All My Love, Detrick (40 page)

156

Berlin

Konrad hung up the phone. In desperation, he cried out Detrick’s name. The sound echoed through the empty house. “Why Detrick… Why?" He called out again. Sick to his stomach, he fell to his knees. Bent over, he held his midsection as the pain shot through him. It had been years since Konrad had cried, but he did so now. For he knew what he must do, and he even found he could easily guess Detrick’s next move. Picking up the phone, he called his superior.

“Close off the borders to Switzerland.” Then he explained why. Once the betrayal went into action, the power to stop it was no longer
Konrad’s. His stomach grew sick from the rich dinner he’d just eaten, and he ran to the bathroom, where he vomited. Once he’d finished, he splashed cold water on his blood red and feverish face. Then he scrubbed his hands with soap until the bled. For the rest of his life he would wash his hands, compulsively trying to cleanse his guilty heart.

157

The Swiss-German border

“N
ame?”

“
Gruppenfuhrer Detrick Haswell. This is my father, Hans Haswell.”

The officer gazed at the two. “What is your business across the border?”

“I am here to do some work for the Reich, and at the same time, my father and I plan to take a short holiday.” Detrick felt the collar of his uniform tighten like a noose around his neck. It had been days since he’d slept, and dark circles had formed beneath his heavy-lidded eyes.

“Very well.”
Just as the guard was about to open the gate, the phone in the booth rang. “Excuse me. I must answer this.” The guard turned to Detrick.

Detrick nodded, but he felt something had gone wrong. He turned to Jacob, who felt it too. If he ran through the gate
the metal bar, decapitate both of them. Detrick looked back at the guard. By the expression on the guard's face, Detrick knew for sure they’d been found out. Turning to Jacob, he squeezed his hand. “Open the door and run, Papa. I am right behind you.”

They both opened their car doors and took off as fast as they could. It was only 100 yards to the safety zone.

When the gunshot rang out, Detrick turned and saw Jacob fall. Instead of crossing the line, he ran back to hold the old man as he died.

“Jacob, I’m here.”

“I know I know… You should not have come back… Not now, when you were almost across the border, or before, when you were safe with Leah.”

“Shhhh, don’t talk.”

“Before they come, I want to say goodbye. I tell you, go now….leave me here…go... Run...” Jacob closed his eyes. Detrick felt for a pulse, but none remained. He got up from the blood-covered street, but before he could move, two guards held him at gunpoint.

“Move!
Get into the booth!”

Detrick wanted to fight, but knew that they would shoot him. Instead, he followed.

A call was made.

Then a car arrived which took Detrick to the closest headquarters. There
a high-ranking officer met him.

“Not only do I hate to be disturbed on a Sunday night, but this behavior is appalling. What do you have to say for yourself?
A good Aryan boy going against his own for Jews.”

“I have nothing to say.”

“That you are sorry would be a beginning.” The man took a club from a holster at his side and hit Detrick across the shoulders. A loud crack, followed by a shooting pain, indicated to Detrick that a bone had been broken.

“I’m not sorry.”

“Courageous, aren’t we? Well, what else should I expect from a pure Aryan? After all, we are the superior race. It’s just a shame you aren’t smarter. To betray your own people for these vermin was truly a foolhardy mistake. Don’t you realize that they are filth and they were destroying Germany?”

Detrick did not answer. Once
again, the officer hit him, this time on the other side of his body.

“Apologize, say you were tricked. And perhaps…just perhaps I might let you live.”

“I am sorry, but not that I helped the Jews. I am sorry I was born one of you. It sickens me what the Nazis have done.”

“You stupid man.
You fool.” He hit Detrick across the face, breaking his nose. Blood shot across the room and splattered on to the wall.

Detrick’s entire body was filled with pain. “Call me what you will. I will never regret helping my friends…
Never.”

Now the officer grew even angrier, and in his rage, he swung the steel pipe across Detrick’s knees. Again, the deafening crack
was followed by terrible pain, and Detrick knew his knees had been destroyed.

“Say you are sorry… Say the Jews are nothing but lice, and I will send you to a hospital where you will get help.”

Detrick’s voice had gone hoarse from the pain. He looked up into the SS officer’s pale blue eyes and a last flood of bravery came over him. “I am a Jew. I converted. My wife is a Jew and my child is a Jew.”

With
that, the Nazi officer took the steel club and, with all of his might, he slammed it across Detrick’s skull. Blood poured like a river. The guard held the weapon in front of Detrick as he paced around him like a panther, continuing to make demands.

But
, Detrick no longer heard him. His mind had mercifully silenced the malevolent words. Now all he saw and heard, as his eyes closed upon the world, was Leah. She smiled as she told him she loved him. A vision…a premonition of the future...came to him as clearly, as if it took place right before him. He saw a little blond boy in his wife’s arms; they sat together by a fireplace and she kissed the child’s forehead. In his heart, Detrick felt the contentment, and in the knowing that they would be all right, he allowed himself the escape of death.

158

On April 30, 1945, Hitler and his wife Eva Braun committed suicide. Only a few days later the Nazis surrendered. The war was over. The Allies marched in to the previously occupied territory and liberated the concentration camps. The soldiers were sickened by the horrific conditions they uncovered. In May of 1948, Israel became a state. Although its Middle Eastern neighbors attacked the tiny Jewish country countless times, it prevailed through the sheer will of a people who gave everything to build a dream. And, today, the Jews have a homeland.

159

Geneva, Switzerland,1965

Regardless of what he tried, Daniel Joseph Haswell could never keep his hair from falling over his left eye. As he stood before the mirror, he ran a comb through his stylish, long golden mane. Today he would marry. In the room across the hall, his mother, Leah Haswell, dressed for the occasion. She laid the maroon dress with the paisley flowers across the bed. This gown would not have been her choice, but Sara, her future daughter-in law, loved it. So, who was she to spoil their wedding day? Leah just looked at the dress and laughed a little. Just let them both live long, happy, and healthy lives, she thought. Then she went to her dressing table and carefully applied her makeup. Twisting her graying hair into a simple knot, she studied her image in the mirror. Satisfied, she went to her small jewelry box. Inside she found the well-worn yellowed paper. Today she would allow her son to read the letter. It was time he read the words his father had written on that last day she’d seen him. She remembered the first time she’d opened the envelope and read the final words Detrick would ever say to her. It had been almost an entire week before she accepted the fact that he would not return. She’d paced the tiny hotel room morning to night, unable to rest. Yet somehow, she knew that Sunday night that he had died. Although Leah refused at first to believe that Detrick had left the earth, she had known in her heart just when it happened. She’d felt it; she’d seen his face in her mind and heard him whisper, “Take care of our child.”

Sadly, she also knew that Jacob had perished and she would now be on her own. She’d named her son for them both…Daniel for Detrick, Joseph, for Jacob.

Leah had never remarried. Not because there had not been
ample opportunities, but because she never stopped loving Detrick. There had just never been room for anyone else in her heart. All of the love and affection within her she’d used to blanket Daniel from a cruel world. It had not been easy; sometimes she’d missed Detrick so much that she felt she might perish with the loneliness. However, sometimes Leah found solace in talking to the small picture the two had taken at the arcade so long ago. Financially, Leah and Daniel’s lives had been a balancing act. At first, she’d used the money Detrick left to get situated. It had been just enough to make the move to Geneva and purchase a second-hand piano. After that, she’d earned their way by giving music lessons. Sometimes money did not flow as freely as she would have liked, but every day she thanked God for this precious gift, this child created from a love so great that even death could not destroy it. It was the little blond boy, with his father’s dimpled smile, who had kept her going.

“Mom?”
Daniel interrupted her thoughts.

“Yes, dear?”

“I can’t find my tie.”

“I thought you put it in your top drawer.”

“That’s right. I guess I’m so nervous that I forgot.”

For a moment Leah remembered her own wedding; how she and Detrick had stood there in that dark attic room; how he’d thrown the jacket of his Nazi uniform on the floor and taken her hand as they walked together beneath the makeshift canopy.

“Sara wanted me to give you this. But it’s really from both of us.” Daniel entered her room and handed her a small white box.

Smiling at
him, she opened it. Inside she found a gold heart a little larger than an American silver dollar.

“It opens.” Daniel smiled.

With care, she pried the locket apart to find a small photo of Daniel and Sara.

“This is lovely. Thank you.”
”Read the back. That’s the part from Sara.”

Leah reached for her glasses and turned the piece on to its back. The inscription read, “Thank you for raising a wonderful son.”

Tears filled her eyes as she looked at the beautiful boy who stood before her, so strong, so confident.

“What’s that paper?” Daniel noticed the letter that lay upon the bed.

For a moment, she considered not showing it to him. After all, why bring this up on his wedding day? “Never mind, it’s nothing.”

“I can see by your face, Mom, that it’s something important. Are we in some kind of financial trouble? Because I want you to know that, even though I am getting married, I will help you if you need it.”

“No.” She laughed aloud. “I’m fine. Your responsibilities are to your new wife.”

“Then, what is that, Mother?”

“It’s a letter. The last letter I ever received from your father. He left it with me when he went back to Germany to try to save your grandfather from Bergen-Belsen. I was not to open it unless he did not return.”

“Can I see it, please?”

She handed him the letter. Sinking down onto her bed, he read the words Detrick had written before his birth:

My Dearest Love,

If you are reading this, then fate has it that I am dead. It breaks my heart to leave you behind, alone and with our child. More than I can ever say, I wish I could be beside you, to love you and to help you raise this precious life within your womb. Tell our child how I would have loved him or her with my whole heart, the same way I have always loved you. Share our pride in our Jewish heritage with the little one. Make sure that he or she knows how much our people have sacrificed to be Jews. I guess one would agree that I, too, have sacrificed to be a Jew, even though I was not born into the religion.

Now
, I must tell you that you have been the greatest joy of my life, my reason for living. Every precious moment we spent together, I have cherished more than you will ever know. So often, in my mind, I go back over everything we’ve shared and I think, "I have truly been a lucky man. I have truly been blessed." Even though this has come to a tragic end, I have no regrets. My love for you was my light in the darkness, and my darling, it burnt so very, very brightly. Bright enough to illuminate an entire world.

God Bless
you, and our baby. May you both live in safety, and in peace.

All my love,

Detrick

“Mom, I don’t know what to say.” Daniel looked at Leah, his face stained with tears.