The Unforgotten Prayer

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Chapter One

It was not easy to rebuild an empire out of a defeated and failing country after the First World War. I knew that the only reason that our party — the National Socialists, or Nazis — came to power was Germany's desperate condition. A once proud country laid low, its government and economy in ruins. No one would opt for a fanatical government under normal circumstances.

We felt these dire circumstances presented us with a wondrous opportunity, a once in a lifetime chance. And we took it. I say "we" because I joined the Nazi Party in 1932 at the age of twenty-two. I believed the Party was the only way to save Germany.

We went for it with all of our might, with all of our cunning. We used all means to win control over our nation. We used bribery, extortion, and even murder. Everything was Kosher to win my political battles. Funny — I loved to use this word "Kosher" with great sarcasm. I've just never told this to anyone lately.

Very early in the game we realized we needed to find a convincing explanation for our country's chaotic politics and catastrophic depression. We had to find something or someone to blame. We had to find an outlet for the unfocused fear and hatred in people. We planned our approach carefully, looking into every aspect of it. The answer lay with something that was engrained in many Germans anyway — anti-Semitism.

We started with propaganda directed at the masses. Any disappointment, any bad news, we blamed on the Jews. The people were ready for this. They were unemployed, bitter and full of anger that needed to be discharged on something or someone. Imagine millions of people without work, without money and barely eking out livings. The banks were badgering them about mortgage payments. What lenders there were charged exorbitant interest. People walked the streets with neither purpose nor hope. They came to despise the bungling governments that came and went without resolving the nation's woes.

Most recalled a time when government had brought them hope for the future and pride in their nation. We promised to bring that back. Germans were eager to hear our message — and to believe it with all their hearts as well.

The Jews were rich and educated. Everyone knew they dealt ably with money and wielded influence everywhere. This was done on the backs of earnest Germans. Those banks and lenders that exploited people? Jews, of course. The rest of them were doctors, attorneys, accountants and engineers. They lived well while Germans struggled to get by.

Everyone already mistrusted, disliked or hated the Jews. It all went back to the Middle Ages and the plagues and blaming those deemed responsible for Jesus' death. Much of it had gone into dormancy as modern times came and pushed rural folklore out of the minds of urban and progressive people. All we had to do was reawaken it. And with high office, we could do just that.

Channeling anger at times like those back then was a pleasant task. A concerted campaign to blame the Jews for the problems of the 1930s led to laws directed against them. The people accepted this readily — even joyfully. They wanted to hit, they wanted to break, and they wanted to feel relief from a decade of fear.

The Party gave them what they wanted.

We made the Jews a target — in time, a legal target — for hatred, abuse and murder. Enemies of the state, the bane of the Fatherland, revolting sub-humans, thieves, liars and the like. We became free to do anything we wanted. We took away the Jews' livelihoods, money and eventually their rights as citizens and human beings. It worked out better than we had imagined. The openings improved the lot of many Germans.

The rule of law? You forget the times.

We used their money and others' as well to rearm the military, which had been unjustly shorn of its might by the Versailles Treaty after the First World War. Germany without military might was unthinkable. The two things had gone together since the time of Frederick the Great. A weak military had added to the people's sense of powerlessness and emptiness. A restored one renewed their sense of grandeur and purpose.

Revenge against France was a duty we all strove for. We found many of the old generals too timid and resistant to the Party's goals. So we found more pliant ones to take their place. We looked for people that yearned for a restored empire. Men who would not hesitate to take bold steps once assured from on high by the Party. We gave them arms and purpose and they gave us victory and empire.

We began with Czechoslovakia, Poland and France then swallowed most of Europe — more than Charlemagne, Louis XIV, or Napoleon had ever realized. In every conquered land, we sought out the Jews there. Then we struck into Russia and enacted the same program. The Jewish problem was everywhere and a solution was needed to resolve the matter once and for all.

Yes, rounding them up and transporting them to the camps was expensive and a considerable part of the budget, but the enormity of the problem and the nearness of the solution made it worthwhile. Besides, Jews could be used in forced labor in war-related production. Industry thrived and so did the war effort. Our visionary ministers and dutiful officials wrenched every ounce of work from them until they were no longer of any use.

Yes, it was not always a pretty sight. I admit that now. But it was an ironic justice that those who had prospered from our toil were now our unpaid laborers. I discovered that some government officials charged factories for a steady supply of Jews. Some well- placed Reichsmarks here or there would bring in a fresh truckload of laborers. It all meant sense according to their accounting books. Policing the matter was not high on our priorities, unless it led to labor shortages somewhere in our war industries.

The nation's economy was booming, our armies were on the march, and the extermination of the Jews was proceeding. As with any success, opposition soon emerges. That's simply the way of things. The SS, once Hitler's elite bodyguard, took on broader responsibilities. SS officers were carefully selected to perform their sensitive and vital work of maintaining the safety of the German people. Later the SS was charged with seeing that the Final Solution was carried through. Their numbers grew markedly and their work was done professionally.

I served proudly in the SS.

Against all predictions, Germany became an Empire again.

The Fall of an Empire, Plan O Is Initiated

The exhilaration of victory was overwhelming. It tapped into our souls and found a deeply-ingrained joy in national greatness — a joy, I would argue, not confined to us Germans. Exhilaration is wonderful but it can be blinding too. Our advances into Russia stalled and retreat followed. It took two years to realize that the reversals weren't temporary.

It was not a matter of numbers and economic output. To this day I am convinced that had we planned our war better and avoided a handful of miscalculations in Russia and elsewhere, we would be masters of Europe — if not more. We had many casualties in the Russian expanses and we had to fall back. Then the United States entered the war against us. This...