Chapter Nine: To Goebbels' House
Chapter Nine: To Goebbels' House
With Hitler removed, time to move down the list of Nazi leaders.
Eryn winced when she returned to the Bendlerblock. From beyond the doorway to the office she had been left in came screams of mingled accusation and invective, two German men engaged in a vicious shouting match.
Eryn took a deep breath, recalled that she had been firmly instructed to remain where she was, then made the conscious decision to ignore the command. She couldn’t make out what the angry men were shouting from inside, and Eryn needed to know what was happening.
She poked her head out into the hall, and there found Gertrude standing with her back pressed against a wall, a pair of plain brown shoes clutched to her chest. She stared at her feet, visibly trembling, apparently hoping that if she didn’t catch anyone’s eye no one would spot her.
Eryn walked to her side, relieved that the shouting was not joined by gunfire, at least so far. Patting Gertrude on one shoulder, she peered around an interior wall to see Stauffenberg and an older man in a military uniform standing nose to nose, by all appearances on the verge of exchanging blows.
She still couldn’t make out what either was saying, but it this no longer mattered. Stauffenberg turned on his heel and fixed a furious stare on two uniformed men standing behind him.
“You two!” Stauffenberg ordered, “Arrest General Fromm! Get him out of my sight, and this time, keep him properly secured! Do not allow him to leave or speak with anyone. You may shoot him, if he does not comply. The charge, if anyone here requires that one be formally laid, is treason against the German nation.”
“You are the traitor, Stauffenberg!” Fromm’s face contorted and flushed from bright red to far more sickly hue as he shouted. “You have no right to give any orders here! Hitler will have your head by sunrise, you idiot! Yours, and the heads of anyone stupid enough to follow you!”
The two soldiers stepped forward, hands on the butts of their holstered pistols. All the blood seemed to drain from Fromm’s face. His mouth worked and he stared around the room like a wild thing, but found no sympathy.
The moment Fromm was frog-marched away, Stauffenberg was inundated by a nonstop barrage of questions and concerns. Eryn looked at Gertrude, who throughout it all had kept her gaze fixed firmly on her shoes. Eryn noticed Haeften pushing through the crowd, flashing Eryn an indecipherable look as he approached.
“Well then, Eryn,” Haeften said, “it seems that you obey orders just about as well as General Fromm. But it also seems that you do, in fact, have information that we lack. I grant credit where it is due, and you were absolutely right. He walked straight out of the room he had been asked to stay in and made his way to a phone. He was overheard asking the operator to put him through to Heinrich Himmler’s office before I spotted him an intervened. The fool was planning to call the Gestapo down on us, and he refuses to believe that Hitler is dead.”
“I warned you,” Eryn shrugged, still forced to feign confidence. “I hope that now you will believe me when I tell you something.”
“I don’t need to believe you to take advantage of what you seem to know. Valkyrie stands at the knife’s edge. Do you have any other information that might be of immediate use?”
Eryn nodded, seeing no other option but to press on with her plan. “I do,” she said. “Have you people figured out where the rest of the regime’s main players are? Himmler, Goebbels, Goering?”
“No one ever knows where that rat Himmler will be on a given day,” Haeften laughed. “Hopefully he is in Rastenburg and in the trap that will be sprung once the orders go out to the correct units. Goering is supposed to be in Rastenburg as well, and as that drug-addicted, corpulent clown is difficult to lose track of, I suspect he will be captured in short order.”
“And Goebbels?” Eryn pressed him. “He’s supposed to be in Berlin right now. Has he been secured?”
“Well,” Haeften said, eyes narrowing, “so you are well informed. If the Allies know this much about the movements and predispositions of the Nazi leadership, small wonder that we are losing this war. In point of fact, in the course of that shouting match Fromm accidentally confirmed that Goebbels is presently at his Berlin residence, near the Tiergarten. I am sending a strike team there now. If that devil is allowed onto a radio to work his hypnotic magic with rhetoric, our cause will face dark days.”
Haeften looked at Gertrude. “Madam, if you would please hand our Canadian guest those shoes, I intend to dispatch her to the Goebbels residence to help keep that from happening.”
“Exactly what are you expecting me to do?” Eryn raised an eyebrow, relieved to have the issue of finding Goebbels solved but not at all pleased at the prospect of driving around wartime Berlin during a coup. “I only know that he must be taken out.”
“You will do,” Haeften’s mouth stretched into a thin smile, “whatever you can. We will learn more of you if you are given a chance to prove your worth. Whatever other useful information you may have and simply aren’t telling us could prove useful in an interrogation.”
“But quite frankly,” he chuckled, “I mostly desire to get you out of the way until I can discuss your… situation, with Colonel Stauffenberg and General Beck. And I have a sneaking suspicion that you will not be easily confined within the Bendlerblock, unless we lock you in with Fromm.”
Eryn and Gertrude shared a look. Gertrude smiled, though clearly still quite scared. Eryn smiled back kindly and gently took the shoes from her. She knelt and worked her feet into the tight leather. They weren’t particularly comfortable, but they were a better option than heels or socks, at least until she could get hold of a decent pair of boots in her size. If any were even available in the middle of a city at war.
“Thank you, Gertrude,” Eryn said, standing and taking a few steps. “That is much better. I owe you one. Take care!”
Haeften walked to the exit, waving for Eryn to follow. She followed as quickly as she could, his military gait hard to match, and finally caught up with him at the end of the hallway. From there they made their way out of the Bendlerblock, Eryn’s mind racing as she wracked her brain for every detail she could remember about Goebbels and his role in the Valkyrie coup plot.
As the Minister of Propaganda, he didn’t have control over the military or Nazi hierarchy, but what he did have was a knack for manipulating public opinion. And in a closed, fascist, pre-internet society, where the only way most people could get news was by listening to radio broadcasts, a capable propagandist with access to a transmitter could have immense influence. Because Goebbels had created such a cult of near-mythic proportions around Adolf Hitler, Germany’s now-deceased dictator, it was likely that he could use control of the airwaves to sow confusion and coordinate a Nazi counter-coup.
She didn’t need a computer program from outside the universe to tell her how bad that would be. For the coup and herself alike.
Haeften halted just outside the main doorway. The Bendlerblock courtyard and street beyond were alive with activity. Half a dozen trucks had pulled up and were in the process of disgorging dozens of soldiers in black uniforms, all armed with a variety of dangerous-looking weapons.
Eryn’s heart started thumping in her chest the moment she saw them. “Not to worry,” Haeften said, sensing her fear. “These are Brandenburgers, and they are with us! This company will fortify the area around our headquarters and guard against any attempt by the SS or Gestapo move on us. One platoon will go with you to call at the Goebbels residence.”
“Wait, you are giving me soldiers?” Eryn asked, jaw dropping slightly. Her disbelief was justified.
“Absolutely not!” Haeften laughed. “You have no authority here whatsoever. I intend to send you along with a friend of mine, one Captain Hans Lewinsky, as an aide of sorts. Your mission is to ensure that our people get to Goebbels before the SS does and, if possible, bring him back here alive.”
A tall man in a crisp black uniform accented by rose-colored piping approached them with the steady and measured gate of a military professional. To Eryn, he looked like just another German officer, albeit a bit taller and more gaunt than most, but Haeften greeted him warmly.
“Hans! I am happy to see you again. I have a mission for you, one of the utmost importance.”
Hans nodded. “I assumed that you would. My apologies for the late arrival. The reserve army quartermaster in our barracks was drunk, and it took some time to secure the needed trucks.”
“No troubles entering Berlin?” Haeften asked.
“None. We appear to have caught them entirely off guard.”
Haeften closed his eyes and mumbled something under his breath that sounded like a prayer. He opened them again and nodded at Eryn. “In that case, we must press our advantage. I need you to take this… ah… ”
“Friend.” Interjected Eryn, not wanting him to say spy.
“That uniform,” Lewinsky muttered, looking at Haeften, “so she isn’t one of Himmler’s? Did she turn? I must say that I do not wish to accompany any present or past member of the SS the evening, no matter their stated allegiance.”
“It seems she is not,” Haeften shrugged. “Regardless, Hans, you must get to the Goebbels’ residence as quickly as possible. Take her with you and keep her out of trouble, see if she is of any use. She claims to possess important knowledge, and so far has not proven false, but nevertheless she cannot remain in the Bendlerblock at such a critical time.”
“And what am I to do with Goebbels,” Lewinsky saluted crisply, “if the Minister is indeed at his residence? I cannot promise he will come of his own free will, or survive a firefight if one breaks out.”
“Take him alive if you can,” Haeften said. “But if not, his death will have to suffice. But he must not be allowed to go near a radio transmitter! A vital moment draws near, and the first voice the German people hear must be that of General Beck.”
Haeften returned Lewinsky’s salute, then turned and walk back to the Bendlerblock without a word. Eryn stood with her mouth half open, feeling incredibly. German soldiers rushed around, hurriedly deploying weapons and setting up fighting positions.
Eryn shook her head and turned to look at her new companion. Nothing about his name or the name of his unit, the Brandenburgers, meant the first thing to her. But since the gods had said her task was to get to Goebbels anyway, she saw no reason to balk at complying with Haeften’s instructions.
Lewinsky marched across the corridor, shouting instructions to several different groups of soldiers. Several dozen loaded into a small flotilla of trucks as he marched to an unattended staff car. He sat in the driver’s seat and started the engine, waving for Eryn to join him.
Eryn ran the last few steps, yanked the door handle, then threw herself onto the hard seat. The engine roared to life and she didn’t even have time to settle herself before Lewinsky had put the vehicle in gear and steered it onto the street. The trucks followed close behind, two soldiers clutching sub-machine guns visible in the lead vehicle’s cabin.
The sun was settling behind the western rooftops of Berlin, the already dour city looking positively forbidding in the falling twilight. Lewinsky maneuvered the vehicle at a distinctly unsafe speed through the streets of the capitol, racing so quickly that when Eryn checked the rear-view mirror she was amazed to see that the trucks were actually keeping pace. She felt a brief pang of sympathy for the poor men in the back, who had to be getting knocked around as the truck swerved to keep pace with Lewinsky.
Rounding a sharp corner, he was forced to slam on the brakes to avoid rear-ending another staff car that was stopped in the center of the road. It was held up at a checkpoint guarded by at least a dozen soldiers, all on their feet, half of them pointing sub-machine guns at the staff cars. Lewinsky gestured for Eryn to stay put, then pushed open the door and stepped out of the vehicle with the purpose and power of a tornado. She watched through the windshield as he marched straight up to two men in officer’s uniforms who appeared to have been engaged in a very heated argument moments before.
Whether it was something about Lewinsky’s bearing or the content of his communication, in less than a minute one of the two officers was being escorted out of the roadway by two guards. The other officer smartly saluted Lewinsky, who returned it gravely then returned to the staff car. Eryn watched the imprisoned German officer standing with two automatic weapons leveled at his chest, surprised this present threat didn’t deter him from berating his captors until his face turned beet red. Only then did she notice that the man was wearing an SS uniform.
Once the other staff car had been moved out of the way, the officer controlling the checkpoint waved to Lewinsky, who started his own vehicle’s engine. The defending soldiers lowered their weapons and cleared several makeshift barriers from their path.
“What did you say to them?” Eryn asked. “And was that whole situation us just barely getting one step ahead of the SS?
Lewinsky started when she spoke, looked quickly at her, and then accelerated through the checkpoint. She stared at him for a full minute, willing him to answer.
“We haven’t been properly introduced, have we?” Lewinsky finally said, speaking gallantly. “I am Captain Hans Lewinsky, of the Brandenburg Regiment, presently attached to the Greater Germany mechanized infantry division.”
“I’m Eryn Miller,” she replied. “I’m from Vancouver, Canada. And you didn’t answer my questions.”
He laughed. “I did not. Although perhaps that is wise, given that you are a foreign national of a country that is presently at war with my own?”
She didn’t know what to say to that. So she just shrugged.
He shrugged right back, a thin smile on his handsome face, which looked to be no older than her own. “Well, we are here together now and Colonel Stauffenberg vouched for you, so I see no point in worrying about your nationality. Whatever assistance I can get in taking my country back from these animals, I will gladly accept.”
He paused, twisting the steering column to bring the staff car around a sharp turn, then braked sharply to park the automobile in the middle of the street. He shut off the engine and opened his door, so Eryn did the same. The truck stopped behind them and soldiers began to disembark, leaping from the bed to the road in a repeating sequence of thumps and grunts.
“As for your questions, Eryn Miller,” Lewinsky continued, “we do appear to have arrived just in the nick of time. The SS officer now in the custody of those reserve army soldiers at the checkpoint was dispatched by General Fromm to make contact with Goebbels and warn him about the Valkyrie operation. Once I told them that Hitler was dead and that Fromm’s orders were invalid, they chose the correct side.”
“And they believed you, just like that?” Eryn raised an eyebrow. “That seems strange.”
“The uniform helps, I have to admit,” He chuckled. “An armor officer of the Brandenburgers tends to command respect throughout the Army. Particularly those of us who have survived these past five terrible years.”
The soldiers spread out, taking positions up and down the street. Two approached Eryn and Lewinsky. He simply pointed at a house on the block, then turned to lead Eryn and these two guards to call at the Goebbels residence.
It was surprisingly quiet as they ascended the steps to the front door of the Berlin villa where Nazi Minister for Propaganda Joseph Goebbels liked to guests when he wasn’t playing Hitler’s mouthpiece. Naturally, the residence was large and well-cared for, and less than a block away the street faded into the lush greenery of the Tiergarten, Berlin’s central park. Eryn had expected to see guards, maybe even a fight to get through the door.
But there was no one visible except the soldiers they had brought, and the only sounds were those of light traffic moving along the neighboring streets. It was strange, eerie even, to be in the midst of a coup with most of the city around them blissfully unaware of what was happening. Eryn realized then that the news of the attack at Rastenburg had not yet widely spread. Senior Nazi leaders were going about their usual business, which meant they were uniquely vulnerable.
Lewinsky knocked at the door then waited politely, as if this were just a normal social call. Footsteps approached, and the door swung open. A pair of young women bowed to the guests, seeming neither surprised nor put off by the sight of armed men outside.
Lewinsky ignored them and marched into the home, Eryn and the two soldiers following close behind. The Goebbels residence was lavishly and tastefully furnished, even by Eryn’s twenty-first century standards. Given that the Nazis were supposed to be in the midst of a fight for survival against pretty much the rest of the world, the luxury seemed exceptionally out of place.
They found Joseph Goebbels not far from the entrance, seated in a room that looked to be some sort of study. He wasn’t alone. Another man that Eryn thought she recognized, sat across the room from his host. The pair looked up expectantly at the three men and one woman, only seeming to realize this wasn’t a social call when they saw the soldier’s sub-machine guns held at the ready.
Goebbels had a distinctly harried look about him, though his thin, sallow, distinctly rat-like face actually bore a confident expression. His companion, in contrast, looked simply tired and afraid.
“Ah, finally, an officer,” Goebbels said, looking at Lewinsky like he was something less than human. “What unit are you from? The Bodyguards? You must know something about why our usual security detail rushed into the Tiergarten half an hour ago. Do we have some kind of uprising on our hands? Or an Allied commando raid? Speak!”
Captain Lewinsky didn’t say a word, he simply stood and stared. Goebbels’ face flushed red and his eyes widened. He balled his fists, enraged, clearly used to being obeyed without hesitation by men wearing uniforms.
“Captain, I order you to tell me what is happening out there!” Goebbels snarled, looking the part of a cornered rat. “What is your unit? Who is your commander? Speak!”
Lewinsky looked slowly from Goebbels to Eryn, who felt her body tensing in anxious anticipation. “Well, my dear lady,” Lewinsky’s tone was gallant again, “we appear to be the bearers of bad news, at least from the perspective of Minister Goebbels here.”
“Sure seems that way, Captain,” Eryn forced herself to smile through her fear. “It doesn’t appear he’s very informed about the latest developments.”
Goebbels clenched his jaw, and if his face could have flushed a deeper shade of red without his head bursting like an overripe tomato, it would have. Eryn actually felt a little giddy, sensing that his rage meant the vile man now understood he was trapped.
“You insubordinate swine!” Goebbels raged. “I will have you before a People’s Court and shot by this time tomorrow! And then your families will be shot and their corpses thrown in an offal pit!”
“No, you pathetic filth,” Hans growled, “you will not. If there is any final worldly business you want to conclude, I will grant you a few minutes to put your affairs in order. And after that, I will present you with a simple choice. Swear total allegiance unto death to the new German government being formed under the authority of General Beck and submit to a trial for your crimes against the German people, or face a firing squad on the street this very evening.”
“I will have you tortured to death in Dachau along with your family,” Goebbels seethed. “Surely you know what happens to traitors who cross our movement.”
“Do you want to tell him, or should I?” Lewinsky chuckled, grinning at Eryn.
Eryn felt a thrill race through her entire body. Joseph Goebbels was one of the most evil human beings who had ever walked the planet. One of the Nazis directly responsible for the cold-blooded murder of millions of innocent people and untold miseries inflicted on tens of millions more. Twisting the knife while she could only seemed just.
“Yeah, so Goebbels, here’s the thing,” Eryn grinned at him, “your dear leader Hitler is dead. I know, because I was there. I helped plant the bomb that removed him from this world. The coup to deal with the rest of you is already underway. Your regime is done. Over. About nine hundred and ninety years earlier than you’d hoped, if I recall your own rhetoric. Everything you’ve worked for these past years? We are going to dismantle all of it, permanently.”
Both Goebbels and his companion froze in total shock. Albert Speer was this other man’s name, Eryn remembered, and he was the Nazi German Minister for Armaments. Speer was an architect by training who had transformed the German war economy, dramatically increasing armaments production despite massive Allied bombing raids and critical resource shortages.
Eryn didn’t have time to consider the implications of seizing this relatively apolitical member of the Nazi government. The sound of gunfire tore through the twilight outside. All eyes turned towards a large window, beyond which the rolling greenery of the Tiergarten was faintly visible out to a distance of several blocks. Motion caught her eye. A huge metal shape, soon after accompanied by a companion, left the cover of a group of trees on one side of the park. They advanced to a position where a dip in the terrain allowed the two tanks to park with only their turrets exposed above the level of the grassy earth, barrels of their main guns pointed in the direction of the Goebbels villa.
Smaller shapes moving quickly from tree to tree came into view, advancing in front of the tanks. More gunfire tore through the air, and Eryn could see flashes and streaks of light flicker through the twilight sky. Goebbels stood up suddenly, and walked to the window, smiling wickedly. The soldiers covered him with their weapons, but he did not move to threaten anyone physically.
“And there you see,” Goebbels sneered, “the SS is already moving to put down your petty little uprising. You are obviously lying. Hitler is still alive, and already those loyal to Germany’s true masters are moving to destroy you pitiful traitors. And when we are done with you, we’ll find each and every member of your families. Your family names will be eradicated from history. We will annihilate you, just as we have crushed everyone else who has stood in the path of our righteous cause!”
His voice rapidly became shrill, and as Goebbels worked himself into an excited frenzy he began to look exactly like the man Eryn had seen on the old video reels dating to the thirties and forties. Ranting and raving, spittle splattering against the window in front of him, he screamed while Speer looked on openly horrified, intelligent eyes busy making calculations.
Lewinsky didn’t move or speak, he merely watched as the firefight in the Tiergarten unfolded. More soldiers entered their view, these accompanied by what looked like large cars encased in sheet metal. The armored cars fired streams of bullets from machine guns poking out of small turrets, forcing the soldiers advancing in front of the tanks to take cover. The tanks remained in position, muzzles swiveling from side to side, as if unsure which side to back, or perhaps simply not sure who was who in the chaotic melee. Soldiers on both sides clung to their positions and unleashed barrages of automatic weapons fire.
Goebbels’ excitement disintegrated as quickly as the armored cars did after two thunderclaps sounded, tanks entering the fray and obliterating them both. Lewinsky’s cheerful laugh told Eryn which faction the tanks and soldiers moving towards them across the park belonged to. At this moment the platoon Lewinsky had brought with him opened up with rifles and machine guns of their own, raking the SS troops from a direction they were not anticipating. Under assault on two flanks and badly outgunned by the tanks, the SS soldiers began to melt away, those that refused to flee dying where they fought until the guns fell quiet.
“Looks like the boys from GD arrived on schedule,” Lewinsky smiled cruelly at Goebbels. “They are more than a match for any petty security detachment your SS and Gestapo thugs can throw together. The reserve army is already moving to secure their barracks, aided as you can plainly see by the armor of the elite Greater Germany division. Your time is up, Goebbels. And so dies your last hope.”
Before her eyes, Goebbels seemed to simply melt. It was like he was, in that moment, granted true and perfect knowledge of the magnitude of his defeat. He turned slowly, staring from face to face and finding none willing to grant him mercy, a man suddenly adrift and alone who never thought such a moment could come to be. He flashed Eryn a particularly peculiar and lingering look, his mouth working, but perhaps for the first time in his life he couldn’t find his words. Finally, he took a deep, ragged breath, then looked to Captain Lewinsky, seeming resigned to his fate.
“You will allow me time to settle my last affairs, then?” Goebbels said softly. “I wish to call Magda, my wife. She is at the country home with the children to escape the threat of bombings. Grant me this, and I will do whatever you require thereafter.”
Lewinsky thought for a brief moment, then nodded. He whistled, and one of the two women who had opened the door scurried into the room, staring at the floor.
“Ma’am,” he said, “please take him to a telephone so that he may call his wife. I will send these guards to ensure that he does only this then returns promptly.”
The soldiers turned after Goebbels, who walked as if in a dream into the hallway. Eryn stood in thought, feeling like there was something important she was forgetting. She didn’t understand why, as this had gone exactly like Mimr had said it needed to. With Goebbels in custody, the Nazis had lost one of their few remaining weapons. Now she just had to get back to the Bendlerblock, and find a way to get some space and time to herself to ask Mimr what to do next.
Another pair of soldiers entered the room from outside, weapons held loose in their hands, and Lewinsky turned to speak with them while they delivered a report on the recently ended skirmish. Eryn realized Speer was still sitting in his chair, looking less afraid than he had a few moments before. In fact, he actually seemed relieved, like a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders.
That was when Eryn remembered what she had forgotten. She froze for the barest instant, immediately realizing there wasn’t time to say anything. They wouldn’t believe her in time, couldn’t know what she knew about what Goebbels would do next. Eryn broke out into a run, tearing down the hallway, ignoring Lewinsky’s shouts echoing behind.
She reached the end of the hall, then looked both ways to try and figure out which way her quarry had gone. She couldn’t see anyone, so Eryn stopped breathing and tried to listen as carefully as she could, tuning out the sound of booted feet running down the hall.
She heard something to the left that sounded like a sob. Eryn ran that way, discovering that this hallway soon hit a dead end, but on either side was a doorway. The one on the right was open, the two guards and the woman Eryn took to be one of the household maids waiting patiently along the far wall, watching yet another door that was cracked. Beyond came the sound of a hurried, hushed telephone conversation.
Eryn pushed into the room before the guards could react and shoved open the door to see Goebbels clutching a telephone receiver, his face deathly pale. He didn’t seem to notice her at first, too fixated on delivering his dreadful message to his family.
“Yes, Magda, I am sure!” Goebbels snarled. “It is time. There is no choice. We will be arrested and humiliated. The family will be destroyed. You must act. The capsules I have hidden away are…”
Eryn grabbed the receiver and slammed it down as quickly as she could, then started yanking at the cord to sever the connection completely. Goebbels clawed at it, screaming in apoplectic rage, finally knocking her away and grabbing the receiver. She didn’t hesitate, summoning all her memories of years of childhood karate lessons to remind her how to brace just right to deliver a vicious kick to his solar plexus. His breath left him and Goebbels collapsed in the chair, eyes wide and full of pain and hate.
The guards finally reacted, grabbing her, and a few seconds later Lewinsky reached her too. Eryn didn’t give him a chance to speak.
“The monster was going to kill his own children!” Eryn shouted, seething, returning his hateful glare tenfold. “He has capsules of poison hidden in his home. He was about to tell his wife to kill them then off herself, too!”
Lewinsky looked at her in open shock verging on disbelief. But then his gaze shifted, eyes flashing, and he stared at Goebbels with open loathing. Suddenly the German officer became very still. His face went expressionless and when he spoke, his voice was cold as an Arctic lake.
“Of course he was,” Lewinsky said slowly. “A rat like him would annihilate his whole family once he was absolutely certain fate had turned against him. I will send word to have Magda Goebbels taken into custody as quickly as possible. I hope help arrives in time. Children ought not suffer for the crimes of their fathers.”
Lewinsky stepped forward, taking Goebbels by the throat and choking off an angry cry. Eryn thought he might strangle the psychotic man then and there, but in only a few seconds his professional bearing returned.
“Have him taken outside and executed by firing squad immediately,” Lewinsky ordered, stepping back. “The Resistance can form a government without utilizing his skills. My orders were to return with this one alive or dead, and unless anyone here objects, my choice is the latter.”
In that moment, breathing hard, her heart pounding, Eryn couldn’t see a reason to object. Lewinsky stood aside and the soldiers seized Goebbels, who screamed and tried to struggle like a trapped piglet, but was in no position to really resist. Eryn and Lewinsky followed as the soldiers frog-marched him out of the room and back down the hall.
When they passed the study, Speer’s voice called out in surprise. It was so quiet that Eryn couldn’t make out what he said, but then she heard the crackling sound of a radio being tuned. The volume increased a moment later, and Lewinsky gestured to the guards. Everyone halted and fell silent. A calm, commanding voice rang out over the airwaves.
“People of Germany, I am General Ludwig Beck, and I have grave news for us all: Adolf Hitler is dead. High-ranking members of the Nazi government have attempted to use the Gestapo and SS to illegally seize power in Berlin in the wake of his assassination by parties as yet unknown. Only decisive action by the reserve army has prevented an even greater catastrophe from befalling our beloved Fatherland.”
“In this time of unprecedented national emergency, with key leaders of the National Socialist party responsible for committing grave crimes against the state and people of Germany, I have been called to serve as your President, Defender, and Leader until new elections can be held. This stab-in-the-back by the SS and Gestapo cannot be allowed to threaten our ongoing efforts to protect our people from the brutal assaults launched by the Soviet Union and the Western Allies.”
“We will seek an honorable end to this terrible conflict at the earliest possible moment, but must remain committed to the defense of our lives and homes until we can be assured that the rights of the German people are guaranteed for all time. In this hard moment when our very existence as a people and nation is threatened by enemies who have used the crimes of the Nazis to justify a campaign of terror against our civilian population, we must all continue to sacrifice, to fight for Germany. I call upon you all to make every effort to support our struggle and to remember the sacrifices of their brave soldiers at the fronts. For we together, we struggle as one!”
The broadcast ended. Lewinsky and Eryn both looked at Goebbels. His expression was blank. Without waiting for further orders, the soldiers took him outside. Eryn didn’t follow. In that moment, she felt no need to directly witness the moment of justice.
She walked back into the study, and stood looking out the window, into the Tiergarten. The tanks were still there, turrets swiveling in the night.
Shots rang out from just outside. The wasted life of Joseph Goebbels was over.
Germany had taken a bold step into a new future. Eryn could only wonder how long she would have a place in it.