The German Suitcase Read Online Free PDF

booked solid. I want to move on this fast.”
    “Me too,” Tannen said, gesturing to the suitcase. “You’re sending somebody to pick these locks, right?”
    “Tomorrow. Won’t take him a minute,” Steinbach replied with a wily smile. “Who knows what we might learn about Jake Epstein once it’s opened…”

CHAPTER SIX
    Two of the black-clad SS men had remained in the doorway of Professor Gerhard’s office. The third strode toward the desk, unbuttoning his winter greatcoat. His shoulder tabs sported the three-plaited silver threads of a Sturmbahnführer. “Professor Gerhard,” he said, removing a glove and extending a hand. “I’m Major Steig, the new SS liaison. I thought I’d drop by and introduce myself.”
    “A pleasure,” the professor said, forcing a smile. He hung up the phone and shook Steig’s hand. Taut and sinewy, the Major had a malevolent edge and a self-conscious military bearing. There was nothing of the aristocrat in him, and Gerhard assumed he was one of the Nazi party functionaries with whom Himmler had been replacing members of the upper-class officer corps.
    “You don’t seem at all surprised,” Steig said, with a glance to the phone.
    Professor Gerhard shrugged, feigning indifference. “It happens all the time, now. People are here one day and gone the next. One gets used to it after a while.” His mind raced to find a way to get rid of the Major and his henchmen, and warn the students who were in danger. He slipped his watch from a vest pocket as if he had a pressing matter, stubbed out his cigarette in the Petri dish, and said, “Forgive me, but we are overwhelmed with casualties, not to mention classes have resumed. I’m afraid I won’t be able to give you as much time as I’d like.”
    “But you’ll give me as much as I’d like, won’t you?” Steig said, savoring the riposte. For years, he’d been a Nazi Party organizer in Munich. The exponential growth of local cells and ruthless purging of anti-Nazi infiltrators during his tenure had gotten Himmler’s attention. An SS commission had been Steig’s reward; and he relished exercising his new-found authority. He nodded to one of the SS men to close the door, then raised his chin as if challenging the professor. “It seems that Gleichschaltung isn’t being enforced in your department,” he said, referring to Hitler’s program of Nazification designed to control every aspect of German life.
    “Gleichschaltung…” the professor mused, taking a pack of Sturms from a pocket. “Cigarette?”
    “An unhealthy habit. Frowned upon by the Führer,” the Major replied with a dismissive wave. “We were discussing Gleichschaltung.”
    The professor put a cigarette between his lips and lit it, casually, as if he wasn’t intimidated. “We’ve always done our best to integrate our programs with the goals and ideals of—”
    “Then how is it that you’ve failed to carry out the most important order of all?! That the purity of the Aryan race be preserved and protected! That all Jews be purged from our institutions!”
    “With all due respect, Major, my orders are to graduate as many surgeons as possible as quickly as possible without regard to ethnic background.” He paused in search of a way to reinforce his position. “Surgeons who will bring glory to the Führer and the Third Reich by saving the lives and limbs of brave German soldiers wounded in battle.”
    “Who issued those orders? Captain Kleist?”
    “Really, Major, you know as well as I he passed them on from higher ups. I can assure you he did his best to see they were carried out.”
    “Apparently, he failed to grasp the importance of racial purity. Perhaps, his involvement with one of the students in question clouded his judgment.”
    “Involvement? What are you referring to?”
    “You expect me to believe you don’t know Kleist and the Jewess Eva Rosenberg are lovers?! In direct violation of the Nuremberg Laws!” Steig exclaimed, referring to the