Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [185]
A member of the SND came into the room and whispered into Azov’s ear, “The girl died a few moments ago.” Azov stood and asked to address the court.
“Heidi Fritag has attempted suicide out of guilt. She cannot appear in court. However, we have her signed confession.”
The journalists wrote “interviews” with the defendants in which they expressed extreme remorse for their “crimes.” Tapes were edited and photographs retouched.... People’s justice had been done.
Sean O’Sullivan was brought out of his sleep by a sharp knock on the door. He turned on the lamp. It was three in the morning. Blessing stood at the door.
“Get dressed,” Bless said. “Pack a bag, quick. We’re taking a trip.”
Sean did as he was told without question.
A staff car waited at curbside. Bless got in the front seat next to the driver and Sean in the back. Neal Hazzard was waiting. They sped along the Unter Den Eichen.
“We have General Hansen’s plane standing by at Tempelhof. We’re carrying out a single VIP to London. Keep him company. Write down what he says. See that he doesn’t try to knock himself off.”
“Defector?”
“A big one. Heinrich Hirsch.”
Chapter Twenty-two
V. V. AZOV HAD FORCED Hirsch to attend session after session of the questioning and torture of Heidi Fritag and Matthias Schindler to break this strange streak of resistance in him.
Hirsch watched the whole event like a witness at his father’s death. The circle was complete. He, a victim of tyranny, had now seen the same merciless destruction imposed on an enemy. He, the Communist, had killed in the same manner as his father had died at the hands of the Nazis.
Azov’s attempt to debase his spirit was the final disillusion of what was once a golden idea. He still believed in Communism, but had come to detest the men who had perverted it beyond recognition.
Yet, the last thread of defiance did not break. He would not submit to this final humiliation ... to become a Communist robot without a soul.
Months earlier he had gotten wind of certain happenings in the American Sector that planted a seed of escape in his mind.
Jews, freed from death camps in Poland, trekked west to attempt to get to Palestine, the only door open to them. They were carefully shepherded by young Palestinians who slipped them to French and Italian ports. Immigration to Palestine was deemed illegal by the ruling British mandate.
Although it meant going against his British colleague, Neal Hazzard quietly established a refugee camp for the Jews in the American Sector and saw to it they got what they needed in the way of displaced persons documents.
General Hansen unofficially encouraged his officers all over Germany to help the transit of the Jews to embarkation ports for Palestine.
The Russians learned of this and watched the American-protected camps with suspicion.
Heinrich Hirsch alone stumbled onto the information that one of the leaders in the Jewish underground in Berlin was the American chaplain. On closer scrutiny Hirsch discovered that many Russian Jewish soldiers visited the chaplain’s house to attend services forbidden in the Russian Army. The rabbi’s place was a social center for Jewish soldiers of all four occupation powers. Here they met Jewish girls from the camp, or others who had been hidden and were trying to get to Palestine.
The NKVD was baffled by the disappearance of some forty Russian Jewish soldiers. Hirsch figured that they would rendezvous with the chaplain in civilian dress, he would issue them displaced persons papers, and they would disappear into the American camp.
He never reported his findings to his own authorities. After the fate of Matthias Schindler and Heidi Fritag was sealed, Hirsch made his own rendezvous with the chaplain.
His confession and the revelation of Heidi Fritag’s brutal death hit Berlin as hard as the first rages of winter. The classes at the university emptied and refused to reconvene despite the threats of Communist students’ Action Squads.
Hostile bands of students circled aimlessly looking for a voice as the pitch boiled to a