Munich Signature Read Online Free PDF Page A

High Command. Perhaps they believe that I am being sent with this information at the bidding of the Führer. Surely it is no longer any secret that he wishes the whole world to fear him.”
    Vom Rath almost smiled at the irony of the British response to their information. “Warned about plans for Czech invasion . . . ” He faltered, then began with a new bitterness in his voice, “And they buried their heads deeper in the sand. Now the Führer screams against the lies that accuse him of plotting such an invasion, and Chamberlain seems quite sympathetic and sorry for all the fuss.”
    Silence fell as the footsteps of a man and a woman sounded on the stairs above them. Ernst pretended to fuss with the camera as a young couple passed them. When they were out of earshot, Ernst spoke. “Again I ask, Thomas, what are we to do?”
    The most sensible conclusion, it seemed to Thomas, was to do nothing. He was convinced that Hitler’s grand plan for the Greater Reich could not have been altered in spite of the ravings over the radio. “I am due for a leave. Berlin.”
    “You will speak with Admiral Canaris, then.”
    Thomas did not reply. The mention of Canaris’ name made him suddenly nervous. He stared angrily at Ernst. To speak that name was to somehow risk that the wind would hear and carry it to the ears of a thousand enemies. Thomas himself had been forbidden to mention Canaris in connection with this operation. How did Ernst know that the chief of the Abwehr had anything to do with this?
    “No, Ernst,” he replied at last, “I am simply going home. No matter what it may have become, Germany is still my home. There is nothing left for us to do, you see? I think the English gentlemen are quite full of information about the state of German military readiness. And as for the Czechoslovakian question, it seems obvious that the British have no real interest as long as England and France are not affected.”
    He gripped Ernst’s arm. “I am telling you that there is no one on that side of the Channel who cares what Germany does or who is at the helm. You see, Ernst? We are quite alone. I feel homesick for what my life once was.” Thomas inhaled and continued to look out over the gardens and rooftops of Paris. He thought of Elisa and of her family. He thought of his own betrayal, and of this failed attempt to somehow make it right again.
    “Yes, alone,” Ernst replied glumly.
    “To tell you the truth, I think I would not have minded so much if the fellow had shot me instead of Le Morthomme. If there is another war, I will not want to spend my tour of duty in the Abwehr. No, I will go to the front. I will look for an honorable way to end what has turned out to be a life of dishonor. There will surely be someone with a rifle on the other side who will rejoice to kill a German officer; don’t you think so, Ernst?”
    “Perhaps it will not come to that.”
    Thomas laughed, denying vom Rath’s hope for peace. “There is nothing left for us here, Ernst. No doubt the Führer is drawing up his plans for eliminating the Czechs right now. I am going home. To Berlin. I will request transfer to the regular army. The Czechs are good fellows, I hear. I want to be in the front of the unit when the Wehrmacht crosses the border.”
    ***
     
    An unseasonably cold wind blasted in from the North Sea and swept upriver sixty-three miles to the teeming port of Hamburg. Some citizens raised their eyes to the leaden sky and proclaimed that they had seen such a wind bring snow. Tiny gray flakes, soiled by the smoke from the steel plant, swirled earthward and dissolved into sooty puddles the instant they touched the cobbled streets. No one seemed surprised or alarmed by the occurrence. Some even joked that now that the Führer had the steel plants working at full capacity, their heat would warm all of Hamburg—perhaps all of Germany—until the snow would never stick again.
    Inside the Thyssen Steel Works, the furnaces of the Reich fumed and