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“After you are through with the forms, Colonel Ernst will address you. Then you will be shown to your dormitory and be given supper. Tomorrow you will begin your training and spend the next month marching and improving your physical condition before your classroom instruction begins.”
Keitel nodded at the soldier, who began passing out the packets. The recruitment officer paused at Kurt’s desk. They agreed to try for another game before supper, if the light held. The soldier then followed Keitel outside to get pencils for the inductees.
As he absently smoothed his hand over his documents, Kurt found himself oddly content, despite the harrowing circumstances of this hard, hard day. Yes, certainly some of this was gratitude – to Colonel Ernst and Doctor-professor Keitel – for providing this miraculous salvation. But more than that he was begi
With a smile toward his brother, Kurt ran his hand over the test envelope, realizing that for the first time in months his heart was truly content.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Willi Kohl parked the DKW not far from the Labor Service truck, which was about fifty meters off the road, parked in such a way that the driver clearly intended that the vehicle not be seen.
As he walked quietly to the truck, his Panama hat low to keep the glaring sun out of his eyes, he removed his pistol and listened for footsteps, voices. But he heard nothing out of the ordinary: only birds, crickets, cicadas. He approached the truck slowly. He looked into the back and found the burlap bags, shovels and hoes he’d expected – the “weapons” of the Labor Service. But in the cab he located some items that interested him considerably more. On the seat was an RAD officer’s uniform – carefully folded as if it would be used again soon and the wearer was concerned that wrinkles might make him appear suspicious. More important, though, was what he found wrapped in paper beneath the seat: a blue double-breasted suit and a white shirt, both in large sizes. The shirt was an Arrow, made in the United States. And the suit? Kohl felt his heart thud as he looked at the label inside the jacket. Ma
Paul Schuma
Kohl replaced the clothes and looked around for any sign of the American, the toad Webber or anyone else.
No one.
The footsteps in the dust outside the door of the truck suggested that Schuma
Please, Paul Schuma
But apparently this was not the moment for divine help. Ernst remained inside the Mercedes. Glare from the windshield and windows kept Paul from seeing exactly where he was in the backseat. If he fired through the glass and missed he’d never have another chance.
He sca
Paul wiped the sweat off his forehead and sat back in frustration. He felt something pressing uncomfortably into his thigh and he glanced down. It was the folder of papers that the balding man had placed in the car ten minutes before. He pushed it to the floor but, as he did, he glanced at the document on top. He lifted it and, alternating between glancing at Ernst’s Mercedes and the letter, he read:
Ludwig:
You will find a
At this early stage of the study I believe it is best that we refer to those killed by our Subject soldiers as state criminals. Therefore you will see in the letter that the two Jewish families we killed at Gatow will be described as Jew subversives, the Polish laborers killed at Charlottenburg as foreign infiltrators, the Roma as sexual deviants, and the young Aryans at Waltham today will be political dissidents. At a later point we can, I feel, be more forthright about the i
Nor do I refer to the questio
Please review this and contact me about alterations. I intend to submit the letter as requested, on Monday, 27 July.
– Reinhard
Paul frowned. What was this all about? He flipped to the next sheet and continued reading.
HIGHEST CONFIENTIALITY
Adolf Hitler,
Leader, State Chancellor and President of the German
Nation and Commander of the Armed Forces
Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg,
State Minister of Defense
My Leader and my Minister:
You have asked for details of the Waltham Study being conducted by myself and Doctor-Professor Ludwig Keitel of Waltham Military College. I am pleased to describe the nature of the study and the results so far.
This study arises out of my instructions from you to make ready the German armed forces and to help them achieve most expeditiously the goals of our great nation, as you have set forth.
In my years of commanding our courageous troops during the War, I learned much about men’s behavior during combat. While any good soldier will follow orders, it became clear to me that men respond in different ways to the matter of killing, and this difference, I believe, is based on their nature.
In brief, our study involves asking questions of soldiers before and after they execute condemned enemies of the state and then analyzing their responses. These executions involve a number of different situations: various methods of execution, categories of prisoners, relationship of the soldier to the prisoners, the family background and personal history of the soldier, etc. The examples to date are as follows:
On 18 July of this year, in the town of Gatow, a soldier (Subject A) questioned at length two groups convicted of Jewish subversive activities. He was then ordered to carry out the execution order by automatic weapon fire.
On 19 July, a soldier in Charlottenburg (Subject B) similarly executed a number of Polish infiltrators. Although Subject B was the proximate cause of their deaths, he had had no communication with them prior to their extermination, unlike the Gatow executions.