427 “How many Jews remained above the ground in Europe?”—The protocols of the Wannsee Conference inform the “Herr Undersecretary of State Luther” that 131,800 Jews remained in the Old Reich, 43,700 in the Ostmark, 2,284,000 in the General Government of the former Poland, around 5,000,000 in the USSR; it all added up to the following totaclass="underline" “zusammen: über 11.000.000”—Peter Longerich, Die Wannsee-Konferenz vom 20. Januar 1942: Planung und Beginn des Genozids an den europäischen Juden (Berlin: Gedenk und Bildungsstätte Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz, Band Nr. 7, series ed. by Norbert Kampe; Edition Hentrich, 1998), facsimile p. 6 (also stamped 171), Besprechungs-protokoll (with cover letter on SD stationery to Undersecretary of State Luther, dated 16 February 1942, date-stamped by Luther’s office 2 March 1942), sec. III.
427 Dr. Pfannenstieclass="underline" “When one sees the bodies of these Jews…”—Slightly abridged from Gerstein’s report (Friedländer, p. 113).
428 Conversation of Wirth and Gerstein: “We don’t need any modifications” and “the prussic acid has deteriorated in transit”—Very loosely after Gerstein’s report (Friedländer, p. 112), expanded and embellished. Wirth never offered Gerstein an outright bribe.
429 Wirth to Gerstein: “Two in the head is too much; two will practically tear the head off” —Fairly closely after the war diary of Blutenordenträger Felix Landau, in Klee, Dressen and Riess, p. 97 (entry for 12 July 1941; he was shooting Jews).
429 Footnote: “What harms love more than doubt and suspicion?,” etc.—Strassburg, p. 223.
430 “They have already adopted…” and “Supplies for Tunis.”—S. L. Mayer, ed., Signaclass="underline" Years of Retreat 1943-44: Hitler’s Wartime Picture Magazine (London: Mayer Hamlyn: A Bison Book, 1979). The issues selected by Mayer were all intended for the Channel Islands and therefore appeared in English. The pages of this volume are unnumbered, so they cannot be cited. I have also drawn on some of the illustrations in Signal for “The Last Field-Marshal.” Since the dates of the various issues have not been indicated, there may be minor anachronisms.
430 Ludwig Gerstein’s tale about the “Yid who tried to steal our name,” and subsequent conversation—Based on the following, written by Ludwig in the family album: “During the 1890s, a Jewish doctor, Richard Goldstein of Hamburg, changed his name to Gerstein. A complaint lodged by my brother Karl with the city Senate was unsuccessful, but he was promised that this would not be allowed to happen again. A renewed complaint on my part in 1933 went unanswered” (Friedländer, p. 10), and then Ludwig Gerstein mentions “an expatriate student” at the Technical University in Berlin. The part about a Jew under an assumed name being discovered and deported is my invention. Ludwig Gerstein closes the album with an exhortation to his descendants to safeguard the purity of their Aryan blood. Since people generally speak more crassly than they write, I haven’t hesitated to make him still more fearsomely anti-Semitic than the record proves him to have been.
430 Gerstein on his father: “He used to say that he regretted what was being done” —Closely based on the testimony of the Jewish lawyer R. Coste, in Friedländer, p. 11.
431 Gerstein’s service record “from this period”: “G. is especially suitable…”—Actually, his training report from 5 May 1941, somewhat altered (Friedländer, p. 90).
432 Complaints of the gassing van inspectors: After the statement of August Becker, Ph.D., gas-van inspector (Klee, Dressen and Riess, p. 71). I have not seen any evidence that such people actually went to Gerstein.
433 Recollection of Pastor Otto Wehr: Gerstein: “Every half hour those trainloads of doomed Jews come chasing me…”—Very loose rephrasing of Friedländer, p. 134 (Otto Wehr).
433 Gerstein to Bishop Dibelius: “Help us, help us! These things must become the talk of the world—”—Friedländer, p. 136 (testimony of Otto Dibelius, abridged).
435 Ludwig Gerstein: “Leave bad manners to their own quarrel”—Actually, this is part of the advice given to the knight Parzifal by one of his first teachers, Gurnemanz de Graharz. See von Eschenbach, p. 94.
435 “Word of the Week” street poster: “Who wears this symbol is an enemy of our people” —Hans Bohrmann, comp., Politische Plakate, with essays by Ruth Malhotra and Manfred Hagen (Dortmund, Germany: Harenberg Kommunikation; Die bibliophilien Taschenbücher, no. 435, 1984), p. 374, item no. 278 (trans. by WTV). The note on p. 643 identifies this item as “Parole der Woche 1942 Nr. 27 (1.-7.7.),” in other words, the “Word of the Week” for the first week of July.
436 Baron von Otter to Gerstein: “… a great influence on the relations between Sweden and Germany”—Gerstein believed or wanted to believe that the Baron said this; these are the words of his report to the Allies at the end of the war (Friedländer, p. 124).
439 Edmund: “Long and wide went the forest…”—von Eschenbach, p. 214 (“retranslated” by WTV).
439 Gerstein to Helmut Franz: “The times leave me no choice…”—Friedländer, p. 91 (recast as direct speech).
439 The Hitler Youth actor in Hagen: “We’ll have no Savior who weeps and laments!” and Gerstein’s reply: “We shall not allow our faith to be publicly mocked without protest!” —Friedländer, p. 37, slightly “retranslated.”
440 Gerstein’s final inteview with the Swiss consul Hochstrasser—A fiction, like the first one. According to Balfour (loc. cit.), Gerstein did at some point tell Hochstrasser about the Holocaust, and Hochstrasser passed this information on to his country. I know nothing about his own attitude to Gerstein.
440 Conversation between Gerstein and his wife: “How can you, a man of honor… testify about them”—Considerably altered from Friedländer, p. 131 (Gerstein’s interlocutor was actually the architect Otto Völkers). According to Friedländer, Gerstein might in fact have tried to protect his wife during this period from full knowledge of what he’d seen at Belzec; but from her testimony (p. 132), it seems clear that she was aware that massive numbers of people were being murdered by the Nazis.
442 Ludwig Gerstein: “For whoever desires the Grail must approach that prize with the sword”—Actually, Eschenbach, p. 269, slightly “retranslated.”
442 “His son Christian”—I have not been able to find out the names of Gerstein’s children.
443 Gerstein to his family: “The Allies have devices with which they can pinpoint their targets in the dark…”—Testimony of Nieuwenhuisen, to whom Gerstein was in fact speaking; in Friedländer, p. 163.