Michael Dobbs - Saboteurs

Even so, the government still had doubts about the loyalty of the German-American population in Chicago and elsewhere. A secret survey commissioned by the White House estimated that one in ten German-born Americans (as opposed to Americans of German origin) was disloyal to the United States. By this calculation, the saboteurs had some thirty thousand potential accomplices. The report also noted that the Bund had some twenty thousand members, that uniformed storm troopers had marched through the streets of large American cities, and that many German-American publications had become “vigorous advocates of Fascism.” 14In addition to outright Nazi sympathizers, there was another sizable group of German-Americans who could be classified as “opportunists ready to leap on the Hitler bandwagon… if it appears that the Axis is going to win the war.”

As a community, the German-Americans were treated more kindly than Japanese-Americans, who were already being rounded up and sent to internment camps. They also fared better than in World War I, when jingoistic politicians demanded “100 percent Americanism” and German immigrants suffered from job discrimination and beatings. The anti-German sentiment was particularly strong in cities like Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati that had a large German minority. By the end of the war, hundreds of German newspapers and periodicals had been banned and many states had passed legislation restricting German-language education and even the use of German books in school libraries. A campaign to rid the American language of German words resulted in sauerkraut becoming “liberty cabbage” and frankfurters being turned into “hot dogs.”

While there was no comparable wave of anti-German hysteria in America in World War II, German-Americans were feeling an ever increasing burden of suspicion and mistrust by the spring of 1942. The newspapers were full of reports of Bund offices being closed down and leaders of German-American organizations being hauled in for questioning. “Chicago Bund Chief Admits Spy Charges,” declared the front-page headline in the Tribune on the morning of Saturday, June 20.

Haupt’s parents were typical of the group labeled “opportunists” by the government, but who nonetheless thought of themselves as decent Americans. Their ties with Germany were more cultural than political. A soldier in the German army during World War I, Hans Haupt started a grocery business in Stettin in 1921, but had to close it during the left-wing political upheavals that wracked the country soon afterward. Unable to find work in Germany, he came to the United States in 1923, and worked as a bricklayer and contractor, becoming an American citizen in 1930. A passionate amateur singer, he belonged to various German music groups and cultural organizations in Chicago, and was also a member of the German war veterans association. He never joined the Bund.

When Herbie reappeared in their lives after a year’s absence, Hans and Erna were caught between conflicting loyalties. They wanted to help their son, but they also worried he was up to no good. The elder Haupts tried to resolve this conflict of loyalties by insisting that Herbie register for the draft and report to the FBI first thing Monday morning to clear up questions about his status. If he refused to go to the FBI, Hans told his son, he would not be able to stay in their home.

“Don’t you like me any more, Father?” 15

“Yes, Herbert, I like you, but do me this favor and do what I told you.”

AFTER GETTING up late on Saturday morning, Herbie spent the rest of the day lounging around the house. In the evening, he decided he wanted to see the parents of Wolfgang Wergin, the friend who had accompanied him on his round-the-world adventures. Back in February, Herbie had suggested Wolfgang to Kappe as a possible recruit for Operation Pastorius. Wolfgang had gone to Berlin for an interview with Kappe, but showed no interest in a scheme he considered “idiotic.” He had seen the FBI’s successes in dealing with gangsters in Chicago in the thirties and was “in awe” of Hoover’s G-men. He thought that Herbie was likely to meet the same fate as John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson. Wolfgang tried to talk his friend out of joining the sabotage mission, but Herbie said he could not take Germany anymore. There was nothing to eat and nothing to buy in the shops. Besides, he added confidently, he would not get caught.

Previously, Wolfgang had always looked up to Herbie, his senior by two years. Herbie had always been the leader, Wolfgang the follower. But during their final meeting, at the home of Herbie’s grandmother near Stettin, their roles switched and Wolfgang found himself trying to comfort his friend. Six decades later, he would still have a vivid memory of that emotional night. “All of a sudden, he was the younger one, and I was the older one. Something overcame him, and he started crying. We were in the kitchen, and we were staying up late after everybody else had gone to bed. We didn’t go to bed, we just kept talking. He was terribly homesick.” 16Before saying goodbye, Wolfgang had asked Herbie to deliver a message to his parents.

Now Herbie was back in Chicago, while his friend was headed for the Russian front, the graveyard of millions of young Germans. Knowing that the Wergins would be upset when they discovered that he had returned home without Wolfgang, Herbie asked his mother to find a pretext for calling on them after dinner.

All three Haupts showed up at the Wergins’ around midnight. Wolfgang’s father, Otto, was out late, playing in a band at Haus Vaterland, a German-American social center. As he expected, Kate Wergin was “very much upset” that Wolfgang was still missing. Along with the message from her son—which amounted to little more than “I’m fine, I love you”— Herbie gave Mrs. Wergin a fifty-dollar bill from his money belt. He told her it was a present from Wolfgang. Considering the size of the gift and the fact that it was in dollars, which Wolfgang had no means of acquiring in Germany, this was an implausible story, but she accepted it gratefully: “It’s the first time I have ever seen such a large bill.” 17

When Otto Wergin finally returned home, around three in the morning, Herbie gave him an excited account of his adventures with Wolfgang in Mexico and Japan. He described how he had been awarded the Iron Cross after he and Wolfgang succeeded in running a British naval blockade in a German freighter. “Did Wolfgang get the medal too?” Wergin senior wanted to know. Herbie confirmed that he had.

As the Haupts were leaving the Wergins’, Herbie remembered he had to be at his uncle’s house on Sunday morning, in order to receive a telephone call from Neubauer, who would soon be arriving in Chicago. His parents dropped him off at the Froehlings’ as dawn was breaking.

HERBIE HAUPT spent the remainder of the night sharing a couch with a male cousin of the Froehlings who was visiting from Minneapolis. At eleven, he received a call from a very nervous Hermann Neubauer, who had just arrived in Chicago, and was staying at the LaSalle Hotel. They agreed to meet at 1:30 p.m. outside the Chicago Theater, one of the city’s best-known landmarks.

At the theater, Haupt suggested they see a newly released movie, The Invaders, recommended by his aunt Lucille because of its uncanny similarity to his own adventures. It was showing a few blocks away at McVickers, another of the city’s great Jazz Age auditoriums. Starring Laurence Olivier and Leslie Howard, the movie was about six German submarine men who are stranded in Canada after their ship is destroyed by the Canadian air force. 18

If Haupt and Neubauer were hoping for a piece of upbeat escapism, or clues about how they could merge into American society, they were disappointed. For the next ninety minutes, they sat through a morality tale of good against evil, democracy against dictatorship, good Germans against bad Germans, in which the “invaders” were all killed, exposed, or defeated.