Philippe Sands - The Ratline

For Allan, Marc and Leo, fathers and sons

and

In memory of Lisa Jardine

Their bows will slaughter the young men;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
they will not look with pity on the children.

Isaiah, 13:18

It is more important to understand the butcher than the victim.

Javier Cercas

The story in this book takes place across a period of time in which boundaries, the exercise of power and names of places often changed. For example, through the nineteenth century, the city today known as Lviv was generally known as Lemberg, located on the eastern outskirts of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Soon after the First World War, it became part of newly independent Poland and was called Lww until the outbreak of the Second World War, when it was occupied by the Soviets, who knew it as Lvov. In July 1941, the Germans unexpectedly conquered the city and made it the capital of Distrikt Galizien in the General Government, when it was known once more as Lemberg. After the Red Army vanquished the Nazis in the summer of 1944, it became part of Ukraine and was called Lviv, the name that is generally used today. Lemberg, Lviv, Lvov and Lww are the same place.

What to call the city, and other places the names of which changed across the years, in the pages of this book posed a number of difficulties. I have generally sought to use the name by which the place was referred to by those who controlled it at the time of which I am writing.

Josef Wchter, b. 29.12.1863, Hawran, father

Martha (Pfob) Wchter, b. 23.9.1874, Vienna, mother

Hertha (Wchter) Chaterny, b. 1898, sister

Ilse (Wchter) von Bheim-Heldensinn, b. 1900, sister

Otto Gustav, b. 1901

m. Charlotte (Bleckmann) Wchter, b. 1908

Otto Richard, b. 1933

Otto, b. 1961, a nephew of Horst

Lieselotte (Liesl), b. 1934

Dario, b. 1969, a nephew of Horst

Waltraut, b. 1937

Horst Arthur, b. 1939

Heidegund (Heide), b. 1940

Sieglinde (Linde), b. 1944

August von Scheindler, b. 1852, grandfather

Henriette (Schwippel) von Scheindler, b. 1856, grandmother

Carl Walther Bleckmann, b. 1868, father

Margarete (Meta) (von Scheindler) Bleckmann, b. 1878, mother

Hanne (Sterz) Bleckmann, b. 1902, sister

Helene (Kfferle) Bleckmann, b. 1903, sister

Heinrich Bleckmann, b. 1904, brother

Charlotte (Wchter) Bleckmann, b. 1908

Wolfgang Bleckmann, b. 1909, brother

Richard Bleckmann, b. 1914, brother

m. Jacqueline (Olln) Wchter, b. 1951

Magdalena Wchter, b. 1977, daughter

m. Gerlot Galib Stanfel, b. 1968

Otto Bauer, deputy head of Ottos office, Lemberg, 19424

Hanns Blaschke, Deutsche Klub, July Putsch, Mayor of Vienna, 19435

Martin Bormann, private secretary to Adolf Hitler, 19435

Josef Bhler, Secretary General, General Government of German-occupied Poland, 193945

Josef Brckel, Gauleiter of Vienna, 193940

Eugen Dollmann, German diplomat, SS member, Ambassador to the Holy See, 1939

Georg von Ettingshausen, Viennese lawyer and party member

Helga Ettingshausen, his wife

Hans Fischbck, Reichsminister for the Netherlands, 19405

Trudl Fischbck, his wife, Charlottes friend

Ludwig Fischer, Governor of Warsaw, 19415

Hans Frank, Governor General of German-occupied Poland, 193945

Brigitte Frank, wife of Hans Frank

Niklas Frank, son of Hans Frank, b. 1939

Alfred Frauenfeld, July Putschist, Nazi Gauleiter in Vienna, 1930

Odilo Globonik (Globus), Gauleiter of Vienna, 1938, SS and Police Leader, 193943

Reinhard Heydrich, Director of Gestapo, 19349, Director Reich Main Security Office, 193942

Heinrich Himmler, Reichsfhrer SS and Chief of Police, 193345

Wilhelm Httl, SS Sturmbannfhrer and intelligence officer, colleague in Italy

Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Deutsche Klub, SS Leader Austria, Chief of Reich Main Security Office, 19435

Friedrich (Fritz) Katzmann, SS police chief, Lemberg

Albert Kesselring, Generalfeldmarschall, Luftwaffe

Erich Koch, Reichskommissar for Ukraine, 19414

Friedrich-Wilhelm Krger, Higher SS and Police Leader, General Government of German-occupied Poland, 193943

Karl Lasch, Governor of the District of Galicia, 19412

Ludwig Losacker, head of Ottos office, Lemberg

Kajetan Mhlmann, art historian and SS officer

Hermann Neubacher, Mayor of Vienna, 193840

Rudolf Pavlu, July Putschist, Ottos friend and colleague, Mayor of Krakw, 19413

Walter Rafelsberger, SS Leader and fellow State Commissioner, Vienna, 193840

Burkhardt (Buko) Rathmann, 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Karstjger, 19435

Walter Rauff, SS officer, Reich Main Security Office, chief of secret police (Italy), 19435

Alfred Reinhardt, engineer, party member

Baldur von Schirach, head of the Hitler Youth, 193140, Reich Governor of Austria, 19405

Albert Schnez, Wehrmacht officer

Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Chancellor of Austria, 1938, Reichskommissar of the Netherlands, 19405, Horsts godfather

Karl Wolff, SS-Obergruppenfhrer, commander SS and police forces in Italy, 19435

Stefan Brassloff, Professor, University of Vienna, Ottos teacher, 1925

Emmanuel (Manni) Braunegg, close friend of Otto, Vienna

Engelbert Dollfuss, Chancellor of Austria, 19324

Luise Ebner, friend of Otto, Bolzano

Reinhard Gehlen, SS intelligence officer

Friedensreich Hundertwasser, artist for whom Horst worked

Josef Hupka, Professor, University of Vienna, Ottos teacher, 1925

Herbert Kappler, SS police chief, Rome, 19404

Georg Lippert, architect, Vienna

Nora Oberauch von Hsslin, friend of Otto, Bolzano

Ferdinand Pawlikowski, Bishop, friend of the Bleckmann family

Erich Priebke, SS officer, Rome, escaped to Argentina via the Ratline

Dr Franz Rehrl, Governor of Salzburg, owner of a house in Thumersbach

Franz Hiernonymus Riedl, journalist, South Tyrol

Lothar Rbelt, photographer, Vienna

Franz Stangl, Commandant of Treblinka, escaped to Brazil along the Ratline

Hansjakob Stehle, historian and writer, acquaintance of Charlotte

Josef Thorack, sculptor, neighbour of the Wchters, Thumersbach

Melitta Wiedemann, journalist

Simon Wiesenthal, Nazi hunter

Karl-Gustav Wollenweber, German diplomat in Rome, 19404

The condition of the man in bed nine was grave. An intense fever and acute liver condition meant he was unable to eat, or focus on the matters of ambition and desire that propelled him throughout his life.

The notes at the end of the bed offered scant information, and much of it was inaccurate. On July 9th 1949 a patient by the name of Reinhardt was brought in. The date was right, the name was not. His real name was Wchter, but its use would alert the authorities that the patient was wanted for mass murder, a senior Nazi. He once served as a deputy to Hans Frank, Governor General of occupied Poland, hanged three years earlier in Nuremberg for the murder of four million human beings. Wchter too was indicted, for mass murder, the shooting and execution of over one hundred thousand people. The estimate was low.