The Women in His Life

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‘Ursula and Maxim must go at once. But I cannot,’ Sigmund said without hesitation. ‘I must stay behind until everyone else has left.’

‘I rather thought you’d say that,’ Kurt murmured. ‘So who will accompany Ursula and Maxim? Your mother?’

Sigmund shook his head. ‘My mother wouldn’t go, not without my sisters. She would never leave her daughters behind, I can assure you of that. She will tell me that she is an old woman, that her life is virtually over anyway, and she’ll refuse. Adamantly. And so I think it will be best if Theodora travels with Ursula and Maxim. In two weeks, when you have the second set of visas, Sigrid, her husband, and Hedy can leave. I will take my mother out with me at the end of the month.’

‘I guessed you wouldn’t even contemplate leaving Germany until the entire family was safely in another country,’ Kurt said. ‘I should have the three relevant passports back in my hands by Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. I will bring them to you at the house.’

‘Thank you very much, Kurt. Ursula is prepared, and she can leave immediately. Your contact –’ Sigmund broke off, hesitating, then said, ‘Your contact is fairly certain he can get the other visas, isn’t he?’

‘Yes.’ Now it was Kurt’s turn to stop, and he swung to face Sigmund. The look he gave him was one of great directness. ‘He is absolutely sure, I promise you, Sigi.’

Sigmund returned his friend’s gaze unwaveringly.

Their eyes locked and held.

For a fleeting moment Kurt thought he saw a flicker of doubt or worry, or perhaps a mingling of both, at the back of Sigmund’s light blue eyes, and he said, ‘You must believe me, my source is extremely reliable. He wouldn’t say he could get the visas if he thought he couldn’t, if he had any reservations whatsoever.’

There was a small silence; finally Sigmund nodded. ‘As long as you have confidence in him, Kurt, that is good enough for me.’

Even though they were now in the depths of the forest, Kurt dropped his voice to a lower pitch, more from habit than anything else, and said, ‘Look, to make you feel more secure about everything I will tell you who is helping me. And you. It’s Admiral Canaris.’

Sigmund’s jaw dropped. He was thunderstruck and he gaped at Kurt. ‘Wilhelm Canaris! But he’s head of the Abwehr.’

‘Yes. As head of German Military Intelligence he is invaluable to me. And in many more ways than I can ever tell you.’

‘Canaris,’ Sigmund repeated wonderingly.

It was patently obvious to Kurt that Sigmund was genuinely stunned by what he had just told him, and he said, ‘By birth, upbringing, tradition, instinct and conviction, Admiral Canaris detests Hitler and all that he stands for, as do many of the men who work under him. And, incidentally, there isn’t one ministry in the entire Government that doesn’t have two or three men, sometimes even more, who feel the same way.’

‘Like the admiral’s contact in the Foreign Ministry?’

‘Exactly.’

‘I must admit, you startled me, took my breath away, when you mentioned the admiral,’ Sigi said. ‘Who would guess he is an anti-Nazi?’

‘His hatred of them is quite known … in a select circle. You could say it’s a sort of … well, it’s an open secret really. And there happens to be a number of generals who think exactly as he does. But it would be useless for them to work openly against Hitler, not to mention extremely foolhardy. Each of them would find himself swinging at the end of a rope if he did.’

‘So Canaris and the others are fighting Hitler from within … on the inside,’ Sigi asserted.

‘That’s correct. Canaris believes that Hitler will eventually bring about the total collapse of Germany. I happen to agree,’ Kurt said with a heavy sigh. ‘And he and I are both convinced that Hitler will definitely go to war with Britain sometime this year … a lot of people believe that, actually. He wants to engulf the West.’

‘You sound ominous, Kurt.’

‘I feel very ominous.’ The prince shook his head. ‘The future looks bleak, very bad; war is inevitable. And Germany must lose that war if it is to survive as a nation, and regain its humanity.’

‘Yes,’ Sigi said laconically, in the quietest of tones.

They walked on together, each of them momentarily preoccupied with dire thoughts, but after only a few seconds Sigi volunteered, ‘If Hitler forces Chamberlain’s hand and Britain does go to war, France will join in the fray as England’s long-standing ally, and co-signer of the Munich Pact.’

‘Undoubtedly.’ Kurt shook his head and cursed mildly under his breath, before exclaiming, ‘That fool Chamberlain! He always buys Hitler’s talk of appeasement … empty words … of no value. There’s only one politician in England who genuinely understands Hitler’s warlike intentions, his eventual aims, and the overall situation, and that’s Winston Churchill.’