Year Zero: Berlin 1945 Read online

  One of those netted during the operation was Stella's husband. He was taken from his place of work, transported to Auschwitz and subsequently murdered.

  Stella was more fortunate. A warning from a gentile supervisor gave her time to think. By hanging back as the Jewish workers assembled downstairs, she was able to slip away and hide in the cellar. She then waited until the shift change before striding confidently past the sleepy guard who did not notice her incriminating identification card. Stella's Aryan appearance had made her escape possible. The guard didn't bother to properly examine her identification card because she was blonde, the perfect image of Nazi-German womanhood.

  Stella became a U-Boat (a term used for a Jew living below the surface – illegally). During that early spring of 1943, approximately 18,300 Jews were somehow surviving in Berlin. Their situation had become ever more precarious since the February 'action'. To increase their survival chances, they needed papers. Fortunately for Stella, she bumped into an old acquaintance from the Feige – Strassburger fashion school, Guenther Rogoff. His own key to survival had been in the utilisation of his considerable talents as a forger. Throwing caution to the wind, Rogoff blurted out his secret, 'I forge documents for people. Maybe I can help you too'. Stella casually replied that his help would be very welcome. This chance encounter set into motion a chain of events that would lead to Stella's 'turning' by the Gestapo. She was to become a prime asset, not least because Rogoff was a wanted man.

  True to his word, Rogoff produced a police identification card for Stella. He met her by appointment on a busy street, then disappeared. Rogoff's sensitive radar told him that there was something not quite right about this blonde beauty. With new papers, Stella could now live openly and without fear. That spring, she met the dashing Rolf Isaaksohn whilst standing in line at a delicatessen on Olivaer Platz. His cousin Dorothy later recalled the charismatic young man who entranced Stella, 'He had such presence. His bearing was so secure. And when you're so very handsome, you can get away with a lot'. In a sense, this magnetic figure was a male version of Stella. As such, they were instantly drawn together. Within weeks, they set up home together in a shared three-room apartment on Lietzenburger Strasse.

  Stella's luck ran out on 2 July 1943. She was sitting in the Café Bollenmuller on Mittelstrasse at lunchtime when Inge Lustig (a former acquaintance) entered, waved nervously, and exited hurriedly. Seconds later, Gestapo men made a beeline for Stella. Escape was impossible, she was roughly handled, and bundled off for interrogation. The woman who denounced her was one of a new breed of Nazi-informers, a Jew who actively hunted down other Jews for the Gestapo.

  Following her capture, Stella was kept in solitary confinement. Her only contact was with her interrogators who questioned her at irregular intervals about her suspicious paperwork which bore all the hallmarks of a Rogoff forgery. Unwilling to accept that Stella didn't know Rogoff's current whereabouts, her inquisitors resorted to crude torture methods in order to extract information. Stella described her treatment during her second trial in 1957 :

  They kicked both of my shins to the breaking point and kept beating the same spot on my spine. I was bleeding from the mouth, ears, and nose and couldn't eat for days. They wanted to throttle me. Three times they took the safety off a pistol and put it against my temple. Totally shattered, I lay unconscious on the floor. Then they kicked me with their boots and I gave up on my life.

  The harsh treatment meted out to Stella effectively destroyed her image of herself as a deified object of sexual desire. Since adolescence, she had used her looks to gain power over those who lusted after her. Her Gestapo interrogators cared little about her looks, their focus was the apprehension of the forger Rogoff.

  When it became clear that their rough handling of Stella was not achieving the desired results, the Gestapo transferred her to the women's prison located in the Tempelhof district. The prison was in reality no more than a collection of run-down barracks. Complaining of severe toothache (most probably a result of her beatings), Stella was taken to the police dental surgery on Scharnhorststrasse. The place was so lightly guarded, that she was able to slip out unnoticed. Even after her absence had been noticed, there were too few police personnel on duty to mount a pursuit. Stella remained at large for less than twelve hours before she was rearrested by the Gestapo. Once returned to custody, the questions and the beatings began again. This time the Gestapo wanted to know where they could find a passport forger named Mikki Hellman. Stella knew Hellman from their time together at the Feige – Strassburger school. Consequently, Hellman also knew Samson Schonhaus (a.k.a. Guenther Rogoff). The Gestapo forced Stella to write a card to Hellman, inviting him to a rendezvous. Hellman's subsequent arrest marked Stella's first operation as a 'catcher'.

  On 23 August 1943, the Gestapo prison was bombed-out during the opening phase of Bomber Harris' 'Battle of Berlin'. During the confusion, Stella was once more able to escape. Wandering alone in Berlin, Stella came to a decision :

  I had phosphorous poisoning, contusions all over my body, my legs were green and blue, and my shoes fell off my feet like ashes... My emotions and my love of my parents caused me to decide to share their lot. I walked for three and a half hours after the raid ended and surrendered at Grosse Hamburger Strasse... I could have run, but I didn't.

  The interrogations began again, her inquisitor had several Rogoff forgeries already prepared as evidence. Stella finally admitted that Rogoff had produced false papers for her. The prison commandant Walter Dobberke suggested to Stella that she could be an asset in tracking down the elusive forger. Stella bluntly asked Dobberke, 'What advantages will I have?'. The advantages were indeed numerous, 'catchers' like Inge Lustig were able to live like gentiles. There was no requirement to wear the star, no confinement to camp, food and pay was more than adequate, and government issue identity papers certified their immunity. Moreover, their names were taken off deportation lists. Further incentives came in the form of additional pay and immunity for family members if the 'catcher' proved effective.

  Dobberke was impressed by Stella. She had escaped from Gestapo custody several times. Her appearance and demeanour suggested that she could be a valuable Gestapo asset. Not wishing to pass up this opportunity, he cut a deal. Stella, and her parents would be exempted from deportation to Auschwitz if she helped to catch the elusive forger. Later, Stella recounted how the deal was struck :

  Dobberke announced that, starting the following day, I would be in the eternal service of the Gestapo. He said that he had already spoken to Sturmbannfuhrer Stock about it... and that written approval would follow.

  After a slow start, Stella developed into a formidable operator, her remarkable memory for names, faces and places making her a prized asset. Her boyfriend Rolf Isaaksohn was arrested and 'turned' in October 1943. Soon, they were teamed-up as the 'beautiful couple' who hunted down Berlin's underground Jews at some of their regular hang-outs. One such hang-out was the Staatsoper on the Unter den Linden. On 16 December 1943, Isaaksohn recognised two underground Jews, Abraham Zajdman, and his son Moritz. As the 'beautiful couple' closed in, Moritz made a run for it. Stella shouted out, 'Keep him, Jew!'. Passers by apprehended Moritz in the street, dragging him back to where the Gestapo were already waiting. As a result of her actions, Stella soon gained a notorious reputation for ruthlessness and cruelty amongst Berlin's Jewish U-Boat population. A reputation which was well deserved.

  In February 1944, Stella was informed that her parents could no longer be exempted from transportation. She argued their case vociferously, but to no avail. It did however come as some relief when she learned that they were not bound for Auschwitz, but instead for the slightly more benign surroundings of Theresienstadt. Having rationalised the situation, she made the decision to go on working. Her own survival depended entirely upon her success as a 'catcher'. During the spring and summer of 1944, the 'beautiful couple' seemed to materialise everywhere. The Swiss Embassy on Herman Goring Strasse, and Westend eateries including
the Dobrin, Kranzler, Leon, Wien, Uhlandeck and the Teschendorf became part of their regular beat. Occasionally, Stella worked alone. Her modus operandi on these operations was to attend the funerals of mixed marriage couples as the death of the Aryan spouse automatically cancelled any immunity the Jewish partner enjoyed.

  However, time was running out, as no matter how artfully the Propaganda Ministry put a spin on the latest news from the battlefronts, the truth was that the Allies were winning. The German Reich was shrinking. The deteriorating war situation coincided with a deterioration in Stella's relationship with her handsome partner-in-crime. She questioned his sexuality (Rolf was bisexual). There were fights, slanging matches and fierce recriminations. Sensing that he was about to lose control over his most prized asset, Dobberke insisted that the pair marry. Reluctantly, they tied-the-knot in a simple ceremony on 29 October 1944. Although he had managed to keep control of Stella, Dobberke would soon have reason enough to doubt her loyalty.

  Stella's marriage was a sham, and as such it was doomed to failure. She soon became exasperated with a husband whom she regarded as a sexual fake. The thrill of the chase was also losing its appeal as there were fewer and fewer Jews left to hunt down. Increasingly she sought comfort in the company of other men. Stella became depressed, demotivated, and increasingly needy. Above all, she craved a man who could provide her with what she really needed, 'Emotional anchorage, sex, and protection from worldly danger'.

  By late 1944, Stella had managed to convince her Gestapo handlers that she was too well known to operate as a 'catcher'. She continued to work as a 'scout', checking out addresses to see if Jews were still living there. She carried out the work with little enthusiasm, and her reports that there were no more Jews to be found went unchallenged by her superiors. At around this time, she had also met a new lover, an older man known as Heino Meissl. The two embarked upon a passionate affair. In February 1945, Stella discovered that she was pregnant. She thought that a child would bind her lover closer to her. The Red Army was closing in, and she needed the protection of her knight in shining armour. It turned out that Heino wasn't the gallant protector that she imagined him to be. No sooner had she announced the pregnancy, than her knight errant made plans for his own escape from Berlin. He had a future, as a Nazi-collaborator she had none. 'She only wanted me for an alibi', he later recalled.

  Stella gave birth to a baby girl in October 1945. Heino never returned to protect her from the vengeance of Berlin's surviving Jews. Indeed, 1945 was to be Stella's own 'year zero' as her past finally caught up with her. Since beginning her career as a Gestapo 'catcher' in August 1943, she had been responsible for hunting down anything up to 3000 Jews, most unknown to her, but many others had been friends and acquaintances. Her inevitable arrest by the Soviet authorities in Liebenwalde came after she was overheard saying that, 'The GPU (Soviet Secret Police) is worse than the Gestapo'. Her baby was taken away by the woman who had denounced her to the authorities. Stella was then taken to the Alexanderplatz prison in Berlin to be interrogated. Her subsequent trial was a blur, conducted entirely in Russian. Following the guilty verdict, she was sentenced to ten years hard labour.

  During the first two years of her sentence, Stella toiled in Soviet Special Camp No.7 (formerly Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp). She served her remaining years at Torgau, Hoheneck Fortress, and finally at Waldheim Hospital (where she was recovering from TB). Following her release, 'The Blonde Poison' stated that she considered herself a victim of the Jews. In later years, she converted to Christianity and became an open and vocal anti-Semite. Her story is intriguing and disturbing. It is also one which raises important moral questions, chief amongst them must be : Just how far will a person go to survive?

  Chapter Six

  Intrigues and Deceptions

  On 28 March 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote a personal message to Stalin. He considered the matters contained in the message of such significance that he bypassed the Chiefs of Staff, leaving the Allied military missions in Moscow to inform Stalin directly of his intentions. The message was indeed significant in that it represented nothing less than a complete volte-face concerning his former strategic outlook which had placed Berlin at the centre of Allied planning. The previous day, Eisenhower had spoken to the press, for the first time openly conceding that Stalin would win the race for Berlin by stating that, 'I think mileage alone ought to make them do it. After all they are thirty-three miles away. They have a shorter race to run'. Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery was disappointed by Eisenhower's statement. However, Eisenhower was quite correct in his thinking as he was fully aware of the extent to which the strategic picture had changed following the rapid advances of the Red Army from the Vistula to the Oder.

  Eisenhower's strategic outlook was to a large degree influenced by General Omar Bradley, who pointed out the practical difficulties of advancing from the Elbe. Furthermore, it was the centrally placed American 12th Army Group that was best placed to effect a link up with the Red Army in the Dresden area. In the process they would split the German forces and sever land communications between Berlin and the anticipated site of a last stand in the mountains of Bavaria. To this end, Eisenhower took the 9th Army from Montgomery's 21st Army Group in order to reinforce Bradley's southern thrust. Later, he justified his decision stating that, 'I could see no political advantage accruing from the capture of Berlin that would offset the need for the quick destruction of the German army on our front'. Notwithstanding, the British response was both swift and condemnatory. On 29 March, Churchill's main military advisor Field Marshal Viscount Alanbrooke wrote in his diary :

  To start with, he has no business to address Stalin direct, his communications should be through the Combined Chiefs of Staff; secondly he produced a telegram which was unintelligible; and finally, what was implied in it appeared to be entirely adrift and a change from all that had been previously agreed on.

  Two days later, Churchill penned a private memorandum to the British Chiefs of Staff which read :

  It seems to me that the chief criticism of the new Eisenhower plan is that it shifts the axis of the main advance upon Berlin to the direction through Leipzig to Dresden, and thus raises the question of whether the 21st Army Group will not be so stretched as to lose its offensive power, especially after it has been deprived of the 9th United States Army. Thus we might be condemned to an almost static role in the north and virtually prevented from crossing the Elbe until an altogether different stage in the operations has been reached. All prospect also of the British entering Berlin with the Americans is ruled out.

  Churchill was aggrieved, but felt powerless to act against an ally whose massive economic might meant that it was inevitable that they would dominate the conduct of the war. To this end, he warned the British Chiefs of Staff that their American counterparts would 'riposte heavily' to any criticisms of Eisenhower's decision. Nonetheless, the British Chiefs sent a lengthy telegram protesting that Eisenhower had exceeded his authority.

  The breach within the Allied command structure prompted the American Chief of Staff General George Marshall to pass on the British complaints to Eisenhower for his further consideration. Having received Marshall's telegram, Eisenhower contacted the American military representative in Moscow, General John R. Deane to enquire if it was not too late to delay sending the message concerning his strategic intentions to Stalin. Much to his relief, Deane confirmed that the message had not yet been sent. In the meantime, the anticipated riposte by the American Chiefs arrived in the form of a combative message supporting Eisenhower's new strategy. The tone of the message was such that there could be no doubt about the future direction of strategy. It stated that :

  … Eisenhower is the best judge of the measures which offer the earliest prospect of destroying the German armies or their power to resist... His strategic concept is sound from the overall viewpoint of crushing Germany as expeditiously as possible and should receive full support.

  With the support of General Ma
rshall and the American Chiefs, Eisenhower presented Churchill, Montgomery and the British Chiefs with a fait accompli. Neither British, nor American forces would be going to Berlin.

  On the evening of 31 March, Eisenhower's delayed message was at last handed over to Stalin, who after reading it, conferred with Marshal Georgy Zhukov, General Aleksei I. Antonov and General Sergei M. Shtemenko. Whilst Stalin considered that Eisenhower's planning 'seemed good', there remained serious doubts as to the real intentions of the Western Allies. Only the day before, General Antonov had sent a barbed message to General Deane, berating the Americans for supposedly misleading the Soviet High Command (Stavka). To understand the degree of mistrust, it is worth quoting the message in extensio :

  On February 20 of this year I received a message from General Marshall that the Germans were deploying two groups for a counter-offensive on the Eastern Front: one in Pomerania for an attack against Thorn and another in the Vienna - Moravska - Ostrava area for an offensive towards Lodz. The southern group was to include the SS 6th Panzer Army. A similar report was received on February 12 from the head of the army section of the British military mission Colonel Brinkman.

  I am extremely grateful to General Marshall for the information intended to help attain our common goals which he so graciously offered us. However, I am compelled to inform him that the military actions on the Eastern Front failed to confirm the information communicated, because the fighting has shown that the main group of German troops, including the SS 6th Panzer Army, was deployed not in Pomerania and not in the Moravska – Ostrava area, but in the Lake Balaton Region. From here, the Germans advanced with the aim of reaching the Danube and force-crossing it south of Budapest. This fact shows that the information General Marshall has used did not correspond to the actual course of events on the Eastern Front in the month of March.