Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [238]
Hanna Kirchner summoned Adolph Schatz into her office in the Magistrat.
In the presence of the department heads of the Magistrat and the leaders of the Assembly she addressed the tormentor of Berlin.
“I accuse you of collaboration with the Soviet Union against the people of Berlin by police brutality, by the hiring of ex-Nazis, by the use of political terror through your so-called SND and for participation in the ‘workers’ Putsch.’
“Yesterday, you attempted to fire five hundred policemen because they are members of free parties. You will either answer these charges here and now satisfactorily or you are discharged as president of police.”
Adolph Schatz, a bully all of his life, blinked with disbelief at the little woman behind the big desk. He growled that all of them would regret it and stormed from the place beelining for Soviet Headquarters.
Trepovitch naturally denounced the Magistrat action as “illegal.”
At the same time People’s Radio ridiculed the move, Hans Kronbach entered RIAS. Adolph Schatz’s forte was political terror. He was neither a good organizer nor an efficient administrator. While his strong-armed squads ran rampant for three years, Hans Kronbach had constructed an excellent police force predominantly loyal to the Magistrat.
Hans Kronbach as the new police president issued an order for all police to report to the Western Sector. The next morning 90 per cent of the Berlin force crossed over to where Hans Kronbach established a new office.
Adolph Schatz had outlived his usefulness, but for the sake of saving Russian face he continued to run a police force in the Russian Sector. Berlin now had two police forces.
This was the first break within the city government but there were more to come as department after department underwent merciless harassment. The Germans, now finding safe haven, fled to the West.
The British returned to the people of Berlin their Victory Column commemorating the Bismarck Wars.
The United States redesigned the eagle at Tempelhof as an American eagle and set it atop the building.
Trepovitch said that this was all a return to militarism and in the same breath announced there would be no more midday meals for workers from the West in the Russian Sector.
At the Tempelhof elevated station, throngs gathered each day to watch the Gooney Birds take off and land.
Dozens of men were gathering in Wiesbaden from all over the world wearing the China/ Burma/ India Theater of War arm patches and waiting for the arrival of the boss, Major General Hiram Stonebraker.
Although the first load of coal had been dramatically flown into Berlin, the situation was desperate. The Gooney Birds were weary beyond weariness and so were the crews. Rain leaked into their cabins and there wasn’t so much as a spare windshield wiper left in Europe.
Chapter Nine
CLINT LAY ON THE BED with his back propped up sipping a martini and watching Judy dress. It was a repeat performance of a ten-year ritual that neither of them seemed to tire of. Judy had a rounded voluptuous body, soft without being fat. She always sat before the mirror putting on her face without a bra because she knew Clint liked to look at her. When she finally did slip into the bra, it was the signal for him to begin shaving and showering as the timing would work out for both of them to be dressed at the same time.
Clint reached to the nightstand, grasped the martini pitcher, swirled it, drained out another half glass.
“Who are we?” he intoned abstractedly.
“Sweet people on the high road to becoming sweet rich people.”
“We are perverters of the American dream. We prostitute for the worthless products of a flabby society.”
“That nasty old man must have upset you, lover. You haven’t been yourself all week.”
“That nasty old man is Hiram Stonebraker, humanitarian. He handed me a mirror and said, look at you,