Allies (though not to the United States).
Under the terms of the Versailles Treaty, all the von
Deitzberg family property in what had become the former
German East Africa had been lost.
And since the loans against the von Deitzberg estates in
Westphalia had been still on the books of the Dresdener
Bank, when payments could not be made, the estates were also lost.
Soon afterward, Generalmajor von Deitzberg had com mitted suicide. He had not only been shamed that his deci sions had resulted in the loss of his family's estates, but he was unwilling to face spending the rest of his life in a small apartment somewhere, living only on his retirement pay.
Army friends of the family had arranged a place for Man fred in the cadet school, and in 1923, when he was twenty two, he had been commissioned a lieutenant of cavalry like his father and his grandfather. The difference for Manfred was that the family could no longer afford to subsidize its sons' military pay-meaning that Manfred had to live on his army pay, and it wasn't much.
Furthermore, because the Army was now limited to
100,000 men by the Versailles Treaty, promotions had come very slowly. In 1932, when Manfred was finally promoted
Oberleutnant, he was thirty-one and had been in the Army nine years.
A month before his promotion, he had joined the National
Socialist German Workers party, recognizing in Adolf Hitler a man who could restore Germany-and the German army-to greatness.
The next year, he learned that Heinrich Himmler was expanding the "Protective Echelon" (Der Schutzstaffel, formed in 1925 to protect Hitler) of the Nazi party into a more heavily armed, army-like force to be called the
Waffen-SS.
Manfred suspected that the Waffen-SS would become in time the most important armed force of Germany. And he knew that Hitler did not wholly trust the Army-an opinion shared by most of the senior National Socialist hierarchy.
The majority of the army's officer corps came from the aris tocracy, who looked down not only on Hitler himself (whom they referred to privately as "The Bavarian Corporal") but also on many in his inner circle. The Nazis were well aware of this.
Nevertheless, von Deitzberg had concluded that a profes sional officer who truly believed that National Socialism was the future would fare much better in the Waffen-SS than in the Wehrmacht, if for no other reason than that the
Waffen-SS would in the beginning be short of professional soldiers, since its officer corps would come predominantly from one branch or another of the police (many police officers had joined the Nazi party very early on).
He was well aware that you can't make an Army officer out of a policeman-no matter how good a Nazi-by simply putting him in a uniform and calling him Sturmbannfiihrer or Obersturmbannfiihrer. It takes training and experience, and he had both.
His application for an SS commission was quickly approved, and within a year he had been promoted to Haupt sturmfiihrer (captain). He was promoted to Sturmbannfuhrer
(major) two years after that-much sooner than he would have received the equivalent promotion in the Wehrmacht.
At the time of his promotion, von Deitzberg had been sta tioned in Munich, which exercised administrative authority over, among other things, the concentration camp at Dachau.
His superior staff work in this position brought him to the attention of Brigadefiihrer Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's adjutant.
Like von Deitzburg, Heydrich had been a professional officer (in the Navy, in his case). But for Heydrich it wasn't problems with making ends meet that sent him into the SS.
Rather, he had been forced to resign his naval commission because of an unfortunate affair with a woman. His military experience still left him convinced-with von Deitzberg- that you can't make good officers just by pinning rank insignia on them.
Heydrich had von Deitzberg assigned to his office in
Berlin, and there they became friends.
This turned out to be a mixed blessing. Heydrich liked fast cars, fast women, and good food. The SS provided his
Mercedes, and the fast women were free, but usually only after they'd been wined and dined at Berlin's better restau rants, where Heydrich was seldom presented with a check.
Since von Deitzberg did not enjoy Heydrich's celebrity, waiters and bartenders were not at all reluctant to hand the checks to him.
In August 1941, in the Reichschancellery, Hitler had per sonally promoted Heydrich to Gruppenfiihrer (Major Gen eral) and von Deitzberg-newly appointed as First Deputy
Adjutant to Reichsfuhrer-SS Himmler-to Obersturm bannfiihrer.
After a good deal of Champagne at the promotion party at the Hotel Adlon, von Deitzberg confided to Heydrich that, although the promotion was satisfying for a number of rea sons, it was most satisfying because he needed the money.
Two days later, Heydrich handed him an envelope con taining a great deal of cash.
"Consider this a confidential allowance," Heydrich said.
"Spend it as you need to. It doesn't have to be accounted for. It comes from a confidential special fund."
With his new position as First Deputy Adjutant to Reichs fuhrer-SS Himmler came other perquisites, including a deputy. Heydrich sent him-"for your approval; if you don't get along, I'll send you somebody else"-Obersturmfiihrer
Erich Raschner, whom Heydrich identified as intelligent and trustworthy. And, who "having never served in either the
Waffen-SS," he went on, "or the Wehrmacht, has been taught to respect those of his superiors who have."
Raschner turned out to be a short, squat, phlegmatic Hes sian, three years older than von Deitzberg. He had come into the SS as a policeman, but a policeman with an unusual background.
For one thing, he had originally been commissioned into the Allgemeine-SS, which dealt mainly with internal security and racial matters, rather than the Waffen-SS. Later, he had been transferred -to the Sicherheitspolizei, the Security
Police, called the Sipo, of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt or
RSHA (Reich Security Central Office).
Early on in his time with von Deitzberg, Raschner made it clear that as von Deitzberg was judging him for a long-term relationship, Raschner was doing the same thing. Von
Deitzberg understood that to mean that it was important to
Heydrich for them to get along.
Two weeks later, Heydrich asked von Deitzberg for an opinion of Raschner, and von Deitzberg gave him the answer he thought he wanted: They got along personally, and
Raschner would bring to the job knowledge of police and internal security matters that von Deitzberg admitted he did not have.
"Good," Heydrich said with a smile. "He likes you, too.
We'll make it permanent. And tonight we'll celebrate. Come by the house at, say, half past seven."
At half past seven, they opened a very nice bottle of Cour voisier cognac, toasted the new relationship, and then Hey drich matter-of-factly explained its nature.
"One of the things I admire in you, Manfred," Heydrich said, "is that you can get things done administratively."
"Thank you."
"And Erich, on the other hand, can get done whatever needs to be done without any record being kept. Do you follow me?"
"I'm not sure."
"The confidential special fund is what I'm leading up to,"
Heydrich said. "I'm sure that aroused your curiosity, Man fred?"
"Yes, it did."
"What no longer appears on Erich's service record is that he served with the Totenkopfverbande," Heydrich said. The
Death's-Head-Skull-Battalions were charged with the administration of concentration camps.
"I didn't know that."
"You told me a while ago you were having a little trouble keeping your financial head above water. A lot of us have that problem. We work hard, right? We should play hard, right? And to do that, you need the wherewithal, right?"