Frederick Forsyth - The Odessa File

He opened it himself and stood back when he recognized the visitor.

The new arrival closed the door behind him, snapped to attention, and flashed up his right arm, palm downward, in the old salute.

“Seig Heil,” said the man.

General Glucks gave the younger man an approving nod and raised his own right hand. “Sieg Heil,” he said more softly. He waved his visitor to a seat.

The man facing him was another German, a former officer of the SS and at that time the chief of the Odessa network inside West Germany. He felt very keenly the honor of being summoned to Madrid for a personal conference with a senior officer of such eminence, and suspected it had something to do with the death of President Kennedy thirty-six hours earlier. He was not wrong.

General Glucks poured himself and his visitor cups of coffee from the breakfast tray on the table beside him and carefully lit a large Corona.

“You have probably guessed the reason for this sudden and somewhat hazardous visit by me to Europe,” he said. “As I dislike remaining on this continent longer than necessary, I will get to the point and be brief.” The subordinate from Germany sat forward expectantly.

“Kennedy is now dead, for us a remarkable stroke of good fortune,” the general went on. “There must be no failure to extract the utmost advantage from this event. Do you follow me?”

“Certainly, in principle, General,” the younger man replied eagerly, “but in what specific form?”

“I am referring to the secret arms deal between the rabble of traitors in Bonn and the pigs in Tel Aviv. You know about the arms deal? The tanks, guns, and other weaponry even now flowing from Germany to Israel?”

“Yes, of course.”

“And you know also that our organization is doing everything in its power to assist the Egyptian cause so that it may one day prove completely victorious in the coming struggle?”

“Certainly. We have already organized the recruiting of numerous German scientists to that end.” General Glilcks nodded. “I’ll return to that later. What I was referring to was out policy of keeping our Arab friends as closely informed as possible about the details of this treacherous deal, so that they may make the strongest representations to Bonn through diplomatic channels. These Arab protests have led to the formation of a group in Germany strongly opposed to the arms deal on political grounds, because the deal upsets the Arabs. This group, mainly unwittingly, is playing our game for us, bringing pressure on the fool Erhard, even as high as cabinet level, to call off the arms deal.”

“Yes. I follow you, General.”

“Good. So far Erhard has not called off the arms shipments, but he has wavered several times. For those who wish to see the German-Israeli arms deal completed, the main argument to date has been that the deal is supported by Kennedy, and what Kennedy wants, Erhard gives him.”

“Yes. That’s true.”

“But Kennedy is now dead.”

The younger man from Germany sat back, his eyes alight with enthusiasm, as the new state of affairs opened up its perspectives to his mind. The SS general flicked an inch of ash from the cigar into the coffee cup and jabbed the glowing tip at his subordinate.

“For the rest of this year, therefore, the main plank of political action within Germany that our friends and supporters must undertake will be to whip up public opinion on as wide a scale as possible against this arms deal and in favor of Germany’s true and traditional friends, the Arabs.”

“Yes, yes, that can be done.”

The younger man was smiling broadly.

“Certain contacts we have in the government in Cairo will ensure a constant stream of diplomatic protests through their own and other embassies,” the general continued. “Other Arab friends will ensure demonstrations by Arab students and German friends of the Arabs. Your job will be to coordinate press publicity through the various pamphlets and magazines we secretly support, advertisements taken in major newspapers and magazines, lobbying of civil servants close to government and politicians who must be persuaded to join the growing weight of opinion against the arms deal.”

The younger man’s brow furrowed. “It’s very difficult to promote feelings against Israel in Germany today,” he murmured.

“There need be no question of that,” said the other tartly. “The angle is simple: for practical reasons Germany must not alienate eighty million Arabs with these foolish, supposedly secret arms shipments.

Many Germans will listen to that argument, particularly diplomats. Known friends of ours in the Foreign Office can be enlisted. Such a practical viewpoint is wholly permissible. Funds, of course, will be made available. The main thing is, with Kennedy dead and Johnson unlikely to adopt the same internationalist, pro-Jewish outlook, Erhard must be subjected to constant pressure at every level, including his own cabinet, to shelve this arms deal. If we can show the Egyptians that we have caused foreign policy in Bonn to change course, our stock in Cairo must inevitably rise sharply.” The man from Germany nodded several times, already seeing his plan of campaign taking shape before him. “It shall be done,” he said.

“Excellent,” replied General Glucks.

The man in front of him looked up. “General, you mentioned the German scientists now working in Egypt….

“Ah yes, I said I would return to them later. They represent the second prong in our plan to destroy the Jews once and for all. You know about the rockets of Helwan, of course?”

“Yes, sir. At least, the broad details.”

“But not what they are really for?”

“Well, I assumed, of course–’

“That they would be used to throw a few tons of high explosive onto Israel?” General Glucks smiled broadly. “You could not be more wrong.

However, I think the time is ripe to tell you why these rockets and the men who build them are in truth so vitally important.” General Glucks leaned back, gazed at the ceiling, and told his subordinate the real story behind the rockets of Helwan.

In the aftermath of the war, when King Farouk still ruled Egypt, thousands of Nazis and former members of the SS had fled from Europe and found a sure refuge along the sands of the Nile. Among those who came were a number of scientists. Even before the coup d’itat that dislodged Farouk, two German scientists had been charged by Farouk with the first studies for the eventual setting up of a factory to manufacture rockets.

This was in 1952, and the two professors were Paul Gbrke and Rolf Engel.

The project went into abeyance for a few years after Naguil and then Nasser took power, but after the military defeat of the Egyptian forces in the 1956 Sinai campaign, the new dictator of Egypt swore an oath. He vowed that one day Israel would be totally destroyed.

In 1961, when he got Moscow’s final “No” to his requests for heavy rockets, the Gbrke-Engel project for an Egyptian rocket factory was revitalized with a vengeance, and during this year, working against the clock and without rein on their expenditure of money, the German professors and the Egyptians built and opened Factory 333, at Helwan, north of Cairo.

To open a factory is one thing; to design and build rockets is another.

Long since, the senior supporters of Nasser, mostly with pro-Nazi backgrounds stretching back to the Second World War, had been in close contact with the Odessa representatives in Egypt. From these came the answer to the Egyptians’ main problem -that of acquiring the scientists necessary to make the rockets.

Neither Russia, America, Britain, nor France would supply a single man to help. But the Odessa pointed out that the kind of rockets Nasser needed were remarkably similar in size and range to the V-2 rockets that Werner von Braun and his team had once built at Peenemunde to pulverize London. And many of his former team were still available.