The Shield: a novel (14 page)

“
Our best estimate is about seventeen thousand, trained workers and their families. Also some slaves.”

The intercom buzzed. “Yes,” Hitler said quietly.

“A message from the General staff radio room. Personal and confidential for you, sir.”

Hitler had the message brought in and read it. Throwing it on his desk, he told Goebbels to read it aloud.

To: The glorious Fuehrer of victorious Germany

From: The Great Caliph, may Allah cherish and preserve him forever

My dear brother:

I regret the destruction of Wolfsburg. My heart bleeds for all the good Aryans that had to die. If you had followed my instructions, we would not have caused this terrible loss of life and property.

You must stop killing Jews. You already deprived us of more than 300 from Lutsk. No more. You must give them to us unharmed and happy or accept Allah’s terrible retribution again.

I extend my friendship to you, dear Fuehrer, and remain,

Your sincere friend and admirer,

The Great and Merciful Caliph, may Allah cherish Him forever

“This was not a pre-positioned bomb, Goering.” Hitler sounded hysterical as he paced back and forth. “This was some kind of hellish device that came from the air. Where was the Luftwaffe? Why didn’t you do anything to protect Wolfsburg?”

Goering made a dismissive gesture, as if pushing the responsibility away. “I have no idea where this bomb
came from – No one at the anti-aircraft batteries saw anything. We debriefed them thoroughly. They claim that there was no aircraft to be seen or heard anywhere in the area.”

Goebbels thoughtfully studied the message: “We need to make an announcement. An industrial accident or sabotage - What will it be? Personally, I
am for an accident - We don’t want to give saboteurs that much credit.” The remark seemed to calm everybody down: There was something familiar to discuss and decide, even in this weird situation. An accident it would be. Goebbels had a keen sense for propaganda and the others trusted him in this matter. Silence followed the decision.

Todd was the first to speak: “We can ill afford the loss of another industrial city. Is ther
e a way we could go on killing Jews and not risk retaliation?”

“T
his Caliph doesn’t seem to be rational. He sounds like a religious fanatic that will not stop until he gets what he wants,” said Goebbels “And he has the advantage of having a weapon we can’t counter or defend against.”

Himmler said: “I suggest we postpone the planned actions. We have a big one planned for tomorrow in Kaunas, Lithuania, plus some smaller ones in other places. The Romanians are also active and I don’t know who else. Before we go on, we need to identify who are the spies that give this Caliph information. We can resume our plans as soon as we fix the leaks.”

“My dear Heinrich,” Hitler’s voice was sarcastic and venomous, “are you proposing that we make the Jews safe and happy, just like this maniac proposes?”

“
Mein Fuehrer,” Goering hesitated for a second, “of course getting rid of the Jews is worth a city or two, but why lose anything at all? If we do as the Caliph asks, we get rid of the Jew infestation with very little effort. They won’t be happy for long - they’ll be gone. This Caliph seems to be fanatical on the subject of Jews. Why not let him do the work for us. We will have all the resources freed for the war effort and this fanatic will do a good job on the Jews. He certainly seems to have the ability and will for this.”

Herman Goering sat very quietly now. He g
ambled on Hitler’s admiration for the First World War ace and commander of the Red Baron’s squadron he had been. He needed to draw attention away from the air force’s failures guarding against this Caliph. It was unlikely that Hitler would shoot him on the spot. On the other hand, if the Fuehrer was swayed by his argument, he truly became the second most powerful man in Germany and therefore the world. Himmler would never again be a threat or even an irritation.

“
You are very audacious, my dear Herman, but there may be some truth to your argument.” Goering could breathe again.

It took hours to h
ammer out a plan of action. The first step was for Goebbels to write a letter to the Great Caliph:

From: The Great Leader of Germany

To: The Great Caliph

My dear friend:

It was absolutely unnecessary for you to destroy a German city. I am in full agreement about the fate of the Jews. They will be transferred to you in as good a condition as possible. I cannot promise that absolutely no Jews will be harmed in the process, especially since my allies are not as well organized and may not respond readily to your demands.

Nevertheless, I will do my best to ensure they follow your instructions. You can be assured that any deviations from your demands will be solely due to their failures, for which you should, of course, hold them responsible.

I trust that no more unfortunate incidents will mar our excellent relationship.

Your partner in this great mission,

The Fuehrer of Great Germany

The letter was approved and immediately radioed on the frequency and code designated by the Caliph. A promising response
came while they were still considering the orders and actions to be taken.

From The Great Caliph, may Allah cherish Him forever.

To: The Fuehrer of Great Germany

Dear Brother,

I am certain there will be no more incidents between our great nations. We will be reasonable regarding unintentional accidents. Please emphasize to your allies that their punishment for disobedience will be very severe as they are not pure Aryans and deserve no consideration.

We expect all newspapers and radio stations to immediately instruct the populations in Germany
, your conquered territories and the territories of your allies to treat Jews well, promising the usual reprisals if they do not.

Looking forward to putting Jews on ships, with your cooperation, I remain

Your admiring friend,

The Great Caliph may Allah smile on his fortunes forever

***

Am
os Nir was hosting a number of Knesset members for a Q&A session. The Prime Minister preferred these discussions to a full debate in parliament. It was easier to quell opposition and explain things to a small group than before the full Knesset.

The attendees were briefed, as he was doing for all the members of parli
ament, on the first use of nuclear weapons by Israel. Some of them were extremely unhappy and not shy about expressing it. A member who was also the leader of a human rights organization had told him, “Prime Minister, you can’t continue with your barbaric policies. We will not be a party to Israel murdering tens of thousands of innocent civilians. This behavior is not fit for civilized people and absolutely unacceptable to us as Jews. Your actions put us on a level with the Nazis, and I cannot possibly condone this!”

Am
os looked at the group in front of him. Judging by their reactions, many of them agreed that the bombing of Wolfsburg was “un-Jewish”. It was his belief that their attitude was self-defeating, extremely dangerous, and demonstrated a serious defect in their understanding of Jewish values.

“
I will respond first to the claim that we killed innocent civilians,” Amos Nir began. “This is a fallacy based on the assumption that the German civilian population is neutral in this conflict. I don’t think it is. They’re enthusiastically making weapons, growing food and generally are doing all they can to support their state and its policies. It is immaterial whether they do this voluntarily or not: as long as the Nazi state is supported by its population, that population is a legitimate target.”

He paused to allow some of the group to indicate disagreement.

“Let me ask you a question,” Amos continued. ”If enemy planes are attacking us, do we limit ourselves to just destroying the aircraft overhead or is it legitimate for us to go after their airfields?”

“
Yes, but this is irrelevant,” the human rights advocate asserted. “We are talking about civilians here.”

“
So you agree that we can attack the airfields,” Amos continued. “If so, then why not attack the factories that make those planes?”

“
That’s legitimate,” was the response, “but not killing people in their homes.”

“
So you are saying that we can kill them at work but not at home, or we can kill them as long as they are in uniform, but not if they take it off?”

“
Exactly,” responded the Knesset member smugly.

“
In that case, we can’t touch any of the millions of Nazi party members or the Gestapo or any of the other functionaries who are the foundation of this regime - just because they don’t wear uniforms. I hope you see that what you are saying amounts to fighting the army but leaving its supporting infrastructure and political leadership in peace. That’s a very cruel policy - the war will go on indefinitely with huge numbers of people killed, after they don uniforms, of course.

“
And let’s not forget that in the current situation such a policy will lead to the extermination of millions of Jews and others who truly
are
innocent.”

Am
os sensed a change in mood, though his opponent still seemed dubious. “We made this mistake with the Arabs. In my opinion, we would have had peace with them years ago if we had behaved toward them along the lines of our actions towards the Nazis. Our strategy only prolonged the conflict and cost many more lives than it should have. I repeat: we will regard any civilian population helping and abetting our enemy as
being
the enemy - and treat it as such.
No one
is innocent or immune to violence in a war. This was the strategy the Allies used against Germany in this war and it worked.”

“
You don’t know what you’re saying!” his opponent cried. “Your statement justifies terrorism – It’s just what the Arabs have always said! Are you saying they were right?”

“
Certainly! The terrorist were, and still are, attacking our population. This population supports the state by serving in its armed forces, working in its factories and otherwise participating in making it stronger. As far as I'm concerned this is a legitimate application of force. But don’t forget that this argument cuts both ways: we are justified to attack the civilians who enable the terrorists to act by sheltering them, providing them with materiel and moral support and allowing them to disappear into their crowds. To give you a simple example: If rockets are fired from a neighborhood against us we are justified to destroy the neighborhood by artillery fire. We have no obligation to hunt down just the perpetrators and keep the civilians safe, just as they have no such obligation. Our only obligation is to the citizens of this state.

“
Let me answer the claim about this being un-Jewish behavior. Our holy book says we were commanded to destroy the nation of Amalek as punishment for ‘smiting the hindmost, all that were feeble behind’ when they attacked us soon after the exodus from Egypt, near Refidim in the Sinai. The Israelites were severely punished for not obeying this command and subsequently King David waged a war of extermination against the Amalekites. Our Torah also states that if a man rises to kill you, you are obligated to rise and kill him first. Is that un-Jewish?
You will excuse me if I see killing mortal enemies in defense of our people as
very
Jewish indeed.” Amos was gratified to see that all, except one, of his visitors were nodding in agreement.

***

Avigdor Mizrahi woke up late. He had been tired and nobody disturbed him, so he slept until ten in the morning. He felt rested and ready for work, but it seemed that the Prime Minister of Great Britain was not in a hurry to see him.

After a shower and late breakfast, Mizrahi called in the butler and inquired about his schedule for the day. The
P.M. could see him at nine in the evening; otherwise his day was free, which was just as well. He needed to hire a secretary and other staff, set up contacts and arrange for living quarters, office space and transportation.

One of the options that had been considered by the Foreign Ministry and historians in Israel was to approach an operative of the Jewish Agency in London for this kind of help. It was decided to postpone contacts with the Agency until later. The Agency was under constant surveillance by the British and other intelligence services and posed a high exposure risk which would severely harm the rescue operations in Nazi occupied Europe.

The butler assured him that last night’s limousine was available for his use, so he decided to take a ride. He told the chauffeur to take him to the nearest synagogue, which seemed to surprise the chauffeur but elicited no other response except a “Yes, Sir.”

After a short drive the limo stopped in front of the Bevis Marks synagogue.

“Sir, I will wait around the corner,” said the driver apologetically. “There is no parking in the front.” Mizrahi nodded and got out of the car.