Chapter 22

Germany. Winter 1942.

"This proof of the growing power of the British bomber force is also the herald of what Germany will receive, city by city, from now on." Churchill said this after the night of a thousand bombers, a raid on Cologne in May 1942 by 1048 British bombers. Their target was the large rail interchange. Cologne recovered in six months.

Of Rommel's success in the desert at Tobruk North Africa, 1942, Churchill later commented because of the Allies surrender:

"This was one of the heaviest blows I can recall during the war. Not only were the military effects grim, but also it affected the reputation of British arms... Defeat is one thing; disgrace is another."

Comedian and film star W.C. Fields kept US$50,000 in Germany "in case the little bastard wins," he said.

"Otto's a big bastard isn't he?"

Gerry was driving and he was having trouble with the icy roads, every ten minutes or so Manfred would lean across and try to wipe the mist from the windscreen.

"I thought that you were going to get a kiss, I really did," Gerry laughed loudly remembering the look on Manfred's face.

"So did I, I couldn't think of anything more repulsive." Manfred kept chuckling but in the back of his mind, he knew that Otto had taught him a lesson and he remembered Cornelia telling him to stop baiting Otto.

When they drove into the farm and parked in the garage, they ran to the back door, which was being held slightly ajar by Cornelia.

They did not wait for welcoming kisses but dashed into the dining room. Turning their backs to the fire, they stood enjoying the warmth as they shed their thick outer clothing, gloves and hats. Anna took their overcoats to the peg rack near the back door. Alex and Cornelia placed fresh coffee on the dining table and they sat waiting for news of their trip.

"The drop was made although I thought that it might be cancelled a few times because of the bad weather," Manfred said.

"I'm glad to be warm again, you can die quickly from exposure in these temperatures," Gerry said looking closely at his fingers. They were swollen and there were red weals all over his hands. Anna, who was sitting alongside him, took his hands and poked them between her thighs but she squealed and quickly pulled them away.

"You feel like the iceman, you're so cold," Anna said.

"I'm going to bed at least I can warm up in bed; coming?" he said to Anna.

From December 1942 until March 1943, Richard worked under extreme pressure from Speer to improve armament production output. He had spent a total of three hours with Erika during February. Stuttgart had been bombed repeatedly and he thought that their factories in the camp were protected from bombings because of humanitarian reasons. However, they had simply been lucky.

It was 7 P.M. on Monday March 15th 1943, Speer had finished filing Richard's report in his brief case and they were enjoying a quiet coffee before they were both about to depart from the office. Speer began to trust Richard and spoke to him as an equal telling him of some of his other projects.

"Do you know about the A1 rockets?" Speer asked Richard.

"Rockets? For air to ground warfare?"

"No, fired from a site within Germany, or our occupied territories, at selected enemy targets. I'm working with a young engineer, von Braun, a competent engineer. He reminds me of you in many respects. If things were different I would transfer you to Peenemunde and have you work with him but I can't afford to move you at this critical time," Speer said.

"You could make my life here a lot easier by talking some sense into von Margent's head. He simply doesn't understand that by beating and starving our experienced workers that he's not helping us to achieve our targets."

"I'll talk to him again, but I think he's an educated idiot, quite incapable of seeing the big picture," Speer said shaking his head in disgust.

Just before Speer departed, he told Richard about the heavy bombing raids on Hamburg and Stuttgart. Richard wondered how his family was faring on the farm, concerned that stray bombers might target them.

Manfred and Gerry unpacked Manfred's car and carried many items into the dining room to study them, they were dismayed to find that the sparse instructions were in English. There were times they discovered that they had a bomb sitting on the dining room table, quite capable of destroying the farmhouse. They carefully repacked them and made many careful trips carrying the bomb devices down to hut 3, the one furthest away from the house.

The items that fascinated them the most were the miniaturised communications sets. They took them to the communications room where they compared their performance with the portable French unit that Gerry had brought back from Mander. They were also eager to test the radio-controlled land mines that were designed for attacks on convoys or individual vehicles. After reading the instructions, they too were stored in hut three for the safety of the farm.

As winter dragged on Manfred was tiring of playing chess with Gerry, he hated losing. Frequently he went to Alex's library, reading books on warfare, particularly any references to guerrilla warfare. He conferred with Gerry discussing various articles until they were happy that they had grasped the principles.

Eventually though, they were spending all day in the communications room, listening to both local and overseas news and short wave stations.

One night toward the end of February, Gerry woke, terrified by a sound that he had heard before. He struggled with the reality of what he was hearing but as he continued to listen, he was sure that he could hear a plane diving on the farmhouse. The house was in darkness and bewildered he staggered out of bed. He heard the pilot firing his wing cannons and then he heard the whistling of the wind through the flights of a dropping bomb. Frozen by fear he heard the whining sound grow in intensity. When the bomb exploded the house shook, small ornaments fell from shelves and the windows rattled alarmingly.

Spurred to rapid action he pulled on his clothes, Anna jumped out of the bed.

"What happened, have we been bombed?" she asked.

"Quick as you can, go to the dining room," Gerry said brusquely and dashed out of the bedroom, almost colliding with Manfred who was first out of his bedroom. Gerry could hear Manfred's son screaming in terror from the sounds of the explosion.

Gerry started yelling, "Everyone into the dining room!"

He heard a second explosion; it appeared to be well away from the house.

Facing up the stairs, he yelled again, "Everyone into the dining room!" and waited until Alex entered the hall. In the dim light of the embers in the fireplace, he stoked the fire and fed it with more wood.

His experiences in Rotterdam started returning vividly to his mind, he ordered all of them under the table. He went to Manfred's bedroom and pulled the covers from young Richard's cot. Returning to the dining room, he handed them to Manfred who was trying to calm Cornelia.

"Have Cornelia keep the covers over Richard, they will stop him from being injured by flying debris," Gerry said.

He stoked the fire again and placed a new log into the grate. 'Probably dangerous, ' he thought, 'but we don't have gas mains that could explode. It's just too cold, we need the warmth.'

He moved under the table and they waited. Gerry felt that there would be further attacks. He put his arm around Anna and Alex, they were both shocked, but their sobs were quiet as they fought for control.

Manfred's son continued to cry as Cornelia attended to him; she was trying to pacify young Richard but she was unsuccessful. Gerry caught a glimpse of Cornelia reaching under her blouse, freeing her breast, she held Richard the Second close. When he heard the contented suckling noises he knew that with the baby quiet and busily feeding that the women would soon calm down.

"Would you get me a fresh diaper," Cornelia asked Manfred, who scurried out from under the table and dashed to their room.

The sky was brightening but the sun had not yet risen. Manfred returned and passed fresh diapers to Cornelia. He nodded to Gerry, as he walked to the back door. They peered out but there was no obvious damage nor were there any fires.

Gerry heard a siren in the far distance and it suddenly occurred to him that officials from Goppingen might visit the house. He grabbed his overcoat off the peg and thrust Manfred's coat into his hands. Dashing back to the dining room, he saw that everyone was now out from under the table and were seated close to the fire. Anna started pulling the heavy blackout curtains away from the window.

"I heard a siren just then, officials from Goppingen might come by to check the house, if they do come here, Manfred and I will hide in the communications room. Alex I want you to tell them who you are. Anna you go with her. Don't offer any more information than you have to. If possible, do not let them in the house. Tell them Anna is your sister-in-law and her husband died on the Russian front last winter."

"Do you understand what I'm saying to you," he asked firmly.

"Get your pistol Manfred, and be ready to join me upstairs," Manfred was still dazed but he went hurrying to his bedroom as a siren began wailing as the emergency vehicle pulled into the road leading to the farm.

The siren stopped when it was outside their farm, Gerry and Manfred raced upstairs and squeezed into the communications room. Many minutes passed until they heard loud knocking at the front and back doors. They pulled their coats closer to stop shivering and waited. Gerry was hoping that Alex would dissuade them from entering the house.

The communications room was well isolated and they were unable to tell what was happening. Fifteen minutes later the sliding panel to the communications room slid open, Gerry and Manfred were ready with their pistols pointed at the entrance, when Alex's head poked in.

"All clear, they were very helpful actually. He told me that we had done the right thing getting under the table but next time he advised me to place a mattress over the table for further protection. They told me that we have a large crater in the road right outside the house. They think that the pilot was an escort for bombers attacking Munich and he got into trouble. He dropped his bomb and then crashed three kilometres away. He wanted to know if anyone was injured and whether we needed anything urgently. They told me that it might take a long while before the road could be repaired."

"You did well Alex," Gerry said as he squeezed out of the communications room followed by Manfred.

In the dining room Anna was on her feet taking Richard the Second from Cornelia so she could remake her baby's bed; he was sleeping soundly. Gerry went to the kitchen, restarted the fire in the stove, and loaded a kettle of water on to it. Alex started upstairs to dress and Manfred joined Cornelia in their room.

Anna returned to the kitchen, stood alongside Gerry and softly caressed his back. "You handled that very well, you made me feel safe."

"You're just stronger, I didn't do anything but the terrible scenes of Rotterdam came flooding back to me and I..."

She threw her arms around him; squeezed him hard as she rested her head on his chest.

Later in the morning, Gerry and Manfred closely inspected the house and garage. There was a hole in the roof of the large garage and two holes in the roof of hut 1 but it was minor damage. On the road, they saw that the raised bank that ran adjacent to the road had deflected most of the bomb blast away from the house.

"Well, at last we've had some luck!" Manfred said.

"What do you mean 'at last'; we're alive that's the luckiest part of all."

"Thanks for getting everyone out and under the table, I'm proud of you for acting so quickly."

"I've seen it all before but the experience comes with its horrific memories," Gerry said walking away from Manfred and back down the side path to the house.

"If it disturbs you Herr Farber, then I suggest that you stay away from the production lines. They must be disciplined and they must be taught to strive harder. They are nothing but fodder for our production lines."

Richard was in the office of the new permanent Commandant, Conrad von Margent who had told Richard just after he was appointed, that he was totally committed to the aims of the Third Reich as formulated by Hitler.

"What I witnessed this morning was neither discipline nor teaching, what I saw was cruel barbaric attacks on unsuspecting workers. Workers that I rely on to achieve the targets set by Reichsminister Speer. I already have agreement from him that the people with expertise should be fed and treated fairly."

"I don't interfere with your management and I ask that you don't interfere with my running of the camp. Frankly, I'm getting tired of your attitude Herr Farber, it's misplaced with me I'm afraid. Now if that's all?"

The Commandant stood up and Richard slowly rose, he was trying hard to suppress his anger. He raised his arm in salute as von Margent click his heels, raised his right arm; "Heil Hitler," he said loudly.

'You have the manners of a sophisticated gentleman, the ethics and behaviour of a sewer rat, ' Richard thought as he left the Commandant's office and went to the planning section.

"It seems that we can't change the behaviour of those sadistic bastards whipping and bashing our workers," Richard said to his manager who had earlier taken him to the production line and showed him the treatment that the skilled workers were enduring.

Angry and without further words, Richard turned away and strode back to his office; his anger hardening into seething fury.

Erika followed him into his inner office, "You look terribly upset. Is something wrong?"

"Yes this whole war is wrong, I'm sick of it!"

"I'll make coffee, just sit and relax for five minutes."

When Richard received his coffee, he seemed to be thinking deeply and Erika sat quietly waiting.

"I'm... I don't want to talk here, let's have lunch on Sunday; it's getting more difficult for me to cope with this stupidity. Speer promised me that he would try and get a Commandant that was more sensible than Riddal, unfortunately von Margent is just a more sophisticated Riddal."

"We'll talk Sunday! I have a visitor coming up from Munich and she'll enjoy meeting you I'm sure. She has to leave early so she won't be in our way."

"Anyone I know?"

"No, I don't think so."

The following Sunday Erika admitted Richard to her apartment and led him to her small living room.

"Anka, I would like to introduce Richard Farber. Richard, this is Anka Schriver; a friend of mine," Erika said.

Anka Schriver stepped forward and extended her hand and Richard took it, clicking his heels, he bent his head over her hand as if to kiss it. He could smell her expensive perfume. Custom demanded that his lips should only briefly hover above her hand; to actually kiss her hand was considered vulgar behaviour.

As he straightened up he was smiling, "I'm charmed and pleased to meet you, Anka."

"Richard, it is my pleasure to meet you."

The formalities over Erika waved them into chairs and served coffee.

"Anka is a cousin of the Scholl family, did I tell you about them?"

"Wasn't he the mayor of Forchtenberg who was arrested and jailed before the war for making seditious comments about Hitler," Richard said.

"That's him," Anka said.

Richard looked to Erika uncertain of what to say.

Erika laughed at Richard's confusion. "You don't have to worry about Anka she's dedicated herself to rousing the whole nation against Hitler."

"I see, and how are you going to do that Anka?"

"We won't be able to do it with force that's for certain. I'm joining with the Scholl family; they have a large number of followers. They've convinced me that we can do it using passive resistance. However, more than that, we can appeal to the ordinary German's sense of decency. Hopefully that means we can change the hated system we now endure."

They continued talking for half an hour and then Erika squeezed them into her small dining area and they had lunch. Erika was aware that Richard had frowned whenever she started to talk about their activities and had quickly changed the subject. Soon after lunch, Anka departed.

Anka Schriver was fortunate that she never came to the attention of the authorities. Her cousins, the Scholl's, formed their 'passive resistance' group into an organization called the White Rose. Their activities quickly came under scrutiny by the Gestapo. The Scholl's and about eighty others were rounded up and were tried and found guilty of sedition. In 1943, they were executed by guillotine. Only one of the Scholl siblings, Inge Scholl survived the war and died of cancer in 1988, she was an activist to the end.

"I'm not trying to censor you Erika, but the less that your friends know about our activities the safer we'll be. It was you that first told me 'no knowledge is the best security'."