White steam boiled from four narrow smokestacks on the large building on the far corner of the camp. The steam looked insignificant compared to the black plumes from the massive crematoriums. Stadt had stopped walking and stood staring.
“We had work crews construct a canal from the Amper River, to bring water here which circulates in pipes through the pile to keep the components cool. The water is radioactive, and we use it for the prisoners, for showers and for drinking purposes.”
Esau nodded. Hahn had suggested the cooling system so the pile could run continuously. “And someone is keeping records of all this? The effects of radiation in the water and air, on the prisoners, I mean? The information could be valuable from a medical standpoint.”
Stadt brightened. “Oh yes, we have many skilled doctors here, and they are finding very interesting effects from massive doses. In fact, the radioactive poisoning seems to be nearly as effective as our firing squads, but costs us no bullets. The prisoners themselves think it’s just a cholera epidemic. Nobody understands what’s going on here.”
Stadt took two steps closer to the reactor building, but stopped again. “Obviously, the prisoners are expendable. We have them maintaining the pile, fixing the cooling system, performing routine measurements. We’ve just received a new shipment of processed uranium from the metallurgy plants near Joachimstal in Czechoslovakia. Every few days we have the prisoners disassemble the pile, remove the irradiated uranium slugs, and add fresh pieces. The irradiated uranium gets shipped off to a processing plant nearby, which is also operated with labor from Dachau.” He seemed very proud of that.
The uranium that had been cooking in the core of the reactor would be chemically treated to extract the small amount of plutonium created by the nuclear reactions. The rest of the uranium could then be reprocessed and returned to the reactor. Many of the other fission by-products were deadly poison and extremely radioactive, which posed a problem for storage.
Esau considered every concern to be secondary to producing the new element plutonium. The tiny grains slowly added up. Soon Esau’s researchers at the Virus House would have enough to perform macroscopic measurements, a major step in the progress toward a German atomic weapon. It was only a matter of time.
“If it is so radioactive in there, how do you get them to work so willingly? This is a precision installation, Herr Major. Sloppiness could ruin everything.” Esau looked at the reactor building, but he too avoided going closer. Let Diebner take the chance from now on, he decided.
Stadt peeled down his black glove and glanced at his wristwatch. “Almost noon. You’ll see in a moment. We are conscious of the radiation risk to our own guards too. All crews get rotated out after three weeks in the vicinity. Only a few of us know the real reason why.”
“What about the commandant? Doesn’t he remain here?” Esau asked.
Stadt frowned. “He has fallen out of favor for some private remarks he made about Himmler and the Fuhrer. He doesn’t even know it himself. We consider him expendable, and if he dies in the line of his duty here, then it avoids a messy court-martial, and saves us time and effort.”
Over by the reactor building many of the skeletal prisoners clung to the fences in their corrals, making unintelligible noises. They didn’t appear human anymore, naked and filthy, with wild eyes. But they seemed excited about something. The tall doors to the reactor building opened.
“Ah, here we are. Look how happy the rest of them get. It keeps a spark of hope burning, lets us squeeze a little more work out of them.”
Five men shuffled out of the reactor building doors. White steam continued to pour from the smokestacks, so the pile was continuing to function. Esau frowned. The men could barely walk, but they wore tattered overcoats and carried a single valise each. He realized they were prisoners too, near starving and very sick, but they appeared determined. They proceeded along the main thoroughfare with a drunken, stumbling gait, intent only on making their way to the barbed-wire entrance.
“Any man who volunteers for a week of work in the reactor building is set free afterward. We give him an overcoat and a valise with a change of clothes and official release papers. We let them walk out of the camp.” Stadt crossed his arms over his chest.
Esau looked around at the carnage and couldn’t believe Stadt would do such a thing. “You actually set them free?”
The men had reached the front gate. Two guards opened the gate and stood out of the way as the skeletal men moved more rapidly. One prisoner tried to run, but he fell, then crawled his way to his feet. Up in the watchtowers the man with the machine gun aimed at one, then another, then another of the freed prisoners, but the gun remained silent.
“Why not?” Stadt answered. “They are dead already. They receive a lethal dose of radiation within a few days. Many sicken inside and need to be replaced. The hardiest ones who do survive a full week in the reactor building barely last another day or so out of here.” He put a gloved finger on his lips. “I suppose we could have teams out of sight down the road to shoot them, but why should we trouble ourselves? Wastes bullets and effort, so we settle for shooting only the nonvolunteers.”
Esau shook his head, scowling. “Why would anyone volunteer for a job like that?”
Stadt narrowed his eyes and looked at him. “Look at them all, Professor. What other chance do they have? We have enough volunteers to keep us going for twelve years already.” His voice picked up a thick layer of sarcasm. “But I trust you will have your bomb finished before then?”
Esau began to respond, but the SS major turned to a guard approaching them. The uniformed man hurried and kept shoving his rifle back to its position on his back. Steam came from his mouth in spurts as he panted. “I am looking for Professor Esau!” He glanced from Stadt to Esau. “Are you the professor?”
“I am.”
The guard spoke, but he found himself out of breath and had to begin again. “Reichminister Speer has just arrived in his car. He requests that you meet him outside the camp. His driver is waiting for you.”
Esau frowned in confusion. Major Stadt let out a snort. “Speer refuses to come inside any of the camps. He doesn’t want to see what’s inside, although he knows as well as anybody does. He’s afraid. I bet he’d puke out everything he’d eaten in the past month.”
The guard shifted from one foot to the other, looking at Esau. “I can escort you right now, sir.”
Major Stadt waved at Esau. “Go on. I’ve told you about the reactor operations here. You can see everything’s going well. If you’d like to meet with Dr. Diebner or if you’d like to take a tour inside the reactor building itself, I can arrange that.”
Esau swallowed. “That won’t be necessary.”
“I didn’t think it would be.”
Esau hurried off behind the guard, anxious to be leaving the camp. He heard another line of distant shots in the trench. Major Stadt stood staring at the prisoners, then at the reactor building with its gushing smokestacks.
The guard stopped at the gate, and Esau walked under the towers with their machine guns. The practice-shooting man swiveled the barrel toward them, but then seemed to realize Esau was not another one of the Jews released from the reactor building. He tilted the gun up and directed a quick salute at the professor.