All present were delighted with this development. Apart from the useful economic boost, the Soviets should view the sale to them of the battleships as a friendly act, and hopefully they would lower their guard a little and re-arm with a little less urgency. Now that German naval policy recognised that the large capital ships were a relic of the past and could easily be dealt with in any future war, a sale to the Russians of Germany’s battleships was very acceptable indeed.
The sale of a battlecruiser to China would lead to difficulties with the Japanese, but would certainly help to cement the improving relations with Britain and America.
The only other matter to be discussed was the disbanding of the SS. Von Brauchitsch dealt with this.
“Unfortunately, due to their culture of elitism, and an obsession with racial superiority encouraged by its previous leader, Heinrich Himmler, there was a great deal of initial resentment among the SS to the idea of their incorporation into the Wermacht. I must say there was also some dissent within the army about being made to accept SS soldiers.
The investigations into atrocities committed by the SS in Poland and France have resulted in the trial of about two thousand of their troops. The circumstances were examined in great detail. Where the investigators found any extenuating circumstances, the accused individuals were given the benefit of the doubt. The nett result was that only twenty three officers and seventy nine other ranks were found guilty of serious crimes. The officers were executed and the others sentenced to military prison with hard labour for varied amounts of time between five and fifteen years. The remaining nineteen hundred accused, were dealt with relatively leniently. Some received prison sentences and the rest were confined to barracks for sixty days with a loss of pay.
A report on the matter was forwarded to the Foreign Affairs Minister for him to use in whatever way he sees fit in negotiations with the Poles. I hope they will now consider this matter closed.
The bulk of the SS, all fifty thousand of them, were offered the choice of applying to join the regular army, or demobilisation. Thirty thousand of them chose the army.
It was quite an undertaking. Lecturers had to be found and speedily trained within the army.
“The ex-SS applicants had to go back to school for a week”, von Brauchitsch said with a smile. “It was a one week intensive series of lectures and debates about the new German order and society. Particular attention was paid to many of the errors in Nazi ideology, although there was never any direct criticism of Hitler himself. The object was to re-educate them to a point where they could accept the new, post Nazi society and policies in Germany. Anyone who could not do so, would not be eligible for the army, which is, after all, the defender of our society.
Nearly a quarter of these soldiers at the school failed in the judgement of the lecturers. A further five thousand just walked away after the lectures were finished. Only eighteen thousand eventually completed an application to join the Werhmacht. Bearing in mind that the army is down-sizing, fewer than half of these applicants were accepted. All good, battle hardened soldiers.
That, gentlemen, is the end of the SS”.
It was time to finish the meeting. They all suffered from a never ending burden of work. But there was one more item to be considered. General Beck looked at Admiral Canaris, prompting him to speak.
Canaris had a long history of opposition to the Nazis. He had even contemplated a plan to kidnap and unseat Hitler as early as the beginning of 1939. At that time the high ranking military in Germany believed Britain would declare war on Germany if Czechoslovakia, or what was left of it, was attacked. That would have given the German military the pretext they believed they needed, to act. Unfortunately when Czechoslovakia was eventually attacked and occupied, the weak political leaders of Britain and France did nothing. And so a glorious opportunity to spare Europe from war was lost.
He had become even more anti-Nazi after personally witnessing war crimes in Poland by the SS, including the burning of a synagogue with two hundred Polish Jews inside. He was also fiercely anti-communist.
Canaris now spoke. “I have to bring a matter of grave concern to the attention of this gathering. I first discussed it with General Beck two weeks ago, but since then things seem to have become worse.”
He had the absolute attention of all present.
“It has come to my knowledge that following the dismemberment of the SS, someone immediately started a sort of fellowship movement for ex-SS soldiers. Mostly disgruntled soldiers, I might add. It isn’t exactly a secret movement, but they are also not openly advertising it. Recruiting more by word of mouth. Even so, membership already stands at ten thousand and is growing daily. My source tells me that there will be twenty thousand very soon, with an overall target of thirty thousand members.
Now it `may be a perfectly innocent organisation, people just keeping alive their old comradeship. But the idea of twenty or thirty thousand well trained soldiers, all imbued with Nazi ideals, does not sit comfortably with me. I decided to keep an eye on them.
There is definitely some money behind it. Then I started to pick up whispers through my agents and others, of certain people very discretely spreading lies about the Governing Council. To them it seems that Germany is being disarmed and will soon be defenceless. The sailors on the battleships and other heavy units have been told their ships will be sold or scrapped and they will be discharged from the navy without compensation or pensions. Another story circulating is that the territories conquered by the shedding of German blood, are being handed back to our enemies. That sort of rubbish.
Oh, I nearly forgot, the members of the Governing Council are also lining their own pockets out of the tax money paid by ordinary hard working Germans.”
Canaris saw the faces of his audience set hard.
“As a matter of urgency I set my agents to trace who was behind this, and ascertain what it might be leading up to. It took a lot of gentle sifting through information, subtle prodding of different people, a little arm twisting here and there, putting together all the pieces. Everything I learned, pointed to one man.” He paused.
“And do we have a name for this man?” Von Brauchitsch asked.
Canaris’ answer stunned them. “Field Marshall Hermann Goering.”
It took a few minutes to absorb this shocking news. Canaris was questioned at length. All eventually accepted that his appraisal appeared to be absolutely correct. Then, with grim determination, they laid their plans.
There would be no outward display that they were aware of anything out of the ordinary going on. It would be business as usual. Only the military members would be party to the secret for the time being.
Security around all members of the Governing Council and the Deputy Ministers would be discretely boosted, but obviously not around the President of the Council. An empty barracks, previously belonging to the SS, and close to the government chambers, would become the new regimental home of one of the army’s battle hardened regiments. Every soldier trusted by the General.
Admiral Canaris and the Abwehr would increase their surveillance of the troublemakers in general, and attempt to infiltrate the subversive cells. Goering and his confidants in particular, would be monitored carefully. Von Brauchitsch and Canaris were in complete agreement about what had to be done.
In the meantime, the Military Council would meet every few days to review the situation.
Once again von Brauchtisch looked forward to the day he could cease being a politician.