The goddess of the devil.., p.62
The Goddess Of the Devil : Hitler's Medium, page 62
“It’s grotesque – these accusations coming from Himmler who has pronounced himself to be a reincarnation of King Heinrich,” Maria said with a bitter grin. She then grew serious again.
“But there is someone controlling Hitler, isn’t there?” she asked. “Perhaps this someone has only recently revealed itself to Hitler; or he has found some vindication in the discovery that his actions that have led this country to its destruction have been dictated by some dark entity.”
“I know that I knew the answer… before…” Franziska sighed. “But it’s all a blur now. Besides, it doesn’t matter. I was given orders to complete the reactor as soon as possible. Himmler told me our main strategy at the moment is to prolong the fighting until new weapons can be launched against the enemy. The new Haunebu and Vril series are to be mass-produced by March. The atomic weapon is to be tested by April – this was an order, not a request. The intelligence still successfully receives information about the atomic research in the United States and they are convinced the Americans are years away from realistic results.”
“Does he honestly believe Germany will last until then?”
“There are still many cities which haven’t been bombed at all – Dresden, or Vienna. The Führer could relocate the Reich’s capital to any of them and thus prolong the inevitable.”
“Kammler would shoot us on the spot for these words!” Maria whispered.
“No, he wouldn’t,” Franziska replied. “Because he needs the bomb.”
“But there isn’t a bomb!” Maria argued.
“Oh, the bomb has been ready for some time,” Franziska’s answer astonished her.
“Then… then what did you mean by me having to take over?” she wondered.
“I was talking about the portal,” Franziska replied. “You will have to complete that. Find out, what was wrong – why the pilots weren’t accepted but returned.”
She lowered her head from the upper bunk.
“I know that we have to leave. I know that my child is supposed to be born as the first new man, in the rightful home of mankind.”
The news of the fate of Wilhelm Gustloff had reached the science team at the Giant, but only Stella, who had been evacuated with the very ship only couple of weeks earlier, cried. Others weren’t concerned with one disaster when new massacres and horrors were perpetrated every day. A hundred thousand German troops were killed in the Battle of Bulge. The carpet bombing of Berlin that commenced on the 3rd of February, killed thousands every day. Dresden, filled with desperate refugees, was attacked with over a thousand bombers on the 14th, creating a fiery inferno that killed two hundred thousand people at one go.
The peaceful days at Fürstenberg castle seemed to be numbered as well. Even though Kammler refused to discuss the advances of Russian and Polish armies and the official radio announcements were concentrating on successful offensives and rarely mentioned retreat or losses, the bright explosions on the horizon, accompanied by muted sounds of artillery barrage, were becoming visible from the mountain castle windows on February nights.
Franziska had taken up listening to the English language transmissions from Warsaw, which the Russians had taken in mid-January. Maria didn’t understand anything and she found the American music that was played unnerving; in addition she was scared that Kammler would kick the door in any moment and shoot both of them. But the information that Franziska translated to her was even more unnerving. The Allied army had reached several large concentration camps, most notably Auschwitz. What was described, defied reason. The retreating SS had marched the inmates westward, leaving behind them evidence of mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews, Gypsies, Poles and Russians. Maria again prayed it would be enemy propaganda, but among those interviewed were liberated American and English POWs whose voices didn’t betray lies. They told about gas chambers and crematoriums, medical experiments and diseases.
It was often mentioned that Himmler was the chief architect of the death camp system.
Maria knew that Kammler as an engineer had been instrumental in planning the concentration camps, which also provided free slave labour for German armament industry – not least the Giant.
“Does the Führer know about it?” Maria whispered. “Perhaps Himmler has never revealed the true scope of his camps to him. I can’t believe he has authorized this madness!”
“But he wants you to trust him – do you? Can you?”
Maria pressed her fingers against her temples. That helped her to let her mind go blank.
“Auschwitz is quite close to us,” she whispered. “How long do you suppose it will take them to get here?”
“A week, perhaps,” Franziska presumed. Her hand was sliding down her belly which now betrayed her pregnancy. “We need to finish the portal before that.”
“Are you sure the portal wasn’t designed to help Hitler or Himmler leave this planet?” Maria reasoned.
“It’s for us, mother,” Franziska declared with conviction that had a soothing effect on Maria.
Early next morning, Kammler issued an order for immediate evacuation.
Chapter LV – Prague - Ohrdruf, 1945
Like a thunderstorm that creates anxiety and trepidation, Kammler’s order filled the air with panic and desperation. Most of the scientists and even the officers at the vast complex had no knowledge of the immediate nearness of the enemy. The mere thought of evacuating such an immense complex, a virtual underground city with thousands of staff and about ten thousand labourers, with multiple production lines and machinery of enormous proportions, seemed to be an insurmountable task.
A mutiny broke out among the labourers, who were afraid that the evacuation would lead to their mass extermination. Hundreds were shot during the uprising, which was suppressed in the course of hours, but no punitive executions followed – Kammler was too pressed for time to be involved in any unnecessary actions.
“They’ll be on a march and half of them will perish anyway,” Maria heard him speak over the telephone, apparently to Himmler. She understood that the inmates, who were kept in better conditions than the prisoners in crammed concentration camps and were therefore reasonably strong, were to be marched to Skoda factories in Czechoslovakia or various munition plants and bunker factories such as Weingut I where Junkers jet engines were produced. It was inevitable that, in the harsh February weather, many of them wouldn’t make it.
She applied for a couple of additional days so that they could continue with trying to find out how to make the Bell operational, but she learnt that both the Bell and the reactor had been packed for immediate evacuation – both devices were hastily dispatched to the Vril testing grounds near Prague, to prevent the technology from falling into the hands of the Russians. The thorium reactor had proven immensely successful: it enabled Uranium 233 to be bred without costly enrichment. Under no circumstances was the enemy to benefit from that knowledge.
Two buses arrived to evacuate the scientific team. Those were strangely empty. Stella, whom Maria found seated in the first one, was crying hysterically while other members were strangely silent with pale faces and downcast eyes. Maria learnt that a group of eastern-European scientists had decided to try their luck in the mountains and join with the approaching Red and Polish armies. They had been arrested even before they had made it out of the premises. One of the guards, who was smitten with Stella, had told her that instead of taking the escapees back to the camp, Kammler had driven to the spot where they had been apprehended and singlehandedly shot all twenty men.
Maria sat on her suitcases, shivering with powerless rage. For the first time during the war, she had a devastating feeling that she was not going to make it alive; and even more – that she had no right to do so.
Fortunately, she didn’t come face to face with Kammler during the evacuation – she might not have been able to suppress her urge to claw his eyes out. Maria, Franziska and Doctor Schumann were taken to Waldenburg and flown to Prague, where the Haunebu craft were now adapted to taking off using nuclear pulse propulsion. The test phase was hazardous and should not have been conducted in the vicinity of a major city, but time was of the essence and that kind of large facility was not to be evacuated unless the danger to it was imminent. Prague was still considered a safe haven, even though on one evening shortly after the evacuated team had arrived, flames and explosions filled the sky over the ancient city. Everyone was instructed to proceed immediately to the shelters, where they stayed for hours.
The American air raid did some damage to the city, but without such huge loss of life as the bombardments of German cities. It was soon reported via the allied radio stations that the whole attack had been a navigational error – the forty bombers of the American Air Force were supposed to target Dresden, 120 kilometres to the south. But to Kammler it was a sign that the Americans had included the testing ground in their list of tactical bombardment targets, and that the new series of flying craft need to be completed immediately.
Amidst the disarray, the Reichsführer paid them an unexpected visit. He had a lengthy discussion with Kammler, after which Maria, Franziska and Doctor Schumann were commanded to join the meeting.
“Of all the Reich’s atomic projects, yours has been the only successful one,” Himmler said.
Kammler bowed with proud appreciation: it was evident that as the military supervisor of the project, he had assumed full leadership not only in his, but also in Himmler’s eyes.
“I think it was a mistake to keep the research teams separated and in the dark regarding each others’ development,” Maria took the courage to argue.
“On the contrary,” Himmler instantly refuted the accusation. “Each team took a different way and concentrated on it wholeheartedly. The use of heavy water and heavy ice for Uranium refinery was pursued by Heisenberg in Gottow laboratory, and it could eventually prove to be successful – yet the process is too time-consuming and expensive to be considered at this time. Diebner’s team has kept an eye on the American nuclear project and experimented with graphite instead of heavy water. This will eventually bring the Americans success – perhaps in a year or two; yet it can’t be adapted to our needs because of the immense costs of this process and the obvious shortage of raw material. Your Thorium breeding process, Kammler, turned out the most efficient. We are about to detonate our first bomb in two weeks and by mid-April, you must guarantee the production of at least three more operational bombs.”
Once again, Maria felt betrayed and she saw the same emotion in the eyes of Franziska and even Doctor Schumann. They had, to their best knowledge, been producing nuclear fuel for the Haunebu III project, clinging to a naïve belief that the available amount of enriched Thorium would not find its way into bombs. Yet, the more she listened to Himmler, the more she found an ironic absolution in the fact that the project was considered Kammler’s brain child.
Himmler then shook his head in a regretful fashion.
“It is deplorable that the Wüstegiersdorf mines and the whole Giant complex had to be evacuated – we lost our last Thorium deposits,” Himmler lamented. “This is a catastrophe. The Belgian mines are gone as well and we can barely rely on what is being shipped from Norway: that country is all but lost and only every third ship makes it to Germany.”
“Not all mining has stopped at Wüstegiersdorf,” Kammler reassured the Reichsführer. “Our Werewolf units are protecting the mines to the last. Over two thousand labourers are working in shifts around the clock.”
“The mines must not fall into the hands of the Russians,” Himmler demanded.
“The moment our defense breaks down, the inmates will be locked in and the mines will be detonated and flooded,” Kammler announced.
Himmler turned to Schumann.
“Can the nuclear pulse propulsion system be constructed with reduced amounts of fissile material, so we could have as many craft fitted with it as possible?” he asked. From this, it was clear that most of the enriched Thorium had been reserved for bombs and the Haunebu project would have to make do with the leftovers.
“The smallest practical vehicle would be determined by the smallest achievable bomb yield,” Schumann replied. “The use of 0.03 kt bombs would give it a mass of 880 tons.”
“What does that mean?” Himmler demanded.
“Well, the smallest vehicle could have a payload of hundred tons in an eight crew round trip to Mars,” Schumann theoreticized.
“As many as possible Haunebu III craft need to be fitted with the new propulsion system,” Himmler repeated his order. “They need to reach high altitudes, inaccessible to the enemy aircraft and radar, and be able to fly to New Swabia and back.”
“What is New Swabia?” Maria asked.
“New German territories in Antarctica,” Himmler replied after a prolonged moment of hesitation. “We explored that region just before the war and since then we have been building military bases there. It is essential: now, as more and more top secret technology and personnel need to be evacuated, we can no longer rely on submarines. It is imperative that we have aircraft capable of long-range flights.”
“If we had more of these craft,” Kammler suggested, “we could have an air force of kamikaze pilots, just as the Japanese have, to carry out waves of attacks against America, carrying atomic bombs.”
“This would be a costly project,” Himmler didn’t share his enthusiasm. “However, von Braun’s rockets can do that. Submarine platforms are being built and the first manned rocket will be tested very shortly. If this test is successful, we’ll open a new era in aerial warfare.”
The test, conducted at Baden-Württemberg on 1st of March, was, however, a disaster. The Bachem Ba 349 “Colubrid” rocket took off as expected but experienced trouble almost immediately. After shooting into the clouds, to an altitude of 3000 metres, emitting loud supersonic blasts, suddenly its cockpit canopy was seen to fly off. The motor stalled, the rocket nose-dived and hit the ground, killing the young test pilot Lothar Sieber as well as the whole project. It was deemed that when an experienced Arado test pilot was unable to control the rocket, it would be inconceivable to have it flown by largely untrained pilots.
The glorious era of manned rocket flights lasted less than one minute.
Two days later a selected team of scientists was flown to Erfurt, from where they drove to the small town of Ohrdurf at the foot of the Thuringian Forest.
Maria and Kammler hadn’t exchanged a single word since the atrocious murder of the members of the scientific team, but Kammler hardly seemed to be aware of that. Instead of talking directly to Maria, he now addressed his words – more precisely, his orders – to those in the vicinity of her so nothing would be lost. On this occasion, it was Doctor Schumann who was sitting next to Kammler and had to act as his relay.
“This is the Ohrdruf concentration camp that we built in November,” he pointed at a miserable complex of wooden barracks. It was a long way from the meticulously constructed and built labour camps that Maria had seen earlier, being nothing better than a shanty town imprisoned behind a barbed wire fence.
“Its shabby appearance is intentional,” Kammler said as if reading everyone’s thoughts. “Not many people know that there is a system of tunnels and underground railways leading inside the mountains beneath it. This is one of the locations that are designed to serve as the Führer’s temporary headquarters, in case the government should have to relocate.”
“Is the ‘shabby appearance’ of the workers intentional as well?” Maria said her first words to Kammler in almost two weeks. Beneath her eyes, hordes of malnourished slaves in rags were toiling under the watchful eyes of the guards.
Kammler didn’t bother to reply.
Franziska was due in May, and as the spring approached the need for the planned escape grew more pressing. They had discovered that the Bell hadn’t been evacuated to Prague but to a ‘safer location’ that Kammler refused to disclose, unaffected by the angry reproaches from Franziska and Schumann. Only now did it become evident that the device had been sent to the subterranean Ohrdruf complex, even more isolated and massive than the Giant had been.
The nuclear test was to be carried out on the 4th of March, in the vast valley of Jonastal, several kilometres away on the other side of the mountain complex. Himmler, excited to tears, had the leaders of the project gathered and taken to Erfurt Airfield, where they boarded a passenger aeroplane, scheduled to circle the valley at a safe distance, allowing the passengers and the camera crew the best possible view. Doctor Schumann had calculated that the bomb, which was constructed at the smallest possible size, would have no impact on an aeroplane circling at an altitude of 2000 two thousand metres and with a diameter of fifteen kilometres.
Even though he shared Maria’s anxiety about the bomb and its possible military applications, Schumann was visibly excited and proud, giving enthusiastic explanations to Himmler as the plane took off.
“The excellence of U-233 lies in the fact that its bare critical mass is remarkably smaller than that of U-235, about just 15 kilograms,” he said. “We’ve managed to half it by using lightweight beryllium tamper. Also, thanks to its low rate of spontaneous fission, U-233 is virtually immune to predetonation problems. It’s cheap, safe and powerful.”
Himmler was extremely pleased.
“What about the radiation – would that be dangerous to us when we return to Ohrdruf?” he asked.
“The danger would be almost nonexistent after twelve hours,” Schumann replied. “The reaction doesn’t irradiate Uranium-238 and therefore doesn’t produce transuranic atoms. Unless one is close to the detonation, one would only suffer from the physical effects of it and much less from radioactive poisoning.”
