‘Captain Kuttner was a highly intelligent young officer and I was surprised that he should have said what he did. However, I was not at all surprised that Colonel Jacobi should have answered him in that way. But then, that’s Jacobi for you.’
‘Where was General Heydrich when this happened?’
‘In the dining hall at Beneschau we have a long refectory-style table. I was right next to Jacobi. But Heydrich was at the opposite end of the table.’
‘Why didn’t he sit next to you, sir? Surely that would have been customary.’
Voss shrugged. ‘The General was late. Delayed by some official business.’
His voice was about as thick as a recently tarred road.
‘Why weren’t you surprised that Jacobi should have said what he said?’
Voss shrugged again. He wasn’t as tall as he should have been; these days you don’t have to look commanding to be in command. But he did look tough for a man of almost fifty, which is about the number of stitches it must have taken to sew up the
‘It’s no secret that he and I don’t agree on a number of issues. Still there was no excuse for young Kuttner to be insubordinate like that. That was a surprise. I always thought him a very polite, courteous young man. Always. Ever since I first met him several years ago.’
‘So you knew him before he came to Prague?’
‘Oh yes. He was a cadet-officer at the SS Junker School in Bad Tolz when I was the commander there.’
‘When was that?’
‘When I was the commander at Bad Tolz? Let’s see now. July 1935 until November 1938. Kuttner was one of the best young officers that was ever produced there. He graduated at the top of his class. As you might have expected. After all, he was a law graduate of some brilliance. And great things were expected of Kuttner. He was certainly being groomed for one of the top jobs in the SS. Yes, it’s true he had important connections. But he had considerable ability of his own. If only things hadn’t gone wrong for him in Latvia he’d have been a major by now. With an important desk job in Berlin.’
Voss shook his head.
‘Of course, he’s not the first SS officer that this sort of thing has happened to. I know because I keep up with a lot of the young men who passed through my hands at Bad Tolz. Men like Kuttner. The work is too much to expect anyone to carry out without it having some effects on morale and character. They’re only flesh and blood, after all.’
It was odd how the same did not seem to apply to the victims of ‘the work’ that Voss described.
‘A new approach is needed to the work of evacuation and resettlement. A different solution to the Jewish problem. A better solution. And I’ve told Heydrich as much. Something is needed that takes into account the humanity of the men we ask to carry out these special actions.’
He sounded so reasonable I had to remind myself that he was talking about mass murder.
‘After Bad Tolz, when you next saw Kuttner again – which was when?’
‘At the luncheon where the incident we were talking about took place.’
‘When you saw him again, would you say that he’d changed?’
‘Oh yes. Very much. And the change was obvious. To me he looked a nervous wreck. Which is what he was, of course. But still highly articulate. And likeable. Yes, I still liked him. In spite of everything. It’s a great shame this has happened.’
After I finished with Brigadier Voss, Captain Kluckholn appeared in the Morning Room and explained that Major Thummel had to be back in Dresden that evening and, with their agreement, he had leapfrogged the list of witnesses ahead of Geschke, Bohme and Jacobi.
‘Is that all right with you, Gunther?’
‘Yes. But now that you’re here, Captain, I have a couple of quick questions I’d like to put to you.’
‘To me?’
‘To you, yes. Of course. And by the way thanks for the circus tickets.’
‘Don’t thank me. Thank the General.’
‘I will.’ I opened my cigarette case and offered him one.
Kluckholn shook his head. ‘Don’t smoke.’
‘Hermann, isn’t it?’ I lit my nail and whistled down the smoke.
He nodded.
‘Which adjutant are you? First, second, or third? I never can remember.’
‘Third.’
