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Berlin Diary

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Episode 17. Morning of 2 August 1936 (Horst)

I left the interrogation room with an empty anxious feeling deep in the pit of my stomach. It had been a rough night with that crazy American girl foolishly attempting to poison Dr. Goebbels right in front of my eyes. I had no choice but to stop her. It was my duty to do so, even though I might have enjoyed seeing that skinny club-footed pig writhing and convulsing on the floor of the Apollo. And doing so meant that I would have to preside over her torture, and more likely than not ... her execution.

What was she doing here in Germany? She was so hopelessly naive and idealistic. To watch those sadistic bastards dunk her nude body ... to see her suffer so horribly as she experienced one of the most terrifying of tortures ... played deeply on my conscience. I needed time to think, to search my soul. The best I could do for the moment was to save her from any more immediate tortures. I hoped that I would find answers to her true identity and purpose waiting for me in my office, and that a proper course of action would reveal itself to me before duty forced me to resume her interrogation.

As I made my way from the interrogation blocks to my office, I observed a loud commotion emanating from the reception desk near the entrance to the building. Some Gestapo men were bringing in a prisoner, a striking young blonde woman in a red dress ... and a portly, well-dressed man was remonstrating loudly with the duty officer. I thought I recognized his voice and stopped to take a closer look. It was Max, and the woman under arrest was his number one showgirl at the Apollo, the one called Katrin.

Not wishing to get involved at this time, I hastened to cross the corridor unseen and enter my office, closing the door silently behind me. There on my desk, as I expected it would be, was a plain brown envelope.

I sat down in my chair, picked up the envelope and opened the seal with the point of the ceremonial SS dagger I kept in a drawer for that purpose. From the envelope I extracted a flimsy on which the content of an overseas cable had been transcribed. I laid it on the desk in front of me, smoothed it, and then leaned back in my chair to light a cigarette.

I smoked, eyes closed for several minutes, then, picking up the flimsy, I began to read:


Intelligence Report (Top Secret)
1 August 1936
SD, North American Office
New York, USA

Subject: Barbara Moore

Real name: Varvara Mohr
Born: 15 May 1904, St. Petersburg, Russia
Father: Gustav Mohr, German-born, activist leader and agitator, working with the Russian Socialist Revolution Party
Mother: Ekatarina Ivanovo, socialist propagandist

Emigrated to U.S. in 1906 with her parents in the aftermath of Russian Revolution of 1905. U.S. citizenship acquired in 1914 through parents' naturalization. Parents active in labor strikes in 1920s; Gustav arrested four times for labor agitation, serving two years in prison 1926-28. Barbara attended Harvard University, 1924-1929, where she was an active member of the country's radicalized left wing American Student Union. Arrested twice for political agitation on campus during her student years ... continued on after graduation as a front office representative of the ASU and as a propagandist for the Workers Party of America into the early 1930s. Recruited in 1932-33 by the Soviet NKVD. Lived in Moscow, two years, 1933-34. Returned spring of 1935 to the U.S.

I laid the flimsy down on my desk, leaned back in my chair, opened the drawer and extracted a bottle of schnapps and a glass, which I promptly refilled and emptied four times.

Then I reached to my 'inbox' to withdraw a memo addressed to me from the front office of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität, stating that no American citizen by the name of Barbara Moore is listed as having enrolled for the coming term.

A second memo, newly arrived, from the chemical lab confirmed that the white powdery substance was a poison.

I filled and drained another shot of schnapps.

A third memo, from my superior, Reinhard Heydrich, re-confirmed that Fräulein Moore, whom I had brought to his attention in an earlier memo, was to be watched closely but discretely, and prevented if necessary from carrying out any mission which she might be pursuing at the behest of an unfriendly authority. It also reminded me of the importance of squelching at all costs any disturbance that potentially might embarrass the Reich at this critical time of the Berlin Olympiad.

I folded Heydrich's memo, stuffed it in a drawer with others, and then with a smile, picked up the last item in my inbox ... a heavily perfumed envelope. Opening it I withdrew a piece of fine stationary and read:


My darling Horst,

Thank you for the lovely evening last week. I can't tell you how much I appreciate having your strong shoulder and sympathetic ear to give me the strength I so desperately need. Joseph is such a cad. I don't know how much longer I can bear his endless dalliances and debauchery. I know it's wrong of me, as a good National Socialist wife and mother, to think ill of my husband and yet I often find myself wishing for some misfortune to befall him. The Fuhrer would die if he knew, but I can tell you in the strictest confidence that were it to happen, you and I could at long last be openly together and I would be the happiest woman in the Reich.

Affectionately and passionately yours,

Magda G.

I thought regretfully about how easy it might have been to ignore Fräulein Moore's ill-conceived assassination attempt and drained a sixth glass. If only I hadn't given in then to my sense of duty. I picked up the phone and dialed Klaus' number.

"Klaus! Listen. We have got to get her out of here. I want you to stay by your phone until you hear from me again. I am not sure how it will be done and how long it will take but I do know I will need your help when the time comes. I don't have to tell you that what I am about to do is at great risk to myself and quite probably to you as well, but if Fräulein Moore starts talking ... well a lot is at stake ... and she is such an amateur ... dedicated to her fool cause, but totally out of her depth. I should have my head examined for even contemplating this. You and I are on opposite sides, Klaus, but there is something about this young woman. I know you are smitten, and I feel it too. So sit tight and await developments! I'd better go now and check on her."

I set down the receiver, stood up and steadied myself for a moment with both hands on my desk, then headed out the door and down the corridor to the stairway leading to the interrogation blocks below. Looking in Barbara's cell near the bottom of the stairs, I was astonished to find it empty.

From down the corridor came a woman's scream. Galvanized into action, I hastened down the long corridor, with its dozens of cells. A moment later I heard a second, louder scream ... it was Barbara's voice! I strode faster, fuming at the fact that my orders had obviously been disobeyed. I told those louts to wait for my return! Another scream ... this time, not Barbara's voice!

The cries were coming from Interrogation Block A at the far end of the corridor. I covered the remaining distance and reached the small anteroom leading to the Block A interrogation room just as I heard a loud crack, a smacking sound, and Barbara crying out again.

I went to open the door to the interrogation chamber. It was locked! I banged furiously on the door, and while I waited for someone on the other side to respond, I cast my eyes around the anteroom until my gaze rested on a woman's crumpled red dress and underthings carelessly tossed in a corner!

This plot is thickening nicely, Barb! :)

But is she really a spy? Is she being set up? Is this a plot to appease the volatile Hitler?
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Meanwhile... Tree and friends look for Miss Moore in the North African desert coming up empty.

"I thought she was in Berlin" Admi (the fair and just resistance fighter) says.

"So did I" Tree replies...

View attachment 433593

I think I should have taken a left in Miami
-Bugs Bunny -Looney Tunes
...sort of...

And with your only other prayer for rescue on entirely the wrong continent, :rolleyes:

Horst is your only hope! :eek:
 
It was my duty to do so, even though I might have enjoyed seeing that skinny club-footed pig writhing and convulsing on the floor of the Apollo.
I thought regretfully about how easy it might have been to ignore Fräulein Moore's ill-conceived assassination attempt and drained a sixth glass. If only I hadn't given in then to my sense of duty.
Ja, ja, verdammte Pflicht, Horst!:mad::mad::mad:
And remember, Horst, the Thousand Year Reich is only three years old! You ain't seen nothing yet!:devil:

Meanwhile, Barb keeps surprising us with the twist in this magnificent story!:)
 
Episode 18. Late Morning of 2 August 1936 (Horst)

Another scream from behind the interrogation chamber door set me to pounding on it again with both fists. This time someone let me in. I charged into the room full of bluster. Someone was going to pay dearly for this!

Strung up from the ceiling directly in front of me as I entered the chamber were Barbara and that Apollo showgirl, Katrin. Both were stark naked. They hung by their wrists from the same iron ceiling ring, their bodies so close they rubbed and smacked together as they danced under the lash of two whips.

Wielding the whips were two young blonde black-uniformed matrons, each stripped to the waist and taking turns at raking the two writhing bodies with well placed strokes. Bright arc lights mounted on the walls illuminated the scene from two sides, casting shifting shadows of the struggling pair and of their two tormentors on the gray-painted, but blood-streaked walls.

Ilsa_Ingrid_Maigret.jpg ISW topless whipping.jpg

It was immediately apparent that the whipping had been going on for some time. Sweat glistened on the bare backs and breasts of the two matrons ... evidence of the level of devotion and exertion they were putting into their work. The whipping had already left Barbara's and Katrin's naked flesh criss-crossed with numerous angry red lines.

image.jpeg

"Stop immediately!" I shouted. "What is the meaning of this? My orders were to do nothing until I returned!"

The four louts ... who earlier had been dunking Barbara ... and to whom I had given specific orders ... and who instead had been lounging against the back wall, enjoying the spectacle of two women being whipped ... looked first at one another nervously and then behind and to the left of me at a short, heavy-set matron with hair bound severely behind her head in a bun.

"I countermanded your orders!" she stated flatly and aggressively, as I spun around to confront her.

"Under whose authority?," I demanded, noting the rank insignia on her over-stuffed uniform shirt. She and I were of equal rank. This could be difficult, I thought to myself.

"Direct orders from Himmler, himself," she responded triumphantly.

"I work for Himmler and Heydrich as well ... the Moore woman is my responsibility," I countered.

"But Himmler telephoned me just now, not you! He had been contacted by Dr. Goebbels, who is demanding speedy action on the Moore case. Himmler wants immediate results and has put me in charge! Goebbels insists that the Moore woman be executed before the day is out."

"Ok, let's calm down and not be hasty about this," I said soothingly. "Goebbels is rightly upset, but the girl is an American citizen and standing her in front of a firing squad could lead to unwanted diplomatic repercussions. We need to properly assemble a case and prosecute under the law before any kind of execution can be contemplated."

"I will get the truth out of her in no time, now stand back!" she snapped, stepping forward and signalling to her assistants to resume applying the last to Barbara and Katrin.

"I suggest then that you allow me to both observe and assist you on this case," I interjected, signalling the young matrons to hold off. "Be sensible Brunhilde, you can make good use of what I already know about this Fraulein Moore."

"Agreed," she allowed, grudgingly. "But my girls are not finished with the prisoners yet! Resume!"

The two young matrons, who had been standing idly by, the business ends of their whips draped lazily over their shoulders while Brunhilde and I resolved our dispute, went back to work with a vengeance.

The room resounded once again with the crack and zing of the lash, and the screams and grunts of its helpless victims. Under the furious rain of strokes, Barbara and Katrin twisted and turned, sometimes pressed face to face, breasts bulging and legs intertwined ... at other times twisting away from one another and arching as a stroke cut across the small of a back, across quivering buttocks or wrapped itself around and grabbed at breasts, ribs or tummy before being ripped away.

"How many more?" I asked, worried that this had already gone too far. Both girls were showing signs of losing their grip ... their screams had become much shriller and more frantic than before.

"Until I say enough," replied Brunhilde, nonchalantly examining her fingernails.

The whipping continued for several more minutes before she called a halt and walked up to Barbara and Katrin, who hung back to back, heads bent listlessly forward. She took a handful of each girl's hair and banged their heads together. They blinked, cried out and looked at her, incomprehension in their eyes.

"Talk!" she screamed at them. "We know you two worked together in the plot to assassinate Dr. Goebbels! Who put you up to it? I want names, dates, places! Come now, now, tell us! Neither of you are smart enough to have done this on your own, or even together. Talk or things will get much worse for you here than they already are!"

All she got in response were blank stares.

She let go of their hair, and their heads drooped forward. The pain and strain were taking their toll. Stretched out and trying to balance as best they could on their tiptoes, both girls swayed slightly as they hung, breathing shallowly, rib cages extended, tummies hollowed and flattened.

"Time for the horse!" Brunhilde called to the four louts, who had resumed lounging against the far wall. They sprang into action, dragging out from behind the open door a heavy wooden trestle with two saw-toothed metal strips bolted to its horizontal beam. From the storage compartment underneath the trestle, they withdrew a pair of ropes and proceeded to bind Barbara's and Katrin's ankles together. Then while two of the goons held the girls' legs apart, the other two pushed the horse with its saw-toothed edge under their crotches.

Barbara, was half-facing me and I could see the look of horror in her eyes as the height of the horse was slowly adjusted upwards with the screw lifts under its legs, and as the two matrons with the whips assumed their ready positions on either side of she and Katrin.
 
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