Defying Hitler : The Germans Who Resisted Nazi Rule (9780451489050) by Thomas Gordon; Lewis Greg & Greg Lewis

Author:Thomas, Gordon; Lewis, Greg & Greg Lewis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA
Published: 2019-04-22T16:00:00+00:00

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GERSTEIN WAITED PATIENTLY for news from the Swedish embassy. Otter must have got the news out by now, but there had been nothing on the BBC and no leaflets had been dropped by the RAF.

In desperation and aware that foreign embassies in Berlin were watched by the Gestapo, Gerstein decided to make contact with Otter. In civilian clothes he spent hours waiting near the Swedish embassy, keeping to side streets nearby and not directly outside. Otter recognized him immediately.

After their meeting on the train, Otter had taken Gerstein seriously. He had made discreet checks on the SS man with Dr. Otto Dibelius, a friend of Niemöller’s who had been a leading figure in the Confessing Church. Then, satisfied that Gerstein was a genuine anti-Nazi despite his role in the Waffen-SS, Otter had made a full report to the Swedish government. The report had been met with a sense of disbelief, and for fear of aggravating their relationship with Hitler, it would not be forwarded to London until after the war ended. Sweden did, though, leave open its borders for Jews seeking to escape.

Gerstein also contacted the Swiss legation in Berlin. The Swiss—surrounded as they were by the forces of fascism—were afraid of antagonizing Hitler. They were also reluctant to accept Jewish refugees. The German Red Cross had been taken over by the Nazis—and Gerstein would later report its president, Ernst-Robert Grawitz, to the Allies for being a key figure in the concentration camp movement.13

Later, Gerstein contacted his Dutch friend Ubbink, the engineer who had given him his copy of Rauschning’s Hitler Speaks, and asked him to get a message to the Dutch resistance. Ubbink spoke to an underground leader who did not believe Gerstein’s story and decided not to tell London.

The papal nuncio in Berlin was Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo. The pope’s representative in Germany had sought not to interfere in the running of Hitler’s state, and preached a policy of “compromise and conciliation” with the Third Reich. He was unlikely to help, although Gerstein did not know that. For Gerstein the pope offered a voice that could not be ignored by the world and that, even during war, might affect the attitudes of Adolf Hitler.

Gerstein made no appointment with the nuncio, fearing a request would be refused. Instead he turned up one day and in uniform. Gerstein told an official why he wanted to see Orsenigo, but the man appeared uninterested. “Are you a soldier?” the man asked. Gerstein explained who he was. After consulting with Orsenigo, the officials had Gerstein removed from the building.14

When Gerstein got home to his apartment, he slumped into a chair, smoking and drinking brandy. His face was so pale that Dickten asked him if someone had “given him away.”

“It’s worse than that,” Gerstein told him. “I’ve lost my last hope.”

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