LESLIE EPSTEIN
123
agrees? She will come? I have her ticket."
Through this exchange Hitler had stood, rocking on his heels, with
one hand grasping his wrist. At last he blinked, slowly. When his eyes
opened, they bulged wider than before. "Why are you here? What is it you
and Morgenthau are after? And why on this day of all days? Do you
expect to find me drunk on my own emotion? On my memories of poor
Geli? Or do you have some idea of rescuing Fraulein Mezaray from some
similar fate? You want a melodrama, is that it? To snatch her from the jaws
of death! Perhaps, instead of the news of the victory at Kiev, you would
prefer to see those headlines in your gutter press."
Once more
I
felt the ice crystals stabbing at my chest.
It
was as if the
master of the Reich had the ability to read my very thoughts. "Mr.
Granite,"
I
said, turning to my traveling companion. "Why don't you tell
him? We have no such ideas. We came here on business. We are nothing
but businessmen."
Now the Fuhrer's cheek had begun to twitch, like the flanks of a
horse. His lower lip was slick with spittle. "Do you dare to imagine," he
continued, as though he had not heard anything I'd said, "that
I
have for–
gotten the words of our enenlies? Ten years have passed and
I
have not
forgotten! The stories on the radio. The stories in the press. That Herr
Hitler killed his own niece, his own darling Geli! Yes, that he broke her
nose! Covered her with bruises! And broke a few ribs for her, too! Worse!
The stories were worse! That she killed herself because some Jew, an art
teacher from Linz, had made her pregnant or - this was fantastic, sheer
del usion and depravi ty:
Herr Hitler, we have heard, was the father
if
her unborn
child."
Goering: "To speak that way about a love that was pure! Pure and
spotless! About an angel!"
Goebbels: "We shut their mouths for them. We smashed their press-
es."
Goering: "We haven't finished yet. There is more smashing to do."
Here was a medical miracle: even though my internal temperature had
dropped to zero, I had broken into a sweat. "I don't understand such talk.
Why are you making these threats? We came here in good faith. We want
to do business."
Here Hitler pointed his finger at Granite and let out a terrible shriek:
"Then why doesn't he agree to sign?"
Now the adjutant, Gunsche, stepped forward and clicked his heels
together. "Good faith, did you say? Strictly business? I am not so certain.
Mein Fuhrer,
it is my duty to report that reliable witnesses have observed
this Jew as he was taking photographs in restricted areas of Berlin."
For the first time Hitler seemed to become aware of my existence.
