The Shield: a novel (34 page)

Eichmann sounded surprised
. “I don’t have the authority to let you into the Ninth Fort or anywhere else besides the Kaunas ghetto. You will have to wait. I must contact my superiors and get their permission, which I’m not sure will be forthcoming.”

“
Colonel, one of my orders is to kill you on the spot if you don’t cooperate. We will do that as soon as my interrogator is done with you. Shall we start now or do we go to the Ninth Fort?”

“
But this is unreasonable. I have my orders and I have to follow them. You don’t have the right or authority to do anything to me.” Eichmann was pacing back and forth. He sweated heavily and looked pale.

“
You seriously want to test that statement?” The captain smiled cheerfully. “Who do you think will rescue you if we start the interrogation now?

“
As to having no authority: this is your second lie to a Caliphate officer. You lied once already to Colonel Rakhman. This may have sealed your fate anyway, but I will give you a chance to redeem yourself. So, shall we go or shall I call the interrogator?”

Eichmann sat down. Now his face was calm
. “If you torture and kill me, the consequences will be catastrophic. You won’t be able to go anywhere from here – all cooperation and transportation is on my authority only. And my superiors will likely rescind our agreement regarding the Jews.”

The captain smiled: “Well, the consequences will certainly be catastrophic for you. You will be dead after having been tortured by the best in th
e business. I would like to remind you that it was the Fuehrer who ordered you to cooperate with us and everything you do is on his orders. I very much doubt that he will suddenly decide to sacrifice a city to the incompetence of his subordinates.”

Eichmann got up from his seat
. “Captain, you passed my test of loyalty. I apologize for the aggravation, but I had strict orders to make sure that you are faithfully executing your agreement with the Fuehrer. We can now go to the Ninth Fort.”

The Israeli could only admire the brazen lie. For the time being he decided to let it go. The inspection of the prison c
amp was a much more urgent affair than getting even with Eichmann.

***

The captain, Saul, the police investigator, Sergeant Zohar and a soldier drove to the Ninth Fort in Eichmann’s car, with Eichmann squeezed between Zohar and Saul. Their visit was shorter than anticipated. When approaching the fort they heard machine gun fire and then several pistol shots.

When they arrived at the fort ten minutes later they found themselves in hell: a group of SS soldiers was standing on the edge of a large pit dug out next to one of the tall walls surrounding the fort. In the pit a group of prisoners were shoveling lime on top of more than a hundred dead bodies. This was the explanation of the gunfire they heard on approach. This was also what Jacob heard when he was there earlier. A quick calculation suggested that in the last week the German
s had murdered more than four thousand people. They were digging yet another pit next to the one that was half-full.

Eichmann was proud: “As you can see we are quite efficient in dealing with enemies
of the Reich.”

“
Who were these people?” the captain asked after a little while, when he could trust his voice not to tremble.

“
Oh, I don’t know exactly. We can ask the commander when we speak to him. Here he is.”  A medium height, non-descript man in a well pressed SS uniform was walking towards them. “This is SS Captain Gratt, the commandant of this facility.”

“
Captain Osama Ramadan, Company A, the First Battalion, Tenth Division of the Caliph’s army,” the Israeli saluted. “Pleased to meet you.”

“
Captain Ramadan is here to investigate the disappearance of their operatives. I expect you to fully cooperate with his team.” Eichmann sounded sincere, but Saul noticed that his eyes flicked to the side. Something wasn’t kosher.

The Israeli requested, and was granted, a full tour of the fort. It was filled to its considerable capacity. Thousands of people were incarcerated in the underground casements and the drier cells above ground. The te
am could not easily determine who these prisoners were. One thing was certain: their life expectancy was not great.

They started their questioning with the commander. Eichmann was not allowed in the room and was told to wait in the car. This somewhat rude treatment of
a superior officer seemed to surprise the SS captain, but he said nothing. When questioned, he freely admitted that the four men had been brought to the fort by an SS detachment.

“
We interrogated them as gently as possible to make sure that they are who they said they are. As soon as we ascertained their identities we let them go.”

“
All together?” asked Saul.

“
No. The man name Mordechai was released on his second day here. The rest were released the next day. He departed on his cart as soon as we let him go.”

Saul looked at Captain Ori Ben-Zvi, otherwise known as Os
ama Ramadan. Ori nodded and Saul pulled out the polygraph harness from his bag. Captain Gratt objected to wearing the harness and was promptly whacked in the face by Zohar. He was so surprised that he forgot to protest.

“
Captain, we are here to get to the truth. As you can see, we have the means of getting to the truth and we will discover it no matter what the cost to you. I would prefer to do it quickly and painlessly, but if you prefer it the other way, we can do that too.”

The fort commander regained some of his composure: “You will be shot for what you did, Colonel Eichmann’s authority
notwithstanding. You can’t expect to beat the commander of this facility and get out of here alive.”

Ori nodded to Zohar, who smiled and broke the Nazis nose.

“Gratt you are learning what Herr Eichmann and others learned before you: never talk back to a Caliphate officer. Never. We’ve wasted enough time. Answer my interrogator’s question. Truthfully, please. The punishment for lying is the loss of your tongue so be careful what you say.”

The SS man didn’t resist but stuck to his version of the story. After ten minutes Saul was certain that he was lying, that Mordechai had never left the fort. He and Captain Ben-Zvi quietly conferred in the corner of the office.  Then Ori said “Sergeant Ahmed please remove this man’s tongue. We are getting a bunch of lies from him.”

Gratt jumped at Zohar and it took all of the sergeant’s skill to pacify him. They made enough noise for the soldier standing guard outside to poke his head into the room to see if they were okay.

When Gratt
came to he was tied to his chair and couldn’t move. Zohar approached with his tongue cutting tool and made the Nazi open his tightly clenched teeth by the simple expedient of pinching his nose. A screwdriver prevented the murderer from closing his mouth. When Gratt’s tongue was pulled out and he realized that it is about to be cut off he started making frantic noises.

“
Would you like to amend any of your answers?” asked Saul.

Gratt nodded, though his head couldn’t move much.

“Sergeant please let him speak.”

Zohar let go of the German
’s tongue and smiled at him: “I will be quicker next time. Don’t you worry.”

“
Captain Gratt if you have something to say now is the time.”

Gratt’s voice was trembling
.
“It is really not my fault. A stupid guard beat your man to death. I had nothing to do with it.”

Saul thought for a moment: “Good
. Let’s start from the beginning.”

It didn’t take long to discover the truth: Mordechai was beaten by a guard on arrival to the Ninth Fort. His three companions told the Israelis about that. His injuries were not serious and definitely not life threatening. The interrogators at the fort knew that Mordechai was not like the other three men and tried to pump him for information about the Caliph. He died suddenly during the interrogation. Saul and Ori were sure that Mordechai was about to crack and spill his secrets. He must have decided to commit suicide with the implanted poison tooth rather than tell his torturers the whole truth, which would have cost millions of lives.

There was another thing the team decided to investigate: who were the prisoners at the fort. It didn’t take long to find that out. The SS kept meticulous records and captain Gratt was very cooperative, especially after Eichmann made no comment about his broken and still bleeding nose.

A great majority of the fort’s inmates were ethnic minorities, mostly Gypsies, a couple of hundred Communists, or, rather, alleged Communists – several Lithuanians but mostly Poles and several Jews. A contingent of Soviet prisoners of war was also there awaiting their turn at the pits.

There were two issues left: What was Eichmann’s role and what to do for punishment.

***

The investigating team and Eichmann got back to the Kaunas ghetto by the end of the day. The captain made his report to Hirshson and waited for orders.

Eichmann was summoned to the Gestapo headquarters at 7
in the morning.

“
Colonel, we received orders. You are to take the whole Gestapo and SS contingent from the ghetto to the Ninth Fort. Assemble all the personnel from the fort near the pits. You will read this to them.”

The captain handed a printed page to Eichmann.

“After that you can return to your duties.”

“
Pay attention: the assembly has to be at ten in the morning tomorrow. Please be punctual and don’t leave anybody behind either in the ghetto or at the fort.”

Eichmann quickly read the text of the speech he was supposed to give: “I
am glad you realize that none of what happened was intentional. We regret the death of your man, but it was just an accident. I am sure the Fuehrer will appreciate your restrain in this matter.  I have a small objection, though. We can leave the ghetto to its own devices for a short time. The Lithuanian and Ukrainian guards will see to the population’s safety and we have only a small contingent here anyway. The fort is another issue. We must leave some guards in place otherwise there will be chaos.”

“
Don’t worry,” the captain reassured him. “The cells are locked and we will make sure that everything is peaceful. It should take you no more that fifteen minutes to read the speech. After that everything goes back to normal – I am sure that the prisoners won’t even know that the guards were away. What would you expect from sub humans?

“
One more thing I need to mention. The Jews at the fort have to be released at once into the ghetto. Also notify Herr Himmler that when the Caliph ordered all the Jews transferred to him he meant all of them. No exceptions.”

***

The next day close to five hundred people were gathered at the Ninth Fort pits. They stood at attention in neat rows prepared to listen to Adolph Eichmann. Eichmann was there. He looked at his watch. It was precisely 10 in the morning. Captain Ramadan waved to him from about a hundred yards away. The captain stood close to a corner of the perimeter wall and moved around the corner when Eichmann started his speech, leaving a laser designator attached to a pole discreetly stuck in the dirt at the corner. Ori was fifty yards along the wall when the explosions came. They didn’t sound too bad – the tall, massive wall gave him ample protection. By the time he returned to his position at the corner of the wall it was all over. The combined napalm/explosive bombs left not one of the murderers alive. In fact there wasn’t much left of them at all.

The captain ordered his soldiers to get the keys from the prison office and release the prisoners. He wasn’t sure how long the inmates could survive in this environment, but this was the best he could do for them.

On the plane back the lieutenant wanted to know why they had to deceive the Germans: “Sir, why not execute them properly? Why lie to them?”

“
Well, my friend, would you go quietly to your execution if you were armed and had a numerical advantage over your would be executioners?  Besides, these Germans are mass murderers and deserve to be treated as such. They may wear uniforms but they’re no soldiers.”

“
I am not sure all of them deserved to die,” said the lieutenant. “I am sure that there were innocent clerks among this bunch.”

“
What do you mean ‘innocent’? They may not have shot anybody, but they facilitated the murder. In any case, this is the chance you take by associating with murderers. Our justice, in this case at least, had to be somewhat crude. Hirshson told me that it had some effect. He got a call from Himmler of all people. The guy was very angry, but calmed down quickly when Hirshson told him that if he makes a fuss we will investigate some more and maybe find that he was behind this operation. In which case we will ask the Fuhrer to behead him.”

Jacob was recuperating from his injuries.
The infected cuts were healing, aided by the antibiotics he received for ten days. He was weak and still unsteady on his feet but did his best to walk around the small infirmary. He visited the gym next door as often as he could. The other members of his team were in the infirmary as well.