner Zeitung in the early 1940s that covered grants given to the Berlin Society of Theosophy.”
“That is stunning news.”
“I have copies of the articles. They say that the Ahnerbe was the NAZI Party agency that gave the grants, supposedly for genealogical research.”
“That is really great. We now have a connection between the two organizations.”
“We do, but we don’t have the total amounts of grants received.”
“We’re g
oing to get there, Silke!”
“I will bring the copies to our next meeting.”
“I’ll see you then.”
As soon as they hung up, Kurt removed his earpiece for the bug and called Freda. He would provide her a transcript later.
Johann finished getting dressed and took a taxi to the East German City Hall to see if he could view the East German Police records. The taxi dropped him at the curb and he walked up the steps to the main door. The building was timeworn and he could see bullet holes in the stone from the war. Some holes were patched with a flat white grout that made them stand out. This part of the city was in bad shape. There he met a security guard that explained the conditions under which he could enter. He showed his identification papers to the security guard and was given a pass. He was searched for weapons. He walked through without issues and stepped over to the information desk to speak with the clerk.
“Hello, Fräulein.”
“Hello, may I help you?”
“Yes please, I would like to review any files you have from the NAZI Party on the Ahnerbe and Berlin Society of Theosophy.”
“Yes sir, please fill out this card with that information and our researchers will check.”
“I will be right back.”
Johann walked over to a table and filled the card out with the description of the information he wanted. After a few minutes, he was done and returned it to the clerk at the information desk.
“Fräulein, here is my request.”
“Thank you, your name will be called by a researcher who will review your application with you.”
“Thank you.”
Johann walked over to the waiting area where about half a dozen other people were waiting. About fifteen minutes later his name was called by a blonde lady with dark black glasses halfway down her nose.
“Johann von Manntoell.”
“Here, here.” He held his hand in the air waving it from side to side.
“Please, come with me.”
Johann followed her to a cubicle and sat in the visitor’s chair.
“I am Dorit and I will be helping you with your request.”
“Thank you, Dorit.”
“What is the purpose for this request?”
“I am trying to wrap up loose ends from my father’s recent death. He was the treasurer of the Berlin Society of Theosophy during the early 1940s.”
A Walk Among the Dead Page 12
