East Or West?

Adolf woke from a deep sleep. He woke with a start. He always had trouble getting to sleep, tossing and turning, his mind racing with plans. He slept in a simple white shift. He was in the bedroom he used when he was conferring with his advisors on the military base. He remembered he had meetings scheduled all day.

“Fritz,” he called. “Fritz! Where are you?”

Fritz Engel was one of his personnel assistants, the one who catered to his intimate needs when he was at this location. He was one with whom he could discuss issues he was working through with his General Staff. Fritz had a rank of Major General in the Wermacht, but he seemed expert in these matters far beyond his station. Everyone on the base knew him, and he received instant response to any request he made to the base commissary to meet the Fuhrer’s needs. Adolf could not remember when Fritz had been assigned to his tasks. It seemed to Adolf that Fritz had always been at his side.

After lightening successes in France and Belgium, the Sudetenland, with the Czechs, and Poland, Germany was flushed with victory. Adolf was riding high, feeling total support  from the German people. The weakness of Germany’s rivals had been exposed. Vaunted France had collapsed like a pierced balloon. The remnant of the British Army sent against his forces had been rescued only by a miracle. Britain’s reputation as a reliable ally had been destroyed forever by the Munich agreement. It permitted to the surrender of the Czech’s Sudetenland to Germany without a struggle with the British who had a defense pact with the Czechs.

The door to his bedchamber opened and Fritz came in with hot towels which he draped around Adolf’s neck as he sat up. He was wearing a full dress uniform, displaying an array of medals, but no hat.

“You are like the angel in your name,” said Adolf, leaning back against the headboard, letting the warmth relax him. Fritz said nothing. It was very unusual for the Fuhrer to engage in personal remarks with his staff, yet he was different with Fritz.

 Fritz said,  “you are wrestling with many important decisions affecting the future of our beloved country and you need to find things that help you cope. We are totally dependent on your leadership.”

Fritz tucked the towels more closely around Adolf’s head. He placed a tray with a bottle of fresh water and a glass on a small table beside the Adolph’s bed.

The room was sparingly furnished. A suit of clothes was hanging upon the wall above a pair of slip-on shoes. There was a double bed, a desk and chair, and the small bedside table. It was windowless. There was an adjoining well-equipped bathroom. The outlying spaces in the building were much more elaborate, with guard posts, offices, file rooms, placess with conference tables and chairs, and a commissary.

Fritz was privy to innermost state secrets that Adolf discussed freely with him.  Adolf would often muse about the questions and the answers regarding war strategy that he was debating with his inner circle. Sometimes he even aired ideas to his inner circle that came up in discussions with Fritz. When Fritz spoke, it seemed to Adolf as if Fritz was echoing his own thoughts.

The great debate the inner circle was engaged in was a decision as to the direction Germany would take in its next move in the War. Would they move against Britain, or would they move east? Rommel was pursuing the war in the Middle East, making important advances. The English were being bombed daily. Germany had taken its share of Poland after the pact with Russia, and was forming alliances in the Balkans that were effectively takeovers.

“I can just see us driving to Buckingham Palace and installing a new king there” Adolf smiled, and confided to Fritz. “They already contacted us years ago, but our supporters have gone underground now.”

Fritz spoke softly, as if he was at Adolf’s ear, “it might be expensive, with their powerful navy and our smaller naval resources, and they would resist street by street. What territory would we gain?”

Adolf leaned over, poured some water into a glass and drank  its contents.

 Adolf spoke again. “We need to be big like the Soviets, China, India, America, Brazil, a giant among the nations.”

“Intelligence tells me the Russians are furiously growing their war machine. They get stronger every day. We need to destroy  Communism’s lies that can infect peoples’ minds around the world. We must do that sooner or later. Sooner means they would be weaker than later.“  Adolf pondered the question.

Fritz whispered, “adding their territory could make us a giant. And we would own the land we need to grow things to feed our people, not like now when we are dependent on selling what we have to pay for our food. If they refused to sell food to us, we could starve.”

“The Soviet territory harbors more than two million Jews, and we could continue to realize our mission, which many in the world applaud. The Soviets have much empty space. We could gain a lot of territory quickly, like we did in France, before they  get too strong and before the winter comes,” Adolf’s eyes lit up at these thoughts as Fritz spoke.

“The English might even join us in our effort to root out Communism, and call for a peace agreement. That would be sure to keep America out of it.” Adolf said. He appeared to become more and more excited as he thought about it.

A bell rang somewhere. Adolf got up and removed his shift. Fritz brought his clothes and helped him dress. Adolf left the room without another word. Fritz followed.

                                             ……………

After the Fuhrer launched the surprise attack on the Soviets on June 22, 1941, Fritz Engel disappeared. Nobody seemed to even remember that he had ever existed.

Fairy tales for believers.