Madmen led the Blind: Memoirs of an SS Obersturmführer: Battles on the Western Front and Interrogations by US Intelligence at the Prisoner-of-War camp Fort Hunt by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub

Resi

I still had two days left of my leave when I arrived at Resi's Sporgasse Lane apartment. We hadn't spoken to one another in over five years, and I hoped this meeting would help me decide what to do.

Resi opened the door. ‘I've come to visit you,’ I said. Hiding her surprise, but not her apprehension, she invited me in. ‘Remove your uniform jacket and leave your cap and satchel in the corridor. It's cold in here, so I'll lend you one of Karl's heavy jumpers.’

The stove supplied little warmth in the kitchen, where we sat at the table. ‘There are no briquettes to collect from the cellar,’ she added, smiling. She paused thoughtfully before continuing, ‘I am alone in the flat. My husband is fighting on the Eastern Front and Karl is on the Italian front in the south. My son is only nineteen years old! I'm hoping he'll do the right thing and defect to the Americans. But if I utter something like that outside, I’ll be hanged from the nearest lamp post with a sign around my neck reading “Doubted the Final Victory”. That's what it's come to!

‘Oh, Resi, we haven't talked in a long time. A student friend of mine fell pregnant, and I was duty-bound to marry her. My son is two years old now. My Division lies along the West Wall and I got special leave to care for my wife and child after the bombing of Graz, but I haven't been able find them. She escaped to the West because she was scared of the Russians. I wanted to meet up with you before I return to the front.’

I reflected on the summer of 1939, more than five years earlier, when I had visited Resi after a long break. Although Karl had been pleased to see me, Resi had not. She had seen me roaming around town with young women the previous year and had been disappointed that I had forgotten about her so quickly. She’d taken an interest in hearing my plans, though, and had cautioned me strongly against joining the Waffen SS. ‘Stay away from them. You extend your small finger, and they take your entire hand. This will not end well.’ Despite giving a great deal of thought to her advice, I joined up two months later.

When Resi discovered this, she avoided me whenever we ran into each other. The sight of me in my black SS outfit repulsed her. However, in five and a half years, a lot had happened: my marriage, the war, and its atrocities, the shrapnel in my thigh...

Resi was still angry, though. She stood up and marched back and forth in front of the cooker. ‘The Nazis are murderers. They have no culture, and they imprisoned all liberal intellectuals. The Allies are bombing Graz, and I could perish in a hail of explosions at any time. What about Karl’s future? We're stuck in this mess because of cowardly accomplices like you, and now we are left sitting here in this shit.

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