Upfall

Globocnik and Wirth accompanied with their prisoner, Major Shapira, to Prague. Heydrich provided an aircraft, demonstrating his strong interest in the captive. It was not as clear to Globocnik why Heydrich had summoned the two German officers.

Globocnik hated to fly. He tried to calm stay calm perusing Schwarze Korps, the official SS newspaper. Inside, he read an article about the heroic and successful anti-partisan operations conducted by Regiment Der Fuehrer in Poland. The unit had returned triumphantly to France to complete training with the rest of the division, readying itself for another deployment to Russia. Globocnik smiled at that. Stadler had skillfully woven the sow's ear of defeat into a silken victory. He had to hand it to the man, if he survived the war he‘d be a successful politician. But Globocnik had interrogated enough men to know a tall tale when he heard one. Der Fuehrer's astonishing losses—including its commander—as against a hundred or so dead partisans, hardly sounded like a real success. But since it was not in Globo‘s own interest to contest the account, Stadler's "victory" was also his.

Wirth had likewise stitched a tale of success from the disaster that befell him at Belzec. But Wirth‘s redemptive prize was the commando officer, who evidently was the redoubtable unit's leader. And Shapira was a real Jew to boot, based on his own admissions, and confirmed by an examination of his penis.

Genuinely happy to touch down alive, Globocnik was further encouraged to be met at the airport by a driver and a general's staff car. A truck and a squad of SS guards awaited the prisoner, who was roughly tossed in the back after the obligatory exchange of paperwork.

The little convoy set off for Heydrich's headquarters in Prague's city center. Heydrich‘s offices were in a striking baroque building near the famous castle. An immaculately uniformed guard led Globocnik and Wirth though the glass entry door and up a flight of marble stairs. Atop the stairs the guard directed them into an ornately furnished anteroom were where they waited hungrily through the lunch hour. Neither man was offered anything to eat by Heydrich's aides though their stomachs rumbled noticeably. Perhaps a good sign reasoned Globo hopefully—Heydrich wouldn't shoot an SS General without offering a final meal would he? Globo discarded the thought—of course he would. Finally, an SS Captain led them down the short hallway into Heydrich‘s office, which offered a spectacular view of the castle.

Heydrich sat behind his empty polished desk, dressed impeccably as usual, his blouse full of decorations. The bland and taciturn Colonel Eichman stood nearby. Globe and Wirth clicked their heels and offered stiff Nazi salutes. Heydrich returned the salute and offered Globocnik the single chair in front of the desk. Wirth remained nervously at parade rest.

"Well gentlemen" said Heydrich swarmily "when last we met Sturmbannfuhrer Wirth was put in charge of Belzec camp and you, Obergruppenfuhrer were given a security division and a Waffen SS Regiment to hunt down a British commando detachment and their partisan gangs." Heydrich smiled thinly. "How did we do?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

Globocnik summoned his full authority—he was an SS General after all and spoke commandingly. "The enemy commando force was destroyed. Its leader captured and in your hands. Regiment Der Fuehrer killed or wounded hundreds of enemy bandits and ran the rest off. Major Wirth successfully defended Belzec camp, killing at least two dozen more enemy commandos and partisans. We've captured two new British weapons of great value, the Oozi submachinegun, and a remarkable automatic don't know what it's called but."

"According to the Hebrew lettering, it‘s called the Galil" said Eichmann from his perch.

"Unfortunately" continued Globocnik, uninterested in Eichmann‘s minutiae, "the gassing complex at Belzec was damaged in the battle."

"Colonel Eichman tells me that seven of ten gas chambers and all the gassing engines were destroyed—is that correct, Major Wirth?"

"Ja, Mein Herr" answered Wirth. "But otherwise the camp is intact."

"The whole point of the camp was the gassing complex" interrupted Heydrich. "It was rebuilt and expanded at great effort and expense, and now it is effectively destroyed, yes?"

"Ja, Mein Herr”

"Like Sobibor and Treblinka" sniffed Heydrich. "Of the three camps created to implement the final solution ordered by the Fuehrer, none are operational. And I have in my charge a two million Jews overflowing their rancid ghettos throughout the eastern Reich." Heydrich said all this evenly, without raising his voice an octave, which made it all the more menacing. Globocnik and Wirth stayed silent, terrified by Heydrich's repressed rage. Globo felt certain that a firing squad awaited them in the courtyard.