Chapter 25: Setup
November 10, 1937
7:58 AM

1
Liutpold von Schoor fired at a Tinte. The remnants of the 1st Infantry Division, along with the Hitler Youth and Goebbels’ Party, were trying to fight a battle with submachine guns, Lugers, and what few rifles the surviving soldiers had with them. He was inside a truck with Leopolda hiding under a pile of sheets. He had the K98 rifle and still had three stripper clips.

Von Schoor saw a Tinte try to climb into the truck. He bashed it on the face with the butt of the rifle, as his bayonet had been lost during the Storming of Berlin.

“You monsters aren’t getting my reading partner!” He yelled. The Tinte howled in response. Von Schoor aimed the gun and stuck a bullet in its head. He needed to reload and stuck in another stripper clip.

He got back to the top of the truck and opened fire on a pair of Höllenhunde. The driver of the truck was trying to get to a factory on the edge of the nearby town. Most of the townspeople had turned into Tinten. The drive was slow going. The road wasn’t paved and had turned into thick, deep mud because of the rain and snow. They had made it out of Berlin and were somewhere in the Gau of Kurmark, formerly known as Brandenburg.

The truck tried to accelerate, but the mud was making it impossible. Most of the vehicles they were using were getting stuck or freezing. Von Schoor was growing angry. Vehicles were ceasing to work and the Tinten were everywhere. He fired at another monster and took it out. He got back in the back of the truck.

“C’mon, Leopolda, we need to get out of here. The factory is less than a kilometer away.” Leopolda was scared and crying, but she took von Schoor’s hand. He helped her out and gave her a Walther PP. She had been given an Army coat, and had stored her copy of Les Misérables in it. Von Schoor’s copy was in the truck. He figured he could find and retrieve it later.

“Do you know how to use this?” He asked. She shook her head.

“It’s loaded. Just pull the trigger. You’ve only got one magazine, so conserve your ammo. You have nine rounds. Now then, let’s get to the factory.” The two started running.

2
Goebbels, Rommel, and Klaupt were in a car at the front of the convoy when the hordes attacked.

“Where the hell are we?” Rommel asked. Klaupt looked at a map.

“We’re near the town of Neuruppin.” Klaupt said. “There’s a factory just ahead.” They couldn’t see the factory. It was foggy, cold and overcast. The sun hadn’t risen yet, and even when it did it wouldn’t help much. The fog was thick as smoke in a burning building.

The driver got out and ran ahead. He disappeared into the mist. A Tinte grabbed the door of the military car. Klaupt threw his door open with enough force to throw the beast forward and onto the ground.

The driver returned.

“It’s less than six hundred meters to the front gate.” Goebbels got the bullhorn.

“Everyone! Head toward the factory.” Goebbels yelled. The soldiers and SS started guarding the boys and civilians. Goebbels stepped in the mud. He sank to his ankles. Christ, he thought, this mud is deep. It was the heavy rain that did it. Rommel and Klaupt got out and ran toward the factory entrance. The front gate had been pushed open about a meter by the driver. The mass of people started running up the road, trying to make it to the factory. Goebbels was the first to get there. He pushed the gate open further and got Klaupt, Rommel, and the driver inside safely. A batch of Hitler Youth were the next to make it inside. One boy slipped and fell. A Tinte jumped on him. Klaupt immediately recognized the boy as his son Roland. He ran back out of the factory and to Roland.

“Get back here!” The driver yelled. Goebbels extended his arm, blocking the driver’s path.

“It’s his son. Let him rescue the boy.” Goebbels said. Klaupt kicked the Tinte in the face, knocking it off. It landed in the mud with a loud splat and a howl. Klaupt looked at Roland.

“Thanks, father.” He said. Klaupt helped his son up and they ran inside the factory. Rommel wondered where the other officers were. He saw Gunnar Schade run into the factory. He remembered that he acted heroically when this all began near Harrislee in Schleswig-Holstein. He didn’t know that the Oberschütze had survived the Storming of Berlin.

More people kept running. After fifteen minutes, Goebbels and Rommel saw that the flow had stopped. The last few to get inside were Leopolda Blum and Liutpold von Schoor, followed by Gregor Delschaft and Friedrich Baumann. They closed the gate after that.

3
Wolmar Bart hoped that the motorcycle facility stayed Tinten free. He wanted his footage of the disastrous Storming of Berlin to one day be recovered. It was truly historic what had happened, even if it was also a catastrophe for humanity.

He was pushing a stretcher with Hartwig Albers on it. The mud was making pushing the thing difficult. Even worse, it was the only stretcher the party had. They were lucky to have one with wheels.

The Tinten attacked. Bart only knew about it because a Gestapo screamed. Gunshots rang out. Bart realized he had to get to the facility ahead and fast. He knew it was a chemical plant, but he knew nothing more than that.

He spoke to Albers.

“You have to get up.” Albers was drowsy, mainly because of the morphine. That friend of Goebbels, Mengele or whatever his name was, had some morphine on him. Bart had stolen it and gave it to Albers to help his pain.

Bart felt responsible for Albers now. It was strange. He knew Hauptmann Kurz would not have tolerated Albers’ being a smoker, but Bart didn’t mind. Albers wanted cigarettes, but those were in very short supply now. Goebbels was vehemently anti-tobacco, and he did not want anyone in his party smoking. Bart would have to talk to Klaupt and ask about it, though Klaupt was even harder on smokers than Goebbels. Bart had heard the rumors, that it caused lung cancer. He didn’t buy it.

“C’mon, the Tinten are attacking. Get up!” Bart cried. Albers was pulled off the stretcher and fell onto the ground. Bart was a very large and strong man, and he picked up Albers as if he were a child. He then started running forward. A Tinte approached him, sensing an easy meal. One roundhouse kick to the thing’s ribcage ensured it would be going hungry this morning.

He kept running. He found another soldier, this one an Unteroffizier.

“Your name.” Bart asked.

“Gottfried Mann.” Another soldier, a Gefreiter, walked up to them.

“Hamlin Putzkanner, Hauptmann. Do you need any help?”

“Yes, please.” The two soldiers grabbed Albers and supported him. Another Tinte ran toward them and Bart shot it in the head with his Luger. They soon reached the entrance of the facility. The two soldiers set Albers down. The stretcher had been left outside the facility.

4
“Have we done a head count?” Klaupt asked. The Tinten seemed to be satisfied with what they had caught outside the factory. The gates had been shut ten minutes ago.

“Goebbels lost six men, fifty-one Hitler Youth are missing, as are fourteen soldiers.” Rommel said. Goebbels added it up. Seventy-one dead in this latest chapter of the bloodshed. They had 1,525 survivors. Now they were at 1,454. He had to wonder what the ranks would be when they finally reached the Danish border.

“All right, I personally think we should take a look around this place. We know it’s a pesticide factory of some sort, but I find it suspicious that this place has seven-meter high electrified gates with barbed wire and guard posts everywhere. It’s rather high security for a place that makes pesticides.” Goebbels said. The factory had six buildings. The center building was where the gas was manufactured. A railroad ran through the north end of the factory site. The railway was blocked by a gate, and there was currently a freight train parked on the tracks inside the factory grounds. That would make a good escape route in case the factory was stormed. None of the vehicles had survived the mud and cold, and all were outside to the east and considered unrecoverable.

“Can we get the electricity on?” Rommel asked.

“I doubt it.” Goebbels picked up a flashlight and the three went into the center building.

The building was made of concrete walls half a meter thick. The door required a special key. Klaupt fired his Luger at it, solving that problem.

They went inside. There were several layers of security. More concrete, steel doors, security posts. Luckily the doors could be pushed open, though with great difficulty.

“What the hell is this place?” Rommel asked. “It’s like they’ve got some kind of top secret project going on here.” Goebbels just shrugged. He was as clueless as the others. He knew of many top secret projects Hitler had, but none of them took place near Neuruppin.

They finally reached a central chamber. There were dozens of large metal tanks of something.

“Gas, probably. That’s what these kinds of tanks are used for.” Rommel said, noticing a room for decontamination. Goebbels shined a flashlight on one of the tanks. That revealed lettering on one of them.

The lettering read “ZYKLON B”.

5
Baldur von Schirach had managed to get into the pesticide factory. He saw many Hitler Youth taken down by the Tinten. It pained him to see the boys being eaten. He decided to start his revenge against those who had betrayed Germany and to regain the honor he lost at that BMW plant. First he wanted to kill the traitor who took his position. That meant Jurgen Brandl had to die.

He walked around the few tents that had been recovered from the convoy. He looked around. One tent had three women in it. Another revealed a wounded Oberleutnant smoking a cigarette. Klaupt would have been angry, but von Schirach no longer worried about him or his opinions. The man seemed to have a broken hip.

He continued wandering around. He found Jurgen Brandl helping a wounded Hitler Youth pimpf. He decided to speak to the bastard.

“Hallo, Major.” He said.

“Hallo, Gefreiter.” Good, von Schirach thought. My disguise is working.

“May I have a word with you?” He asked.

“Certainly. Just let me finish up with this boy.” Brandl was tying a tourniquet on the boy. He got it tied up and walked over to von Schirach.

“Now then, what’s this about?” He asked.

“Come with me.” von Schirach led him to the northern part of the plant., behind a freight train. Brandl looked out of the fence.

“What is this place?” von Schirach asked. “Where are we?”

“This is a pesticide plant. We’re near the town of Neuruppin.” Von Schirach was unsure of where they were. He had the answer now.

“How much do you know about this place?” Von Schirach asked.

“Not much. Why? Do you have information about this place you wish to share with me?” Von Schirach smiled. He pulled out a knife he’d taken with him and pulled Brandl’s hair back. Brandl tried to bite his arm, but von Schirach slit his throat with the knife. He threw Brandl’s body against the gate.

He saw that he was now covered in blood. Normally, it would look very suspicious. But in these circumstances, it was abnormal not to be covered in blood. Von Schirach left Brandl’s body and walked toward the camp.

6
Rommel, Klaupt, and Goebbels were in the main offices of the facility. They were going through letters between the plant management and the Nazis. It looked rather suspicious, the three thought.

“Well, this reveals what Zyklon B is.” Goebbels said. “It’s a pesticide based on hydrogen cyanide.”

“If that’s the case, why the high security around this place?” Rommel asked. “Pesticides aren’t sensitive material, so why is this place surrounded by massive fences and barbed wire?”

“I’m wondering that myself. I found another folder. It has the swastika on it.” Klaupt set the folder on the desk. Goebbels looked at the folder. It had “SECRET” written on it under the swastika. Goebbels opened it.

The first memo was from Heinrich Himmler. It was written in large block capital letters. It looked like it had been typed on a typewriter. Goebbels read it.

SUBJ: ZYKLON B USAGE
FR: HEINRICH HIMMLER
TO: NEURUPPIN FACILITY
DATE: 11 OCTOBER 1937

THIS MEMO IS TO INFORM YOU THAT WE HAVE RECEIVED THE FORMS SUGGESTING THAT THE CHEMICAL PRODUCED AT THE NEURUPPIN FACILITY BE USED FOR OUR PURPOSES AND THAT WE ARE INTERESTED IN THE CHEMICAL AS A TOOL OF ELIMINATING THE UNDESIRABLES FROM GERMANY.

WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN THE EVENTUAL ELIMINATION OF THE JEWRY OF EUROPE. WE HAVE DONE EXPERIMENTS WITH YOUR CHEMICAL KNOWN AS “ZYKLON B” AND WE BELIEVE THAT IT IS VERY EFFECTIVE FOR OUR PURPOSES.

RIGHT NOW, ZYKLON B IS THE PRIMARY CHEMICAL BEING CONSIDERED FOR USE AGAINST THE JEWRY.

AGAIN, THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST. YOU WILL BE REWARDED WELL FOR THIS IF WE DECIDE TO USE ZYKLON B.

SEIG HEIL!

“Wait, Hitler and Himmler were planning to exterminate the Jews of Europe?” Klaupt asked.

“Hitler often said he wanted to. I never really believed any of his ideas would work.” Goebbels said. “But apparently this idea about exterminating the Jews went a lot further than I’d been told.” Goebbels read another memo.

SUBJ: PRODUCTION ORDERS
FR: HEINRICH HIMMLER
TO: NEURUPPIN FACILITY
DATE: 24 OCTOBER 1937

CONGRATULATIONS. WE HAVE MADE OUR DECISION, AND ZYKLON B WILL BE THE CHEMICAL USED AGAINST THE UNTERMENSCHEN OF EUROPE.

WE HAVE BEGUN PLANS FOR EVENTUAL INVASIONS OF POLAND. WE EXPECT THE INVASION TO BEGIN SOME TIME IN 1939. BETWEEN THEN AND NOW, WE REQUEST THAT YOU INCREASE PRODUCTION OF ZYKLON B. WE ALSO REQUEST THAT YOU CEASE SALES OF ZYKLON B TO FARMS FOR USE AS PESTICIDE. WE ARE NOW YOUR PRIMARY CUSTOMER. WE WILL NEGOTIATE PAYMENT FOR THE GAS AT A LATER DATE.

THANK YOU FOR ASSISTING THE GERMAN CAUSE.

SEIG HEIL!

“Goddamnit, Hitler never told me plans were under way to invade Poland.” Klaupt said. “That’s insane. Do you have any idea how quickly we’d be annihilated by the Soviets if we pulled a stunt like that?”

“Not to mention the British and the Americans.” Rommel said. “Although that’s irrelevant now. But it’s really comforting to know that Hitler really wanted to exterminate the Jews and we’ve just chanced upon the place where the tool of murder was being made.” Goebbels and Klaupt both knew sarcasm when they heard it. “Hitler is a madman, to be honest. I always thought so, and this just confirms it.”

“I knew Hitler hated the Jews and wanted to kill them all.” Goebbels said. “But I didn’t think the plan had actually gotten anywhere close to this far.”

“I’m more stunned over the plan to invade Poland. Christ, that would be suicide for Germany. It’d make our defeat during the Great War look like nothing.” Klaupt said.

“In any case, I think we should stay here for now.” Goebbels said. “This place has heavy security, and we can use that to our advantage.” Rommel and Klaupt agreed. The two officers walked out of the building. Goebbels decided to stay to do more research on just how far the plan for this final solution had gone.

7
Rommel and Klaupt walked out of the facility building together.

“I can’t believe Hitler actually went so far as to select a poison gas to exterminate the Jews.” Rommel said.

“I can’t believe he wanted to invade Poland. We’d defeat the Poles with ease, but the Soviets would knock us back into the Stone Age the instant we came within ten kilometers of their border.”

“Well, I wouldn’t worry about it now. Neither is going to happen with the Tinten on the loose.” Rommel walked off to find a place to sleep. Klaupt addressed three nearby soldiers. They were Gunnar Schade, Gottfried Mann, and Hamlin Putzkanner.

“Schade, Mann, and Putzkanner.” Klaupt said.

“Yes, Generalleutnant!” They said.

“Scout out this area. See what the area surrounding this plant has to offer.” The men were scared by the assignment, but obeyed nonetheless. They walked to the railway gate.

8
The three were bragging about their achievements during the Storming of Berlin. Schade and Mann had been on the Yellow Contingent, and Putzkanner had been on the Blue Contingent.

“I managed to hold off the Tinten while my batch of survivors retreated back to the plant. I used up all of my ammo and had to resort to the bayonet.” Putzkanner said.

“Hah. I fired machine guns at those Luftwaffe.” Schade said

“Did you hit any of them?” Mann said.

“Admittedly, no.” The bragging wasn’t meant to be hostile, they were doing it mostly as a way of breaking the tension.

“Is it really that hard to fire a machine gun?” Putzkanner asked.

“Spoken like someone who has never fired one.”

“I prefer rifles and grenades to machine guns. More honor there. Machine guns, you just massacre the enemy.”

“If you take that concept of honor to its logical extreme, you’re resorting to swords and bows.”

“Sort of like the Tinten.” Putzkanner said.

“A rifle may be more honorable, but a machine gun is more satisfying. You haven’t lived until you’ve mowed down Tinten and airplanes with an MG 34.”

“You didn’t mow down a single airplane.”

“Enough arguing.” Mann said. His order was followed by a sudden groaning.

“What was that?” Putzkanner asked.

“I don’t know. I’d get my weapons ready if I were you two. We may have to prove ourselves once more.”

Just then, a black-covered hand grabbed Putzkanner’s shoulder.

9
Rommel checked on Liutpold von Schoor. He was sleeping in one of three tents they had. Klaupt had said that Leopolda Blum was to have use of one of the tents. Rommel saw that von Schoor was in it, but no one else.

“Where is Leopolda?” He asked.

“I don’t know. I just arrived here looking for her. I don’t know where she went.” Rommel sighed. He figured she’d turn up. She was a smart girl and knew not to wander far. Besides, this plant was surrounded by barbed wire fences a good four times her height. She had no way of getting out of the plant.

He returned to a tent. He had a backpack with him that contained his diary. He hadn’t written in it since before leaving Harrislee. He started a long entry in it. The fog was still thick as ever, though luckily they’d had a lull in the snow and sleet. Rommel was exhausted. He’d been on his feet for over twenty-four hours. The last time I slept, he thought, we were in Ludwigslust.

He finished the diary entry and laid down on a towel in the mud. He used the backpack for a pillow. He fell asleep just as a muffled explosion sounded from the northern part of the facility.

10
Leopolda had been in the tent earlier. She was walking around the muddy plant site. A boy in a Hitler Youth uniform approached her.

“Hallo.” He said. She had her copy of Les Misérables in her tent. She’d taken off her coat as the running around had made her hot.

“Hallo. What is your name?” She asked.

“Roland Klaupt.” The boy answered.

“I’m Leopolda Blum. How old are you?” She asked.

“Fourteen. What about you?”

“Fifteen. You’re in the Hitler Youth.”

“Yes, I’m in it. Aren’t you Jewish?” He asked.

“I hope you don’t mind.” She said. Roland rolled his eyes.

“I’ll be honest, I hate being in the Hitler Youth. All these military exercises and fighting and all that. I hate it. I’d rather just loiter around Berlin with my friends. Some of my good friends were Jewish, and when Hitler took over I wasn’t allowed to see them anymore. The Nazis said that they were inferior and I shouldn’t corrupt myself by talking to them. It’s stupid, I never noticed anything wrong with them.”

“I hate being oppressed by the Nazis. I don’t see what makes me inferior to the Germans.”

“Well, the Nazis won’t oppress anyone anymore. Hey, did you hear what this plant makes?”

“No, what?”

“It makes some kind of pesticide, but I overheard my father talk to that Erwin Rommel man. He said that there’s something suspicious about this place. It’s the heavy fences.”

“So what are you suggesting?” Leopolda asked.

“We should be like detectives. We should go investigate. See what this place really does.” Leopolda was uneasy, and Roland could see that.

“C’mon, it’ll be fun.” Leopolda smiled. She had to admit, she liked this Roland Klaupt boy. She knew he was the son of the Generalleutnant in charge of the 1st Infantry Division. She liked Adolf Klaupt, and she liked Roland now, too.

“Friends?” He asked, extending his hand. Leopolda took it and shook with him.

“Friends.” She said.

“Good. Let’s go see what this plant is.” Leopolda and Roland walked toward the center building. Along the way, two drunken soldiers yelled “Someone’s getting fucked this morning!” and “Get a room!” at the two. Roland and Leopolda just ignored them.

They reached the center building where the gas tanks were. The lock on the outside door had been shot out.

“Do you see anyone?” Leopolda asked. She was still uneasy about sneaking around this place. She didn’t want to anger Rommel or Klaupt or von Schoor. Still, having an adventure with this boy was fun. It did remind her of detective novels she’d read as a kid. They went into the main chamber, the steel doors having been left open. There was nothing exciting in here, just large metal containers with “ZYKLON B” written on them.

11
Somehow the gate had been closed after Schade, Mann, and Putzkanner had left the facility. They knew that with Gottfried Mann wounded, there was no way they could scale the massive fence.

The Tinte had been a loner, just wandering around the plant after the attack on Goebbels’ party. Putzkanner punched it in the face and Mann stuck out his bayonet. The Tinte had a knife and plunged it into Mann’s thigh. Putzkanner and Schade shot the thing twice in the head, ending that threat. Still, they now had to get Gottfried Mann into the facility.

“How are we going to get inside? All the soldiers and everyone are at the south of the plant. We can’t get their attention from here.” Schade said.

“I have an idea. I have a hand grenade.” Putzkanner said. He still had the Model 24 grenade issued to certain members of the German Army. He pulled the cord off and stuck it in the fence. They then ran for their lives.

The explosion knocked a large portion of the fence out. There was a hole large enough for five men to walk through. Schade, Mann, and Gottfried noticed that it was cold outside, and they walked toward the center building, which had a north entrance as well as an east one that Goebbels, Rommel, and Klaupt had gone through. Along the way they found a man with his throat slashed. It turned out to be Jurgen Brandl. The three were shocked, but they figured that was the least of their problems now.

They found that the north entrance had been left unlocked. The north entrance only had one door to get through unlike the east, which had three. They went inside and laid Mann down on the floor of the room. There were dozens of massive tanks inside. The tanks had something called ZYKLON B in them. Schade’s father was a farmer, and he recognized Zyklon B as the trade name of a pesticide. But why would a pesticide factory have such heavy fences, he wondered. He put the question out of his mind and looked for something to help Gottfried Mann.

12
Leopolda and Roland heard the three soldiers coming. They knew they didn’t want to get caught if the soldiers came in. Roland saw the open door to the decontamination chamber. The two went inside, finding that it had a glass window and an airtight metal door. They hid down below the window, which extended from the ceiling to about sixty centimeters from the floor.

“What’s going on?” Leopolda asked. Roland looked out. One of the soldiers had been badly wounded. Leopolda looked up and saw a sign by the door. It said “IN CASE OF LEAK, DOOR WILL CLOSE”.

“Ah fuck!” Gottfried Mann yelled. “It hurts.” Roland tried not to snicker at the curse.

“Just relax. You’ll be fine.” Putzkanner said. Schade and Mann saw that he had a hand grenade as well. He had pulled the cord out during the Storming of Berlin and the grenade didn’t go off. He picked it back up, assuming it was a dud.

“Schade, go out and find anyone with any medical training.” Putzkanner said. Schade walked to the north entrance and found that several Tinten had followed him there. Indeed, the Tinten were attracted to the sound of the explosion and followed the noise. They then followed the trail of blood.

“Shit.” Schade said just before being pounced on and torn to shreds by the Tinten. Putzkanner saw what happened and opened fire with his Luger. He took down three Tinten before being attacked. His broken grenade flew off and landed in the middle of the tanks. The shaking and impact the grenade had undergone made it able to detonate again.

Two seconds later, the grenade went off. The gas was ignited, and in thick concentrations hydrogen cyanide is highly explosive. Each container exploding released more of the gas.

Putzkanner and Mann knew they were dead men. They were both quickly overtaken by the Zyklon B, which would soon spread outside the building.

Meanwhile, Leopolda and Roland watched this entire scene in horror. They saw the Tinten tear the three soldiers apart before being killed by the gas. They took each other’s hand and started praying, Roland in German and Leopolda in Hebrew. Both thought that such a scene would have infuriated Hitler.

As they said their respective prayers, the sealed door slid shut and locked in place.