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191 D Chapter Fifty-Six d british intelligenCe My brother had begun to work as a farm laborer on the prince’s estate, which meant ample food and a place to sleep. In the fall, he planned to return to Berlin. In August, REME relocated to Hamburg, where my services as an interpreter were not needed; I saw myself faced with the necessity to earn my living somewhere else. At this point, the reichsmark was not worth the paper on which it was printed. I applied for a job at the North German Radio Station in Hamburg, now operated by the British Forces, was immediately accepted, and really enjoyed my new position as an announcer. Hamburg was close to Haseldorf, so I was able to commute between two worlds—the almost totally demolished city of Hamburg and an untouched Garden of Eden. Toward the end of the year, something happened that caused the British chief of the radio station to fire me. Unlike the other British officers at the network, he had struck me as somewhat shady. Tall and spindly, with a strong German accent and a protruding Adam’s apple, this man combined a total lack of charm with absolute power over anybody working in “his” establishment. Having fled Nazi Germany to Moscow as a Communist, he had ultimately ended up in London.After refusing his unveiled invitations to try out the wonderful quality of the couch in his office, needless to say in a horizontal position, he fired me from my job. With memories of my fat old suitor in Danzig still fresh in my mind,I found this experience demoralizing but not very original. While losing my prestigious position as an announcer was sad enough, there was another job that kept me in Hamburg. British Intelligence had put me in contact with an organization whose task it was to hunt Nazis. I was the only German among the group of agents who had to undergo rigorous training before being assigned their work.There were Greeks,Yugoslavs,French,Dutch, Belgians,and other nationalities,all eventually assigned to sniff out and observe certain suspicious domiciles in and around Hamburg, usually occupied by the spouses of Nazi criminals on the run. United by fierce determination, we had to use cunning, caution, patience, and restraint, certain that eventually, once the fugitives felt secure enough, they would seek contact with their wives and ultimately dare to come home. Most of the men were former members of the staff administering the concentration camps of Ravensbrück and Neuengamme ,SS officers,noncommissioned SS,and civilians.Once they had decided it was safe to return home,it was up to the British to arrest those who emphatically denied their identities as well as the alleged crimes. Searches of their homes uncovered vast amounts of valuables: Part two 192 money, jewels, platinum, silver, and gold. Some of the gold was in odd shapes, obviously from dental crowns and bridges. Sick to my stomach, I realized that this was my first physical encounter with what later would enter the vocabulary of the world as the Holocaust. As the eventful year of 1945 came to an end, I decided it was time for me to attempt a journey to Berlin. Since there was no regulated interzonal traffic for civilians yet, I had no alternative but to try and reach Berlin by sneaking across the “black border.” News from home had reached me with the help of John McGraw, who had been able to make contact with Charles, now stationed in Berlin. I made up my mind to take any risk, no matter what the consequences. The news, once dismissed by me as a rumor, was true; my father seemed to have disappeared. ...

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