An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public.
(Charles Maurice de Talleyrand)
You weren’t getting just workers; you were also getting crime, quite a lot of it. There was, of course, a multitude of petty offenses, like faked or stolen documents or illegal immigration, but there also was drug peddling, human trafficking and outright murder. Was crime organised? Siegfried, at first, had thought it wasn’t – because he couldn’t figure how that should work. Yet, experience told otherwise. Despite the fact that workers were coming from many different countries, overarching criminal structures had formed in almost no time.
Was he dealing with the gangs? Yes, he knew now that this was the case. In fact, you couldn’t hire workers from Albania or Bulgaria anymore without treating with them. Even Romanians and Greeks were often procured by OC. ZAZ, Siegfried’s company, was earning well with placing temporary workers. Hence it was hardly surprising that the gangs should try to lay their hands upon it. But that wouldn’t fly with Siegfried. He had turned to the police and had asked for support.
ZAZ was an important player for supplying workers to vital companies like Krupp, Mannesmann, Hoesch, Rheinmetall or Bayer. Hence, the Prussian police had taken his request seriously ab initio. However, the man they had sent – had been a disappointment for Siegfried… Old, almost seventy, and handicapped, his artificial leg was quite conspicuous, Theodor Eicke hadn’t seemed efficacious.
Well, that had been a false impression altogether. The man was a steam hammer, figuratively speaking. His outfit were going at it that the fur flew – or rather blood splatters… Theo Eicke was not of the opinion he should put gangsters before court, as long as his men could hunt them down – and deal them the coup de grâce. He knew this ragtag off pat: no quarter. – For ZAZ it meant, by all means, that the encroachments had stopped good and proper. But Siegfried was now experiencing difficulties in contacting folks in the Balkans at all…