Return to Berlin: The Bulgarian, #2

By Francis M. Mulligan

Toma Ivanian returns to Berlin because his parents believe that Orthodox Christianity in Bulgaria will suffer the same fate as in Russia. He returns to Berlin to work for the water department. He's suffering from what his former teacher in Bulgaria called systemic shock. He keeps the secret told to him by an SS officer. He can't tell anyone in Berlin that "Germany has already been defeated." He avoids conscription when the Induction Center is bombed with a blockbuster bomb by the R.A.F. Berliners find a way for Ivanian to take a train to Munich in late December 1944. Hiding in a bakery in Freising, he waits for the American army.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Francis M. Mulligan
• Release date: Feb 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386103783

Francis M. Mulligan

 Francis M. Mulligan graduated from St. Joseph’s College, now University, studied at Maryknoll seminaries in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Bedford, Massachusetts, and Ossining, New York, graduated from Temple University (M.P.A.) and Temple Law School (J.D.), worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority and law firms in Reading, Pennsylvania. He has written articles for the Berks Barrister, the Temple Law Quarterly, and Pennsylvania Bar Associations publications. His first novel, SPANISH MARKET centers on a Mafia/Cuban confrontation in Wilson County, Pennsylvania. His second novel, SWAMP BOAT reunites the psychic who solved the Woodside Park case in Wilson County with a former Asst. D.A. Twenty years later, Rose, the psychic, wants McCready to help save a troubled soul who confessed to killing a minister’s son in the bayou. A Bulgarian in Hitler’s Berlin traces the movement of a sixteen- year old Bulgarian who accepts a scholarship to the Berlin Technical University, the best science and engineering university in the world. Beginning in 1939 during his progress toward a degree, young Ivanian encounters a series of roadblocks ending with the destruction of the University’s Tower of Learning in November 1943. He’s shamed into agreeing to join the German army, but first he must discuss the decision with his parents. On the train home, he rethinks his decision. One passenger, an SS Major, applauds his decision, and as the train pulls into Sofia, Bulgaria, the Major makes a final life changing statement.

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Francis M. Mulligan (2019-02-15).

A Bulgarian in Hitler’s Berlin Book 2: Back to Berlin

ISBN-13: 978-1724287397

ISBN-10: 1724287397

Back to Berlin

1

DECEMBER 3, 1943/ RETURN TO BERLIN

The train from Sofia followed a schedule dictated by the war. It left the station after dark. With the Royal Air Force controlling the sky, Ivanian understood the reason. He couldn’t help thinking so different from 1939. Boarding the train, he heard a passenger say, Arrival time indefinite. Indefinite meant that his former professor, Hans Stroman wouldn’t be waiting in the Berlin Central Station. When he met Stroman, he’d tell him why he didn’t join the Wehrmacht. It would be the lie Stroman expected. Until he knew with absolute certainty who could be trusted in Berlin, his reason would be the one he and Grigor Bachev agreed upon. In late November, when he last spoke with Stroman, he told his former professor that he was returning home to tell his parents about his decision. He owed it to Germany to enlist in the Wehrmacht.

At the Berlin Technical University’s assembly for foreign students, he and all the others from countries allied with Germany, had been addressed by a Waffen SS officer. Foreign students that Toma Ivanian hadn’t seen before applauded what the officer had said. The officer told the assembled foreign students what they owed the Third Reich. The speech made Ivanian feel guilty. He remembered what he thought, I’ve taken but hadn’t given back. His room and board scholarship to the best science and engineering university in the world made him feel the way he did. That’s when Ivanian decided to enlist.

Leaving the auditorium, tables set-up by military recruiters blocked the exits. When his turn came, he was asked to sign the enlistment papers before he left the university. Advice from Dietrich’s father, once a high-ranking Nazi, prevented him. Although old enough to decide without their consent, he’d first tell his parents in Sofia that he was joining the Wehrmacht.

The recruiter didn’t like his response. With students in line behind Ivanian, the recruiter gave him a phone number to call when he returned to Berlin.

He didn’t look forward to the meeting with his parents. His mother, Yana would cry and scream at him, and his father’s sad face would tear at his heart. She’d ask, Was there a perfumed German woman involved in this decision.

He had forgotten about Karla Weiss. Until his world came apart on the train to Sofia, he intended to marry Karla after the war ended.

On the last leg of the long journey home, a Waffen SS major sat beside him. Why the major sat beside him, he found out when the long train ride ended. They talked about education, family, the war, and his future enlistment during their two hours together. Toma Ivanian told the major his life’s story beginning in Sofia and ending with the destruction of the university by the R.A.F. The major, a former university professor, changed everything. After they detrained together in Sofia, with no passengers near them, the last words spoken by the major shocked him.

Germany has already been defeated. Do not join. Save yourself.

Ivanian couldn’t tell Stroman or anyone else what the major said. How could he tell a Berliner the war is over? Germany has already been defeated. If he spoke to the wrong person, he’d be imprisoned.

In Sofia, his former history teacher, Grigor Bachev, explained that the major under Nazi rules committed treason. The major told Ivanian before they parted, I’m putting my life in your hands. Not only the major who never mentioned his name, but the safety of the major’s wife and children had to be considered. During their long conversation on the train, the major mentioned that his youngest child, Margaret called her scribblings notes. Like many Germans, Margaret had been making notes her entire life.

Ivanian wondered if the notes the major wrote in his diary centered on his family’s safety. He told Ivanian that he and his wife, Greta, had been arguing on the train. She wouldn’t leave Berlin with the children.

Until he figured out his next step, he couldn’t tell Hans Stroman, or anyone else why he returned to Berlin. When asked, he’d mention his father’s early retirement, and tell Stroman and Stroman’s brother-in-law, Max Bauer that he must  support his parents. Before he left Sofia, Bachev told him, Toma, people will believe you when they hear that your parents cannot support themselves. It’s happening everywhere.

. Bachev would provide for their needs when the time came. Ivanian didn’t ask. Bachev told him that he would. Most of the wages Ivanian earned while working for Dietrich Industries, he now carried in the money belt circling his stomach.

Grigor Bachev, who lived in Berlin after his Great War ended, had been clear on disclosing what the major said. It must be to someone you trust absolutely. Seated on the train, Ivanian thought about matters not considered in the past. The Hitler portrait in Stroman’s home concerned him. The same Hans Stroman who told him that the officer who made the enlistment speech had been a stage actor, and not a combat soldier.

He looked around the train. Ten passengers. People are leaving Berlin. Not coming back. Before the train reached Berlin, he’d have time, too much time, to think.

He considered going to Munster instead of Berlin. He knew why the Dietrichs didn’t want him in Munster until after the war ended. The SS in Munster. They think all Bulgarians are communists. Josef and Wilhelm Dietrich couldn’t insure his safety. With Wilhelm Dietrich, Sr. no longer holding a Nazi power position, concern for Ivanian’s safety caused Josef Dietrich to send him back to Berlin in August 1943. With the Technical University shut-down by the November R.A.F. bombing and his first employer, Dr. Vincenzo Ottaviani hiding somewhere in Italy, the Berlin SS wouldn’t be coming after him. The SS had more important concerns than the missing Aryan perfume formula Ottaviani removed from the safe. The civilian SS at Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8 hadn’t bothered him since the night Dietrich’s father intervened. With Berlin in turmoil and residents leaving, he couldn’t see them reopening a 1940 file.

Sitting in the near empty coach car, Ivanian rethought what caused him to leave Sofia. If the Bulgarian monk, Father Maximus, hadn’t spoken at Divine Liturgy about the Soviet army occupying Bulgaria in the coming months, his parents would never have insisted that he return to Berlin. He asked himself. How did Maximus know that Stalin will take over Bulgaria?  Ivanian thought he knew. Someone inside the Bulgarian government. That’s why he spoke the way he did.  It couldn’t have been Bachev. His mother’s first boyfriend, Grigor Bachev, hadn’t been inside a church since the Great War.

His systemic shock remained. That’s what a German doctor called the condition experienced by many German soldiers at the end of the Great War. Bachev told him that he wouldn’t find the term in a medical dictionary. Ivanian hoped that whoever hired him didn’t notice his affliction. Bachev, based on his own Great War experience, told him that his feelings and his energy would return. When it would happen, he didn’t know. He also mentioned a psychological concept that Ivanian hadn’t heard before. We live by our feelings. Feelings are as important in our day to day existence as our brain. For your protection,  your feelings shut down after you talked with the major.

When he went to bed his first evening at home, he thought his physical and emotional reaction to the major’s words would be over, like a cold, in a few days. Now, he understood. If he hadn’t suffered a loss of feelings, he couldn’t go back to Berlin. His feelings would betray him with Berliners who thought Germany couldn’t be defeated.

During his final days at the Technical University, racing to the shelter during the nightly attacks forced him to concentrate on his survival. Karla Weiss didn’t cross his mind. In better times, he would have told his parents about Karla. So much had happened since the night he and Karla were together in Munster.

In his present mental state, thinking that he might be killed in Berlin’s next aerial attack didn’t frighten him. Soviet domination of Europe concerned him more. In 1939 when his friend, Boris Strumbulski told him about Hitler’s hysterical blindness at the end of the Great War, he considered their conversation an interesting story which didn’t involve him. How wrong he was. He now realized that Europe was trapped by two evil dictators. He left Bulgaria with a dream he didn’t mention to his parents. Bachev put it in his head. Get to the United States. He couldn’t mention the United States to anyone in Berlin.

Hours after the train left Sofia, he walked to the club car. Ordering light table wine reminded him of Strumbulski. Tonight, he’d be on his own. Waiting to order, he asked himself. How much time do I have?  Bachev had made several calculations. At least a year. Planes above Berlin but no Soviet troops close to Berlin. If the Americans and British didn’t cross the Channel in 1944, he had more than a year. Hitler, Bachev thought, would use the fifty thousand troops in Norway and the similar number in France to protect Berlin.

In the club car, only four tables had diners. After he ordered, he rethought his current problem. If his emotions hadn’t been shocked into quietude, he wouldn’t be able to sit without stress in the club car. Unlike the last time, the tables weren’t jammed together. He imagined Strumbulski whispering to him. Wonder if Boris married Brigitta? His roommate Kabos came to mind. Married Annika. He didn’t know where they married, but he believed they were married. Risked so much to take Annika out of Berlin. At age twenty-one, despite what his last roommate, Kabos said, he wouldn’t classify himself as a naïve Bulgarian any longer.

It saddened him that he had spent years at the Technical University and left without a degree. The education and hands-on training he had received at the university and Dietrich Industries couldn’t be matched by similar programs anywhere else in the world. He’d never meet anyone like Dr. Vincenzo Ottaviani again. In their short time together during the 1940 summer, the perfume chemist made a three-hundred sixty degree turn in his last days in Berlin. The stud farm in Bavaria and his cousin, Pius XII’s assistant, preyed on Ottaviani’s conscience. After he saw teenage girls from the Band of German Maidens mating with SS Waffen  soldiers at the stud farm, Ottaviani drove back to Berlin minutes before the R.A.F. attack in late August 1940. Dr. Vincenzo left Germany with his Nazi perfume formula in his briefcase after insisting that Ivanian switch majors from chemical engineering to mechanical or civil engineering.

One decision Ivanian made saved his life. When he checked the willing to tutor box on the application, he didn’t think the Technical University would ask a Bulgarian to tutor a German. The father of Wilhelm Dietrich, the student he tutored, during SS questioning about Ottaviani’s disappearance, saved Ivanian from his interrogator at Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8.

In the dining car, sipping white wine, he took his time eating the thick soup. Today, unlike last week, he wanted food. At home in Sofia, he ate very little. When he finished the soup, he ordered sausage. At home, an overwhelming tiredness forced him to sleep the days away. After finishing his meal, and his glass of wine, he walked slowly through the  empty coach cars.

BACK IN HIS SEAT, HE took the water systems book from his suitcase. His educational missteps might be helpful if the position in the Berlin Water Department hadn’t been taken by another applicant. His chemistry courses would be useful. To purify reservoir water, he wouldn’t be working with small beakers. Principles similar. Dilution makes a difference in a system Berlin’s size. Small amounts of a contaminant could be tolerated. Professor Stroman’s construction course as well as his mechanical engineering courses would add value to his resume. His hands-on work in Munster for Dietrich Industries would be his best preparation.

The temperature throughout the train didn’t allow passengers to take off their winter coats. Preserving coal. He didn’t think about tomorrow. Sufficient for the day are the troubles thereof- one of his mother’s expressions.

No answer had been received to the telegram he sent Stroman after his parents told him to return to Berlin. Hans Stroman, who had been so helpful at the university, might find him another job if  Max Bauer found someone else. He made up his mind. Not returning to Sofia. Won’t be a Soviet soldier. He laid across the seat. Tired. Still tired. He couldn’t fight it. Praying for his parents, Bachev and his best friend, Dietrich he fell asleep.

ON THE BUDAPEST LAYOVER, he thought about visiting Strumbulski and Kabos, but he couldn’t leave the train. The conductor told passengers with Berlin tickets to remain seated with the shades down.

WHEN HE WOKE AGAIN, the train travelled at high speed. He checked his money belt. During their last talk, the day before he left Sofia, Bachev told him about members of the Russian nobility he met in Paris after the Great War. It stayed with Ivanian. The Russian nobles gave away their fortunes for freedom. Taking menial jobs in Paris. He would be taking a similar journey, but he wouldn’t be going to Paris.

He had slept for hours. Looking out the window in the daylight, German signs told him how close he was. He bought coffee and a pastry from the cart passing through the train. His thoughts turned to the university. Too much of a target to be rebuilt. Bombed houses and apartment buildings won’t be rebuilt. He studied the law of supply and demand in the Economic Theory course he took. If he lived with the Stromans, they wouldn’t charge him excessive rent.

He thought about his best German friend who wouldn’t be in Berlin. Dietrich might be dead. His best friend from his university days could be dead or a Soviet prisoner. Please God spare him. Ivanian went back to the old ways and resumed praying after the major spoke with him. His worldview had changed dramatically in his short time at home in Sofia.

Karl Oberholtzer, his nemeses at the university, he’d never see again. Finding out that Oberholtzer had graduated first in the class Ivanian started in didn’t bother him. His year in Munster separated them.

He took note paper from his coat pocket. He wanted to write home, but his father told him not to. Looking out the window, he recognized names of places close to Berlin. A half-hour away.

AT BERLIN’S CENTRAL Station, he pulled his suitcase from the overhead, and detrained. Walking toward the terminal gate, he realized that his head no longer felt heavy. That part of his systemic shock had ended. Inside the terminal, he saw a familiar face. Smiling Hans Stroman had been waiting for him. They shook hands and walked to Stroman’s Volkswagen. Ivanian asked: How did you know I took this train?

Stroman reminded him about another matter. We still have your trunk at our house. As for the train schedule, things have changed, Toma. One weekly train begins in Bulgaria and ends in Berlin.

Before they reached Stroman’s Volkswagen, Ivanian told him: Mr. Stroman, my parents don’t want me to join the Wehrmacht. I must  support them with money I earn.

Tomorrow, Toma... I’ll reintroduce you to my brother-in–law. In the meantime, you’ll stay with us. Berliners, especially those without shelter, must plan for a day at a time. No bomb damage on our street so far. Lillian thought that you wouldn’t join the Wehrmacht.

Mr. Stroman, Sofia has been attacked. The British attacked the night before my train arrived in Sofia.

You’re not afraid, Toma? It might be safer in Sofia.

Right now, I’m not afraid. It could change. I will be drafted by the Bulgarian army if I stayed home. A soldier’s pay won’t support my parents. I’m free for now. Mr. Stroman, I’ll pay for my room and board.

AT THE STROMAN HOUSE, Lillian hugged him. She couldn’t help herself. When Toma lived in their house during the 1940 summer, she felt that he was the child that she and Hans didn’t have. She almost went out of her mind waiting for him to return home on August 25, 1940- the night of the first R.A.F. attack. Lillian thought he stayed with a Bulgarian girl he met at the Orthodox church in Berlin.

During tonight’s evening meal, Ivanian didn’t say much. Rather than have wine in the parlor, Stroman’s guest, claiming fatigue from the train ride, went upstairs. How he would do tomorrow, Ivanian didn’t know. Hans told him before he went upstairs.

Don’t worry about wages. You will be paid at an engineer’s pay grade.

UPSTAIRS IN THE SAME bedroom where he slept during his first summer in Berlin, Ivanian changed his clothes, and got under the covers. Before he drifted off, he thought about Dr. Vincenzo Ottaviani’s perfume lab. He realized that the Stromans smelled his perfume-soaked clothes on several occasions. They pretended not to notice.

DOWNSTAIRS IN THE PARLOR, Hans and Lillian Stroman sipped Jägermeister. Hans thought they needed a stronger beverage than wine. Concerned about the young man, he tried putting their guest’s behavior into focus:

Something’s wrong with him. I can understand being tired after a long train ride, but there’s more to it than a train ride. Something happened. He’s moving and speaking like someone with a disability. Like one of my older clients who had a slight stroke. He’s not spontaneous. Words come slowly out of his mouth.

Lillian refilled the glasses.

He won’t tell us, Hans. If he wouldn’t tell us why he smelled like a perfume factory a few years ago, he’s not going to tell us what’s wrong. I hope it’s not serious. In time, let’s hope he snaps out of it.

Yesterday, the Stromans had been arguing over when Lillian would move to Freising to be with her sister. Hans wanted her with Anna Weiss and their family. Lillian wanted to stay with her husband. Tonight, Hans had a solution.

Stay until Easter. If I die before then, you must leave. Magda Bauer is leaving with the children after Christmas. I don’t want you here when the Russians take over Berlin. Our savings, the house...none of it matters. Getting to Freising matters. The Soviets will be here...when we don’t know. Getting to your sister’s bakery in Freising matters.

Hans could not have said it more forcibly. His words caused her to ask.

Do you think Toma has any idea about the war?

If he did, he wouldn’t have come back. How could he know? Before it’s over, I’ll find a way for him to be with Karla in Freising. Finding a way to put him on a train to Munich will be a problem. Train travel will be even more restricted in the coming months.

Lillian had another concern. Hans, Karla thinks Toma went back to Bulgaria. I’d like to tell her that he’s in Berlin.

Call him a friend from the university in your letter. She’ll know who it is.

2

BERLIN WATER DEPARTMENT / MEETING WITH BAUER/ DECEMBER 5, 1943

Because the R.A.F.’s planes dominated the night sky,  Max Bauer had been sleeping four hours a night. He  received an early morning phone call. His brother-in-law’s voice aroused him. Bauer knew why he called. 

Hans, you called to tell me that the Bulgarian stayed in Sofia. Why would anyone who left come back?

Max, he’s upstairs in the guest bedroom, and wants to meet you as soon as possible. Toma is concerned about money...sending money to his parents. The father’s disabled.

Bauer wanted to be sure.

Hans, have you told him that he could be killed from an unexploded bomb in one of the streets being repaired, or from an aerial attack while he’s working, or be picked up by the SS for more questioning. I can’t believe there’s no work in Sofia. He decided not to join the Wehrmacht.

Max, he knows there will be danger. Leave it to you to go into details. His parents, as Lillian suspected, talked him out of the Wehrmacht.

Hans, I’ll speak with him this morning. I need help.  Frieda Hartmann will take care of his uniforms. He’ll need an I. D., U and S-Bahn passes, and a ration card. Think that covers it. He’ll need to register with the Draft Board. Where will you be today?

Still estimating damage to  stores and apartment buildings from recent attacks. With all the bombing, it’s amazing that we still have our homes. Lillian will be over to see Magda today. Next month, she’ll miss not seeing her sister. It’s the right move for your family.

Bauer coughed. I don’t know how I’ll be without Magda and the children in the house. Too dangerous for them to stay here. Not sure Berlin will be standing much longer. So many people walking the streets with suitcases.

The conversation ended when Magda called Max to breakfast.

TWO HOURS LATER, AT the Water Department Maintenance and Repair building, Bauer called a trusted employee into his office. After she closed the door, he asked Frieda Hartmann to sit.

Smoke if you wish.

Frieda, a tall heavy-set widow approaching forty, took advantage of his invitation. She held her position because the man she lived with, General Franz Decker, the deputy military commander of Berlin, endorsed her.

Frieda, the Bulgarian student returned to Berlin. I’m hiring him. Toma Ivanian... that’s his name... went home to tell his parents that he intended to enlist in the Wehrmacht. His parents talked him out of it. Now, he wants to be my assistant...so he can support his parents in Bulgaria. If he stayed at home, he’d be drafted by the Bulgarian army. I think that’s why he came back. How long will he last? Hopefully, he’ll stay through the winter.

Frieda Hartmann went on the payroll in October 1943. In their short time together, Bauer had grown close to her. Unlike women in the office with romantic partners at the civilian branch of the SS located at Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8, the serious faced widow couldn’t be described as attractive. Bauer never thought that General Decker would take her as his mistress after his wife and children relocated to Munich. He sent her to  Decker for his endorsement because her dead husband had served under him in North Africa.

When Ivanian left Berlin after the Technical University closed in late November, Bauer didn’t think he’d return. From everything Stroman told him about the young man, Bauer thought Ivanian’s parents would keep him in Bulgaria. Bauer knew that the same problem would surface in Berlin. An exemption from the military conscription required cooperation from General Decker.

FOR BAUER’S SAKE, FRIEDA Hartmann wanted the young man in the Department. Bauer forgot to ask her. This will slip my mind if I don’t ask you now. Assuming Berlin hasn’t been destroyed by Christmas, and we all make it to the holidays, Magda wants you to visit us on Christmas Eve. Last chance to see my wife and children. If General Decker goes home to Munich for the  holiday, you’re welcome to stay with us.

Frieda smiled. Thanks Max. The name she used when they had privacy. "I want to see Magda and the children before they leave. The general hasn’t said anything. It depends on how many more nighttime raids the R.A.F. makes. He can’t leave for Munich until his commanding general gives him authorization. It also depends on General Decker wanting to go home. Lately, since the bombing intensified, his wife has been calling from Munich every day. We’re now...his wife and I... on a first name basis. I think she