Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [195]
“That’s just the point,” Sean said. “You’re not our people. Will you familiarize yourself with the evidence against Hollweg or not?”
“Very well,” he said in defeat. “When is the lynching to take place?”
“When the moment is correct for a coup, not before, not after.”
Their heated words had gotten beyond the room. Ernestine stared angrily at Sean. He looked from one to the other and said a terse good night.
Chapter Twenty-seven
IN THE KOMMANDATURA THE chess game went on. Neal Hazzard became quite a player.... He made a move to break the Communist control of the Labor Front.
At first, Falkenstein and the Democrats supported the idea of a single organization, feeling that the lack of labor unity in Berlin weakened their position in fighting Hitlerism. They were soon to learn that the Labor Front was designed and staffed with Moscow-trained Germans who dominated the locals as well as the executive offices.
Hazzard dropped his bomb when RIAS announced that a new union had been authorized in the American Sector.
“Illegal!” Trepovitch bellowed. “The rules clearly state that the Labor Front is the only legal organization to be recognized! You have imported American labor thugs, hirelings, and goon squads to terrorize the workers into reactionary lines and rob them of their freedom.”
“Would you care to comment?” T. E. Blatty said when Trepovitch finished. “I do believe you have something to explain, Colonel Hazzard.”
“The Constitution governing the Labor Front as passed by this Kommandatura calls for elections of the executive every year,” Hazzard answered. “As of now elections are eight months, two weeks, four days, and six hours overdue because of General Trepovitch’s delaying tactics. Now, either we’re going to have an election or the new union which I have authorized will begin functioning. It’s up to you, General.”
Faced with the reality of losing their grip over labor, Trepovitch returned to the Kommandatura with an elaborate scheme. He would agree to an election of the executive if the West agreed to retain the present executive and merely expand it by the election. A quick check of mathematics told Neal Hazzard that if non-Communist candidates won every post in such a plot, the Communists would still have a numerical superiority.
The plan was bluntly rejected. It was so transparent that T. E. Blatty and Jacques Belfort announced that they, too, would recognize the new union in the American Sector. Trepovitch had to agree to an election.
It was the city elections of 1946 all over again, beginning with a Communist fanfare ... that all workers in the Russian Sector would henceforth receive a free, hot meal at midday.
On the day of the elections, Western officials were bluntly barred from the polling stations in the Russian Sector, which issued two colored ballots. The result, nevertheless, was another monumental defeat for the Communists.
Following the same pattern they used after the other elections, the Russians delayed the seating of the new executive. All non-Communists were bullied from taking office because of “investigations” of their suspected Nazi backgrounds.
There was more than one way to win an election. The West stood by as the abuses against the winning candidates became an open scandal.
At last Neal Hazzard announced that the new union was authorized to begin operation. As the workers in the Western Sector flocked to it, the Communist stranglehold was broken.
The American action was not long in being countered. The Russians did so with a display of raw terror never seen before in the occupation.
On a single night the SND along with the NKVD rounded up four hundred German technicians living in the Russian Sector, herded them aboard a train, locked them in, and shipped them to the Soviet Union.
When T. E. Blatty hurled the