Michael Dobbs - Saboteurs

After a pause for laughter, Cramer proceeded to argue that death sentences for all the defendants were the best way of deterring future groups of saboteurs. The defense case rested on the assumption that Walter Kappe, the mastermind of the sabotage operation, was so stupid that he selected only incompetent “morons” to take part in Operation Pastorius. But Kappe was “not the dumbbell that these men would have you believe.” On the contrary, the former Bund chief was “smart” and “knew his men.”

Cramer hinted that “one or two of the defendants,” presumably Dasch and Burger, might benefit from presidential clemency. But this was not a matter for the tribunal to decide, as it had no way of knowing how much assistance each man had given to the FBI. The only question for the military commission was whether the defendants were guilty.

At 2:25 p.m., McCoy declared the trial over. The verdict would be sealed and sent to the president.

GEORGE DASCH was a very bitter man. He considered the charges against him “crazy” and the concluding remarks of Cramer “grossly unjust.” 24The tribunal, he would later write, was “not my idea of an honest American trial.” But what upset him most was his treatment by the FBI. He thought he would be hailed as a hero for betraying Operation Pastorius; instead he was shunned and ignored.

As Dasch was escorted out of room 5235 for the Saturday lunchtime recess, he turned to an FBI agent and asked whether Director Hoover would be back. The agent refused to provide any information. As the agent later reported to Hoover, Dasch “stated before the guards took him away that he had risked his life to give a full story to the Director and had been here for over a month and the Director had not even spoken to him and he wanted to tell the Director thank you. He was most sarcastic.” 25

Melodramatically, Dasch told his defense counsel that he wanted to be taken out and shot if found guilty.

Most of the other saboteurs reserved their anger for Dasch rather than the FBI. It was against regulations for the prisoners to communicate with the outside world during the trial; they were not even meant to have access to writing materials while in prison. They were, however, permitted to make notes during the trial, and some used the opportunity to write hastily scribbled letters to friends and family, accusing Dasch of betrayal.

“Dasch and Burger… told everything,” Kerling complained in a note written on the final day of the trial. 26“All other six men stood up well but could not deny anything in face of statements of traitors.” Kerling persuaded one of the guards to mail the letter to his best friend in Germany after the war was over, but it was intercepted by the FBI. Although Kerling said he had been “treated very good” by his captors, he had no illusion about what would happen to him. “Am waiting for the sentence of court, which propably [ sic ] is death… Have done my duty and given my life for our country.”

Heinrich Heinck wrote his wife Anna and eight-month-old son Harm back in Germany that as a result of the treachery of Dasch and Burger, “it was a small matter for the FBI—American Gestapo—to arrest us.” Unlike Kerling, Heinck still felt “some hope,” even though he was prepared for the worst. “Dear Anna, you are the only one who must suffer, and Harm, who will probably miss his Papa very much. Should I be executed or given life imprisonment, darling, I would not expect you to remain faithful to me. It would probably be better if Harm had another Papa. I leave that to you.” 27“Please don’t judge me too hard,” Herbie Haupt told his parents in a penciled note. 28“While I was in Germany I worried night and day wondering how you were getting along… I tried to get work in Germany but I could not, and when they told me that they had chosen me to go back to the United States you don’t know how happy I was. I counted the days and hours until I could see you again and probably help you… Dear Mother, I never had any bad intentions. I did not know what a grave offense it is to come here the way I did in wartime. They are treating me very well here, as good as can be expected.

“Dear Mother and Father, whatever happens to me, always remember that I love you more than anything in the world. May God protect you, my loved ones, until we see each other again, wherever that may be. Love, your son, Herbie.”

ROYALL AND DOWELL had done everything they could for their clients under the Articles of War, fighting all the way to the Supreme Court. The only recourse left was to appeal directly to the president.

They drafted two more appeals. The first was on technical grounds, requesting an independent review of the military commission proceedings, as stipulated by the Articles of War. They reminded Roosevelt that the Supreme Court had yet to issue its final opinion. It was quite possible that the Court would agree with the defense that a review was mandatory. If the president refused a review, the prisoners would have a legal basis for challenging the validity of the commission proceedings.

Their second appeal was on the grounds of the practical conduct of the war. Royall and Dowell noted that Nazi Germany had not imposed “the extreme penalty” on Englishmen captured in similar circumstances behind German lines. Writing on behalf of the defendants, they told the president that ordering capital punishment in the present case would be “unfair,” as well as against the interests of American soldiers and sailors, “many of whom will doubtless engage in similar missions, in civilian clothes or disguise, in German territory during the war.”

Both lawyers had attracted public criticism for their vigorous defense of their unpopular clients. Royall, in particular, came under harsh attack. An editorial in the Charlotte News, in his home state of North Carolina, described him as a “braying ass,” and suggested he be put on trial himself. A California woman sent him a dime so that one of his clients could buy a cigar to celebrate his “mockery” of the United States. 29

At the same time, the defense team also won plaudits from some unlikely quarters. While the trial was still going on, FDR’s secretary, Marvin McIntyre, remarked to Hoover that the defense lawyers were showing “a lot of courage.” 30Soon after the Supreme Court hearing, Royall received a letter from his old Harvard law professor, Justice Frankfurter, congratulating him on the “admirable manner in which you discharged the difficult and uncongenial task entrusted to you by the Commander-in-Chief.” “You were in the service of both War and Law,” Frankfurter wrote, “and you served both with distinguished fidelity.” 31Justice Jackson praised Royall for demonstrating that “the right to counsel in our democracy is neither a fiction nor a formality.”

But the most gratifying compliment to Royall and Dowell came from the men they defended. After the Supreme Court hearing, Kerling drafted a statement thanking the defense lawyers for their efforts. “We have been given a fair trial,” he wrote. 32“Before all we want to state that the defense council… has represented our case as American officers unbiased, better than we could expect and propably risking the indignation of public opinion.” He affixed a note stipulating that the statement “may not be used by Dasch and Burger!!!”

The final statement bore the signatures of Edward Kerling, Herbert Haupt, Werner Thiel, Hermann Neubauer, Richard Quirin, and Heinrich Heinck.

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT spent the weekend at Hyde Park. Before leaving Washington, he had served as best man as his friend and confidant Harry Hopkins married Louise Macy in the first wedding ceremony to be held at the White House in twenty-five years. The next day, he was “not surprised” to hear that the Supreme Court had ruled against habeas corpus for the saboteurs. He told his aide William Hassett he hoped the military commission would recommend death by hanging.