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Authors: Scott Andrew Selby
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myself because I neither drink nor smoke. Recently, when I was employed as a track shifter, I was giving my wife about forty-five reichsmarks a week. She was frugal and was able to make do with this amount of money. However, she almost always told others that she didn’t have any money. That was a habit of hers. But she always had groceries in storage. I always got along well with my wife. There were never serious arguments. It only happened two times in our marriage that we bickered—because I blamed her for not being tidy enough or watching the children enough. My wife waved it off and said she couldn’t manage the work—it was too much. I always wanted to move into a real apartment. My wife was against this, though. She wanted to save that rent money.” 6
If they had moved to a proper apartment, instead of the small colony house, perhaps Gertrude Ditter would not have suffered this terrible fate.
The German army had drafted Mr. Ditter into military service. He told the detectives that this meant he had no free time during which he could have visited his wife in Berlin: “During my military service, I haven’t had a single vacation. I was only allowed to leave once by myself, and that was to go to the dentist. Later, other comrades drove me to the dentist. The last time I was there was at the end of September 1940. Otherwise, I haven’t left the barracks except for performing military duties. Also, I was not in Berlin in the last few days. During my time as a soldier, I have only been in Berlin once, and that was to the parade for the Italian foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano. But that was still at the end of the last month. I didn’t get to see any relatives at that time.” 7
Arthur Ditter informed the Kripo of all of his recent activities: “Yesterday, I was working until about 5 P.M. I was shooting. After returning from shooting, I ate lunch and then received the command to report by the gunnery sergeant. The sergeant told me secretively that my wife had died and that I had vacation until Sunday evening at 10 P.M. The day before yesterday, on Thursday the third of October 1940, I had service in the barracks. We had shooting. At 5 P.M. , we were finished with shooting—that means we had to clean the guns until 6 P.M. After this, I had to write a resume. The company leader made me do this. Then, I had to tidy my things, clean my uniform, boots, etc., and I went to bed at about 8:30 or 8:45 P.M. At 9:00 P.M. is curfew. Surely I did not leave the barracks on these days or in the evening. My comrades from barrack room 94a can attest to this.” 8
The police were able to verify the information that he gave them, and so Arthur Ditter was quickly cleared as a suspect.
Mr. Ditter did provide detectives with some additional information. He didn’t know who would do this to his wife, but he mentioned a dispute with his neighbor, Hermann Herlitz of garden house number 32. This was over the pigeons that Mrs. Ditter kept at their property. She also had hens and rabbits, but the pigeons were the basis of this dispute. While Mr. Herlitz, like many of the people who lived in this colony area back then, also had animals, it was the noise of the pigeons that upset him.
Mr. Ditter alleged that Mr. Herlitz picked similar fights with a large number of neighbors over petty, neighborly disputes. There was nothing to indicate that Mr. Herlitz had used violence in any of these altercations though.
The police still investigated him and interviewed mutual neighbors of his and the Ditters’, but that line of investigation went nowhere. They also talked to Mr. Herlitz’s girlfriend of five years, Auguste Bohm, and she explained the dispute over the pigeons. This turned out to not be much of a dispute, as besides a few harsh words over it by Mr. Herlitz, nothing had happened. As for Auguste Bohm, she expressed her displeasure at Gertrude Ditter’s pigeons by not greeting Mrs. Ditter when she saw her in the streets.
Auguste Bohm
If they had moved to a proper apartment, instead of the small colony house, perhaps Gertrude Ditter would not have suffered this terrible fate.
The German army had drafted Mr. Ditter into military service. He told the detectives that this meant he had no free time during which he could have visited his wife in Berlin: “During my military service, I haven’t had a single vacation. I was only allowed to leave once by myself, and that was to go to the dentist. Later, other comrades drove me to the dentist. The last time I was there was at the end of September 1940. Otherwise, I haven’t left the barracks except for performing military duties. Also, I was not in Berlin in the last few days. During my time as a soldier, I have only been in Berlin once, and that was to the parade for the Italian foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano. But that was still at the end of the last month. I didn’t get to see any relatives at that time.” 7
Arthur Ditter informed the Kripo of all of his recent activities: “Yesterday, I was working until about 5 P.M. I was shooting. After returning from shooting, I ate lunch and then received the command to report by the gunnery sergeant. The sergeant told me secretively that my wife had died and that I had vacation until Sunday evening at 10 P.M. The day before yesterday, on Thursday the third of October 1940, I had service in the barracks. We had shooting. At 5 P.M. , we were finished with shooting—that means we had to clean the guns until 6 P.M. After this, I had to write a resume. The company leader made me do this. Then, I had to tidy my things, clean my uniform, boots, etc., and I went to bed at about 8:30 or 8:45 P.M. At 9:00 P.M. is curfew. Surely I did not leave the barracks on these days or in the evening. My comrades from barrack room 94a can attest to this.” 8
The police were able to verify the information that he gave them, and so Arthur Ditter was quickly cleared as a suspect.
Mr. Ditter did provide detectives with some additional information. He didn’t know who would do this to his wife, but he mentioned a dispute with his neighbor, Hermann Herlitz of garden house number 32. This was over the pigeons that Mrs. Ditter kept at their property. She also had hens and rabbits, but the pigeons were the basis of this dispute. While Mr. Herlitz, like many of the people who lived in this colony area back then, also had animals, it was the noise of the pigeons that upset him.
Mr. Ditter alleged that Mr. Herlitz picked similar fights with a large number of neighbors over petty, neighborly disputes. There was nothing to indicate that Mr. Herlitz had used violence in any of these altercations though.
The police still investigated him and interviewed mutual neighbors of his and the Ditters’, but that line of investigation went nowhere. They also talked to Mr. Herlitz’s girlfriend of five years, Auguste Bohm, and she explained the dispute over the pigeons. This turned out to not be much of a dispute, as besides a few harsh words over it by Mr. Herlitz, nothing had happened. As for Auguste Bohm, she expressed her displeasure at Gertrude Ditter’s pigeons by not greeting Mrs. Ditter when she saw her in the streets.
Auguste Bohm
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