Hello to all, this time we'll see what happened to the remnants of the SS escaped from the clutch of the Allies and how will interwine with the latest events. Sorairo contributed greatly over the final segment. So enjoy!
Extract from "The Hunt for ODESSA" by Benyamin Amar
The 23th of April 1946, the American military police in Munich found in her apartment the corpse of a certain Ms. Eva Braun, after a report from Gretl Braun, her sister. Gretl was worried for the declining mental and physical condition of Eva and after not hearing her in some days, she feared for the worse.
The initial investigation showed she died by ingesting a cyanide capsule found on her side, and a letter found on her desk destined to her sister where she wrote “Dear Gretl, I still refuse to believe what they are saying about the Fuhrer… and I still miss him terribly. And now that Hermann has left, and surely won’t return for me, I lose any grasp on life… I am sorry.” The simple conclusion was Eva Braun committed suicide. And yet, there was something suspicious in what was an apparently simple story of a delusional Nazi supporter from Bavaria. Firstly, the cyanide capsule she used was only given the highest SS echelons –specifically, it matched the pills Himmler had when was captured. In Eva’s apartment were found a couple of jewels too lavish for her modest living. Above all, the Americans found a bunch of letters with Hitler’s signature.
A few days later, still stunned by defeat, Germany was shocked to know from the various newspapers, that Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer of the Reich, committed only to his motherland, had a Bavarian lover. Gretl Braun, despite the sudden attention towards her family, confirmed this through undeniable evidence of movies Eva did as host of the Bergoff, Hitler’s favourite Alpine retirement. Other surviving aides of the Fuhrer, who kept their secrecy about his private life until then, like Traudl Junge confirmed this as well, as did Magda Goebbels. While the history of Eva Braun would open another side of that still unresolved enigma who was Adolf Hitler, Gretl Braun’s declarations and statements to the Americans would commence one of the most important missing SS officers searches of the post war.
It was in fact discovered that the “Hermann” Eva mentioned in her farewell letter was Hermann Fegelein, one of the most important SS officials on the side of Himmler and at the time the highest SS ranking officer who still evaded justice. Hermann Fegelein was renown as the “Butcher”: his division was charged of the clean up of the Prypat swamps from any type of partisan activity, included and above all of Jew type. From July to September 1941 at least 23,000 Jews were massacred – so making Fegelein the first executioner of the final solution.
Ambitious, ruthless and careerist, Fegelein climbed the ranks of the SS, becoming practically Himmler’s aide at the start of 1944. Becoming part of Hitler’s inner circle, he managed to get the blessing to marry Gretl for the June of the same year by the same Fuhrer and Eva, making him the “virtual brother-in-law” of Hitler, for the joy of the same Himmler which was behind the arranged marriage and the irritation of part of the upper echelon of the same SS. Above all was Eichmann, who loathed Fegelein to the point during the Nuremberg trials he ranted to the judges: “Why you didn’t bring yet on his knees that son of a bitch of Fegelein?”
Fegelein was with Himmler when the bombing attack against Hitler happened and thus survived. His role during the SS regime became even more important as second-in-command. His planned marriage was put on the backburner as the Braun sisters at this point useless, Himmler wondered about getting rid of them as knowing too much, but Goebbels opposed this to respect Hitler, so Fegelein was given the honour of sending them back to Bavaria. Gretl didn’t take too long to realize despite his excuses to postpone the marriage, Fegelein was dropping her, so she decided to return home with a very distraught Eva, who managed to see for the last time the corpse of Hitler through Goebbels’s help. This circumstance contributed to fuelling the post war legends over Hitler surviving or his body hidden in secrecy somewhere.
Unlike Himmler, Fegelein realized the situation was hopeless, and at the start of the battle of Berlin, he wanted only one thing – escape. Convincing his boss he would be able to organize resistance in Bavaria, he obtained permission to escape before the Americans fully encircled Berlin. Fegelein moved across Saxony and then Bavaria under disguise – avoiding Jewish and Italian troops. That Fegelein slipped through their fingers was considered by the Israelis to be a stain in their history, thus pushing later Mossad agents harder in his pursuit. Arriving in Munich, he arrived to find refuge with the Braun sisters – Gretl was incensed by him and refused, but Eva felt under his charm (she was always sympathetic to him, who brought some form of socialite glamour into the Fuhrer’s dull inner circle) and agree to hide him. Gretl later confided, also despite resistance from Eva to talk of the matter, that Fegelein became his sister’s lover for the time he stayed with her. She didn't denounce him at the time, fearing for her sister as well, later regretting that decision in her memoirs.
Fegelein remained hidden with Eva until the outcome of the Nuremberg trials, where he was declared guilty for his crimes and condemned to death in absentia. He feared that Eichmann could have the Allies about Eva – if his rival realized he could have been there, he would have gladly sell this information. Unknown to him, Eichmann effectively suspected where Fegelein was, but in a couple of conversations Himmler managed to have with him in recess, he agreed to stay silent to respect Hitler. On Himmler’s pressure on Eichmann in protecting Fegelein, the most common explanation was he probably hoped his lieutenant could eventually rebuild the SS as a clandestine order and eventually re-emerge.
In truth Himmler was only half right – Felegein tried to contact certain surviving SS officers in hiding; but initially only to escape from Germany. In early 1946, the American intelligence was somewhat aware certain officers in hiding used the term “ODESSA” ( Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, Organization of Former SS Members) as possible codename for certain networks planning their escape, but weren’t sure how many such networks were around or if they were effectively called ODESSA. They didn’t share such news with the other European intelligence networks, as at the time the Euro-American relations were very cold after Potsdam. In fact, Himmler had indeed created such an organization in order to ‘keep the fire of resistance alive’ when he presumed he would return from Japan as a conqueror. When that didn’t work out, the organisation focussed mainly on keeping its members safe from Post-War prosecution.
Aided also by the Italian retreat from Bavaria and the arrival of the American troops – much more lighter than in other German occupation zones – Fegelein was able to plot through one of those networks to move into Switzerland safely. There he was able to get access to several SS accounts in Swiss banks. However, to get out of Germany, Fegelein used Eva one last time as a decoy, pretending to be a couple during the first part of the trip. Apparently the man also managed to pay for such trip with some money Eva got in selling some gifts obtained from Hitler as well. He promised her he would soon organize her flight and rendezvous at a later time.
Naturally, Fegelein was not interested to help or see Eva again, as she fulfilled her purpose. He was already planning to write letters talking about difficulties in his own escape, faking a state of distress and that Eva would be safer with her sister. To his later chagrin, he sent the first letter to her the day she probably committed suicide, the 20th April 1946, the birthday anniversary of Hitler, arriving a couple of weeks later in Munich. It took time, however, before the letter was delivered instead to Gretl – furious with how Fegelein used his sister, she denounced him soon as possible. Too late, as at the time Fegelein had already left not only Switzerland, but Europe as well – but the trail to his search was now open.
As has been reconstructed from subsequent research, his first destination was Argentina, where there were a significant German community and enough sympathetic men of influence to keep him safe. This was where he intended to hunker, as well as a number of other fugitive Nazis. Then in 1949, he received the news that Argentina had joined the Roman Alliance. That was when he knew he could not stay in the country, especially when Eva Peron visited Israel to declare, “Anti-Semitism is the enemy of Argentina.” Fegelein’s next adventure would take him to Brazil, where he still feared arrest. Ultimately, a botched attempt at arrest by Brazilian police in 1952 would lead him to his final flight – his escape to the UAR. Landing in Egypt, he soon got in contact with important members of the establishment. In a few months, he would meet al-Bitar himself. Fegelein pledged to devote ‘all the might of our [the SS’s] holy underworld’ in service of the UAR in return for sanctuary. In reality, Fegelein had almost nothing after being hounded around the world for so long. However, he had become a figure of myth and legend due to the number of resources pledged to his capture, which was able to convince both al-Bitar and Aflaq of the wisdom of giving him sanctuary in Baghdad.
Fegelein subsequently called up his entire contact list of the scattered legions of SS die-hards from ODESSA around the world to tell them that sanctuary waited in the merciful land of the UAR. Among those who took up the offer were Alois Brunner, Klaus Barbie, Walter Rauff and perhaps most infamously, Otto Ambros, whose experiments with Sarin and Tabun had made Himmler insist on his going to hiding to ‘preserve your genius for our return’. This was what excited Aflaq in particular. While he kept a tight lid on the activities so as not to offend the Soviets, he began work on his ill-fated chemical weapon program, excited by false promises from Ambros that the weapons could be developed to only work on Jews and leave Arabs unaffected. Of course, it was nonsense, but the ODESSA members were willing to say anything to keep their comfortable new life in the Middle East going. Buying whatever could be got from the Soviets, a primitive missile program was also staffed by Nazi fugitives (though the more prominent members were working for the British in Canada). When combined, the two programs would be used for the final war against Israel. It’s impossible to say for sure what Fegelein truly thought of Aflaq’s crusade, but one thing is for sure: he didn’t leave the ship, even as the water rose.