A Man Without Breath

Signalman Lutz came into the room bearing a telemessage from Berlin. He delivered a smart Hitler salute and then left us in private, although having decoded the message on the Enigma he knew the contents well enough.

‘It’s from Admiral Canaris himself,’ said Von Gersdorff.

I glanced at my watch. ‘I guess he’s one of those admirals who can’t sleep on land.’

‘Not with Himmler breathing down his neck.’ Von Gersdorff started to read aloud.

‘MET BERRUGUETE IN 1936. NOT SURPRISED WAS MURDERED AS B. MAJOR ARCHITECT OF FRANCOIST POST-WAR REPRESSION.’

‘Yes, of course,’ he said, breaking off for a moment, ‘the admiral was stationed in Spain during the civil war, setting up our own spy network down there. Canaris learned to speak fluent Spanish while he was a prisoner in Chile during the last lot. There’s no one in the whole Tirpitzufer knows more about the Iberian peninsula than him. It was the admiral who persuaded Hitler to support Franco during the war. Spain has always been his special area of interest.’

‘That worked out well for everyone,’ I said.

Von Gersdorff ignored me – he was good at that – and continued reading the telemessage:

‘B. STUDIED MEDICINE AT UNIV. VALLADOLID AND ANTHROPOLOGY AT KAISER WILHELM INSTITUTE IN BERLIN WHERE INFLUENCED BY OTMAR FREIHERR VON VERSCHUER AND PROF VON DOHNA-SCHLODIEN WHO ARGUED CASE FOR STERILIZING MENTALLY DISABLED. TAUGHT GENETICS AT CIEMPOZUELOS MILITARY CLINIC. 1938 SET UP RESEARCH BUREAU OF INSPECTION OF POWS IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS NEAR SAN PEDRO DE CARDENA. CARRIED OUT EXPERIMENTS ON INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE POWS TO ESTABLISH EXISTENCE OF A RED GENE BELIEVING ALL MARXISTS WERE GENETIC RETARDS. PROVIDED FRANCO WITH SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENTS TO JUSTIFY FASCIST VIEWS ON SUBHUMAN NATURE OF RED ADVERSARIES. CARRIED OUT FORENSIC WORK ON MANY SPANISH COMMUNISTS LOOKING FOR EVIDENCE OF SMALLER BRAINS. PROB RESPONSIBLE FOR SPANISH STERILIZATION PROGRAMME AND REMOVAL OF 30,000 CHILDREN FROM RED FAMILIES. BELIEVES ALL REDS ARE DEGENERATE AND IF ALLOWED TO BREED WILL ENFEEBLE SPANISH RACE. NONSENSE, OF COURSE, SO GOOD RIDDANCE. COMMUNISTS JUST WRONG NOT EVIL. ROSA LUXEMBURG THE MOST INTELLIGENT WOMAN I EVER MET. CANARIS.’

Von Gersdorff took a last puff on his cigarette before extinguishing it. ‘Jesus,’ he said.

‘No relation, I suppose?’ I said cruelly. ‘Von Verschuer and Professor von Dohna-Schlodien?’

Von Gersdorff frowned. ‘I believe I met a Von Dohna-Schlodien who commanded a Freikorps in the Silesian uprisings. He was a navy man not a doctor. Perhaps it’s his son to whom Canaris was referring. But I strongly object to the implied suggestion that my family in any way condones the sterilization of mentally disabled people.’

‘Take it easy, Bismarck. I’m not suggesting anything that would get you drummed out of the club.’

‘Really, Gunther, I wonder how it is that you can have stayed alive for so long. Especially under the current government.’

‘I like the way you say that,’ I told him. ‘Like you think there’s another government just around the corner.’

‘It’s very simple. When we get rid of Hitler, we’ll have a government that’s worthy of the name.’

‘You mean a government of the barons. Or even the restoration of the monarchy.’

‘Would that be so bad? Tell me. I’m interested in your opinion.’

‘No you’re not. You just think you are. And I’m more interested in your opinion about what’s going on in Germany right now, and not what might happen in the future. You’re in the Abwehr. You’re supposed to know more than most about what is going on. Do you suppose it’s possible there are German doctors conducting similar experiments?’

‘Frankly? I think the Nazis are capable of just about anything. After Borisov …’

‘Borisov?’

‘It’s a city in the Minsk Oblast. In early 1942 we learned that six death camps were in operation around Borisov where more than thirty thousand Jews have been systematically killed. Since then we have learned of the existence of many larger camps: Sobibor, Chelmno, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka. I don’t doubt for a minute that there are things going on in these places that would horrify any decent German. It’s equally certain that the mentally weak are already being murdered in special clinics throughout the Reich.’

‘I thought as much.’

Both of us were silent for a moment before Von Gersdorff brandished the plain text in his hand. ‘Well, there’s your motive,’ he said. ‘Quite clearly this Dr Berruguete was a bastard. And deserved to be murdered.’

‘With an attitude like that I don’t think you have much of a future as a policeman, colonel.’

‘No, perhaps not.’

‘Didn’t you say that Dr Kramsta had a brother, Ulrich, who was murdered in a Spanish concentration camp?’

‘Yes. I did. Only I don’t know if Berruguete had anything to do with it.’

‘But she might.’

‘She might at that.’