The Holocaust Diaries: Book V: The Innocence of the Just

By Leo V. Kanawada, Jr.

Book Five

THE INNOCENCE OF THE JUST

The Holocaust in Hungary and Slovakia during World

War II

In 1944, Hitler refuses to abandon his plans to deport the last remaining, huge concentration of Jews in Europe. Over one million Jews live relatively untouched in Hungary. He calls for the renovation and enlargement of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. It's only at this time that Roosevelt and the rest of the world learn the truth about Auschwitz and the extermination camps of Poland. To bomb the camps then becomes a grave issue.

Discovering also from these covert reports that Heinrich Himmler, Hitlers second-in-command and head of the SS, is willing to secretly negotiate with Roosevelt to end the war, Roosevelt sees the opportunity to preserve even more of the Jews in Europe. He decides to use them as his bargaining chip and sole condition for opening negotiations with Himmler.

In the meantime, under the guise of needing a hundred thousand able-bodied Hungarian laborers and their families for the war effort back in Germany, Hitler hoodwinks the elderly Regent of Hungary, Miklos Horthy, and overseas a swift occupation of Hungary in March of 1944 by his Wehrmacht. Over four hundred thousand Jews are deported to Auschwitz in less than two months time by Adolf Eichmann's SS and the newly-installed, pro-Nazi and pro-German quisling Hungarian government and its thousands of rightist police. When Horthy learns the truth about Auschwitz and receives pressure from Roosevelt and the Vatican, he re-exerts his authority and halts the deportations.

After an assassination attempt on Hitler in July of 1944, Himmler is encouraged by his associates to also exert his authority and approach Roosevelt's representatives in Switzerland to initiate serious negotiations to bring about a separate peace and an end to the persecution of the Jews.

; Leo V. Kanawada, Jr.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 18, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452057866

Leo V. Kanawada, Jr.

Dr. Leo V. Kanawada, Jr. was born in 1941 in Flushing, Long Island, New York, and educated at Bucknell University, where he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Secondary Education. His Masters of Arts Degree in American History was awarded by The Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and his Ph.D. in History by St. John's University, Jamaica, New York. After serving as a decorated captain of Infantry, United States Army, with the Second Infantry Division in 1966 in South Korea and in the Vietnam War in 1967 with the 71st Assault Helicopter Company and as a platoon leader with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division, Kanawada returned to his hometown and taught in the Hicksville Public Schools for thirty years. In the Department of History at Hicksville High School, he created and taught a Humanities Honors Program for the Gifted and Talented and was later honored and inducted into the Hicksville Hall of Fame. He was also cited in Who's Who in New York, in Who's Who Among America's Teachers, and in the Directory of American Scholars. His first book, authored in 1982, was a scholarly work on the presidency and American foreign policy entitled FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S DIPLOMACY and American Catholics, Italians, and Jews (UMI Research Press/Pro Quest). And later as an elder and president of his Church, he published SOMETHING WORTHWHILE: The Life and Times of The Parkway Community Church, 1628-1981 (Exposition Press). The five volumes in THE HOLOCAUST DIARIES (AuthorHouse) were a labor of love, realized after more than a decade of research, writing, and devotion. Lee Kanawada lives with his wife, Carol, in Long Island, New York.

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Table of Contents

PROLOGUE

JANUARY 15, 1944

PART ONE

AUSCHWITZ PREPARED FOR HUNGARIAN SALAMI

1

DECEMBER 10, 1943

WASHINGTON, D.C.

2

DECEMBER 14, 1943

ROME, ITALY

3

DECEMBER 22, 1943

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA

4

JANUARY 3, 1944

BRATISLAVA

5

JANUARY 6, 1944

BERLIN, GERMANY

6

JANUARY 7, 1944

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

7

JANUARY 9, 1944

BUDAPEST

8

JANUARY 15, 1944

AUSCHWITZ, POLAND

9

JANUARY 24, 1944

NEAR RASTENBURG IN EAST PRUSSIA, GERMANY

10

FEBRUARY 12, 1944

BUDAPEST

11

FEBRUARY 26, 1944

ILLAVA, SLOVAKIA

12

FEBRUARY 28, 1944

BERCHTESGADEN, GERMANY

13

FEBRUARY 29, 1944

OSWIECIM, POLAND

14

MARCH 1, 1944

BERCHTESGADEN, GERMANY

15

MARCH 2, 1944

BERLIN, GERMANY

16

MARCH 9, 1944

NOVAKY, SLOVAKIA

17

MARCH 12, 1944

ROME, ITALY

18

MARCH 13, 1944

19

MARCH 14, 1944

BUDAPEST

20

MARCH 15, 1944

BRINDISI, ITALY

PART TWO

SECOND KLESSHEIM CONFERENCE

21

BUDAPEST

22

MARCH 16, 1944

BUDAPEST

23

FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1944

BUDAPEST

24

SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1944

SALZBURG, AUSTRIA

PART THREE

THE GERMAN WEHRMACHT

25

MORNING OF MARCH 19, 1944

26

MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1944

27

MARCH 21, 1944

WASHINGTON, D.C.

28

MARCH 22, 1944

ROME, ITALY

29

MARCH 23, 1944

BUDAPEST

30

MARCH 24, 1944

BUDAPEST

31

MARCH 25, 1944

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

32

MARCH 26, 1944

NOVAKY, SLOVAKIA

33

MARCH 28, 1944

ROME, ITALY

34

MARCH 29, 1944

BUDAPEST

35

MARCH 31, 1944

BUDAPEST

36

APRIL 3, 1944

37

APRIL 4, 1944

38

APRIL 5, 1944

BUDAPEST

39

APRIL 6, 1944

BERCHTESGADEN, GERMANY

40

APRIL 7, 1944

BUDAPEST

41

APRIL 8, 1944

42

APRIL 11, 1944

43

APRIL 14, 1944

44

APRIL 15, 1944

45

APRIL 16, 1944

46

APRIL 20, 1944

47

APRIL 21, 1944

48

APRIL 25, 1994

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA

49

APRIL 28, 1944

50

APRIL 29, 1944

PART FOUR

THE DEPORTATION OF HUNGARIAN JEWRY TO AUSCHWITZ

51

MAY 1, 1944

BUDAPEST

52

MAY 2, 1944

BUDAPEST

53

MAY 3, 1944

WASHINGTON, D.C.

54

MAY 4, 1944

VIENNA, AUSTRIA

55

MAY 5, 1944

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

56

MAY 7, 1944

57

MAY 8, 1944

BUDAPEST

58

MAY 9, 1944

BUDAPEST

59

MAY 10, 1944

60

MAY 15, 1944

BUDAPEST

61

MAY 16, 1944

62

MAY 17, 1944

63

MAY 19, 1944

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

64

MAY 20, 1944

WASHINGTON, D.C.

65

MAY 22, 1944

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

66

MAY 24, 1944

ROME, ITALY

67

MAY 25, 1944

68

MAY 26, 1944

69

MAY 27, 1944

PART FIVE

AUSCHWITZ EXPOSED:

THE SECOND AUSCHWITZ PROTOCOLS

70

MAY 28, 1944

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

71

MAY 29, 1944

72

MAY 30, 1944

73

MAY 31, 1944

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA

74

JUNE 1, 1944

75

JUNE 3, 1944

76

JUNE 4, 1944

77

JUNE 5, 1944

78

JUNE 6, 1944

79

JUNE 7, 1944

BUDAPEST

80

JUNE 10, 1944

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

81

JUNE 11, 1944

CLUJ, HUNGARY

82

JUNE 12, 1944

ROME, ITALY

83

JUNE 13, 1944

84

JUNE 14, 1944

85

JUNE 17, 1944

86

JUNE 18, 1944

ROME, ITALY

87

JUNE 19, 1944

88

JUNE 20, 1944

89

JUNE 21, 1944

90

JUNE 22, 1944

CAIRO, EGYPT

91

JUNE 24, 1944

WASHINGTON, D.C.

PART SIX

THE DEPORTATION OF HUNGARIAN JEWRY HALTED

92

JUNE 25, 1944

ROME, ITALY

93

JUNE 26, 1944

94

JUNE 27, 1944

95

JUNE 29, 1944

SZENT ENDRE, HUNGARY

96

JUNE 30, 1944

97

JULY 1, 1944

ROME, ITALY

98

JULY 2, 1944

BUDAPEST

99

JULY 4, 1944

100

JULY 5, 1944

101

JULY 7, 1944

102

JULY 8, 1944

103

JULY 9, 1944

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA

104

JULY 12, 1944

105

JULY 15, 1944

106

JULY 16, 1944

107

JULY 17, 1944

108

JULY 21, 1944

PART SEVEN

THE DENOUEMENT IN HUNGARY AND SLOVAKIA

109

JULY 24, 1944

BUDAPEST

110

JULY 28, 1944

111

AUGUST 2, 1944

112

AUGUST 10, 1944

STRASBOURG, FRANCE

113

AUGUST 12, 1944

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA,

114

AUGUST 13, 1944

115

AUGUST 21, 1944

ST. MARGRETHEN, SWITZERLAND

116

AUGUST 26, 1944

117

AUGUST 24, 1944

TURCIANSKY Sv. MARTIN, TURIEC REGION, NORTHEAST SLOVAKIA

118

AUGUST 25, 1944

119

AUGUST 26, 1944

120

SEPTEMBER 1, 1944

121

SEPTEMBER 5, 1944

ST. MARGRETHEN, SWITZERLAND

122

SEPTEMBER 7, 1944

BERLIN, GERMANY

123

SEPTEMBER 10, 1944

124

SEPTEMBER 12, 1944

125

SEPTEMBER 13, 1944

126

SEPTEMBER 14, 1944

BRATISLAVA

127

SEPTEMBER 15, 1944

BRATISLAVA

128

SEPTEMBER 16, 1944

BUDAPEST

129

SEPTEMBER 24, 1944

130

SEPTEMBER 25, 1944

BRATISLAVA

131

SEPTEMBER 26, 1944

132

SEPTEMBER 29, 1944

BRATISLAVA

133

SEPTEMBER 30, 1944

BRATISLAVA

134

OCTOBER 14, 1944

BRATISLAVA

135

OCTOBER 15, 1944

SERED, SLOVAKIA

136

OCTOBER 16, 1944

BRATISLAVA

1:00 P.M. GESTAPO HEADQUARTERS

137

OCTOBER 17, 1944

SERED, SLOVAKIA

138

OCTOBER 18, 1944

AUSCHWITZ, POLAND

139

DECEMBER 3, 1944

140

DECEMBER 17, 1944

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

Epilogue

APRIL 12, 1945

WARM SPRINGS, GEORGIA

AUTHOR’S NOTE ON SOURCES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PROLOGUE

JANUARY 15, 1944

OSWIECIM, POLAND

Under his breath, he mumbled, What in God’s name is – 

Before ten o’clock in the morning, hundreds of well-dressed Polish prisoners from outside of Auschwitz-Birkenau had paraded through the main gate, escorted by heavily-armed gangs of Commandant Arthur Liebehenschel’s Kapos and SS. Within days, they were told, they’d be joined in their work by hundreds of additional prisoners – locals from Birkenau itself. The preparations for the construction of a new two kilometer railway spur and several new railway platforms would be their first priority.

Conditions for the reconstruction of the camp – planned and designed by Berlin and the SS – couldn’t have been better. Such spring-like weather in the dead of winter hadn’t been seen in these environs of eastern Europe for decades. A lucky break for those engaged in the frenzied activity that had just begun. Or so said the local farmers. They had been delivering and depositing their daily products and produce at the main gate of Auschwitz-Birkenau II for the past two or three years now.

Although the weather was cooperating, patches of ice and snow and those carefully-placed mounds of the filthy-old snow or the muddy-old type were everywhere. Mostly, however, they littered the out-of-the-way, unused, grassless areas of the compounds.

More prevalent, though, were the water-logged rutts and puddles and the rain-soaked paths that captured in their grasp unsuspecting and unprepared SS vehicles and trucks and the ubiquitous marching boots and battered feet of the inmates. Few complained, however. Where else could they go? And after all, anything was better than the incessant blizzards that blew uncontrollably and unabated during those latter, frostbitten days of December.

What in God’s name is happening, Filip?

At his barrack’s window in Birkenau II, Walter Rosenberg – aka Rudolf Vrba – stood motionless. Mesmerized. Hundreds of laborers, as far as his eyes could see, flooded the open space between Birkenau I and Birkenau II, a space usually reserved for trucks ladened with Jews slated for the gas chambers to his right only several meters away.

To his left, out of the main gate – for several kilometers, he surmised, all the way back along the road to the Auschwitz railroad station which was situated along the Vienna-Cracow line – even more workers, prisoners, carrying shovels and picks and pushing wheelbarrows and carts and hauling all sorts of –

My guess, Walter, is – no, check that, couldn’t be preparing for the Greek Jews. There won’t be that many.

My people in Slovakia? They’re still safe, no?

Yes – so I’ve heard.

The Czechs, then?

No. I’ve been led to believe that they’re all here in their showcase ‘Family Camp’. Filip Muller made quotation marks in the air with the first two fingers of each hand. Maybe only a few thousand or so are left in the camps near Prague.

Then, what the hell is going on here?

Filip Muller was a Jew of Czech descent, but not a prisoner in the Czech ‘Family Camp’. Fortunately, for him. Two years ago at the age of twenty, he was deported to Auschwitz, where he met Vrba. Vrba was from Slovakia. Both survived miraculously by working in the gas chambers and in the crematoria. Both also knew the camps inside and out – Auschwitz and Birkenau I and II – like the backs of their hands.

Well, it could be that – 

Look, floodlights. Those are floodlights. They expect to work day and night. By this time, Vrba was highly agitated.

Could be they’ve decided to – 

Why dig up the road, Filip? How will the trucks get up here from the station? They can’t be tearing down the camp, can they?

I doubt it.

Maybe they’re going to build a new cement, a new concrete road. What do you think?

Possibly. Up from the railway station to the gas chambers? Make sense to you?

No, not really.

Personally, I’d wager that Commandant Liebehenschel has been ordered to prepare for more Jews, and a substantial amount at that, not less.

Every morning for the past year around ten o’clock, Vrba left his barracks near the main gate and made his way to his office up along the path next to the electrified fence line. Approximately a one hundred meter stroll.

Back in June of 1943, he was transferred from the main camp – Auschwitz – to Birkenau II, where he became one of the registrars in the Quarantine Camp and inherited his office. It was from this office that he spoke to the new arrivals, met every train, recorded the country of origin, and logged the number of deportees. From his daily report to the Political Department of the camp, he accumulated a plethora of confidential information about each and every train, information of which only he and a handful of prisoners knew anything about.

Similarly, he knew about the crematoria and the gassing houses, the women’s camp in Birkenau I, the men’s camp, the gypsy section, the Czech Family Camp, and the section known as Canada, where the luggage and the valuables of the deportees, those gassed, were sorted out and prepared for shipment back to Germany. But the term Mexico, that troubled him. When he heard it for the first time this morning from Kapo Yup, he shuddered.

As he approached his office, he could hear the voices of the workers – the prisoners – on the other side of the electric fence. They spoke Polish. They seemed to be surveyors of some sort, scurrying around carrying calibrating rods and recording measurements and putting up tripods. All very busy and efficient-looking, definitely highly organized and proficient at their work. However, in the midst of this crew stood a familiar face – a German Kapo – who he recognized immediately from his early days as a prisoner at Auschwitz Main Camp.

Yup? Yup, is that you, Joseph? Vrba called out, bobbing his head up and down and around, squinting through the iron mesh of the fence.

Surprised that someone inside the fence line should know his first name, Yup turned and stared at Vrba. He sauntered over toward the fence and suddenly stopped and smiled.

Walter, he cried softly. Walter. Well, I’ll be damned. Look at you. Still alive and still looking well. Birkenau’s superb Polish cuisine – Kosher cuisine, forgive me – it must agree with you.

Vrba smiled and said to himself, Same old Yup.

For the next fifteen minutes or so, Vrba couldn’t shut Yup up.

Yup was from Berlin, a former trade unionist. Vrba never did know Yup’s last name. As a young man, he grew to hate Hitler and the new Nazi philosophy that in his mind was perverting German culture and society. When he became too active and outspoken against the Reich in the late 1930s, he was eventually arrested and sent to numerous concentration camps. In 1942, he wound up at Auschwitz.

Vrba knew him as the red Kapo back then, a non-Jewish political prisoner who survived by conforming to the rules of the concentration camp system. Few German prisoners like him wore the prominent red triangle on their clothing. Even fewer who became trustees – group overseers – like Yup were given, in turn, administrative or specific duties to perform by the SS.

Through some mutual acquaintances, Vrba and Yup met at Auschwitz and soon discovered that they both had similar leftist, anti-Nazi tendencies and backgrounds. A mutual trust gradually developed between them.

Got any cigarettes, Walter?

Plenty. I can organize to have a drop made right on this spot, right at your feet, whenever you express a concern or a need for them.

We’re going to be here for a while, Walter, maybe three to four months. And I’ve got about ninety to a hundred men working for me.

No problem, Joseph. Just say the word. You can count on me. You know that.

Good. Very good.

So tell me, if you are permitted to do so, what is going on here, for Christsake? Our internal grapevine has failed to – 

Yup glanced around and moved closer to the fence. You didn’t hear any of this from me. Understand, Walter?

Vrba shook his head back and forth. Yes, of course. Of course.

The word is that the Fuhrer and the SS want to make quick work of the Hungarian Jews – or so we gather from the camp commanders and the SS around here. Round them up and annihilate all of them here – here, before the Russians launch any kind of sustained spring or summer offensive. And before the Hungarians themselves know what hit them. You may not be aware of it, but the Red Army is only about one or two hundred kilometers from the accessible mountain passes in the Carpathians.

My God! Vrba mouthed.

Hungarian salami, coming this way, Walter. Millions of them. That’s why ‘Mexico’ over there –  He pointed over the barrack roofs to the open fields behind them.

There, that term again, Vrba said to himself. Mexico.

– that’s why it’s being built. There are hundreds of workers back there now, today, over there now. ‘Mexico’ – Birkenau III – whatever they’ll call it, it’s for the tens of thousands, the hundreds of thousands, of Hungarian Jews who’ll be arriving here shortly, sometime this spring, we heard.

We? Others know?

Other Kapos, the SS here. Yes. You’ll hear, you’ll see. Right now, this is all a very deeply-held secret, Walter. Inside these walls. Hell, you and I both know that this place and all of the other of the Reich’s concentration camps are a deep-dark secret to the outside world. No information has ever been leaked outside. Have you ever met – in the two years that you’ve been here and acted as registrar here at Auschwitz-Birkenau – have you ever met any prisoner, any deportee, who knew anything about this place, the gas chambers, the rest before they arrived?

Vrba remained silent for a moment. No, no one. No one knew that Auschwitz was a death factory. They came believing that it was a labor camp. A resettlement camp. A place to work for the Reich until an end to the war came. Secrecy is vital to the business here at Auschwitz, here at Birkenau. No one escapes. No, no one knew our secret prior to their arrival.

Correct. Now, no more Dutch cheeses, Walter, no more French sardines or Greek olives. The storage bins in ‘Canada’ will soon be overflowing with Hungarian salamis as well as with Hungarian suitcases and every other known valuable they bring in here with them. And no doubt, an ample supply of those salamis will find their way onto our dining room tables and onto those of the SS who run these camps.

Yup removed his hat and waved it in the direction of the railroad station.

Yes, a new railway spur, Walter. Train tracks, right from the Auschwitz station to the main gate here, and then moving through the gate and between Birkenau I and II, up to the entrances of the crematoria.

No trucks anymore?

No trucks. One way, non-stop, from Hungary to the crematoria. Jewish transports from Hungary, straight to the chimneys, the crematoria.

Vrba listened intently. Never had he been so astonished.

Eichmann’s idea, probably. He’s coming here, you know, at the end of February. Final inspection. To check up on Liebehenschel. Wants everything in place, wants everything ready for Hitler’s birthday. The twentieth of April. Promised all of this as Hitler’s birthday present, we heard. Also – 

Vrba’s mind wandered.

I must move my escape date up, he confessed to himself. Even next week will not be too soon. The Jewish leadership in Budapest must be warned, the Hungarian government must be told about this. From Bratislava, when I arrive in Bratislava, our people will warn them. I swear I’ll – 

– in a few days, Walter, many more workers will arrive. They’ll begin work on the construction of a new loading and unloading ramp right here, right between Birkenau I and II. In addition, a – 

Surprised, Vrba said, But the ramp down by the station – it was just repaired.

"Obsolete already. Won’t be able to handle the numbers coming in. We’ve overheard the SS say that, for the one million Hungarian Jews who are coming in here soon – about ten thousand a day – things have to be speeded up.

Like I said, no trucks, no lorries, no armed guards on motorcycles. No selections, no weeding out of the young and the fit. Just a direct line to death.

Yup looked around, yelled out an order or two to several of his men, and then continued.

So to speed things up – and that’s why my group is here – the plan is to build three railway tracks between Birkenau I and II. Over there.

Sonofabitches! Vrba said to himself. Right in front of my barrack’s window.

It’s supposed to be constructed just like a railroad station with three loading and unloading ramps and three platforms, each only several meters away from crematoria two and three. Roofed in, even – and later to be extended so that the tracks curve around to the right and end up between crematoria four and five. There’ll be – 

Four and five? Vrba stammered.

Hell, wait til you see the number of prisoners, the number of workers coming in here over the next week or so. Thousands, Walter. They’ll be building roads, renovating the crematoria, relining furnaces, strengthening the chimneys, digging large pits near the gas chambers to burn the bodies that the crematoria can’t handle. Painting buildings – 

Pits? Pits, did you say?

Pits, yes. Eight, nine, ten of them I hear.

Joseph, this can’t be – 

"They’ll also be about a thousand prisoners added to the Jewish Sonderkommando units that remove the bodies from the gas chambers, and several thousand more placed in ‘Canada’ to help sort out all of what’s in their baggage.

Around the clock, Walter. Trucks, cement-mixers, bull-dozers for the pits – you name it. Everything will be here – top-priority, you know. Everything ever needed to build a new and improved death factory.

After leaving Yup, Vrba spent the rest of the day in his office near the Quarantine Camp. Thinking that Yup might be exaggerating on an item or two, or just trying to put the fear of God in him, his thoughts came shattering back to reality when he stepped outside during one of his breaks.

He was familiar with the group of Kapos who guarded the camp and the two SS sergeants who ran it. Professional killers and criminals all. Some were his source for cigarettes and other assorted goodies. Most, however, preferred to trade for alcohol.

Both sergeants were alcoholics, inebriated most of the time. They obtained the money they needed for their liquor by terrorizing new prisoners. The prisoners, in turn – in order to stop the punishment – quickly turned over any gold or money that they had concealed on their bodies.

Smiling at them at first, it didn’t take long for Vrba to turn glum and turn away. At that moment, he wished that he hadn’t decided to come outside for some fresh air and a smoke.

One of the sergeants had just handed him a pack of cigarettes through the fence when Vrba heard in the background the same dreaded phrase that Yup had used earlier that morning.

A million fucking Hungarian salamis will be here before we know it.

I hate that shit. Tastes like shit, too.

Check every Hungarian’s asshole anyway. Maybe they hide their – maybe they shove their cigarettes up there, too. I’ve had others who have done it before.

Shaken, Vrba turned and walked back to his office.

And don’t forget to shake their babies. Strip the fuckers. Threaten to cut them open, to gut them, if they don’t tell you where they’ve stashed their – 

PART ONE

AUSCHWITZ PREPARED FOR HUNGARIAN SALAMI

1

DECEMBER 10, 1943

WASHINGTON, D.C.

8:50 P.M., THE WHITE HOUSE, MAP ROOM

All of the members of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s veiled inner circle – the WEJ – had assembled in the Map Room by 8:30. Only Roosevelt and his secretary of the treasury, Henry Morgenthau, were missing. At 8:45, the elevator doors opened and the two of them strode out. Henry gave the President’s wheelchair a playful nudge, a friendly shove.

Always trying to push me around. I don’t know, Henry, Roosevelt quipped. One of these days I’ll – 

I’m never getting old, Franklin, so you’ll never have one of those days to return the favor.

It didn’t take long, however, for Roosevelt’s mood to change. There was serious business to attend to. The WEJ, which was launched clandestinedly several years ago to save and preserve and to ransom and rescue all of the Jews here in Europe, was poised to confront its latest and greatest challenge.

If they’re in Slovakia now, Franklin, observed Rabbi Stephen Wise, a Roosevelt confidant and head of the World Jewish Congress, it won’t be long before they’re goose-stepping into Budapest. I can feel it in every fiber of my body already. Gisi and Weissmandel report that only about thirty thousand Jews remain in safe havens inside of Slovakia, but in Hungary – 

About a million in Hungary, no, Stephen? said Morgenthau.

Yes, that’s about right.

Well, for my money, what moved Ion, Franklin, should also move Tiso. He’s as much of a sonofabitch as Antonescu. John Pehle was becoming more assertive now that he knew that he would be directing Roosevelt’s proposed War Refugee Board.

Edward Stettinius, Roosevelt’s new undersecretary of state offered, Yeah. Cassulo did a masterful job on – 

Angelo, cried Stephen. Angelo. Cassulo was Pope Pius’s nuncio or representative in Bucharest, Romania.

Yes, Angelo. Of course, Angelo Cassulo. He was taught well, wasn’t he? Taught well by Tittmann and Maglione and Pius.

And he laid out our demands in the old fashioned way. He shoved them up Antonescu’s ass, Henry concluded crudely.

Hell, he caved at Angelo’s feet when he became aware of the fate of his Jews in Poland, Rabbi Wise snickered. I say we turn another of Pius’s boys loose on Tiso. Tell the Vatican to have their nuncio in Bratislava ‘Ionize’ Tiso. Our neighbor and pro-Nazi dictator of Romania, Ion Antonescu, buckled under the pressure from Roosevelt and the Vatican, and the WEJ hoped to conduct a similar onslaught on the pro-German Catholic priest, the President of Slovakia, Josepf Tiso.

Who’s the nuncio, Stephen? I forgot his name, asked Roosevelt.

Giuseppe Burzio. He’s been a godsend to the Working Group – to Gisi and Weissmandel. Gisi Fleischmann and her cohort, Rabbi Michael Weissmandel, headed this Jewish underground network.

I do remember now – from last year. Thank you, said Roosevelt.

If anyone can get to Tiso, Burzio can. He and some cash from Saly Mayer in Geneva and the Joint have been working miracles – thus far.

Well, with the establishment of the War Refugee Board next month, our man Roswell McClelland in Geneva can then openly work side by side with Saly, observed Roosevelt. Money, of course, will be no object for our American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee – our Joint. And let’s get the Vatican to increase the pressure from their end. Get their nuncios and their people in Slovakia and Hungary to spread the latest about the persecution of the Jews in Poland, in the east. Inform them about our projected invasion of the continent and the planning going on to snuff out Hitler’s life.

Don’t forget, Franklin, suggested Felix Frankfurter, a justice on the United States Supreme Court and one of Roosevelt’s closest associates, threaten them, too, with the war crimes tribunals and trials that we’ll initiate immediately after Germany’s defeat. They’ll all want to be on the right side when we roll into Berlin and level it.

Right. Read them the proverbial riot act. They all know that the war is lost. Let’s make it frightening enough for them to do nothing.

Roosevelt grinned and nodded his head in agreement with Morgenthau’s comments. Couldn’t have said it any better myself, gentlemen. Keep it in mind, also, that it’s just a matter of time before we’ll be able to drop military missions into these countries to support the opposition. And drop a bomb or two, if necessary. We’re in constant daily contact with the exile opposition political entities now living in London. They’re stirring the pot back in their homelands as well and, I might add, eager to return when the time is right. Of course, my friends – our people – who will be operating throughout Europe for us, for the WEJ, and with our War Refugee Board, they’ll do a little stirring of their own. But for now, Vatican intervention is essential. It’ll help immensely.

Turning toward Stettinius, Roosevelt said, You’ll see to these things, Edward?

I’ll get on it right now, Franklin. By morning, Tittmann will have your – our – wishes on his desk. And Pius and Maglione will be huddling with him before lunch.

2

DECEMBER 14, 1943

ROME, ITALY

THE VATICAN

You’ll see to it that Burzio in Bratislava and Rotta in Budapest receive Roosevelt’s – uh – our instructions before Christmas? Pius glanced at Maglione, peering at him over the top of the rims of his glasses.

Harold Tittmann, one of Roosevelt’s personal confidants at the Vatican, had just left. He collaborated on a daily basis with Maglione and Pius on all questions involving the Jews in Europe.

No. I’ll do better than that. I’ll guarantee it, Your Grace. Luigi Maglione, Pius’s closest associate, was the Vatican’s secretary of state.

Good, muttered Pius. To himself, he garbled, Smart ass. With that attitude, you might even make a more than adequate pope one of these days.

What’s that, Your Excellency?

No – nothing.

3

DECEMBER 22, 1943

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA

10:30 A.M., PRESIDENT TISO’S OFFICE

You want the baptised ones as well, Herr Doctor?

Every last one of them, Veesenmayer blared. Edmund Veesenmayer, a loyal staff member and cohort of Germany’s foreign minister, Joachim Ribbentrop, and an expert in the Reich’s Foreign Office on Jewish affairs in eastern Europe, had been sent to Bratislava by Adolf Hitler to organize the deportation of the remainder of our people to the Reich’s labor camps in Poland.

But they’re no longer Jews, pleaded Tiso. He and the others in government knew, by this time, that the war was lost and that any deportations would be very unpopular among the vast majority of the Slovak people. They’re converts. They’ve professed their faith in Holy Mother Church, in the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic – 

I don’t give a good, goddamn what the fuck they profess to now.

But their baptismals, Edmund. They verify – 

They verify shit, Josepf. You and I both know that. The baptismals verify nothing. They’re eyewash. Piled on top of one another, they amount to only a lump of shit. Swine excrement. I want them all – all ten thousand of your Jews, Josepf.

It was useless to argue. Tiso just asked, When – by when?

By April first. Your prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Vojtech Tuka, and your minister of the interior, Sano Mach, will execute your order. Tuka and I met yesterday, and they’re ready. They’ll add the ten thousand onto the eighteen to twenty thousand Jews who must be registered with the police by the end of January. They’ll be no exemptions this time. Understand, Josepf? I want them ready to be shipped to Poland after Easter along with their other fellow scum in Hung – ger – in the other areas of eastern Europe. Romania, Bulgaria, and so on. Any questions?

No, no.

By April first, then?

Yes. By April first.

11:05 A.M., THE PARLOR IN NUNCIO BURZIO’S RECTORY

He loved reading Isaiah 53. It never ceased to bring tears to his eyes.

‘And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him of no account.’

The Messiah, an Old Testament view, but a prophetic one. He knew that it was the perfect description of his Lord. He wondered if Isaiah was blessed with ESP – Extra Sensory Perception.

‘He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.’

Burzio had just officiated at his daily ten o’clock Mass. A private occasion usually, only rarely attracting a parishioner or two. As per his routine after Mass, he would stride into the parlor of the rectory, walk over to the simmering, wood fire in the fireplace, and slowly warm his hands.

Emily Obermeyer, his elderly housekeeper, would always follow him dutifully. This time she waddled into the parlor in slow motion, attempting to balance his coffee cup on his missal in one hand and his rolls on a small, wooden tray in the other. Giuseppe would never forget to praise her dexterity, and then he’d slump into the soft confines of his favorite couch and read for at least an hour. It was his favorite time of day.

Today, the ringing of the phone startled him. Mrs. Obermeyer’s son, no doubt, he mused.

It’s for you, Father, she shouted from the kitchen.

He leaned forward and removed the receiver from the telephone on the coffee table. Thank you, Emily, he bellowed back.

It could get ugly, Giuseppe, Tiso cautioned. Could go from bad to worse. Veesenmayer leaned on me pretty good. He wants them all – even wants our converts. Wants them all in concentration camps by the first of April. Once a Jew, always a Jew, he says. Said it over and over again for my personal edification.

Excuse me for saying it, but he’s a first-class bastard. His presence here can only signal trouble and then even more of the same. Trouble for you, trouble for me and the Church, trouble for Gisi, trouble for – 

He was very blunt, Giuseppe. No exemptions. Wants them to begin registering with the police next month, first thing in January.

You agreed to this?

Did I have a choice? Mach and Tuka were already prepped by him and are anxious – need I say more – to please the good doctor. He treated them royally before he came over here to see me.

You just say the word and they pounce. Is that it?

That’s about the size of it. They’re just waiting for my order.

You can’t do this, Josepf. It’s not that you can’t do it because you’re a priest or because you’re our president. You can’t do this because it’s genocidal. You’ll give an order that will send them all into life everlasting.

Actually, to me, it sounds more like that he and the Reich are this time mainly concerned with rounding up and containing our Jews and moving them from labor camps here in our country to even larger labor camps in Poland. Moving them somewhere along the front where they can build fortifications in support of the Wehrmacht out there.

If you really think that that’s the case, then ask Veesenmayer if he’ll grant you permission to send an inspection team to Poland to tour the work sites and to survey the living conditions and the – 

He cut Burzio off. Show me different, Giuseppe, and I just might never give the order.

11:15 A.M., MY APARTMENT

If there’s a better friend to us in our country than Burzio, I don’t know who it is, I said to Michael. He wants us to pass the word on to Geneva and beyond while he contacts the Vatican. He wants Washington and Roosevelt to be apprised of Veesenmayer’s presence here and of his latest antics. He genuinely fears for us, Michael. Believes that, if the Reich – the Foreign Office, the SS, the Wehrmacht – if they have their eyes set on us, then, Hungary might be next.

*

All throughout the four months that I lingered in prison from January to April, Oscar Neumann and Endre Steiner of our Working Group and, of course, my Michael – my Rabbi Michael Weissmandel – they were my rocks. They worked with me, met with me, and kept me informed. We planned and initiated this and instigated and accomplished that – all mainly during the periods when I was granted respites for a week or two from the hell holes of solitary confinement. Being out of touch, seeing no one, being uncommunicative – they were the most trying weeks.

From January to April, the Slovak State Police moved me from one site to another. From the solitary confinement of the Bratislava Criminal Prison to the laxness of the Prison for Financial Offenders, from the confinement again at our Jewish labor camp at Novaky to my eventual release from the Prison for Financial Offenders. Each move was arranged, needless to say, after a substantial bribe was placed in the proper hands.

It was only upon my release in April, however, that I first learned from Poland about the fate of our children there – the thousands who had been confined previously to the ghetto here in Theresienstadt. And also of the Wehrmacht incursion into Hungary. That really shocked me. However, it should also be known that we also thought that we might face a similar action by the Reich here in Slovakia just before I was whisked off to jail.

4

JANUARY 3, 1944

BRATISLAVA

9:35 P.M., TISO’S OFFICE

There’s more, Giuseppe? Don’t you think that these reports from Poland, from Lublin, are enough? They make me sick. The pictures and these hideous anecdotes – As it is, I don’t know if I can hold down my dinner.

Well, you’d be in good company, Josepf. That’s exactly how Pius reacted to them when he first read them and saw the pictures.

Jesus! And you and the Vatican and Roosevelt – you all think that our Jews who we sent out there last year are – are – 

That you deported out there. That you deported.

Uh, well, you think that they all suffered these same horrendous atrocities at the hands of the Germans, these same abominations? But the postcards – what about them? The postcards that they’ve sent back to us, back to their families. They’re all lies, then? All lies?

Correct. The work of the SS. Those like Mach and Tuka and Veesenmayer. It’s all eyewash, Josepf. And you’ve been a party to it all. And what’s more, Roosevelt and the Allies know it. If you want to live to see your snow-capped mountains in Switzerland from the backyard of your remote, Swiss retirement home, you’d better start making some significant concessions.

Like no further deportations?

Exactly. Yes, like no deportations ever again – period. Burzio glared into Tiso’s eyes. Look, tell Veesenmayer and the Foreign Office or Hitler even – tell them one thing, whatever you need to say in order to appease them, to stall them, but make damn sure your actions preserve our Jews. Your Jews. The Allies will be watching your every move.

Burzio sensed that the priest in Tiso wanted all of this to go away. Josepf. Roosevelt’s people – those who’ll be involved with his new War Refugee Board – they’ll soon be inundating all of the major cities in Europe. They can provide you with sanctuary in Switzerland, with a substantial bank account in Zurich, with insurance for a life everlasting.

Tiso cracked a smile.

It’s in the works for Hitler’s head to literally roll within the next several months. It’s over, Josepf. The war is lost for the Reich. Allied troops will be flooding the continent soon. Russian troops will be knocking on our doors in the spring. Even our own people are turning. Next month, Pius will order all of our Slovak bishops to publicly protest the proposed deportations. You should be saving Jewish lives – the Poles and the Hungarians who seek sanctuary here. You should not be a party to their extermination, Josepf.

Silence. A long, suffocating silence ensued.

Tell Veesenmayer that you want an inspection team to visit Lublin or the eastern sector of Poland or wherever. Tell him you want to know firsthand how our Jewish brethren are coping in their labor camps. Ask him. But more important, we must try to muzzle Veesenmayer. The Jews that remain in our country need not be sacrificed for the butcher in Berlin. If Veesenmayer needs cash, we have it. If he needs – 

Giuseppe – stop! Okay, I get the picture. You and Pius and Roosevelt – you’ve shown me enough. I concur, I concur. These atrocities cannot continue. I agree wholeheartedly.

He took a moment to collect his thoughts. Okay. Get assurance for me for asylum in Switzerland after the war, and I’ll assure you that our Jews will not be persecuted or punished or deported to Poland. I’ll see to it that they’ll only be interned in labor camps here in Slovakia, and from their camps, I’ll give them every opportunity, if they wish, to move on to another country.

Burzio couldn’t suppress the ever-so-slight smile that appeared at the corners of his mouth. If you do these things, Josepf, I promise to give you each and every packet of seeds that I possess in the rectory’s basement for your future Alpine retirement garden.

5

JANUARY 6, 1944

BERLIN, GERMANY

8:30 P.M., HITLER’S OFFICE AT THE CHANCELLERY

Hell, I think that Veesenmayer’s report is perfect, declared the Fuhrer. Right on the money. A first-rate proposal for handling Hungary. ‘Use German divisions and fighter planes, separate Horthy from his pseudo-Jewish, legitimist clique, the country has become corrupt and corroded by the Jews, Jews everywhere, the whole state is overrun by Jewish agents and spies – ‘ And I thank you, Joachim, for your quick work. For perusing it and for compiling it and getting it to me just before New Year’s. Excellent work.

Ribbentrop nodded his head and smiled. Thank you, Adolf.

Now, I know I ranted on and went into a rage over it when we were all together last month at Berchtesgaden. Forgive me for that, but I had a reason, a method to my madness.

Heinrich – Fuhrer? Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Heinrich Mueller, the Reich’s latest and former chief of SS and Gestapo, snickered simultaneously. Along with Ribbentrop and Martin Bormann, Hitler’s private secretary and right-hand man, both had grown to despise Heinrich Himmler. You had him not only shitting in his pants then, but also pissing down both pant legs. I can still hear his feet squishing around in his boots when he returned your salute and – 

*

The terror and viciousness in Hitler’s eyes frightened Himmler. Petrified him. Always did. But more so now.

The way he looks at me, Himmler said to himself. That penetrating gaze. He knows. He knows about me. He knows about us. He knows about Stockholm and us reaching out to Roosevelt and to Roosevelt’s man in Sweden and – I can feel it. I can – 

"I want Kallay’s ass on a silver platter. And I want it now. I want Horthy back here again at Klessheim. And I want a government in Hungary that’ll be unquestionably loyal to me, to us, and allied to the Reich. No ifs, ands, or buts, Heinrich.

I want you and your SS and Adolf Eichmann, along with Veesenmayer and the Wehrmacht, stationed in Hungary. I want them to patronize every single fucking rightist in Budapest and use every single officer in the Hungarian gendarmerie to round up every fucking Jew bastard and deport them quickly and efficiently to Poland.

Hitler continued to stare at Himmler. "I want them annihilated there. Do you understand? Exterminated, turned into dust and buried deep, deep into the earth. All one million of them, deep into hell’s hole. There to never again, to never again be heard from. Not to be heard from ever again in any history book nor to cross the lips of even the smallest of our school children.

With his contacts scurrying to the West and to the Allies, Kallay has fucked us for the last time. It’s time to fuck him back and fuck him but good. Swift and uncompromising action on our part. I want you primed and ready to move into Budapest lock, stock, and barrel – you understand, Heinrich – by the first day of spring.

*

They all roared.

I want to keep him on a short leash, if you know what I mean, while we iron out the details for the roundup and delivery of our Hungarian salami. All one million pieces.

Good approach, said Mueller. Keep him in the dark – at least on most things. He paused and leaned forward. Now, what do you have in mind for us?

Smiling, Hitler said, Plenty. If you have to write any of this down, fine. Do so. But make certain that you destroy your notes. Burn them as soon as possible.

Hitler began. He had his notes clipped on to the cover sheet of Veesenmayer’s report.

Advise Himmler, Joachim, that I want him to prepare our SS to round up Hungary’s Jews. Contact him and have him inform Eichmann. I want Eichmann, however, to be the one in charge, to be the one to chose and organize the personnel who he wants and needs.

Ribbentrop nodded.

I’ll also be contacting Himmler about Eichmann and will divulge to him that Eichmann and his SS personnel will be earmarking about one hundred thousand able-bodied, male Jews from Hungary, plus their families, to be brought to Germany from Auschwitz as laborers for Albert Speer, for our Jaberstab Project. I want him to, at least, hear that.

And the rest, Fuhrer? sneered Kaltenbrunner.

As if you didn’t know. They’ll be in the very capable hands of Pohl and Mengele and Hoess at Auschwitz, if Himmler should ask. More about them in a minute or so.

Good.

"But Joachim – but you, Joachim – you will inform Eichmann that he is to prepare to move all one million Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Few if any of them will ever hear the word ‘Jaberstab’.

Actually, all of you – when you deal with Eichmann – approach him knowing that he is following my directive to move all one million Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. To Auschwitz. Not to Germany – not here. Not here, and definitely not for Jaberstab.

Understand, said Mueller.

How about Eichmann using the camp at Mauthausen to train his people? inquired Kaltenbrunner. It would be perfect and convenient.

Fine. You’ll pass that along to him, Joachim?

Yes. Done.

He should also begin to consult with the right-wingers in Budapest. With Jagow and Baky, and with Imredy and the others. Prepare them – get them ready.

Uh, huh.

Ernst, said the Fuhrer, you should also prepare several hundred of our finest Gestapo agents. Why don’t you and Eichmann get together and both use Malthausen?

Good idea.

Prepare lists of who to round up in Budapest and in their other major cities. The names of prominent Jews, their leaders, and the obvious political leaders who oppose us. Sztojay and Jagow should be able to help you there.

Right.

I want Budapest shut down, cut off from the rest of the country. No radio transmissions, no newspapers circulating, no telephoning or traveling out of the city. No rail service. Make it an island unto itself – except, of course, for our people.

Ribbentrop nodded again and again as he jotted down Hitler’s specifices.

I want all of you to know – and Joachim, you can arrange this – I want Veesenmayer to be our new minister in Budapest, our Reich Plenipotentiary in Hungary. My Reichsverwesenmayer – the new Regent of Hungary.

Jawohl! They chuckled. They agreed.

I want him in charge there for us. And I want Imredy – who Veesenmayer recommended – to be the new prime minister. Kallay out, Imredy in. I want our new government in Hungary and its leaders answerable only to me, to us. Totally and unequivocally loyal to the Reich.

Again, Jawohl!

Joachim, you inform Sztojay, and also have Veesenmayer relay my wishes to Jagow. Have him pass the word to the others at their next Kalaka meeting. We want to prime their pump and get them chomping at the bit for action.

Addressing Field Marshal Wilhelm von Keitel, Hitler said, Wilhelm, prepare the occupation of Hungary according to our plan ‘Margarethe’, and schedule the invasion to occur on the first day of spring or sometime during that last week in March. Consider the weather and all that.

I will. Very good.

Keep in mind, though, that when Horthy is with me at Klessheim, he may refuse to continue on as Regent – 

Or, interjected Bormann, he just may refuse outright to even come to Salzburg, to come to Klessheim.

Yes, that’s true. If he refuses to remain as Regent or if he fails to cooperate, thereby stripping us of our cloak of legitimacy – or if he fails to provide us with his approval to occupy his Hungary – then, I want you to be ready to implement ‘Margarethe II’. I want the Romanians and the Slovaks and the Croat forces prepared to join us in any all-out invasion and occupation of the entire country. We’ll see if the Old Man is willing to preside over the slicing up and dicing up of his precious homeland among those who surround his – 

Yes, I understand. Such a contingency plan will be prepared, Adolf, and we’ll just await your order to implement it.

"Excellent, Wilhelm. I’m counting on you. Horthy will either opt to remain as Hungary’s Regent and live – live either here in exile at Klessheim or secluded in his castle in Budapest – or will relegate himself to be our prisoner, never to see his Budapest nor his family ever again. It’ll be his choice. It’ll be that simple.

"Just as we did with Pius in Rome, only this time we’ll strike and invade and occupy without warning. There’ll be no time for Kallay and his government to prepare. No way for them to deter us and our eager, overzealous collaborators inside of Hungary.

So it’ll be the Old Man’s choice, gentlemen. Just like Pacelli. His family, his choice, dead or alive. His Budapest either untouched or destroyed completely, leveled completely. His choice. And his Jews – 

And his Jews, this time, snapped Kaltenbrunner, this time, unlike that in Rome, this time, we’ll snatch away not one thousand Jews, but one million unsuspecting swine. We will not duplicate the mistakes made in Rome.

Exactly, answered the Fuhrer emphatically.

Eichmann will be magnificent and at his professional best. He’ll use every deceptive method in his bag of tricks. He’ll leave no stone unturned. The Jews will know from nothing. They’ll be hoodwinked by him and his men and by our collaborators in Hungary right from that very first moment when they arrive to that final moment when the gas envelops each and every one of them.

Well put, Ernst, exclaimed Mueller. Well put.

Now, Joachim and Ernst, Hitler said. "I want Pohl to begin preparations at Auschwitz-Birkenau for our one million Hungarian Jews. Pohl has already complied with my request and has recommended to me and Joachim various modifications and improvements and procedures that are essential at Auschwitz in order to handle the thousands of Jews who will arrive on a daily basis from Hungary, from the eastern zones of Hungary first.

"He has promised me that, if he begins immediately – and I want him to do just that – that all the necessary improvements would be completed by the twentieth of April. My birthday present to me, he says.

"The Russians are close, gentlemen, and the Americans and the British are only five hundred air miles away. I want all of Hungary’s Jews rounded up, gassed, burnt beyond recognition, and buried by this summer. You hear me? It will take the efficacy of Eichmann and the efficiency of Auschwitz-Birkenau to accomplish this final solution of our Jewish problem in Hungary. If worse comes to worse and we have to occupy all of Hungary to do it, so be it. We will.

Neither American bombs nor a second front nor the Bolshevik hordes from the east will deter me, will deter us. This will be done, gentlemen.

Dead silence enshrouded the room.

Joachim, Hitler approached Ribbentrop matter-of-factly. I want Horthy to be at Klessheim before our occupation of Hungary begins. I want him at the castle on the day that the Wehrmacht crosses over the border and arrives in Budapest. I want it to be a big surprise – a fait accompli. I want to surprise his ass.

Jawohl, mein Fuhrer.

And I want Speer there, too.

Oh?

He and his people have been clamoring for bodies, for workers, at his Jaberstab project sites. Now we have a source, a more than ample supply to satisfy him. We can use him and Jaberstab as our cover, as our reason to remove Jews from Hungary. As our very legitimate and essential reason to remove them. Yes? We can have him outline his program to Horthy and describe his need for able-bodied laborers, and how they’ll contribute substantially to our – 

Hungarian Jewish workers and their families – they work better that way, of course, added Ribbentrop. "They’ll be transported to Germany, as Hungarians with Horthy’s blessing have done in the past, to work in war-related industries, for the war effort as Veesenmayer suggested in his report to you –

Correct. A little lie for legality’s sake.

Mueller said, Sounds extremely legitimate to me. And something the Jews should readily comply with, assent to, willingly and docilely embrace. Their lives will be preserved and prolonged, for Christsake. After all, neither Hungary nor Horthy or Kallay would ever condone or consent to such a proposal if it meant the wanton destruction and elimination of their lives, of their Jews. Right?

Right, Kaltenbrunner affirmed. As Edmund stated in his recommendations, lie a little. Promise Horthy that his hundreds of thousands of Budapest Jews will never need to fear deportation. All three hundred or four hundred thousand of them. Whatever the numbers, it’s all very logical and very reasonable. They’re essential to our war effort and to Hungary’s economic well-being as well as to the Reich’s well-being. Right? They need never be concerned nor be troubled. Isn’t that so? Hungary will always be and will always remain their home forever.

Only Hitler could contain his laughter.

Okay, enough. All of you. There’s work to be done. Out – go.

6

JANUARY 7, 1944

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

10:15 P.M, KALAKA MEETING AT THE GERMAN LEGATION

Our secret service had a constant tail on Bela Imredy. As our former prime minister, he now embraced Hitler and the Axis powers and was a card-carrying member of Kalaka, our notorious secret association of Jew-baiters and radical rightists, bent on destroying Hungarian Jewry and eliminating Horthy and me. We wanted to know his whereabouts at all times.

Tonight, our people observed him slipping through the gates of the German legation just before ten o’clock, followed almost immediately by a black sedan containing the pro-Nazi and head of the United Hungarian Party, Andor Jaross, and his vitriolic, anti-Semite cohorts, Laszlo Baky and Laszlo Endre. They couldn’t ID the driver, however. Both vehicles were totally blacked-out – no headlights and no interior or running lights.

Our people waited for additional members of Kalaka to arrive, but nothing. No one.

He’s serious, then? Imredy asked.

Very, answered Dietrich von Jagow, the German ambassador to Hungary. He laid it all out yesterday to Ribbentrop and Kaltenbrunner and to Mueller and Bormann. Very intense, said Veesenmayer and Sztojay. Both called me this morning. Dome Sztojay was our pro-German minister to the Reich stationed in Berlin.

No Himmler? Endre was surprised. What gives?

Bormann smells a rat in Himmler. Even Hitler’s a bit apprehensive about his Reichsfuhrer SS. He’s keeping him at arm’s length, I’m told. Lately, however, Hitler has preferred to give us orders through Kaltenbrunner, his new fair-haired boy and Bormann’s latest, chummy ally.

Your’s also, Laszlo, noted Endre, smiling at Baky. Ernst adores you and – 

And Peter’s, don’t forget. Baky reached over and slapped Hain on his back.

Peter Hain chuckled and bowed his head ever so slightly. It was a shock to us to discover that Hain, Horthy’s personal security guard since 1938, was secretly involved with Kalaka and a paid Gestapo agent.

Sorry, Peter.

Just remember, I’m just not your run-of-the-mill, private chauffeur.

Forgive me, laughed Endre.

Jagow continued. Being close to Bormann now gives Kaltenbrunner a privilege not enjoyed by many others. Easy access to the Fuhrer. He’s now a frequent visitor to Hitler’s headquarters, and as I just mentioned, the Fuhrer has begun to funnel orders directly through him. Not by way of Himmler.

I bet he relishes the part, said Imredy.

That he does, added Jagow. Acts as if he were Hitler’s right-hand man. He waved his hand into the air. Now, getting back to my calls from Veesenmayer and Sztojay. They both stated – quite emphatically, I might add – that Hitler’s not going to wait until the end of the war to confront our Jewish problem. He’s had it with Kallay’s policy of cleverly, calculated procrastination.

Baky snapped coldly, You mean his policy of preserving their asses so that he can preserve his own ass and kiss up to Roosevelt, the Jew-lover, and the Americans and the Allies with their offer of an armistice for Hungary in exchange for Jew-lives and for Jew – 

Agreed, Jagow interrupted. I agree wholeheartedly, Laszlo. And that’s why Hitler wants action now and soon, by the first days of spring.

In two months? winced Jaross.

In two months. Yes. He’s so frustrated with Kallay and the Old Man that he’s planning to occupy our country at that time.

Good. It’s about time, barked Baky.

He wants all of our Jews. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Not this time.

Jagow paused for a moment.

According to Sztojay, the thought of Kallay and Horthy protecting our one million Jews as a partial payment – as Laszlo just pointed out – toward a peace agreement with the Allies – to acquire their love and affection, Dome growled to me sarcastically over the phone this morning – just rips at the gut of the Fuhrer. He can’t wait to get Horthy back to Salzburg, back up to Klessheim alone, and lay the law down on him. To make the Old Man squirm.

Jesus! murmured Jaross.

He’s already given Keitel orders to mass about one hundred thousand troops along our borders by the first day of spring. Like I said, he means business – this time, he means business.

I’ll say, said Imredy. It doesn’t give us much time to – 

The word is – whether it’s true or not, I don’t know, only time will tell – but the word is that Hitler needs workers, laborers, about one hundred thousand or so. Able-bodied workers to give labor service inside of Germany. At least, that’s what’ll be out there for public consumption. Workers for all war-related industries – like in munitions factories and for Jaberstab and so on. And who better to use than the able-bodied among our Jews.

Sounds logical, added Imredy. We have so goddamn many of them, for Christsake. And hell, Jewish labor battalions and Jewish labor service have always been an accepted substitute for those who were not called upon to serve in the military of our country. I see nothing wrong in doing just – 

Right. I agree. And the word from Kaltenbrunner also is that the families – the families, mind you – of those who are chosen to work will be permitted to join them in Germany. Ernst claims that the Jews will be more productive and more content in Germany if they have all of the members of their families with them.

Is that for public consumption as well? snickered Endre.

Jagow smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Let’s just say, it’ll be the party line. Direct from the Fuhrer’s mouth itself. His cover for legitimacy’s sake.

In other words, when the German occupation of Hungary is complete – when it’s a fait accompli – we should be prepared to ship all one million of our parasites, every single one of them, to the east and forget about any so-called directive from Hitler. Forget about his cover for public – 

"All of us must be prepared, Laszlo. Yes. Dust off your evacuation plans, your deportation plans. Be ready. Plan on using the thousands of our gendarmerie loyal to our cause, those who we can count on in all of the zones. Police, political allies, et cetera.

We’ll start out in the eastern zones first. And, Veesenmayer said, we’ll have a contingent of SS and Gestapo, hundreds of them along with the presence of the Wehrmacht, to direct and guide us. A new government as well. Kallay out, Imredy in. A new day for us and a new beginning for Hungary.

Oh? Imredy was taken by surprise. Are you – 

If, Bela, if all proceeds according to plan. Veesenmayer and Kaltenbrunner and Ribbentrop have all recommended you to the Fuhrer. So just be ready, like I said.

Turning to the others, Jagow added, "In the meantime, everything that I’ve just passed along to you stays in this room, stays with us. Understand? Lists can be prepared, however. Who to snatch up immediately, what prominent political and Jewish leaders, who in the Parliament, who in Kallay’s government, who in the provinces and in our