CHAPTER SEVEN
Dawn was breaking when the trail of trucks arrived at the Ohrdruf rail station. Rauch was amazed to see what looked to be hundreds of well-dressed SS guards in every direction. As the staff car pulled up to the station leading the six trucks, an SS captain stepped off of the platform and threw up his hands to stop the car. A veritable wave of SS troops surrounded the car and the trucks as they came to a halt next to the platform. Schneider opened the door and ran around to open Rauch’s door. Before he could get there, however, Rauch’s door was opened by the SS captain.
“Heil Hitler!” the SS captain saluted as Rauch exited. He returned the salute amazed at the sheer number of SS guards all around. He wondered about this secret cargo they carried. What was critical enough to have this many guards around? It must be either something extremely valuable or immensely important. He motioned to Schneider to get up on the station platform just as they saw the trucks being unloaded and the cargo going into several closed railcars with guards on top. Between each car was a flatbed car with two gun emplacements and dozens of guards. Maybe not knowing their cargo was in his best interest. That was it. What he did not know about he could not worry about. He motioned to the SS captain.
“Where are we to ride, Captain?” he asked.
“The officers will ride in the passenger car at the rear,” the SS captain answered as he waved his arm back to their right, past the station toward the end of the train. “Your guards are to ride in the cars with the cargo. They are not to leave the cargo cars for any reason.”
“Schneider, get our bags and join me in the railcar,” Rauch ordered as he rather pompously walked by the men loading the train. He noticed they were straining mightily with the large wooden crates being transferred to the railcars. Rauch stopped for a second, reading the labels on the crates. “Transport Parts” read the stencil on the crates. But he too noted the SS emblem, Nazi eagle and swastika emblazoned on each crate as well. Hmmm, he thought. Official Nazi markings on crates of transport parts; not likely, he thought. But that was none of his business. All he wanted was to get this silly charade over and get back to his headquarters.
Rauch yearned for this war to be over. What started as a grand and wonderful endeavor for the Fatherland was now a losing situation. Hitler was still in charge but clearly not in charge of his own mind. He had heard of many, many weird antics by Hitler and personally seen evidence of such when he visited Berlin just a few months earlier. Losses on all fronts were mounting. When the Americans got involved and began sweeping through Europe, Rauch knew the end was coming. He wanted this war to end so he could return to his small farm near Zweibrücken, near the French border. Rauch’s family had been in the area for generations. Maybe after the war he could go to the U.S. and join some of the family there; that is if he were allowed to leave.
“We are leaving, sir,” interjected Schneider, snapping Rauch back to reality. The two stepped quickly back to the passenger car and boarded just as the conductor began waving his lamp to signal it was clear to move the train. They settled in as the sun broke over the horizon. Rauch looked out the window, amazed that the mass of SS troops that were once milling around had now also boarded the train.
Again the sight of the official Nazi markings on the crates crossed his mind. What was in those crates that warranted this many crack SS troops to guard it? Why were the crates stored in the bunker? Why was that bunker there? The Nazis did not build such structures and guard them with SS troops for a non-specific reason. Was it really Hitler’s hiding place after the war? His mind struggled with the questions. Rauch imagined the amount of manpower that building such a structure required; and the cost.
Actually the bunker facility, known as S/III, was a very important but secret location for the German high command. Most of the locals had no idea the complex was even there. The facility was built about 300 kilometers southwest of Berlin in the Jonas Valley. The area known locally as Jonastal was a series of high, rocky cliffs overlooking the valley below. The main complex that Rauch and Schneider had visited was imbedded in a hill on the north side of the valley between Crawinkel and Arnstadt.
Construction of the hideaway was thought to have begun in early fall of 1944 using forced labor from the nearby Ohrdruf labor camp. As part of the giant Buchenwald concentration camp, the Ohrdruf camp supplied nearly 18,000 laborers each day to work on the system of twenty-five tunnels, some over a mile and a half long.
The underground facilities were primarily built as emergency headquarters for Hitler and his high command if they had to retreat from Berlin. Additionally some of Germany’s best and brightest scientists were brought there to do their research.
Construction debris from the facilities was meticulously removed from the site and spread widely across areas far from the complex to hide its location. To further ensure security, most of the concentration camp workers were later exterminated at Buchenwald. The Germans liked their secrets kept and did not care who perished to keep them secret.
The bunker facility was designed to be a stronghold from the very beginning. Security was paramount since it would house the Führer. Huge reinforced concrete walls and massive steel blast doors were the norm. Although simple and utilitarian for the most part, there were several areas built with such elegance that one would think you were in one of the finest hotels in Paris. Lush carpets, mahogany paneling and priceless works of art were the accoutrements of the elegant areas. It was essentially an underground city with barracks, dining halls, kitchens, work and storage rooms and laboratories. There were also recreation areas, theaters and massive garages. The entire complex was centrally heated and air-conditioned and had a modern sewage system.
Since the site was so secure, many of the stolen artifacts and art works pilfered from all across Europe were also stored here.
After the war, the complex fell under the control of the Soviets and became part of East Germany. Most of the information regarding the area is still held as a state secret by the Russian government. Today most of the complex has been dynamited, sealing the underground spaces forever. The exact purpose of most of the complex was never known, at least to the Allies.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The entire trip took several days. They crossed the heart of Germany. What once was a beautiful countryside showed the strain of five years of war. Each stop was quick, but military convoys and troop movements were the one constant in each town or city through which they passed.
Reroutes were inevitable. Allied bombings wreaked havoc on the German rail system. Tracks open one day were completely destroyed the next. It took nearly a week for a normal two day trip.
Germany’s cities and towns were ravaged. Only very small portions of the countryside did not reflect the horrible effects of war. Many of the towns and cities they passed were bombed into rock and dust, utterly destroyed. Time and time again they saw hordes of German civilians fleeing the populated areas as the enemy drove closer.
The people carried everything they considered precious, but only what they could bear. Women, children and old men trudged along roads and track sidings. As they got closer to Rostock, the results of the heavy allied bombings from 1942 and 1945 were everywhere. The central city itself was mainly rubble and looked like a ghost town.