“We haven’t seen one and earlier surveillance didn’t mention it,” the team leader replied. “I think this is a thrown-together mission that the SS takes more seriously than the Wehrmacht does. If we had waited, security would have tightened. I think we can do this.”
“All right. If the family agrees to go, both of you stay with them until you reach the safehouse.”
With that, the two disappeared once more into the night, followed shortly by the next group.
Waiting alone in the dark, Ferrand looked up at the sky and breathed in deeply, exhaling slowly. His nerves on the raw end, he expected the night to erupt into gunfire at any moment.
“We won’t get away clean,” he muttered. “Bergmann is vengeful. He’ll get even.” Still, we must resist. They cannot take our country without a fight.
Four more teams went through. Ferrand breathed a little easier. With only two more families to rescue—
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of machine gun fire. Tracers lit up the night sky. He leaped to his feet. The next to the last group arrived, but no third man returned from the previous set.
“Go!” he told the team members. “Abort the mission. Tell the ones behind you. Follow your escape plans.”
38
Oberstleutnant Meier paced, his face red with anger while Hauptman Bergmann stood at attention. Both men had received early morning calls about the skirmish that had taken place last night in the neighborhood on the northeastern edge of town.
“I specifically instructed you to clear your plans with me before taking action,” the commander bellowed.
“Increasing security where it already exists is not ‘taking action,’” Bergmann replied tersely without breaking his stance. “Obviously, the partisans had a plan already underway when my men took their posts in that neighborhood, and my report will say—”
Meier swung around in fury. “Are you threatening me?” he interrupted. “Your narrative might be obvious to you, but it is not obvious to me. What is blatantly clear is that you had a soldier out of control: Kallsen. Without provocation, you entered a peaceful neighborhood to interrogate its inhabitants, you executed a man without the slightest investigation, and then inflamed the population by your continued harassment. From the time you left for Berlin until your return, they had given no problem.
“You haven’t been back even a day, and now I have four men being treated for concussion, and you have seven in the same state. Three of those received bullet wounds, probably from their own rifles, and the weapons and ammunition belonging to the wounded are gone, taken by the partisans. That’s what my report will say.”
Bergmann started to say something.
“I’ll tell you when you can speak,” Meier stormed. He whirled and shook his finger in the captain’s face. “We don’t wage war on women and children.”
“My job is to seek out and eliminate threats to our führer and the Third Reich,” Bergmann blurted.
Meier’s tone mocked. “You’re going to make the argument that a tiny neighborhood with mainly old people and families with young children represents such a threat?” He barely contained his exasperation. Taking a deep breath, he lowered his voice. “Your job is to do as you are told. You are not alone in defending the reich. We all share that job. During and after the end of this war, Germany will have to govern these people. We should avoid starting a new front behind our own lines by inciting the population to violence against us. Their actions will be aimed primarily at our soldiers whom we need alive and well to fight our wars. Tell me you understand that.”
Bergmann said nothing, standing stone-faced, eyes looking straight ahead.
“Dismissed,” Meier said.
Bergmann did not move.
“Did you hear me, Hauptman. You are dismissed.”
“Sir, may I speak?”
Meier hesitated, holding back his disgust. Then, he gave permission with a nod.
“You might be right,” Bergmann said, “and I have no wish to be at cross-purposes with you.”
Meier shot him a searching glance. “At ease. Speak.”
Mindful of the Meier dossier he had read, Bergman spread his feet apart and relaxed a bit. “If I brought this trouble on us, then I apologize. Regardless, we now have a situation in which our soldiers were attacked, their weapons taken, and probably used against them. Someone organized and led that raid. My considered opinion is that we cannot let that pass.”
“Agreed,” Meier said, only slightly mollified. “What do you suggest?”
“What if we were to announce that we seek the criminal individuals who mounted the attack, in particular their leader? We can offer a reward and state that a reprisal will occur after so many days if we are unable to make arrests.”
Meier continued to pace, rubbing his chin. “I’ll tell you plainly that I’m not a fan of reprisals, and I won’t go after the remaining families in that neighborhood. The last thing we need is to make martyrs out of them and turn their names into battle cries.
“What would you offer as a reward and how would you carry out the reprisal? Keep in mind that a threat is most effective prior to its execution.”
“The answer to the first part of your question is simple,” Bergmann replied. “Money. We need to pick an amount.” He took a moment to put additional thoughts together. “We could structure the reprisals over a number of days. For instance, when we make the announcement, we could say that if we do not have the information we seek by the following day, we will arrest a single person. We’ll double the number each day for the next four days. On the sixth day, if we have nothing satisfactory, we will shoot one of those arrested, double again the next day, and so on. If we reach day eleven without information, we will have arrested and shot thirty-one people.”
“And achieved nothing.”
“I don’t believe it will come to that. When fathers are torn from their homes and jailed, people will talk. I am sure that
