A Murder in Auschwitz (32 page)

Auschwitz, 7th February 1944

KOLB and Fuchs watched as Meyer finished mopping up the last of the soup with the crusty bread which had been given to him when he had arrived. Kolb had requested the food for Meyer as soon as he had returned from the forest. Fuchs raised his eyebrows at Kolb as Meyer finished. It had taken him less than a minute to eat his way through the thick vegetable soup.

“So, Meyer, did you have any thoughts on how to move forward with my case?” asked Kolb.

Meyer ran his finger around the inside of the bowl and sucked the remains of the soup off before answering. “It is all I have thought about today. That and what you told me last night about the Pfeiffer case.”

A satisfied smile crossed Kolb’s face. “I thought that might intrigue you.”

“What is the Pfeiffer case?” asked Fuchs.

“The Pfeiffer case is the reason why both Meyer and myself are sitting around this table today, is that not so?” replied Kolb directing the question at Meyer.

Meyer nodded. “It was surprisingly similar to this one. Herr Kolb, as he was then, had been accused of the murder of one of his workmates and was found standing over the body.”

“And Meyer was my lawyer,” interupted Kolb. “He managed to convince the jury of my innocence. If he hadn’t secured me a not guilty verdict then I may still be in prison and if I hadn’t spotted him in the camp then we wouldn’t be sitting here.”

Fuchs turned to Kolb. “If the cases are so similar, then can’t we use the same reason that you were found innocent for this Pfeiffer case?”

“The Pfeiffer case depended on a missing murder weapon,” said Meyer. “This time, Hauptscharfuhrer Kolb was found with the murder weapon in his hand.”

Meyer had not taken his eyes off Kolb since finishing the food. He had spent his time since the previous night thinking about the Straus murder, but Kolb’s confession had kept haunting his thoughts and invading his thinking. Meyer was not under any illusions that some of his clients would have been guilty, no matter whether Meyer had managed to secure them an innocent verdict or not, in the same way that he was certain that some of his clients whose cases he had lost, would have been innocent.

Meyer remembered how Deschler had told him right from the very beginning that clients were always innocent in the eyes of their lawyer. As time went on, Meyer had seen that it had to be that way. Otherwise, two things happened. First of all, the lawyer did not give his full attention to the case and second, when in the courtroom, he could give away his misgivings about his client, albeit unconsciously. Meyer had seen it first-hand.

But to find that his client from his first murder case, a case which he had been proud of, which he had found the key to, where he had been in direct contention with Deschler and had won, in which he had been certain the accused had been innocent, was actually guilty, was difficult to comprehend. And if Kolb was guilty before, then perhaps he was guilty again this time.

“So, Heinrich,” said Kolb, moving the conversation back to his immediate situation. “Did you manage to answer any of Meyer’s questions?”

Before Fuchs could say anything, Meyer reminded Kolb that he required the Camp Commandant’s personal word that he would be allowed to see his wife.

It had been obvious to Kolb that this was something which Meyer would not deviate from, although he had not been entirely sure how he would convince Kramer to ask the Commandant for such a request. Initially, things had not gone well. Kramer had agreed to pass on the request to Liebehenschel but then returned to the stockade in a furious mood and relayed the news that Liebehenschel had thrown him out of the office when he had mentioned Meyer’s wish for the Commandant's personal word on the matter.

Much later, when Kolb had dropped off to sleep, the door to his cell was opened waking him. It was the adjutant.

“On your feet, Hauptscharfuhrer Kolb,” came the order.

Kolb was about to make a verbal retaliation when Obersturmbannfuhrer Arthur Liebehenschel walked into the cell. He jumped to his feet and began desperately buttoning his tunic. Once he had managed this, he saluted. “Herr Obersturmbannfuhrer!”

“At ease, Hauptscharfuhrer,” replied the Commandant.

Liebehenschel walked slowly around the cell until he was standing directly behind Kolb. “So, Kolb, you are the SS officer who requires the assistance of a Jewish prisoner.”

Kolb shut his eyes. “Yes, Herr Obersturmbannfuhrer.”

Liebehenschel leaned in and whispered into Kolb’s ear. “Hauptsturmfuhrer Kramer nearly put you in front of a firing squad. I myself have been very close to having you shot. It would make my life much easier. And now we have a Jew making demands of the Camp Commandant.”

Liebehenschel walked back around to face Kolb. “Why should I give this Jew my word? Tell me one good reason why I should waste my time on that prisoner?”

Kolb could smell the coffee on Liebehenschel’s breath. “Herr Obersturmbannfuhrer, I would say that it was in the interest of justice that every opportunity for proving my innocence should be afforded to me.”

Liebehenschel’s voice dropped to a whisper once again. “Have I not done that already, Kolb? Have I not already agreed to this unusual arrangement?”

“Yes sir, of course sir. And I thought that the matter was concluded, thanks to your accommodation in this matter. However, unfortunately, Meyer, the Jew in question, does not entirely trust my word and this is the reason that I have had to disturb you further.”

“What do you suggest, Kolb? That I allow a Jew to come into my office and for me, the Camp Commandant, to give my word directly to him?” sneered Liebehenschel.

Kolb felt his grasp on Meyer slipping away. If he did not play this right then Liebehenschel would not speak to Meyer and Meyer may not continue to provide his much needed advice.

“Herr Obersturmbannfuhrer, I genuinely do not know what to say. I have asked Meyer to assist in this, sir, because in spite of being a Jew, he was a talented lawyer. I am innocent of this crime and I believe that he may be the only person that will be able to unravel what actually happened to Sturmbannfuhrer Straus.”

In reality, Liebehenschel had become extremely curious about Meyer. He wanted to know what it was about this particular Jew which had made Kolb feel that he was indispensable to his defence. Liebehenschel was convinced that Kolb would be found guilty and shot by the Gestapo. So did it really matter if a prisoner was given access to his family one last time before Liebehenschelhad them sent to the gas chamber?

“Alright, Hauptscharfuhrer Kolb. I will see this Meyer. Do you have him report to you after his work party duties?”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

“I will see him in my office at nine tomorrow evening. Have Scharfuhrer Fuchs bring him over. Nine o’clock exactly, Kolb,” said Liebehenschel.

Kolb felt a weight drop from his shoulders. “Yes, Herr Obersturmbannfuhrer, nine exactly.”

Liebehenschel called for the adjutant. He turned to leave as the door behind him was unlocked and opened. “I hope you don’t have any personal feelings for your Jew. Once he has served you and, since I will be giving my word, met his family, he will be sent to the gas chamber.”

“Yes, sir,” said Kolb. Once Liebehenschel had left, Kolb sat back down on the hard cell bed and felt tears well up in his eyes.

“I have good news,” said Kolb, “The Commandant came to see me last night. After we are done tonight, Scharfuhrer Fuchs shall take you over to his office before returning you to your hut.”

Meyer was overjoyed. He could not believe that after all this time he would be seeing both his girls and his wife. He wondered how he looked. He would want to look his best. Meyer made the decision that he would ask Geller and Rosenmann to make sure he looked as healthy as possible for the meeting. He might only be allowed an hour with them, and he wanted them to remember him as close to what he was before they came to the camp as possible.

Fuchs opened his folder, disturbing Meyer’s thoughts, and turned over the paper where he had scribbled down the questions from the night before. On the other side, he had rewritten them with some answers.

“I have managed to answer these questions about Straus' assistant, Ritter, to one extent or another,” said Fuchs. “I went to Ritter’s barrack room last night and put the questions you wanted answered to him directly.”

“How did he seem?” asked Meyer.

“In what way?”

“Was he defensive, or did he appear to begrudge answering the questions of the officer representing Hauptscharfuhrer Kolb?”

Fuchs shrugged. “He wasn’t particularly defensive or reluctant in his answers. If anything, he seemed a bit annoyed at having to answer them.”

“Annoyed?” asked Meyer.

“He said he had already answered a list of questions earlier from another Gestapo officer,” replied Fuchs.

“Yes, of course,” said Meyer. “The prosecution. Please go on.”

“First,” continued Fuchs, “was Ritter on duty the night Straus was killed? Yes. He had been told to finish early that night by Straus but had needed to catch up on some paperwork and didn’t leave his office until around seven.”

Meyer sat up in his chair. “So, he could have still been in his office at the time of the murder. Perhaps it was Ritter’s office door you saw opening that night...”

“Untersturmfuhrer Ritter to you, Jew,” interrupted Fuchs. “Do not forget your place in this situation.”

Meyer was taken aback. They were using his experience and abilities as a lawyer and yet he was still treated as Untermensch. “My apologies. It may have been Untersturmfuhrer Ritter’s office door opening that Hauptscharfuhrer Kolb saw, or perhaps it was Untersturmfuhrer Ritter leaving Sturmbannfuhrer Straus’ office after murdering him.

“Hauptscharfuhrer Kolb, why was it so difficult to determine which office door had opened that night?”

Kolb answered as if it was obvious. “There was a heavy fog. There must have been a cold front from the east; remember, there was freezing fog that night and heavy snow the next day.”

Something flickered in Meyer’s mind. The fog and the snow, there was something he was missing here. Something that was out of place.

Fuchs took Meyer’s momentary silence to continue with his answers. “Second, when did Ritter come to Auschwitz? July, nineteen-forty-three. He was at Dachau and then Ravensbruck, acting in the same capacity as here.”

Meyer felt a familiar chill of fear. Ritter was acting in the same capacity in these two other places. Surely that did not mean that they were the same as here. “What are Dachau and Ravensbruck?” he asked in trepidation.

“Concentration camps in Germany,” replied Fuchs.

Meyer felt his shoulders sink. He had not even thought that there would be more places like this. And here were another two. How many people were being killed? How many were dying every day in these camps? Meyer felt his stomach turn over. The whole world seemed to have become hell.

“Third,” continued Fuchs. “What kind of man was Sturmbannfuhrer Straus? I spoke to Ritter and some of the others in his barrack rooms. He was friendly but kept himself to himself. Straus had his own room and did not socialise very much with the others in his building.”

Fuchs then turned to Kolb, obviously unsure if what he was about to say should be shared with Meyer, and ran his fingers along a line of writing, which Kolb then read. Kolb nodded to Fuchs, giving his unspoken permission.

“Some of those in his building suggested that Straus may have not had the same interest in the female officers in the camp as the rest of the men in his barrack building,” said Fuchs.

Meyer raised his eyebrows at this information. “Are you saying that Sturmbannfuhrer Straus was homosexual?”

Kolb put his hand on Fuchs’ shoulder. “Heinrich, there are a few things which I need to explain to Meyer. Why don’t you stretch your legs for five minutes?”

Meyer could see that Fuchs was irritated by Kolb’s request. Fuchs pulled out a packet of cigarettes and shouted to the adjutant to open the door. Once he was gone Kolb leaned over the table to Meyer.

“There are some things which you need to know to help you formulate a resolution to my case,” he said.

“Are you going to tell me that you are guilty of Straus’ murder just like you are guilty of Pfeiffer’s?” said Meyer.

“I can understand that you are finding it difficult to imagine my innocence in this case now that you know that I killed Josef Pfeiffer, but you have my word that I did not murder Straus. To prove it, I need to tell you why I was going to see Straus that night,” replied Kolb.

Meyer ignored what Kolb was saying. He needed to understand the Pfeiffer case. He had filed it away in his head and brought it out when he needed to use the experience in other cases. But now he was not sure how much of the case he had understood at all.

“Why did you kill Pfeiffer?” asked Meyer.

“Meyer, that isn’t important,” replied Kolb.

“You said that I could ask you a question on the Pfeiffer case each time we met,” said Meyer.

Kolb sighed. “Okay, Meyer, if I answer your question can we move on with the problem at hand?” Kolb did not wait for an answer. “Josef Pfeiffer was a bully, just like his father. It didn’t matter what I did, my work was never good enough. They would gang up on me, say I was too slow, that customers were complaining about my work, but I knew I was a better upholsterer than either of them.”