“And the purpose of this?”
“You told me, Herr Reichsprotektor, that you always felt you could judge far more about an individual from studying his face than by what came out of his mouth.”
Himmler looked
at him and smiled. “It’s true, Karl.”
“I believe it is, Sir.”
“So you had a movie made? And what did you tell von Tresmarck and the others was the purpose? That I wanted to study their faces?”
“They don’t think I had anything to do with it,” Cranz said. “And neither did the photographers. It’s not very long, Sir. May I suggest you have a look at it?”
“Canaris and the others will be here at four. We have to talk before then. One of the other things I believe, Karl, is that one should go to a meeting as well prepared as possible.”
“And I have found that to be true, too, Herr Reichsprotektor.”
“As you have learned that imitation—the most sincere form of flattery—goes a long way with Heinrich Himmler?”
“I wouldn’t quite put it that way, Herr Reichsprotektor.”
Himmler reached for his telephone. “I will require a projectionist immediately,” he announced, and hung up.
The projectionist, a handsome young blond Stabsscharführer, came into Himmler’s private projection room from the corridor as Himmler and Cranz entered from Himmler’s office. He gave a stiff-armed salute with his right hand and held out his left hand for the can of film.
“As soon as you can find time, Karl, there is film of that disgusting business in the Warsaw ghetto you will probably find interesting,” Himmler said.
The private projection room was a small theater. There were two rows of chairs. In the front row were three comfortable leather armchairs, each with a table beside it holding a lamp, a telephone, a pad of paper, and a glass containing six freshly sharpened pencils.
Himmler waved Cranz into one of the chairs and raised his voice slightly. “Whenever you are ready, Stabsscharführer.”
A moment later, the room went dark and the film began to play.
The first shot showed two tracked vehicles, normally used to tow heavy artillery, but now towing trailers, moving between two lines of uniformed men, black-uniformed Waffen-SS on one side of the road and gray-uniformed soldiers on the other. They stood with their rifle butts between their feet, their helmeted heads bowed in respect. Officers with drawn swords stood in front of the ranks of soldiers.
A casket covered with a Nazi flag was on each trailer.
The officers raised their swords in salute as each casket passed.
The next shot showed the mourners and dignitaries following the caskets, headed by General Galland.
“Major von Wachtstein is the fellow walking with Hauptmann Grüner, the two young Luftwaffe officers,” Cranz said. “Behind them, the chubby fellow is Gradny-Sawz, and the SS officer is Sturmbannführer Werner von Tresmarck, our man in Uruguay.”
“I know the Austrian and von Tresmarck,” Himmler said.
The next shot showed the procession moving through the gates of the cemetery. There were close-ups of von Wachtstein, Grüner, von Tresmarck, and Gradny-Sawz. Next came a shot of the Horst Wessel Monument, with the camera moving down it to reveal the caskets, now poised above the empty graves. The mourners and dignitaries were lined up at the head of the grave.
Two clergymen appeared, one in Army uniform, the other in the vestments of a Catholic priest. Though there was no sound track, it was obvious that both were performing funeral rites.
They were followed by two officers, first an Army generalmajor and then a Waffen-SS SS-Brigadeführer. They each delivered a brief eulogy, followed by the rendering of the Nazi salute.
There were more close-ups of the faces of von Wachtstein, Grüner, von Tresmarck, and Gradny-Sawz.
The next shot was of a small battery of 57-mm antitank cannon, which fired a salute. Then came a shot of the troops and the mourners—with the camera lingering a moment on each of their faces—and the dignitaries rendering the Nazi salute as the flags were removed from the caskets, and the caskets being lowered into the ground.
This dissolved into a shot of Adolf Hitler, wearing his Iron Cross First Class, rendering the Nazi salute, and then the screen went white.
“Interesting,” Himmler said, and then raised his voice slightly. “I’d like to see it again, Stabsscharführer. I am particularly interested in the faces of the mourners. Can you stop the film, or run it slowly, when those appear?”