Himmler was aware that von Deitzberg was ambitious and that he stood a far better chance of promotion to Brigadeführer (brigadier general) if he had some operational experience in the field.
“The problem, Manfred, is priority,” Himmler said kindly. “The Argentine operation is of far greater importance to the Reich than the unfortunate business in Warsaw. I need you here, at least until some decisions are made about Argentina.”
“I understand, Herr Reichsführer.”
“Can you think of someone off the top of your head?”
“Three or four people, Herr Reichsführer. But I thought you might wish to go over their dossiers with me before you made your decision.”
“Good idea. Get the dossiers as soon as you can.”
“Jawohl, Herr Reichsführer.”
[TWO]
The Chancellery of the German Reich
Wilhelmstrasse
Berlin
2230 27 April 1943
Though it was officially the Reich Chancellery Air Raid Shelter, everyone thought of it—and called it—“the Führerbunker.”
Under the supervision of Hitler’s personal architect, Albert Speer, a new Chancellery had been built in 1938–39 on the grounds of what was now known as “the old Reich Chancellery.” The new structure was far more imposing than the old, in both size and style.
The Führer had studied the proposed plans for the new Reich Chancellery and the bunker carefully, made a few “suggestions” for improvement, and then had watched the actual construction with great interest.
After the bunker was finished, the courtyard of the old Chancellery looked very much like it had before the shelter was built. There were two exceptions.
The first was a round-roofed one-story building in a corner of the courtyard, which served as an above-ground observation post for the guards of the SS-Leibstandarte (Life Guards) Adolf Hitler Regiment, who had been assigned the duty of protecting the bunker. A three-story flight of stairs under this building led down into the bunker and provided an emergency exit from it.
The second was the main entrance to the bunker. Constructed of thick concrete, and equipped with theoretically bombproof doors, it clashed architecturally with the Chancellery Building, but aesthetics had to give way to practical military engineering when the lives of the Führer and his closest advisers were at stake.
Only two senior Nazi officials had their own quarters in the Führer bunker: the Führer’s closest advisers, Martin Bormann and the clubfooted Dr. Josef Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda.
Not even Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring or Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel had space in the Führer bunker. Nor did Admiral Karl Dönitz, head of the German Navy, nor Joachim von Ribbentrop, nor Rear Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, nor Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler.
Space had been found, however, for Adolf Hitler’s good friend, Fraülein Eva Braun, who had her own bedroom modestly apart from the Führer’s.
Since it was useful to have an intelligent and trustworthy second pair of eyes and ears at important meetings, when Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler went to the Reich Chancellery this afternoon, he took Oberführer Manfred von Deitzberg with him, but managed to get von Deitzberg only as far as the foot of the stairway leading downward from the courtyard of the Chancellery.
When Himmler and von Deitzberg passed through the two steel doors leading to the main bunker stairs, they were snappily saluted by the Schutzstaffel noncommissioned officers on duty and passed through without question. Himmler was, after all, the Reichsführer-SS, and the guards knew von Deitzberg was his adjutant.
But as Himmler reached the bottom of the last of the long flights of stairs, he realized he wouldn’t be able to take von Deitzberg any farther. Sitting in a row on steel chairs in the small area outside the bunker waiting room were Deputy Minister Georg Friedrich von Löwzer of the Foreign Ministry and the aides-de-camp to Admirals Dönitz and Canaris.
Someone has decided, Himmler thought, that a deputy foreign minister, a Navy captain, and a Navy commander—not to mention an SS-Oberführer—are not important enough to wait in the actual waiting room.
And there is no question in my mind that that someone is Martin Bormann.
“May I get the Herr Oberführer a coffee?” a Leibstandarte Hauptsturmführer politely inquired of von Deitzberg.
I wonder, Himmler thought as a Leibstandarte Obersturmführer opened the door to the waiting room for him, if that bastard Bormann will have the effrontery to keep me waiting in here.
There was no one in the long, narrow waiting room but another Leibstandarte Hauptsturmführer, who gave Himmler the Nazi salute.
“This way, if you please, Herr Reichsführer-SS,” he said, and led him through a cloakroom lined with metal wall lockers into Martin Bormann’s office. It was furnished simply with a metal desk and chair, a low filing cabinet, and a small table. The two admirals and the Foreign Minister were seated at the table.