On the drive back, Mitch rang John and put the call on speaker. It was seven a.m. Saturday morning in D.C. He told John that Marcus now had access to one of the laptops from the group and to reissue the level of security warnings.
“Adler was there,” Mitch added.
“So was Leon Voigt,” Eva said. “That’s two politicians running for the top jobs in two countries with the financial support and numbers to win.”
They spoke about the rest of the rally and Eva confirmed the messages were the same as those being espoused by the American NAO.
“John, we have to expose Voigt and Adler now, there’s no other way. What are we waiting for?”
“Orders. Let me come back to you after taking it higher. Eva, we’re talking to your superiors too but they may call you in to debrief them on today’s convention,” John said.
“Of course,” she said.
“Sit tight, both of you. I’ll be back to you as soon as I can.” John hung up.
“Are you all right?” Eva asked Mitch.
“Sure. I’ve seen some shit over the years, but that was positively weird. You know what the scariest thing was?” Mitch said, still in disbelief.
“The sheer numbers?” Eva guessed.
“No. Everyone was bordering on beautiful,” Mitch said. “Tall, blond, fit, strong. There was no one who wasn’t striking in some way or had an air about them or a presence. No one that was, I guess you could say, inferior.”
“I think that is the whole idea. When you passed the guard at the door he whispered ‘schöner’. That means beautiful,” Eva said.
Mitch shuddered. “That’s creepy. He was probably talking about you or the woman behind me,” Mitch said.
“No he actually said ‘schöner mann’, beautiful man,” she translated. “There is nothing wrong with admiring a beautiful specimen of human nature. I can appreciate that. Where to now?”
Mitch looked at his watch. “I’m working you all weekend, sorry.”
“That’s my job. When you go home, I’ll get a day off again luckily,” she teased him.
“Let me make a call.” Mitch called Benjamin Hoefer’s phone and he answered with hesitation.
“It’s just me, Mr. Hoefer,” Mitch introduced himself. “I’ve got an airline ticket for you, so you can return home if you are ready. We’ll act on Julian Schmid soon, we’re just watching him, but it’s safe for you to go home. Just don’t do any publicity until we tell you it’s okay to do so.”
Mitch listened to the elderly man.
“We’d love to. Now is good, see you there.” Mitch hung up. “Can we print out this e-ticket and go back to the aged care center? Benjamin’s dropping in on Marion Kaminsky this afternoon to collect the letter from the solicitor. He’d like us to be there.”
Mitch and Eva returned to the Meadepark Aged Care Community Center to meet with Benjamin Hoefer and his half-sister Marion Kaminsky. Mitch had the airline ticket printed and transfer arranged for Benjamin’s safe passage home.
Mitch and Eva met them in a private sitting area this time and tea was already prepared.
“You were kind to drop the charges, Mitch,” Benjamin Hoefer said.
“I’m sure it was out of character,” Mitch said.
“Completely, I assure you.” He accepted the airline ticket and transfer documents. “Thank you. I can’t tell you what a relief it is to be going home, for it all to be over.”
“Have you had some quality time together?” Eva asked Marion Kaminsky in German.
“We have indeed dear, it’s been an amazing and heart-wrenching time,” Mrs. Kaminsky said and Benjamin nodded his agreement. Eva translated for Mitch.
“Although my German is very rusty, Marion has been most patient,” Benjamin said in German. “I was taught it as a child and through school, but I don’t use it very often.”
“It came back to you,” Mrs. Kaminsky said in German.
“Marion has read the letter, and she translated it for me. But I want to share my father—my real father’s, letter with you,” Benjamin said, reaching into his coat pocket for the translated version.
“You don’t have to do that,” Mitch assured him.
“But I would like to; if you would like to hear it?”
“Of course,” Mitch said.
“It helps me to understand why he let me go to the States with the man I thought was my father.” Benjamin Hoefer opened the letter and donned his reading glasses which hung on a chain around his neck. He nodded to his half-sister and began to read.
“My son, should you ever receive this letter, I hope you will forgive me and understand why I had to do what I did and why you have spent your life estranged from your real family. Your mother and I were taken away by the Nazis and from my research I discovered your mother died three years after we arrived at the camp. I am overwhelmed with her fighting strength; to have survived so long in such conditions, I can only imagine she fought every day to return to you, my boy. She was twenty-two when she died at Auschwitz.”
Benjamin Hoefer stopped to wipe his eyes before continuing to read:
“I didn’t think I would make it; I was so thin, tired and weak, and like your mother I imagine, the only thing that got me up every day and standing was the hope that one day I might return to you both. During my time at the camp, the guard in my section was a man by the name of Hans Schmid; he was an evil man who took joy in his position of power. He was a brute, a mechanic before the war and he wielded incredible strength. I was very unlucky one day to see him stealing and he was close to killing me when he decided he could use me instead. I didn’t understand why he spared me but he reminded me that one day he would call in the favor. I didn’t know the war was coming to an end but he must have heard stories of the Allies advancing. He knew I had a wife and son; he knew the stories of several of us that worked under his command and he used us as he needed us.
“One morning when we stumbled out to the morning patrol, the gates were open. We were frightened and the guards were randomly shooting prisoners in the yard. I felt myself being yanked into a room and Hans Schmid was there. He told me he was calling in the favor and he was going to be me. He took my photo of you and your mother, made me reveal where you were and told me that if I told anyone, you would never be safe while he was alive, war or no war. I thought I had been through hell but it was beginning all over again. He said to forget ever seeing you again, he was now me and I was some dirty Jew with no name.”
Benjamin took large gulps of air and cried. Mitch placed his hand on the man’s shoulder while Marion held his hand. He regained his composure and continued reading.
“Benjamin, I was very frightened. I sent a friend in pretending to be a relative to see Gynther and Antje Bäcker but they confirmed that the man posing as me had come and taken you away and had left no forwarding address. They said they didn’t even see him, they just got a note. I received information not long after that your mother had died. But I didn’t let it go. I thought I could prove he wasn’t me, get him on criminal charges and get you back, but after the war no one wanted to touch the case. Some even said he might kill you and escape under another alias if he thought he was being hunted.
“For years I looked for you in every face I saw and a thousand times I thought I saw you. But it is hard to imagine what sort of man might evolve from a little boy and you were so very young when I left. Eventually I remarried and was blessed with a son and daughter, but you have always been in my heart, my son.
“If you are reading this, I know you have found me and we will meet on the other side. What a reunion we will have. Know that I love you. Your only father.”
Benjamin removed his glasses and folded the letter carefully.
“I’m so very sorry, Mr. Hoefer,” Mitch said.
He nodded his thanks. “My poor father, what anguish he suffered. And yet, it is so hard to hate the only man I have ever known as my father.”