Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [42]
“I say in all candor to you, Major O’Sullivan, that in the days that lie ahead you Americans will discover that we were not wrong about the Communists. They may be your allies now, but you shall learn hard lessons about them.
“In the beginning, Hitler gave us more than he had promised. We had our national pride returned and we were working again. None of the people in my class believed that we could not eventually bring Hitler under control. You know the rest of the story. The tyranny imposed upon the German people was absolute. We were strangled and unable to fight back ...”
Sean heard it all with fascination. Was the Versailles Treaty unfair? Could a Germany which plunged the world into its first bloody global war have expected less? And what about the rest of Europe, which starved and went without jobs and knew blood and sorrow because of German insanity.
And what about the Weimar Republic? Did the German people really want it to work? Did the General Staff and all the Von Romsteins give it a chance? Didn’t they fight it and club it to death?
“I am sorry for what happened at Schwabenwald,” Ludwig said softly. “And when the German people learn about these places they will be sorry too. We did not know.”
“What about London and Rotterdam and Warsaw?” Sean asked. “Are you sorry about these places too? Are you sorry about my brothers, Timothy and Liam O’Sullivan? Did you have tears for the human race you trampled on or did you begin to become sorry when you got your brains knocked out at Stalingrad? And as for knowing. You did not know because you did not want to know.”
Graf Ludwig Von Romstein arose. “I assume the interview is at an end?’’
“Yes.”
He turned to go, then stopped and said with a pleading voice, “What you saw at Schwabenwald could have happened to any people anywhere under the same conditions.”
“But it never has, Count, it never has.”
Chapter Nineteen
LUDWIG VON ROMSTEIN BETRAYED his noble breeding where many Germans did, at the table. His otherwise impeccable manners eroded to gluttony satisfied with rapid shovelings of his spoon, fork, knife, and fingers (between slurps and burps) and a final sucking and picking of the teeth. The nervous rebellion made him hungrier than usual.
Sigmund had been right. The American major was obsessed with the mission of destroying him. Moreover, O’Sullivan’s intelligence and his information and knowledge of Von Romstein history was startling. The interview had failed to be convincing.
From the moment he realized what was happening at Schwabenwald a year ago, he wove stories in his own mind to build arguments to prove he knew nothing about it. So did everyone else. He cursed the stupid Nazi louts. They had left everyone in a fine fix by failing to destroy the gas chambers and crematoriums. Clumsy dogs ... leaving those fields and trainloads of corpses strewn around. Even the latest batch of castrations in the “science center” were shot in bed.
Perhaps, Ludwig thought, I should have joined the plot on Hitler’s life last year. I should have covered myself with some sort of anti-Nazi gesture; smuggled a Jew to Switzerland or something. I had Jew slaves working on the farms. So, what then? I would have been strung up like everyone else involved in the bomb plot.
He convinced himself once more that he had stayed out of the intrigues against Hitler for the sake of preserving the family, but the whole Von Romstein family is tottering! Sigmund is ready to crack apart. He has been in a state of hysteria since the first air raids two years ago. What will happen when they really grill him? If only he had the good grace to put himself away as Kurt did.
Of his two sons, Johann had followed the baron’s steps as a flyer. Johann was dead ... shot down over the English Channel.
The other son, Felix, was a dull, minor bureaucrat in Berlin, without ability to carry on the Von Romstein tradition.
His thoughts turned to his daughter, Marla Frick. Marla was