W. IV - Honor Bound 05 - The Honor of Spies

When the lucrative business of allowing Jews--primarily American Jews, but also some Canadian, English, and even some South American--to secure the release of their relatives by buying them out of the Konzentrationslagern to which they had been sent en route to the ovens--one of the problems had been to find someone to handle things in South America.

In August 1941, shortly after Adolf Hitler had personally promoted Reinhardt Heydrich--Himmler's Number Two and the Reich Protector of Bohemia-Moravia, as the former Czechoslovakia was now known--to SS-OBERGRUPPENFUHRER and von Deitzberg--newly appointed first deputy adjutant to Reichsfuhrer-SS Himmler--to obersturmbannfuhrer, von Deitzberg had confided to Heydrich that, although the promotion was satisfying for a number of reasons, it was most satisfying because he really needed the money.

Two days later, Heydrich handed him an envelope containing a great deal of cash.

"You told me a while ago you were having a little trouble keeping your financial head above water," Heydrich said. "A lot of us have that problem. We work hard, right? We should play hard, right? And to do that, you need the wherewithal, right?"

"Yes, sir," von Deitzberg said.

"Consider this a confidential allowance," Heydrich said. "Spend it as you need to. It doesn't have to be accounted for. It comes from a confidential special fund."

And a week after that, Heydrich told him the source of the money in the confidential special fund.

"Has the real purpose of the concentration camps ever occurred to you, Manfred?" Heydrich asked.

"You're talking about the Final Solution?"

"In a sense. The Fuhrer correctly believes that the Jews are a cancer on Germany, and that we have to remove that cancer. You understand that, of course?"

"Of course."

"The important thing is to take them out of German society. In some instances, we can make them contribute to Germany with their labor. You remember what it says over the gate at Dachau?"

" 'Work will make you free'?"

"Yes. But if the parasites can't work, can't be forced to make some repayment for all they have stolen from Germany over the years, then something else has to be done with them. Right?"

"I understand."

"Elimination is one option," Heydrich said. "But if you realize the basic objective is to get these parasites out of Germany, elimination is not the only option."

"I don't think I quite understand," von Deitzberg had confessed.

"There are Jews outside of Germany who are willing to pay generously to have their relatives and friends taken from the concentration camps."

"Really?"

"For one thing, it accomplishes the Fuhrer's primary purpose--removing these parasitic vermin from the Fatherland. It does National Socialism no harm if vermin that cost us good money to feed and house leave Germany and never return."

"I can see your point."

"And at the same time, it takes money from Jews outside Germany and transfers it to Germany. So there is also an element of justice. They are not getting away free after sucking our blood all these years."

"I understand."

"In other words, if we can further the Fuhrer's intention to get Jews out of Germany and at the same time bring Jewish money into Germany while we make a little money for ourselves, what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing that I can see."

"This has to be done in absolute secrecy, of course. A number of people would not understand; and an even larger number would feel they have a right to share in the confidential special fund. You can understand that."

"Yes, of course."

"Raschner will get into the details with you," Heydrich went on. "You know him, of course?"

"I know who he is, Herr Gruppenfuhrer."

Von Deitzberg knew that Sturmbannfuhrer Erich Raschner was one of the half-dozen SS officers--many of them Sicherheitsdienst--who could be found around Heydrich, but he didn't know him personally, or what his specific duties were.

"He's not of our class--he used to be a policeman, before he joined the Totenkopfverbande--but he's very useful. I'm going to assign him to you. But to get back to what I was saying, this is the way this works, essentially:

"As you know, the Jews are routinely transferred between concentration camps. While they are en route from one camp to another, members of the Totenkopfverbande working for Raschner remove two, three, or four of them from the transport. Ostensibly for purposes of further interrogation and the like. You understand."

Von Deitzberg nodded.

Heydrich went on: "Having been told the inmates have been removed by the Totenkopfverbande, the receiving camp has no further interest in them. The inmates who have been removed from the transport are then provided with Spanish passports and taken by Raschner's men to the Spanish border. Once in Spain, the Jews make their way to Cadiz or some other port, where they board neutral ships. A month later, they're in Uruguay."

"Uruguay?" von Deitzberg blurted in surprise. It had taken him a moment to place Uruguay; and even then, all he could come up with was that it was close to Argentina, somewhere in the south of the South American continent.

"Some stay there," Heydrich said matter-of-factly, "but many go on to Argentina."

"I see," von Deitzberg said.

"Documents issued by my office are of course never questioned," Heydrich went on. "Now, what I want you to do, Manfred, is take over the administration of the confidential special fund--I should say 'supervise the administration' of it. The actual work will continue to be done by Raschner and his men. Raschner will explain the details to you. You will also administer dispersals; Raschner will tell you how much, to whom, and when. Or I will."

"Jawohl, Herr Gruppenfuhrer."

"Raschner has suggested that we need one more absolutely reliable SS officer, someone of our kind, as sort of a backup for you. Any suggestions?"

Von Deitzberg had hardly hesitated: "Goltz," he said, "Standartenfuhrer Josef Goltz. He's the SS-SD liaison officer to the Office of the Party Chancellery."

Heydrich laughed.

"Great minds run in similar channels," he said. "That's the answer I got when I asked Raschner for his suggestion. Why don't the two of you talk to him together?"

On their third meeting Raschner had another suggestion to offer. They needed an absolutely trustworthy man--someone with sufficient rank to keep people from asking questions about what he was doing--to handle things in Uruguay. And someone who could be sent there without too many questions being asked.

"Does the Herr Obersturmbannfuhrer know Sturmbannfuhrer Werner von Tresmarck?"

Von Deitzberg did know von Tresmarck, didn't think highly of him, and told Raschner so.

"He does follow orders, and he would be absolutely trustworthy," Raschner argued.

"Absolutely trustworthy? What do you know about him that I don't, Raschner?"

Raschner had laid an envelope filled with photographs on the desk. They showed Werner von Tresmarck in the buff entwined with at least ten similarly unclad young men.

"Because the alternative would be going to Sachsenhausen wearing a pink triangle on his new striped uniform," Raschner explained unnecessarily.

When von Deitzberg went to Heydrich with the idea, he thought the probable outcome would be von Tresmarck's immediate arrest and transport to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Homosexuality was one of the worst violations of the SS officer's code of honor, topped only by treason.

Heydrich surprised him.

"I can see a certain logic to this, Manfred," Heydrich had said. "Von Tresmarck would certainly be motivated to do what he was told and to keep his mouth shut about it, don't you think?"

"That's true, Herr Gruppenfuhrer."

"Tell you what, Manfred. See if Raschner can come up with a female in similar circumstances we can marry him to. Make the point to her that if she can't make sure that von Tresmarck keeps his indiscretions in Uruguay behind closed doors, both of them will wind up in Sachsenhausen."