The Amber Room_ The Fate of the World's Greatest Lost Treasure - Cathy Scott-Clark [144]
George Stein and his son had obviously been planning to take the controversial American theory to Moscow, where it would be broadcast to maximum effect. The Baron seemed to be keeping his distance.
'Files of the Criminal Investigation Department, Ingolstadt.' Extract from Professor Gotze's case notes, E6 June 1987:
Mr George Stein has been treated in our ward between 23 April and 16 June 1987 after being treated in the Chirurgical Dept. 5 for an abdominal cut... during the operation we carried out a partial resection of the colon, which was followed by intensive medical care. We succeeded in stabilizing the patient's post-operative condition in such a way that after a few days we were able to recommend his transfer to a ward... Mr Stein left our ward on 15 June, with the intention of travelling to Switzerland.
When Stein was hospitalized, one week after his Amber Room documentary was broadcast, he had suffered a serious abdominal injury. But there was no explanation of the circumstances in which Stein was stabbed and we cannot understand why Stein made no mention of it in the letter to the Baron. Maybe the men who drugged and tortured him in 19 8 2 had returned to finish the job. Stein's fears might have been genuine after all.
'Files of the Criminal Investigation Department, Ingolstadt.' Extract from a report by Dr Benno Splieth, Clinical Assistant, District Hospital, Starnberg, Bavaria. Another medical report, this one originating from southern Germany, was written twelve days after Stein was discharged from a hospital in northern Germany.
29 June 1987... We report about the patient who was found yesterday in Starnberg woods with abdominal trauma and brought to our clinic by the emergency doctor. The exploratory laparotomy revealed a 5-10 cm long diagonal gaping wound in the middle of the upper abdomen with an opening into the peritoneum, which was contaminated with grass... two damaged veins in the vicinity of the transverse colonic-mesenterium were noted, from which the patient had lost an estimated two litres of blood.
Only two months after the unexplained stabbing incident in Hamburg, George Stein was seriously injured again. Stein appeared to have been pursued across Germany. We calculate that this second incident must have happened shortly after Stein visited the Baron in Vaduz. The Baron had told us that he had put Stein on a train to Munich when he turned him out of villa, Askania Nova, at the end of June 1987. But why had the Baron not mentioned to us that Stein had been stabbed, once before arriving in Liechtenstein and again, shortly after he left?
'Krieskrankenhaus Starnberg am See, Bavaria.' A letter from George Stein. '7 July 1987, Dear Baron, I have now been here one week. Berlin had to be cancelled. Dr Enke could not get a visa for me. I will be here for another six days. Where am I going to then?... Couldn't cash the cheque. Regards, G. Stein.' We cannot understand why none of Stein's correspondence mentions the fact that he was stabbed twice and nearly died. Instead, he was preoccupied with his failure to get a visa from Paul Enke, whose real identity he had learned at last.
'Krieskrankenhaus Starnberg am See, Bavaria.' Another letter from George Stein, whose hospital stay was much longer than he had predicted:
13 August 1987, Dear and honoured Baron! After six weeks here at the clinic I will move at the weekend; my surgeon has a weekend house, so for a start I can shelter there temporarily. I cannot go home because my children have sold everything... I am left without a