Chapter One
Daniel: It's hard to imagine now, isn't it? Just debris. But underneath
here was his actual bunker?
Erik: Yes. Until one comes here and sees that nothing remains,
you don't realize that the destruction was so thorough. Everything
was razed. I mean, the Russians were within half a mile when he
decided to end it all. Bombs, shelling, shooting, memos . "the end
is coming" . "they are here." In one sense it's too bad, really.
When you go to England, you can see Churchill's cabinet war
rooms left almost exactly the way they were when the war ended.
Daniel: But here in Berlin, all is stones and dirt.
Erik: Even though it was his last stand, I'm afraid there is very
little of the Reich's physical presence that remains. But there is
something that somehow was spared. When we're finished here,
let's drive to that most cultured of all German cities, Nuremberg.
It's a little over two hundred miles from here, which won't take
long on the autobahn. The Hall of Justice still stands intact and
functions as a courthouse. But here in Berlin, you just have to step
back for a moment and try to picture it as it was. See this "hall of
shame" we're walking past? This is where the Gestapo headquarters
was. Can you imagine the fear and terror that haunted these halls?
And the so-called "People's Court" that was neither for the people
nor really a court. It was a gathering of robed and uniformed
people with the power to kill without feeling. It is rightly called
the "Topography of Terror." A memorial site is planned here in the
future. But let's move on to Nuremberg.
Daniel: Boy! You guys don't have any speed limits here, do you?
That fellow who just streaked past was a blur!
Erik: Ja! We don't like driving in America. It's like putting your car
in reverse. I mean, why do you design a car to do such speeds and
then just crawl along at fifty-five or sixty miles an hour? It's like
going backwards in time.
Daniel: I know, Erik, but as my dad used to say-the faster you
move, the farther ahead you should be able to see.
Erik: I've driven with your dad. He didn't have to see very far, did
he?
Daniel: No, but I don't think he expects to see the Autobahns in
heaven, either. And while you're in the mood to hit us Americans,
can we stop for lunch, please? And not another Wiener schnitzel!
A good old MacDonald's would be very welcome.
Erik: You can take the boy out of-
Daniel: Okay, okay. Some more breaded veal down the hatch. I
guess when the Russians arrived, there wasn't much choice
between the cuisines, was there?
Erik: Enough out of you. Here we are. This is Nuremberg. Did
you see the movies about the trial?
Daniel: I saw Judgment at Nuremberg, which was about the judges
who supported the Nazi regime being placed on trial. The closing
statement of the chief justice is worth sitting through every minute
of that three-hour movie for.
Erik: Yes, and Nuremberg, which is powerful and quite accurate,
was about the trial of the leaders of the Nazi party-or what was
left of them. People often get the two movies mixed up.
Daniel: I'd like to see them again when I get back home. But I tell
you what, I sure lost track of all the suicides. Every way you
turned, somebody was taking his life!
Erik: It went with the obsession with power. Don't give the enemy
the privilege of humiliating you. I wonder if we can park here and
get into the courtroom? You go on. You have that tourist's look
that just might incline them to let you in. Just shrug if the doorman
asks you what you want. But whatever you do, don't clown
around with that Nazi salute or you'll be the guest of the state, and
then I'll say I don't know you.
Daniel: You just took the lighter side out of it.
Erik: There is no lighter side here. Germans are a people of laws
and rules. You go on, and I'll find a parking spot.
Daniel: Where have you been? I have something to show you!
Hurry! Hurry before someone stops us!
Erik: I couldn't park just anywhere, you know. The man in the
uniform- Daniel: Forget the man in the uniform. Come on, follow me!
Quick!
Erik: I can't believe we're in this building.
Daniel: You haven't seen anything yet . Erik, we can look at
those pictures later . Yes, I know they're of the trial here after the
war. Just come on.
Erik: Do you ever wish you could just plug in to one of the walls
and listen to the voices of the past?
Daniel: Sometimes I wish, yes, and at other times I- Go on in,
there's nobody in there.
Erik: I don't believe it! This is it . this is the very room! Wow! Do
you think we're allowed in here?
Daniel: Yes, the clerk at the door said it was okay. Let's not ask
again or one of your "uniformed men in the land of laws" might
decide otherwise.
Erik: What silence haunts this room, Daniel. But there was a day
when the screams of the murdered were heard in here through the
voices of-I'm still not sure we're supposed to be here without
somebody in authority.
Daniel: Let's sit down, Erik. I must admit I never expected to get
in here. Let's just pretend we're here by authority.
Erik: I don't like that word, pretend. Isn't that the way it all got
started and ended? The whole thing was a charade-the pomp,
the ceremony, the goose-stepping, the salute-but the incredible
cost was very real.
Daniel: It's hard to put it all together. That one man could have
such power to sway and destroy. I lost my relatives, you know-
my uncle and my grandmother.
Erik: So did I. Let's just get our hearts to slow down a bit. I don't
want to lose the moment. There are quite a few symbols and artwork
here. Do you see what's above the door we entered? That is
so fascinating!
Daniel: It's the serpent tempting Eve in the Garden, from the
Book of Genesis.
Erik: Most visitors would wonder what that has to do with a
courtroom.
Daniel: It has everything to do with it. Just everything. What an
amazing reminder! Yes, the tempter told Adam and Eve that if
they ate of a certain fruit they would be as God, discerning good
and evil.
Erik: Talk about a chilling appropriateness. You know, I belong to
the church, but for a long time I knew very little about the Bible.
The state church here just takes true spirituality out of us. Still,
there were some ministers who did try to stand in Hitler's way and
even to assassinate him. Every German knows the name of
Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Hitler finally executed him in Flossenberg.
Daniel: Now that's another thing, isn't it? Church and state .
Hey, look high above the judge's chair. Those look like the tablets
of stone with the Ten Commandments etched on them.
Erik: That's odd, though. It looks to me like there are only three
commandments on the first tablet and seven on the second. Is that
the way it's normally written?
Daniel: I may be wrong, but I think it's because the first three
deal with our relationship to God and the last seven with our relationship
to our fellow human beings. Without the first, there is no
explaining the other. You talk about a land of laws! That's the law
that stands supreme, above all other law. Isn't that what the prosecutor
thundered when each defendant kept saying they were just
following the law of their land?
Erik: I can hear it. "Gentlemen, is there not a law above our laws?"
How profound, to have these in a courtroom in this way-the fall
of humankind and the law that should govern our lives. That alone
would make for a very interesting and profound discussion.
Daniel: Where's the building where the Nazi war criminals were
held and executed? Wasn't it attached to the courthouse?
Erik: Yes, it's right behind us. It's connected to this building by an
underground tunnel, and it's still used to house prisoners. They
never quite see the bright sunshine once they come in.
Daniel: The scene in the movie of the executions was very sobering.
One-by-one they had the rope placed around their necks, and
then the floor just gave way from under them.
Erik: Literally and metaphorically. They had no ground to stand
on, just the weight of their egos and their undisguised evil.
Daniel: I wonder what it would be like if Hitler were on trial in
this courtroom and God were the judge?
Erik: Hitler wouldn't answer to anybody, not even to God. He
didn't dialogue. His was a monologue. Dialogue involves reason, it
requires a willingness to admit there's another opinion. To him,
there was no other viewpoint but his.
Daniel: But that's because he tried to create his own reality. When
he faced God, only God's reality would survive; all the sham and
artificiality would collapse. Before God, Hitler is no different from
the rest of us. Like a mask removed, our soul is laid bare when we
stand before Him.
Erik: That would be quite a scene, wouldn't it? Hitler in the dock,
Jesus the judge, Bonhoeffer the witness, the voices of the blood of
millions crying out. I'd like to be able to witness that. Talk about
the trial of the century. That would be the mother of all trials, if
you ask me.
Daniel: The Lamb and the Führer . the ultimate reversal of
metaphors on the way to finding the ultimate power.
Erik: You know, I had a friend who once said that if Hitler had
asked Jesus for forgiveness at the end, all would have been forgiven.
I find that-
Daniel: I've often thought of that, too. What would've happened
if Hitler had fallen on his face and . that would be bizarre! What
do you think Jesus would've said? I mean-
Erik: We don't have to go far to imagine someone asking for forgiveness.
Did you ever read The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal?
It's the true story of a Nazi officer begging Wiesenthal, a prisoner
in a concentration camp, for forgiveness, and Wiesenthal just
walks away, unable to grant the officer's plea. One wonders
whether anyone could be so audacious as to grant forgiveness to
someone like that.
Daniel: God can.
Erik: I could even write out a script for this. My friends and I
used to talk about this. I was sort of the ringleader, asked to fill in
the missing content in our imaginary scenarios.
Daniel: Well go ahead, then. I'm listening.
Erik: Okay, here goes. No, no, before I do that I would love to
just think of his last hours in the bunker. From the network of
underground rooms that enabled him to hide in secrecy to an
open courtroom where nothing is hidden. From the bunker in
Berlin to a judgment scene. Doesn't the Bible say it is appointed to
man once to die and after that the judgment? A man who thought
himself to be God, with a single, self-inflicted gunshot suddenly
finds himself face-to-face with the real God, and every answer he
gives to the questions he is asked must withstand the scrutiny of
truth. I wonder if he even thought for a moment that he was
headed straight to stand before God?
Daniel: Are you kidding? Remember what happened in that
bunker in his final hours?
Erik: Well, the war was grinding the German machine to powder.
The Allies were scoring one victory after another. Then the Soviet
offensive began on January 16, 1945. Hitler gave his last speech
on January 30, twelve years after his appointment as chancellor.
Daniel: He was trying to get back to the chancellery, wasn't he?
Erik: Yes, but it was already severely damaged by bombing, and
the bunker was beneath the garden next to the chancellery.
Daniel: You know, my father used to say that Hitler's bunker was
bigger than the homes of some world figures.
Erik: Yes, it was a network of rooms, you know, not some little
hideaway. It had a large entry hall, a spiral staircase and all that.
Plus, twelve rooms for his close confidants, rooms for orderlies, a
doctor's office, a kitchen, and his own private quarters. He was
moving between fits of rage and depression, in and out.
Daniel: One wonders if it was fear or confusion.
Erik: He was going for broke, digging deep into his persuasive
powers. What else could he do? He called a handful of his aides
together before heading to the bunker .
Hitler's secretary (reading memo from Albert Speer): "The war
is lost, Herr Führer. We are being routed on every front.
Thousands of young Germans are dying. Time is against us. We
have no resources left to-"
Hitler: Stop! Don't bring me such messages of doom! From total
defeat springs the seed of the new. A desperate fight retains its
eternal value as an example. We are the supreme race. No inferior
nation is going to teach us a lesson. I must return to the bunker.
Immediately! I shall live there till we have done the job. Make sure
that Goebbels, Bormann, and my physician are there.
Secretary: The chancellery is badly battered, my Führer. One
wing has been demolished by bombs.
Hitler: I don't care! Do not judge the big picture by the small
scene. Get me back there immediately! My problem is that I have
been too kind all along. I rue the day I decided to be so kind.
Slaughter, destruction . that is what true victory is made of. We
will show these idiots what we are made of. Their armies will lie
buried beneath German dust. Millions of them.
Secretary: The reports are coming in that the people are terrified
of Russian revenge. The word surrender is on many lips and-
Hitler: Do you not hear me? However grave the crisis, in the end
it will be mastered by our unconquerable will. We will overcome
this emergency. Never in my life will I accept surrender. I will fight
on. We must stop these evil people and their evil leaders. Never
give up. Never!
Secretary: Herr Speer would like a reply from you to his memo.
There is more to it than I have read you.
Hitler: What does that traitor have to say?
Secretary: "My Führer, I am sending this memo to you to make
sure I understand what you are saying. You wish everything
destroyed-all electric plants, all our support systems, all our institutions?
You want us to raze Germany to the ground?"
Hitler: You heard what I said. Tell him! The future belongs to the
strong. I do not want the Eastern nations inheriting our strength.
Burn everything. Everything! Give them nothing!
Daniel: Hold on a minute, Erik. I want this to reflect what really
happened. Did Speer actually try to stop Hitler's scorched earth
policy?
Erik: Yes, he did. He knew the game was over. Yet it was Speer
who only a few years before had designed and planned the spectacular
Party Rally that took place in this very city, not far from
where we're standing right now. But in the end, he tried to stop it.
He even tried to put poison gas into the bunker's air system, but it
had just been reconfigured and that plot to kill Hitler failed, as
well. Do you know there were forty-two attempts made to kill
him . and all failed!
Daniel: I knew there had been several. But now there was an
army closing in. He had to have seen the handwriting on the wall.
The Russians were at the gates of Berlin, Erik. The city was being
put to the torch. He was writing his will. What was this nonsense
about looking at the plans to redesign Linz, the city of his youth,
at the same time? He was planning a dream city to be rebuilt
there. This man was a cauldron of contradictions!
Erik: How does one get into the mind of a man so singularly barbaric
and at the same time so persuasive to the masses? That will
always remain a mystery. Who were these who followed him?
How were they so seduced? Doesn't make sense.
Hitler: Who would have thought that I'd be hiding here like an
animal underground? I'd rather be a dead Achilles than a living
dog! And after thirty years of giving myself, my life, my everything
for the love of the Fatherland . Bring me the plans for Linz! I had
a dream to rebuild it. It can still be done!
(Continues.)
