The Honor of Spies

On two of the four nights he had been in the apartment--the first night, he had simply collapsed and slept until von Gradny-Sawz showed up with Dr. Muller the next morning--something occurred that hadn't happened to him in years: On both nights, following an incredibly realistic erotic dream, he awakened to find he had had an involuntary ejaculation.

His first reaction--annoyance and chagrin--was quickly replaced by what he perceived to be the reason. It was clearly a combination of his condition--whatever gottverdammt bug he had caught on the gottverdammt U-405--and Dr. Muller's herbal medications to treat it.

And then his mind filled with both the details of the erotic dreams and the facts and memories on which the dreams were obviously based, and he allowed himself to wallow in them.

His carnal partner in the dreams had been Frau Ingeborg von Tresmarck, a tall slim blonde who was perhaps fifteen years younger than her husband--Sturmbannfuhrer Werner von Tresmarck--who was the security officer of the Embassy of the German Reich in Montevideo, Uruguay.

One of the things von Deitzberg thought he would probably have to do while in South America was eliminate Werner von Tresmarck, and possibly Inge as well, as painful as that might be for him in her case.

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."