A Quiet Flame

“Of course. Everyone knows everyone else in Günzburg. It’s a very Catholic little town. Walter and I were at school together. At least until he failed his Abitur. He was always more interested in sports. Especially winter sports. He was a fantastic skater and skier. And I should know. I’m a good skier myself. Anyway, he quarreled with his father and went to work in Munich. I passed my Abitur and went to study in Munich. We lived very separate lives but, occasionally, we would meet up for a beer. I even lent him a bit of money now and then.

“My family was quite wealthy by the standards of Günzburg. Even today, Günzburg is the Mengele family. But my father, Karl, was a cold figure and somewhat jealous of me, I think. For this reason, perhaps, he kept me short of money when I was at medical school and I resolved to earn some extra myself. It so happened that another old friend’s girl was pregnant, and, having already studied quite a bit on the subject of obstetrics and gynecology as a student, I offered to help them get rid of it. Actually, it’s quite a simple procedure. Before long, I’d carried out several abortions. I made quite a bit of money. I bought a small car with the proceeds.

“Then Walter’s girlfriend got pregnant. Elizabeth was a lovely girl. Too good for Walter. Anyway, she was adamant that she didn’t want to keep the child. She wanted to go to university and study medicine herself.” Mengele frowned and shook his head. “I thought I was helping her. But. There were complications. A hemorrhage. Even in a hospital bed, she would probably have died, you understand. But this was in my apartment, in Munich. And I had no way of helping her. She bled to death on my kitchen table.” He paused for a moment and almost looked troubled at the memory of it. “You must remember, I was still a young man, with my whole future ahead of me. I wanted to help people. As a doctor, you understand. Anyway, I panicked. I had a dead body on my hands. And it would have been quite obvious to any pathologist that she had had an abortion. I was desperate to cover my tracks.

“It was Walter’s idea, really, that I should remove all her sexual organs. There had been some lurid details of an old lust murder in some magazine he’d been reading, and he said that if we made Elizabeth’s death look like one of those, it would at least ensure the police did not come looking for an illegal abortionist. I agreed. So I cut her up, like something out of an anatomy lesson, and Walter disposed of her body. His father in Günzburg gave him an alibi. Said he’d been at home at the time of Elizabeth’s death. He was used to doing that for Walter. But after that, Walter had to toe the line. Do what his father told him. Which is how he ended up joining the SS. To keep him out of trouble.” Mengele laughed. “Ironic, really, when you think about it. The Americans shot him at Dachau.” He shook his head. “But I certainly didn’t mean to kill that poor girl. She was lovely. A real Aryan beauty. I was trying to help her. And why not? She made a mistake, that’s all. It happens all the time. And to the most respectable people.”

“Tell me about Kassner,” I said. “How did you know him?”

“From Munich. His estranged wife lived there. He was trying to persuade her to come back to him. Unsuccessfully, as it turned out. Someone introduced us at a party. And it turned out we shared a number of interests. In anthropology, in human genetics, in medical research, and in National Socialism. He was a friend of Goebbels, you know. Anyway, I used to go and visit him in Berlin. To spend in the fleshpots some of what I’d been making from carrying out abortions. They were the best times of my life. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what Berlin was like in those days. There was complete sexual license.”

“Which is how you caught a dose of jelly.”

“Yes, that’s right. How did you know about that?”

“And Kassner treated you with the new ‘magic bullet’ he was testing for I. G. Farben. Protonsil.”

Mengele looked impressed. “Yes. That’s right, too. I can see that the reputation of the Berlin police force was well deserved.”

“He was also treating Goebbels for venereal disease. Did you know that? I suspect it’s one of the reasons I was taken off the case. Because someone thought that I might find out about it. Which I did, of course.”