“Just remember this,” said Biberstein. “That we’re not without friends on the outside. You certainly should not feel that you are alone. Dr. Rudolf Aschenauer has represented hundreds of old comrades, including Walter Funk, our former economics minister. He is a most ingenious attorney-at-law. As well as being a former party member, he is also a devout Roman Catholic. I’m not sure what your religious affiliations are, Hauptmann Gunther, but it cannot be denied that in this part of the country, the Catholics have the louder voice. The Catholic bishop of Munich, Johannes Neuhäusler, and the cardinal of Cologne, Joseph Frings, are active lobbyists on our behalf. But so is the evangelical bishop of Bavaria, Hans Meiser. In other words, it might be in your interests to find your Christian faith again, since both churches support the Committee for Church Aid for Prisoners.”

“I myself have had the personal support of the evangelical bishop of Württemberg, Theo Wurm,” said Haensch. “As has our comrade, Martin Sandberger. And you needn’t worry about paying for a defense. The committee will take care of all your legal team’s expenses. The committee even has the backing of a few sympathetic U.S. senators and congressmen.”

“Quite so,” said Biberstein. “These are men who have been most vocal in their opposition to Jewish-inspired ideas of vengeance.” He turned for a moment and waved his hand dismissively at Landsberg’s brick walls. “Which is all this is, of course. Keeping us here, against all the rules of international law.”

“The important thing is that we all stick together,” said Haensch. “The last thing we want now is any unnecessary speculation as to what some of us did or did not do. Do you see? That would only complicate matters.”

“In other words, it would be desirable, Hauptmann Gunther, if your statements to the Amis concerned only yourself.”

“Now I get it,” I said. “And here I was thinking it was really my welfare you were concerned about.”

“Oh, but it is,” said Haensch. “My dear fellow, it is.”

“You’ve got a big pile of potatoes in the office of the Parole and Clemency Board,” I said. “And you don’t want anyone like me knocking it over.”

“Naturally, we want to get out of here,” said Haensch. “Some of us have families.”

“It’s not just in our interest that we’re released soon,” said Biberstein. “It’s in Germany’s interest that we draw a line in front of what happened and then move on. Only then, when the last prisoner of war has been released from here and in Russia, can we Germans plan for the future.”

“Not just German interest,” added Haensch. “It’s in American and British interest, too, that good relations are fostered with a fully sovereign German government, so that the real ideological enemy can be effectively opposed.”