we have time to hear him expound on them. I think the last time he spoke it was much too short.”
The officer beside him let out a long exasperated breath. “Absolutely. How could I forget?”
Neumann responded in a scolding tone, “Of course, he’s made some excellent points, especially about the nature of the threat posed by Germany’s traditional enemies.” He glanced around, but no one was paying any attention to this exchange. “No, Herr Dortinger is very good indeed. The future of the German people is not something to be taken lightly.”
At the podium, Dortinger continued. “Germany is now united in its efforts to realize the vast potential of this country. You have seen how in just a few short years National Socialism has brought the Aryan nation to life. Germany has pulled itself up from its near moribund state of unemployment, debt, and dishonour. We have united the Austrians and Sudetan Germans, and we have rescued our Prussian brothers, who were confined by the treachery and fraud of the Versailles Treaty and locked into an artificial Polish state. Can you imagine Germans having to live under the domination of Slavs!”
Reinhold Neumann looked about him. The faces of his fellow students were expressionless.
“Now,” said Dortinger, “our Führer, Adolph Hitler, has shown us that it is our destiny to take on the role that history has always demanded the Aryan peoples should rightfully assume. Our armies are ready, and in the last two years we have developed a doctrine for the occupation of hostile countries. We shall implement that doctrine in the neighbouring territories that will make up the new frontiers of the Third Reich. The army will conquer and the police and security forces will subdue and organize our new territories. You gentlemen will play an important role in that respect.”
The officer beside him shifted uncomfortably in his seat and looked over at Neumann. Dortinger went on. “So, in addition, don’t forget the part that you, the leaders of our police forces, will play in helping us solve the Jewish question. I can tell you that many solutions have been bantered about. I have heard that the Führer himself believes that all of Europe’s Jews should be deported. And I have it on good authority that Madagascar is one of the places they are considering deporting them to, although I have also heard that they may simply be removed to Russia when the time is right. For me, I say, let them colonize Siberia. Slavs and Jews deserve each other. They have polluted Europe and sapped Germany’s vitality for far too long. I could tell you stories about the Jews and the Communists.”
As Dortinger wound up his speech, fantasizing about ridding Europe of its undesirables and describing how Jews, capitalists, and Communists had desecrated Greater Germany, Neumann began to drift off into his own reverie. He kept his eyes fastened on the bespectacled old crank at the front of the room and wondered where all this was taking him. If, as they were telling him, the Reich expanded within the next two years, he would certainly have more opportunity than he could ever have dreamt was possible when he was a simple Anwärter der Schutzpolizei rounding up drunks on Vienna’s street corners. Now, the next step was to get himself onto the staff of the newly created Department D – the New Territories Police Agency. So far, things hadn’t gone badly. In the last three years, he had done incredibly well for himself. By being on this course, he was halfway to realizing his ambitions.
As for Dortinger, the old fool had some value. He was describing the official blueprint for career success in the Reich’s new police forces: crush the Fatherland’s enemies and transform the occupied territories into docile and productive colonies. These were achievable tasks, ones that he could see himself playing a useful part in. Neumann had already made up his mind, and going back to regular police work in one of the German-speaking cities was no longer an option. That would only be a ticket to a plodding, conventional career. Six weeks ago, who could have imagined him being here?
Things were quite different now. If he played his cards right, in a couple of years he might find himself head of a major department for all of the Third Reich, or better still, sent back to Vienna as a deputy chief of police. Wouldn’t that make Maida’s family cringe! She had no idea he felt so strongly about her family; but he’d often daydreamed about it. They had a thousand ways of putting him in his place. Neumann hated his overbearing in-laws and just thinking of the possibility of having one of his smug brothers-in-law arrested made him smile. A few hours of stiff interrogation by some thug of an underling would hurt no one. Then, of course, he would step in and release the brother back to Maida’s family with the wretched man telling them how grateful he was for Neumann’s intercession. The way things were turning out now, that kind of fantasy might just come true someday.
“But this is where you gentlemen come in.” Dortinger was finally summing up. He had walked away from the protection of his podium and changed his tone of voice. The old goat always seemed to cheer up at the end of a lecture. Maybe he was happy it was over. Neumann glanced at the lecture schedule in his notebook and mentally rolled his eyes. Over the next two days they had another two hours of this insufferable man on the timetable. There was a price for everything.
In the hallway on their break, amongst a milling, stretching, and chattering crowd of police officers, Neumann lit a cigarette. It would be a mistake, he thought, to look too bored by any of this. The Bavarian beside him had made a stupid mistake. In the worst case, simple boredom could be interpreted as disloyalty. One thing could lead to another, and disloyalty in the SS had only one punishment. At best, the other students would ostracize the Bavarian for being a know-it-all. There was a danger in that too, thought Neumann. Being isolated from one’s peers in this line of work could lead to problems down the road. He shook his head. In all other respects the Bavarian seemed intelligent. It never ceased to amaze him how naïve some men could be.
Neumann drew in a lungful of smoke and exhaled noisily. For some reason he felt jumpy. He’d been feeling that way a lot lately and it was hard to put his finger on why that should be. He knew he should just focus on what he was doing now, get his mind firmly settled on doing well on this course.
He flicked the ash from his cigarette. Perhaps he was putting too much pressure on himself, worrying about getting promoted. That was certainly part of it, but there was also the matter of Maida. She was really at the back of his mind. Maida had been out of sorts lately: distant and frequently surly, and she wouldn’t say why. It worried him. She was beginning to behave like the rest of her family. She claimed to be happy about being in Berlin, but even before they came here, he had begun to sense a gradual change in her.
Maida used to be a hot-blooded little vixen, but now most of the time she was cold and unresponsive. Some days she was downright sullen. It was a worry. She hadn’t made friends with any of the other wives of the officers on the course. He was certain she wasn’t having an affair. And then it struck him for the first time. Just possibly Maida had ceased to love him. Maybe whatever flame they had once shared was now gone. That wasn’t how things were for him. He had never seriously wanted another woman. He had always been faithful. He couldn’t imagine Maida with another man. He had done nothing to her to merit this. He had never been cruel or inattentive. He didn’t drink to excess. He was successful in his career. He was a good provider. He was a good father to their children. There had to be another explanation for her behaviour, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure it out.
Down the hall someone was announcing, “Time, gentlemen. Time. Cigarettes and pipes out. Your next lecture begins in two minutes.” At least the next hour would be more interesting than the last period of National Socialist hot air. The timetable indicated this one was to be given by an Oberführer Heinrich Müller from the Reich Main Security Office. It was entitled Gleichschaltung “Building the Reich: Night and Fog in the Occupied Territories.” Silly sort of name, Neumann thought, but it was probably going to be something useful. Not like this endless crap about the meaning of being Germanic, the greatness of the thousand-year Reich, and the wisdom of the Führer.
As a group of officers stubbed out their cigarettes in the hallway’s
