Germanica by Robert Conroy Read Free Book Online Page B

it out. On many days, a middle-aged man would come to a nearby park that overlooked the Aare River that snaked through Bern. He would sit and smoke his pipe, apparently pontificating. Ernie sensed that the man was an American, doubtless a diplomat, although he might be from the Red Cross, which had its headquarters in Bern. It didn’t matter. Maybe the man could get him out of the boring hole that was Bern and back to the war.
    After having watched him for a while, Ernie realized that men and women would occasionally come up to the man, shake hands, and depart. Sometimes they would sit and talk softly. Ernie quickly realized that that some of them were surreptitiously giving him information and documents. Whoever the old guy was, he was likely a spy. Now he really had to meet the guy.
    Ernie walked across the park and sat by the man at the far end of the bench. He lit a cigarette and tried to look casual. The man had been reading a newspaper. He folded it and laid it down. “Good afternoon, Captain Janek. My name is Allen Dulles. How may I be of service to you?”

CHAPTER 3
    Whenever there was thunder and lightning, Lena would wonder if these were the sights and sounds of battles that would set her free. Always her hopes were dashed when nothing more than wind and rain pelted down. She swore that she would not feel sorry for herself. As her grandmother used to say, each day of life was a blessing. The fact that she was alive and not being brutalized in a factory or work camp was another blessing. The fact that she did not have to spread her legs for Gustav Schneider or take his manhood in her mouth was one more blessing. The fact that Gustav’s son Anton and his sister Astrid could still be controlled was another.
    Like servants or slaves everywhere, the Schneiders sometimes forgot she was present. Or that she could hear them easily if she simply moved to another room. They had loud raucous voices. Her grandmother would have considered them vulgar and Lena concurred.
    She had a lot of freedom. She often went shopping with Frau Schneider and carried her packages like a good and dutiful servant. This gave her an opportunity to see the world around her and gauge what was happening. She was heartened by the growing sense of despair in the faces of those Germans she saw. Wounded German soldiers, many missing limbs or with mutilated faces, sat on benches and stared vacantly at their terribly changed world. She could pity them as individuals, but not the regime they fought for. She felt the same with the growing columns of civilian refugees that were now streaming west. It pleased her to see the men, women, and children of the master race pushing handcarts with all their remaining possessions piled on them. She thought she could tell by the haunted faces of some of the women that they had suffered at the hands of the Soviets before escaping to Germany. Even though she had shared their fate, she felt no sympathy.
    The Schneiders had not had the yellow Star of David sewn on her clothing, another blessing. Apparently they and other authorities concurred that there was enough doubt about her Jewishness to permit that exception. Lena didn’t think the Schneiders liked being seen in the company of someone who was openly proclaimed to be a Jew.
    On occasion they would even send her alone on small errands. They were not concerned that she would run away. After all, where the devil would she go? They did make sure that she carried a permission slip from Herr Schneider in case she was stopped by the police or the Gestapo.
    Gustav Schneider was a district administrator and an enthusiastic member of the Nazi Party. He was not part of the Gestapo, but he did run a number of informants who fed him information about disloyal citizens. This was forwarded on and those who doubted Germany’s ultimate victory would be talked to. Or they would disappear.
    For all intents and purposes, Gustav Schneider’s word was law. He had served in World War I