From the Ashes (15 page)

“Yeah, with McCarthyism and all that?”

“That’s it. Senator Joe McCarthy’s fear-mongering had people seeing communists in their closets, under their beds, in every school, every public office, every person of influence, great and small. The arms race was taking off, the space race was about to start, and tensions between the nations were escalating, so it was natural that someone would take advantage of the fear for their own benefit.”

Jon smiled mischievously, as though he were letting her in on a secret that not everyone was privy too. “But there was another Red Scare thirty years earlier. Shortly after the Bolsheviks seized control of Russia and created the Soviet Union, Americans were just as fearful of a communist plot to overthrow the government taking place in their own nation. In fact, really, from the October Revolution in 1917 until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, many Americans were absolutely terrified about the possibility of a communist revolution in the good ol’ U.S. of A.”

“And this has to do with the loans... how?”

“Oh, right. Sorry, got sidetracked there, didn’t I? So yeah; the third, and perhaps most controversial reason that we entered the war officially in 1917 was to protect the interests of Big Banking.”

“Protect their interests how? To end the war quickly so our allies could pay us back?”

“Partially, yes. But we’d lent Britain and France a buttload of money. What happens to all that money if Germany conquers them?”

Mara lifted her hands as though in acquiescence. “The American bankers can kiss it goodbye.”

“Exactly. You think Germany would pay back loans that were used to finance weapons that were used against them? Hardly. Britain and France lose, all of Big Banking’s investment is lost as well. So we entered in, the Allies won, and Big Banking got its money back. But victory was not without a cost. More than a hundred thousand American soldiers were killed in the nineteen short months we were fighting. The resultant public outcry, especially over allegations that the real reason for the invasion was to safeguard Big Banking’s investments, all but guaranteed the isolationist stance the United States would largely take on foreign affairs for the next two decades, right up to Pearl Harbor.”

“War-for-profit, huh?” Mara raised an eyebrow incredulously. “Sounds like a conspiracy theory.”

“You’d be surprised at how often those conspiracy theories turn out to be true. Of course, the vast majority are bunk, but there have to be some that are true in order to inspire the false ones. The U.S. has participated in its share of real conspiracies, especially within the realm of international politicking. The Cold War was just one long series of secret operations conducted by the CIA and KGB behind the scenes, the truths hidden from their respective citizens for years, decades even. Who knows, maybe there are still some more secrets that we don’t know about.”

“Maybe like what Michael found.”

Jon’s jaw tightened involuntarily. “Yeah. Like what Michael found.” He plopped down on the loveseat next to Mara, some of the wind suddenly gone from his sails.

“So the article,” Mara prodded, pointing at the open notebook. “You were saying about the Weimar Republic—”

“Right, yeah, sorry. So Germany gets their loans, France and Britain get their reparations payments, and American bankers are growing fat and happy. And best of all for American policy-makers and financiers, Germany didn’t fall to the dreaded communist conspiracy that they believed threatened to move west from the newly created Soviet Union. The USSR was shaky at this point, to be sure, but the Germans were desperate, and God forbid the industrial heart of Europe, which also happened to be roughly the geographical center of the non-Soviet part of the continent, should fall to communism. Instead, after the Dawes Plan went into effect, Germany actually looked a lot like America in the Roaring Twenties: young people rich quick off investments, parties, movie stars, living the high life, everything glamorous and flashy. Of course, it was American money that financed the whole system. And like America’s high-rolling lifestyle in the ‘twenties, the whole system crashed and burned.”

Jon took a deep breath, then continued. “July of ’29, Germany’s economy is faltering, and the powers-that-be held another meeting in Paris. The plan they came up with this time was called the Young Plan, named after American banker Owen Young who chaired the commission, like Charles Dawes before him. It basically said that they would continue the loans to Germany, and the payments to France would be lessened. Of course, with the reduced payments, Germany would have paid France reparations until 1988.”

Mara looked shocked. “Geez.”

“I know, right? Lots of crazy ideas that to us don’t seem very practical, but France had their vendetta, America had their prosperity to keep bolstering, and Germany had to get out of their slump somehow. Plus, we’ve got the benefit of hindsight.

“So the Young Plan looks like it’ll fix things again, but before it can be put into effect, Germany gets hit with two big blows: Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, the architect of much of the nation’s economic and political stability, a symbol of hope for his people, dies; and then, just three weeks later, Black Thursday hits.”

“The stock market crash?”

“Yup. Thursday, October 24, 1929 – and the weeks thereafter – saw the market plummet, banks fail, investments vanish. You’ve seen the pictures and heard the stories about how bad things were in America. Well, when America’s money dried up, so did its loans to Germany. And if you think America was hit hard, consider the fact that Germany’s economy was already starting to falter before October, and that virtually
all
of their money dried up – especially when, after America tried to call in their loans, they couldn’t pay their lenders back. Bad credit.”

“But that wasn’t the end of the Weimar Republic, though, right?”

“No, not quite, but it
was
the beginning of the end. Unlike America, which had been around for a century-and-a-half and had attracted millions of immigrants from across the globe, many in Germany didn’t want Weimar to continue. It was only a decade strong, and that had been a turbulent decade at best. This was proof positive for many of its detractors that this democratic, free-market capitalistic state wouldn’t work. So several groups, including the Nazis, took it upon themselves to take advantage of the situation and try to uproot the system once and for all.

“Now the Nazis, an insignificant group of a few dozen members until 1919, when it was first lent the charismatic oratory skills of a young disillusioned veteran named Adolf Hitler, had been known as nothing more than a band of rabble-rousers in the early ‘twenties. Trying to stir up dissent and public discord, acts of vandalism, hate speech, threats against Jewish business owners; that sort of thing. But after the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, when Hitler and the Nazis unsuccessfully tried to overthrow the government by force, Hitler decided that the group wouldn’t go that route again. When he got out of prison, he stated the new direction of the Nazi Party: politics. They would win seats in the Reichstag – the German parliament – and other governmental bodies to bring down the system from within.

“People didn’t take them seriously as a political force at first, and, in 1928, during the first national election where the Hitler-led NSDAP was on the ballot, their showing was fairly pitiful. Their 2.6 percent of the national vote landed them a few seats in the 491-seat Reichstag, but they were nothing more than a footnote, with no real power to speak of. The centrists held most of the power, and it kept things mostly even-keeled. But the fact that they had won
some
seats inspired Hitler, and thus, the party, to keep it up. So they campaigned like crazy, Hitler himself touring much of the country and presenting himself as a man of the people, angry in true Hitler fashion with the corruption that he claimed had seized the government and culture, the corruption that was destroying the German ideals of life and art, the subversion that was most often, for Hitler, embodied in the Jews.”

Mara shook her head in disgust. “Easiest way to unify a people: give them a common enemy. And Lord knows the Jews have had their share of it.”

“Of course, the Nazis weren’t the only ones villainizing the Jews then: they were just the best at it. And then they get their biggest boon: Black Thursday. The country was plunged into economic chaos again, and, just like in 1923, the extremists, like the Nazis and the Communists, seized the opportunity to stir the populace into even more of a frenzy. Only this time, the American cavalry lost their horses on the stock exchange, and their rifles had been confiscated by public isolationist sentiment. Germany was left to deal with the chaos on its own, and radical groups, left- and right-wing alike, skyrocketed in popularity.

“The radicals promised drastic changes, and it was obvious to the German people, witnessing economic, political, and social chaos, that major change was needed. Given, much of the political and social chaos was abetted, if not orchestrated, by some of these radical groups, but that was beside the point. The people wanted major change, and the far-left and the far-right were there to deliver.”

Jon took a drink of water from one of the glass tumblers on the coffee table before continuing. “The Nazis saw a huge jump in governmental representation after the elections of 1930, both at the local level and the national. In one fell swoop, they had virtual control over many regions of the country, especially in places like Bavaria, where the movement had gotten its start. Even more importantly, they were the second largest party in the Reichstag, having won over a hundred seats. Thanks to the stock market crash and its ramifications for Germany, the Nazis had gone from footnote to force-to-be-reckoned-with in less than two years. But they weren’t done yet. Hitler had his eye on total Nazi domination, and he would stop at nothing less than the ultimate power to assert his vision upon Germany and indeed the whole of Europe.

“A massive campaign was launched in the build-up to the 1932 elections. Between Hitler’s passionate orations and Joseph Goebbels’s masterful use of propaganda, the Nazis’ popularity continued to soar. The fact that the Chancellorship was a virtual revolving door as the faces inhabiting the top tiers of the halls of power kept changing, another sign that the Republic was in serious trouble, didn’t hurt either.

“The Nazis received substantial funding from industrial magnates like Fritz Thyssen and Alfred Krupp, who had a lot to lose if the country should fall to the
other
radical camp, i.e. the Communists, and the seizure of their vast assets in the government-controlled system they would instate should they come to power. There were rumors that the Soviets were sending money to the Communist Party of Germany, the KPD, but the Nazis? Until Hitler came to power in ’33, the Nazis really didn’t have many supporters internationally. Certainly none who would give them significant campaign funding. Nobody took them seriously as a political body. As a group not to be crossed, sure, but capable of efficiently running a country? Hardly. That’s really weird...”

“Maybe it was propaganda by the newspaper?” Mara offered. “Trying to show that the Nazis have the support of the international community, established allies if they come into power?”

“Or maybe the other way around, maybe trying to say that they’re not as purely German as they claim to be, taking funding from outsiders and thus being beholden to some foreign beneficiary?” Jon shook his head. “But Michael didn’t seem to think so. It looks like he took the international funding seriously, like it was real, like it was important.” He sighed, his brow furrowed, his eyes a mixture of confusion and concern.

“Well, thanks for the history lesson.”

“What? Oh yeah, sure. Anytime.”

“Of that, I have no doubt,” Mara said with a smile, which Jon half-returned.

He turned the page again. This time, a tourist map of modern-day Manhattan was pasted to the page. Hand-drawn circles designated various spots on the map – the United Nations, Radio City Music Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Fort Tryon Park, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, and a few other locations around the city that hadn’t made it onto the tourist circuit, thus remaining unlabeled on the map. Below the map, Michael’s handwriting:
‘Where did he hide it?’

“Hide
what?”
Mara asked the page in exasperation. “And who’s
he?”

Jon just stared at the map. A connection was there, between those locations. He should know it. He
did
know it. It just wasn’t coming.

After unsuccessfully wracking his brain for the answer, he turned the page once more. The final page with Michael’s research, his handwriting. Four newspaper articles, all four labeled as coming from the
Brooklyn Herald,
a newspaper Jon had never heard of. Probably long defunct. The dates on the articles were from nearly two decades after most of the others: October 1957.

He started to scan the first article, then, reading Michael’s notation, began reading again, this time paying closer attention to detail. Mara read along beside him.

The article reported the suicide of a man who had killed himself by
hanging
himself from the Brooklyn Bridge. Lots of people had jumped to their death – hitting the surface of the water from that height was enough to break every bone in a person’s body, and if the impact didn’t kill you, it was hard to swim to safety, even if you wanted to, with broken arms and legs – but
hanging
yourself, with a length of cable no less, from the Brooklyn Bridge. That had to be to send a message. About himself, about what drove him to his death, some sort of statement that
someone
was supposed to get. Had they?

Then his eyes reached another startling statement. This man matched the description of a soldier who had supposedly been killed in Korea in 1951, a Roger Blumhurst. Blumhurst’s identification papers had been found in the pocket of the suit coat the suicide victim had been wearing. And Blumhurst’s estranged daughter, one Catherine Smith, had confirmed that the recently deceased man was indeed her father.