Happy Ant-Heap by Norman Lewis Read Free Book Online

end.’
    ‘What is your rank in your organisation?’
    ‘We do not speak of ranks. Only duties. I am a secretary.’
    ‘Tell me how you were recruited.’
    ‘That is simple. It was by accident. I was born in Gorlitz near the Polish border, where most people spoke some Polish. When the talk of war began there was a call for Polish speakers. We were told only that the matter was confidential, having some connection with the police. It was of interest to me because the pay at the bank was very low, and because successful candidates would not be subject to military call-up.’
    ‘So that was the Gestapo?’
    ‘It was not a name we ever used. I was officially listed a member of the Statistics Bureau of the Security Police. After a few weeks’ training I was sent to Poland.’
    ‘Tell me something about your activities there.’
    ‘Really it was no more exciting than the bank. It was office work as before, but I was sometimes employed to question Poles who were unable to speak German. With the end of the campaign I returned to records and statistics in Bremen. In the end I asked for an interview with the Chief Secretary and told him I was bored. He was sympathetic and said I could not be allowed to resign, but I might take six months’ leave to join the army, after which I would return to the office.’
    ‘So you got six months’ leave from the Gestapo merely for asking? I find it hard to believe.’
    ‘The Bureau was very flexible,’ Poldau said—I thought with a touch of pride. ‘I was encouraged by the Chief Secretary to take courses in army organisation and the Russian language,’ he went on. ‘After that my leave came through. I was under the minimum height for the Waffen SS, but the Chief organised things for me and I got in with the rank of Standartenführer, and was sent to the Eastern Front.’
    ‘When you were in action in Russia were you a member of an Einsatz Gruppe ?’
    ‘Of course,’ Poldau said. ‘All soldiers with my qualifications were automatically directed into such groups. Let me explain that their task was to ensure nothing could hold up the speed of our army’s advance. Large areas of enemy territory were surrounded by our pincer movements in a matter of days and many prisoners taken without a fight. Thus thousands of these were left behind. Our regular troops could not speak their language, and Einsatz groups took over.’
    ‘And many starved?’
    ‘They starved because an army moving at high speed can carry provisions only for its soldiers. In a single day we might take twenty thousand prisoners and be compelled to leave them behind. Camps had been designed to hold them, but they could not be made ready in time. When two hundred thousand prisoners were taken and brought to Stalag VIIIB, we found this to be no more than a square of ground with no buildings of any kind. This was inevitable, because the roads were blocked with snow.’
    ‘Were you at Salsk?’ I asked.
    ‘I was at Salsk, where not only the Russians but we ourselves came close to starving. It was ten days before food reached us, and then there was little of it. The Russians ate the bodies of their comrades who died from sickness or starvation. At first there were struggles over dividing up human meat, but then we permitted only doctors and butchers among the prisoners to do this, and order was restored.’
    The rifleman, eager to listen to such gory details, had come closer and I waved him back.
    ‘How many died in all?’
    ‘In Salsk there is no way of knowing, because in some cases only the bones were left.’
    ‘I mean in all the camps.’
    ‘Figures were never given. Five million? Ten million? Perhaps more. I could talk to Russians but never understand their mentality. In battle they laughed at death. When we attacked our orders were to kill all wounded Russians left lying on the ground, because otherwise they would drag themselves to their knees as soon as we had gone through and shoot us in the back.’
    I