are we likely to.”
“And why’s that?”
“I thought it was free association. Do I have to explain who I choose to speak to and who I don’t?”
“There’s nothing free in here,” said Earp. “Come on, Gunther. Do you think you’re better than Blume? Is that it?”
“You seem to know a lot of the answers already,” I said. “Why don’t you tell me?”
“I don’t understand,” said Earp. “Why would you speak to a man like Waldemar Klingelhöfer in here and not Blume? Klingelhöfer was also in Task Group B. One’s just as bad as the other, surely.”
“All in all,” said Silverman, “it must seem like old times for you, Gunther. Meeting all your old pals. Adolf Ott, Eugen Steimle, Blume, Klingelhöfer.”
“Come on,” insisted Earp. “Why speak to him and none of the others?”
“Is it because none of the other prisoners will speak to him because he betrayed a fellow SS officer?” asked Silverman. “Or because he appears to regret what he did as head of the Moscow killing commando?”
“Before taking charge of that commando,” said Earp, “your friend Klingelhöfer did what you claim to have done. He headed up an antipartisan hunt. In Minsk, wasn’t it? Where you were?”
“Was that just shooting Jews, the same as Klingelhöfer?”
“Maybe you’ll let me answer one of your questions at a time,” I said.
“There’s no rush,” said Silverman. “We’ve got plenty of time. Take it from the beginning, why don’t you? You say you were ordered to join a Reserve Police Battalion, number three one six, in the summer of 1941, as part of Operation Barbarossa.”
“That’s correct.”
“So how come you didn’t go to Pretzsch in the spring?” asked Earp. “To the police academy there for training and assignment. By all accounts, nearly everyone who was going to Russia was at Pretzsch. Gestapo, Kripo, Waffen-SS, SD, the whole RSHA.”
“Heydrich, Himmler, and several thousand officers,” said Silverman. “According to previous accounts we’ve heard, it was common knowledge after that what was going to happen when you all got to Russia. But you say you weren’t at Pretzsch, which is why the whole business of killing Jews was such an unpleasant surprise for you. So why weren’t you at Pretzsch?”
“What did you get? A sick note?”
“I was still in France,” I said. “On a special mission from Heydrich.”
“That was convenient, wasn’t it? So let me get this straight: When you joined Battalion Three One Six, on the Polish–Russian border in June 1941, it’s really your impression that your job would involve nothing more than hunting down partisans and NKVD, right?”
“Yes. But even before I got to Vilnius I’d begun to hear stories of local pogroms against the Jews because the Jews in the NKVD were busy murdering all of their prisoners instead of releasing them. It was all very confused. You’ve no idea how confused. Frankly, I didn’t believe these stories at first. There were plenty of stories like that in the Great War, and most of them turned out to be false.” I shrugged. “In this particular case, however, even the worst, most far-fetched stories were nearly all true.”
“Exactly what were your orders?”
“That our job was a security one. To keep order behind the lines of our advancing army.”
“And you did that how?” asked Silverman. “By murdering people?”
“You know, being a detective in the police battalion, I paid a lot of attention to my so-called comrades. And it turned out that a lot of these murdering bastards in the Task Groups were lawyers, too. Just like you guys. Blume, Sandberger, Ohlendorf, Schulz. I expect there were others, but I can’t remember their names. I used to wonder why it was that so many lawyers took part in these killings. What do you think?”
“We ask the questions, Gunther.”
“Spoken like a true lawyer, Mr. Earp. By the way, how come I don’t have one here? With all due respect, gentlemen,
“And why’s that?”
“I thought it was free association. Do I have to explain who I choose to speak to and who I don’t?”
“There’s nothing free in here,” said Earp. “Come on, Gunther. Do you think you’re better than Blume? Is that it?”
“You seem to know a lot of the answers already,” I said. “Why don’t you tell me?”
“I don’t understand,” said Earp. “Why would you speak to a man like Waldemar Klingelhöfer in here and not Blume? Klingelhöfer was also in Task Group B. One’s just as bad as the other, surely.”
“All in all,” said Silverman, “it must seem like old times for you, Gunther. Meeting all your old pals. Adolf Ott, Eugen Steimle, Blume, Klingelhöfer.”
“Come on,” insisted Earp. “Why speak to him and none of the others?”
“Is it because none of the other prisoners will speak to him because he betrayed a fellow SS officer?” asked Silverman. “Or because he appears to regret what he did as head of the Moscow killing commando?”
“Before taking charge of that commando,” said Earp, “your friend Klingelhöfer did what you claim to have done. He headed up an antipartisan hunt. In Minsk, wasn’t it? Where you were?”
“Was that just shooting Jews, the same as Klingelhöfer?”
“Maybe you’ll let me answer one of your questions at a time,” I said.
“There’s no rush,” said Silverman. “We’ve got plenty of time. Take it from the beginning, why don’t you? You say you were ordered to join a Reserve Police Battalion, number three one six, in the summer of 1941, as part of Operation Barbarossa.”
“That’s correct.”
“So how come you didn’t go to Pretzsch in the spring?” asked Earp. “To the police academy there for training and assignment. By all accounts, nearly everyone who was going to Russia was at Pretzsch. Gestapo, Kripo, Waffen-SS, SD, the whole RSHA.”
“Heydrich, Himmler, and several thousand officers,” said Silverman. “According to previous accounts we’ve heard, it was common knowledge after that what was going to happen when you all got to Russia. But you say you weren’t at Pretzsch, which is why the whole business of killing Jews was such an unpleasant surprise for you. So why weren’t you at Pretzsch?”
“What did you get? A sick note?”
“I was still in France,” I said. “On a special mission from Heydrich.”
“That was convenient, wasn’t it? So let me get this straight: When you joined Battalion Three One Six, on the Polish–Russian border in June 1941, it’s really your impression that your job would involve nothing more than hunting down partisans and NKVD, right?”
“Yes. But even before I got to Vilnius I’d begun to hear stories of local pogroms against the Jews because the Jews in the NKVD were busy murdering all of their prisoners instead of releasing them. It was all very confused. You’ve no idea how confused. Frankly, I didn’t believe these stories at first. There were plenty of stories like that in the Great War, and most of them turned out to be false.” I shrugged. “In this particular case, however, even the worst, most far-fetched stories were nearly all true.”
“Exactly what were your orders?”
“That our job was a security one. To keep order behind the lines of our advancing army.”
“And you did that how?” asked Silverman. “By murdering people?”
“You know, being a detective in the police battalion, I paid a lot of attention to my so-called comrades. And it turned out that a lot of these murdering bastards in the Task Groups were lawyers, too. Just like you guys. Blume, Sandberger, Ohlendorf, Schulz. I expect there were others, but I can’t remember their names. I used to wonder why it was that so many lawyers took part in these killings. What do you think?”
“We ask the questions, Gunther.”
“Spoken like a true lawyer, Mr. Earp. By the way, how come I don’t have one here? With all due respect, gentlemen,
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