“Consider it commandeered,” Cronley said. “Thanks.”
“There’s a caveat,” Frade said. “Everybody would include the eight gentlemen from BIS. I promised General Martín to give them a tour of DCI-Europe.”
“Which means you want me to let them into Kloster Grünau? What would El Jefe think about that?”
“Let me put it this way, Jimmy: When the executive assistant to the director of the DCI was in Argentina, the director of the BIS called him ‘Oscar’ and Schultz called General Martín ‘Bernardo.’”
“The director of DCI-Europe accepts your kind offer, Colonel Frade. How soon can we leave?”
“As soon as we get to Tempelhof.”
[ SEVEN ]
Kloster Grünau
Schollbrunn, Bavaria
American Zone of Occupation, Germany
1505 10 February 1946
CIC Supervisory Special Agent John D. “Jack” Hammersmith walked into one of the cells under what had been the monastery chapel.
Former SS-Brigadeführer Ulrich Heimstadter, naked under a blanket, was sitting on a wooden chair.
He looked up questioningly at Hammersmith.
“I would like to apologize for taking your clothing, Herr Heimstadter,” Hammersmith said. “The DCI doesn’t follow the procedures of the Counter Intelligence Corps when it comes to the treatment of prisoners. I’ll see what I can do about at least getting your underwear and your trousers back immediately. And I guarantee that when you’re placed in my custody for transfer to the Russians, you will be fully clothed.”
“Transfer to the Russians?” former SS-Brigadeführer Ulrich Heimstadter asked. “I thought that when I was . . . detained . . . I would be sent to Nuremberg. I want the chance to prove my innocence of the unfounded accusations made against me.”
“Well, what’s happened is that the Russians have put in a strong request to USFET that you be transferred to them.”
“Why are the Russians interested in me?”
“I’ve heard they want to ask you about Peenemünde and the rocket work that went on there. That was the reason General Bull said he had no objection to your being transferred, as we know all about Peenemünde.”
“What do you mean, you know all about it?”
“I don’t know why I’m even discussing this with you. But after how badly the DCI has treated you . . . I thought you would know that the scientists, from Dr. Wernher von Braun down, whom the Nazis had pressed into service at Peenemünde were so happy to be freed from what amounted to Nazi imprisonment that they not only told us everything we wanted to know, but volunteered to go to America to help us with our rocket program. Just about all of them are now in Huntsville, Alabama. You didn’t know this?”
“I would say, sir, that you have your facts wrong.”
“What facts?”
“Wernher von Braun was not a ‘Nazi prisoner,’ for one. He held the rank of sturmbannführer in the SS.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“And I can’t think of one senior scientist at Peenemünde who wasn’t a member of the Nazi Party.”
“Give me the name of one who was.”
“I can give you the names of just about everyone who was. I suggest, sir, that you have been taken in by dozens of ‘anti-Nazis’ who were in fact members of the Nazi Party.”
“Give them to me.”
“Not if you’re going to turn me over to the Russians.”