“State Secretary to the General Government. What would he have done, exactly?”
Halder spread his hands. The backs were thick with freckles, wisps of reddish-gold hair curled from his cuffs. “He and Frank had absolute authority. They did whatever they liked. At that time, the main priority would have been resettlement.”
March wrote “resettlement” in his notebook, and ringed it. “How did that happen?”
“What is this? A seminar?” Halder arranged a triangle of plates in front of him — two smaller ones to the left, a larger one to the right. He pushed them together so they touched. “All this is Poland before the war. After ’39, the western provinces” — he tapped the small plates — “were brought into Germany. Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and Reichsgau Wartheland.” He detached the large plate. “And this became the General Government. The rump state. The two western provinces were Germanised. It’s not my field, you understand, but I’ve seen some figures. In 1940, they set a target density of one hundred Germans per square kilometre. And they managed it in the first three years. An incredible operation, considering the war was still on.”
“How many people were involved?”
“One million. The SS eugenics bureau found Germans in places you’d never have dreamed of — Rumania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia. If your skull had the proper measurements and you came from the right village — you were just given a ticket.”
“And Buhler?”
“Ah. Well. To make room for a million Germans in the new Reichsgaue, they had to move out a million Poles.”
“And they went to the General Government?”
Halder turned his head and glanced around furtively, to make sure he was not overheard — “the German look”, people called it. “They also had to cope with the Jews being expelled from Germany and the western territories -France, Holland, Belgium.”
“Jews?”
“Yes, yes. Keep your voice down.” Halder was speaking so quietly, March had to lean across the table to hear. “You can imagine — it was chaos. Overcrowding. Starvation. Disease. From what one can gather, the place is still a shit-hole, despite what they say.”
Every week the newspapers and television carried appeals from the East Ministry for settlers willing to move to the General Government. “Germans! Claim your birthright! A farmstead — free! Income guaranteed for the first five years.” The advertisements showed happy colonists living in luxury. But word of the real story had filtered back — an existence conditioned by poor soil, back-breaking work, and drab satellite towns to which the Germans had to return at dusk for fear of attack from local partisans. The General Government was worse than the Ukraine; worse than Ostland; worse, even, than Muscovy.
A waiter came over to offer more coffee. March waved him away. When the man was out of earshot, Halder continued in the same low tone: “Frank ran everything from Wawel Castle in Krakau. That would have been where Buhler was based. I have a friend who works in the official archives there. God, he has some stories… Apparently, the luxury was incredible. Like something out of the Roman Empire. Paintings, tapestries, looted treasures from the church, jewellery. Bribes in cash and bribes in kind, if you know what I mean.” Halder’s blue eyes shone at the thought, his eyebrows danced.
“And Buhler was involved in this?”
“Who knows? If not, he must have been about the only one who wasn’t.”
“That would explain why he had a house on Schwanen-werder.”
Halder whistled softly. “There you are then. We had the wrong sort of war, my friend. Cooped up in a stinking metal coffin two hundred metres under the Atlantic, when we could have been in a Silesian castle, sleeping on silk with a couple of Polish girls for company.”
There was more March would have liked to ask him but he had no time. As they were leaving, Halder said: “So you’ll come round to dinner with my BdM woman?”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Maybe we can persuade her to wear her uniform.” Standing outside the hotel, with his hands thrust deep in his pockets and his long scarf wrapped twice around his neck, Halder looked even more like a student. Suddenly he struck his forehead with the flat of his hand. “I clean forgot! I meant to tell you. My memory … A couple of Sipo guys were round at the Archiv last week asking about you.”
March felt his smile shrink. The Gestapo? What did they want?” He managed to keep his tone light, off- hand.
“Oh, the usual sort of stuff. 'What was he like during the war? Does he have any strong political views? Who are his friends?' What’s going on, Zavi? You up for promotion or something?”
“I must be.” He told himself to relax. It was probably only a routine check. He must remember to ask Max if he had heard anything about a new screening.
“Well, when they’ve made you head of the Kripo, don’t forget your old friends.”
March laughed. “I won’t.” They shook hands. As they parted, March said: “I wonder if Buhler had any enemies.”
“Oh yes,” said Halder, “of course.”
“Who were they then?”
Halder shrugged. “Thirty million Poles, for a start.”
The only person on the second floor at Werderscher Markt was a Polish cleaning woman. Her back was to March as he came out of the lift. All he could see was a large rump resting on the soles of a pair of black rubber boots, and the red scarf tied round her hair bobbing as she scrubbed the floor. She was singing softly to herself in her native language. As she heard him approach she stopped and turned her head to the wall. He squeezed past her and went into his office. When the door had closed he heard her begin singing again.
It was not yet nine. He hung his cap by the door and unbuttoned his tunic. There was a large brown envelope on his desk. He opened it and shook out the contents, the scene-of-crime photographs. Glossy colour pictures of Buhler’s body, sprawled like a sunbather’s at the side of the lake.
He lifted the ancient typewriter from the top of the filing cabinet and carried it across to his desk. From a wire basket he took two pieces of much-used carbon paper, two flimsy sheets and one standard report form, arranged them in order, and wound them into the machine. Then he lit a cigarette and stared at the dead plant for a few minutes. He began to type.
To: Chief, VB3(a)
SUBJECT: Unidentified body (male)
FROM: X. March, SS-Sturmbannfuhrer 15.4.64
I beg to report the following.
1. At 06.28 yesterday, I was ordered to attend the recovery of a body from the Havel. The body had been discovered by SS-Schutze Hermann Jost at 06.02 and reported to the Ordnungspolizei (statement attached).
2. No male of the correct description having been reported missing, I arranged for the fingerprints of the subject to be checked against records.
3. This has enabled the subject to be identified as Doctor Josef Buhler, a Party member with the honorary rank of SS-Brigadefuhrer. The subject served as State Secretary in the General Government, 1939-51.
4. A preliminary investigation at the scene by SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Doctor August Eisler indicated the likely cause of death as drowning, and the likely time of death some time on the night of 13 April.
5. The subject lived on Schwanenwerder, close to where the body was found.
6. There were no obvious suspicious circumstances.
7. A full autopsy examination will be carried out following formal identification of the subject by next-of- kin.
March pulled the report out of the typewriter, signed it, and left it with a messenger in the foyer on his way out.
