Bad Company Read Free

sweating and looked slightly dazed. He stood back and von Berger passed into the study.
     
    The Führer sat at his desk, leaning over a map. He seemed shrunken, the uniform jacket too large for him; the face seemed wasted, the eyes dark holes, no life there at all, his cheeks hollow, a man at the end of things. The young woman beside him was an SS auxiliary in uniform. She held a sheaf of documents, which she passed one by one for Hitler to sign with a shaking hand. Her name was Sara Hesser. She was twenty-two years of age and had been pulled in by the Führer himself to act as a relief secretary.
    He glanced up at her. “Deliver these. I’ll see the Baron in the sitting room. You can then bring the special file to me. Is it up to date?”
    “As of last night, my Führer.”
    “Good.” He stood up. “Follow me, Baron.”
    He shuffled ahead, opened the door and led the way into the first sitting room. He sat in an armchair by a coffee table.
    “Baron Max von Berger,
Sturmbahnführer
of the SS, you took a holy oath to protect your Führer. Repeat it now.”
    Von Berger clicked his heels together. “I will render unconditional obedience to the Führer of the German Reich and People, Adolf Hitler, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and will be ready, as a brave soldier, to stake my life at any time on this oath.”
    Hitler nodded in satisfaction. “You have a magnificent record for one so young and yet you never joined the Nazi Party. Why not?”
    “It didn’t seem appropriate, my Führer.”
    “A typical response from the head of a great family. The aristocrat to the end – and yet you served me well. Why was that?”
    “It’s a matter of honor, my Führer. I took the oath.”
    “Just what I thought you’d say. You’re a remarkable young man. I sensed that when I decorated you with the Swords. That’s why I made you an aide. I was saving you. You’d be no use to me dead and that’s what would have happened if you’d returned to the front.”
    Max von Berger took a deep breath. “What would you have me do, my Führer?”
    “The most important task left to anyone in this Bunker. The Russians are coming. They want to cage me, and I can’t have that. My wife and I will commit suicide – no, no, don’t look like that, von Berger. The important thing is my work must continue, and you will play a part in that, the most important part.”
    By his wife, he was, of course, referring to his mistress, Eva Braun, whom he had married around midnight on the 28th.
    “We must see that National Socialism survives, that is essential. We have vast sums of money, not only in Switzerland, but in South American countries sympathetic to our cause. Many of my emissaries are already in the Argentine and Brazil. We must maintain the Kameradenwerk, the Action for Comrades.”
    There was a knock at the door and Sara Hesser came in, a briefcase in one hand. Hitler waved her to one side. “I have no secrets from Sara, as you will see.”
    “So where do I fit in, my Führer?”
    Hitler raised a hand. “The Führer Directive.”
    Sara Hesser opened the briefcase, extracted a sheet of paper and passed it to von Berger, who read it with some astonishment. It was explicit:
     
    The Führer Bunker, April 30, 1945.
     
    The bearer of this pass, an aide on my staff, is Sturmbahnführer Baron Max von Berger, on a personal assignment from me. All personnel, civil and military, will render him every assistance.
     
    Adolf Hitler
     
    “This may help you,” Hitler said.
    For Max von Berger, the implications were breathtaking. “But in what way, my Führer?”
    “To get through whatever happens to you in the next few days. To help you get home, to survive and prepare yourself for your inevitable capture by the Americans or British.”
    Von Berger was bewildered. “But there are no Americans here, my Führer, only Russians.”
    “You don’t understand. Listen. During the last few days, many planes have flown in from Gatow and