The Ratline by Philippe Sands

Author:Philippe Sands
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orion

33

Testament

The reburial of Otto Wächter, in 1974, took place twenty-five years after Charlotte returned to Salzburg from Rome. She travelled with a broken heart and papers Otto left behind at the Santo Spirito Hospital and the Vigna Pia monastery: a diary for 1949, a list of contacts in Rome, and notes on people met and correspondence sent and received over seventy-six days spent in Rome. Charlotte retained the papers, which passed to Horst after her death.

The papers included a one-page letter written by Otto, his testament, signed as ‘Alfredo Reinhardt’. ‘Rome, date as postmark’, he typed, a document addressed to a ‘Dear Doctor’. The name ‘Marchesani’ was added in pencil, in the hand of another, instructed to notify two people if Otto fell ill: the writer’s unnamed wife, to be reached ‘care of’ Richard Woksch, in St Gilgen, Austria; and Fräulein Luise Ebner, in Bolzano, who was in turn to inform three friends in the South Tyrol, namely Riedl, Schnez and ‘Ladurner’. ‘Maintain links with them,’ Otto instructed.

Dr Marchesani was also asked to notify a lawyer, Professor Giangaleazzo Bettoni in Rome – phone number provided – who would assess whether a ‘legal intervention’ was needed. The lawyer worked at the Italian embassy in Berlin until 1945, Otto explained in the letter, spoke German and had a German wife.

If the situation was ‘serious’, Dr Marchesani should consult Dr Hudal – the bishop – and also consider involving another bishop, Jan Bucko, of the Greek Unionist Church. ‘Bucko knows a governor, Dr W, from his activity in his homeland,’ Otto wrote, and had good relations with the Vatican and Western allies. However, this step was only a last resort, to be taken if the situation was ‘critical’, as matters should not be pushed to the ‘international level’.

Dr Marchesani should inform Dr Puccio Pucci, another ‘good friend’ during the writer’s stay in Italy, with whom they should discuss the ‘activation’ of Otto’s comrades. Finally, the notes and papers kept in the cell at Vigna Pia should be tidied away.

The letter ended with an expression of thanks, and various personal details.

Otto’s letter of instruction, in the event of incapacity or death, identified trusted contacts in Rome. The inner circle comprised seven people, none of whom was mentioned by name in the letters that passed between Otto and Charlotte. The names offered clues, a web of secret contacts that allowed Otto to survive in Rome and might, possibly, assist in efforts to reach South America. The seven people came from Germany, Italy, Austria and Ukraine. Who were they?

Three of the seven lived in Rome.

Puccio Pucci, described as a ‘good acquaintance’, was a lawyer and an athlete who once ran the 800 metres for Italy, at the 1924 Paris Olympics, and served briefly as president of the Italian Olympic Committee. He was a close associate of Alessandro Pavolini, secretary of the Partito Fascista Repubblicano, shot and then hung by the feet with Mussolini on 28 April 1945. Puccio Pucci, a committed fascist, founded the Black Brigades,

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