Page 4 of The Righteous

“THIS IS THEODORE Hartigan,” said the voice on the phone.

“Well, I sure hope so, because that’s who I called. This is Julia.”

“Ah, Julie, what a surprise. I mean what a pleasant surprise. I thought you would stay away from anything governmental and lie low, at least for a while.”

“True. That’s the plan. We’ll see how well it works. I called the State Department looking for you, and they told me that you had been transferred to the Treasury Department. I thought they were kidding. You said you were staying in Washington to work for Sumner Welles and Frank Lee in State.”

“I was,” Teddy said. “Sumner believed my talents were best applied working for Treasury in a division called Foreign Funds Control. It’s a long story. Anyway, it’s great to hear from you. Sara and I both miss you. How are things in Detroit?”

“Weird. I don’t think I’m as resilient as you are.

Amsterdam was rough. What they did to all those people.

It’s hard for me to put it all out of my mind.

I hear voices in my head. Last night, I dreamed I saw Walter Suskind walking twenty or so little toddlers down the sidewalk behind a Nazi guard.

When he arrived at the crèche, Sara’s sister was there to let them in. ”

“Ooh, that’s hard. Do you get those dreams very often?”

“All the time. Don’t you? It’s difficult for me to adjust to being at home.”

“Then don’t adjust. Come on back, and let’s keep fighting them together. We could use your help.”

“Well, not right now,” Julia said. “I need to step away.”

“I understand, please believe me. When we arrived from Europe, my plan was to take a few weeks off, maybe go to the shore and relax, but I couldn’t do it.

Like you, I couldn’t unwind. So, I decided not to try.

I can’t just sit back and watch those Nazi bastards kill innocent civilians, even babies, and do nothing.

It has been revealed here that Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann met in secret almost two years ago at a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee, and devised a plan for the sole purpose of murdering all of Europe’s Jews.

All, can you believe it? One hundred percent.

Eleven million innocent human beings. Judenfrei , they called it.

Why? Would it help them on the battlefield?

No. Would it help them win the war? Hell no.

Hitler has some sick hatred of people that worship God as Jews.

Like those Nazis even know what the Jewish religion is about.

Did they read the Torah? They don’t worship anything except Hitler. ”

Julia heard the rage in Teddy’s voice and understood why he remained in Washington. “We were the witnesses,” she said. “We saw what they did in Holland.”

“That’s why I decided to stay and do whatever I could until we put them all back under ground where they belong.”

“Bravo,” Julia said. “You and I share the same feelings, but I need some time. Sometimes I dream about returning to Amsterdam and saving all those little babies, but they’re not there anymore, are they?”

“Thankfully, some are,” Teddy said. “The ones that are with new homes, and you of all people know that. They’re just not in the crèche anymore. The crèche is history.”

“Sadly, so is Henriette Pimentel. It’s such a shame, but tell me, how are Sara, Katy, and Danny? I bet they’re happy to be in America.”

“They are,” Teddy answered. “The children are adjusting, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they carried a scar.

They had it rough. Sara is worried about her parents and her sister back in Utrecht.

She hasn’t heard a word since we left. I tried to contact Saul the other day on the shortwave, but I had no success. ”

“He’s a resourceful man, Teddy, and I have faith in him. He’ll get through it if anyone can. What does the Treasury Department have you doing in Washington? Are you counting cash?”

“Right. I’m looking for free samples. Actually, I’m working with a section using Treasury funds to aid refugees and civilian victims,” Teddy said.

“My group is focusing on Jewish refugees in Romania and France. The group is a real cross section of government, industry, and mainstream society, and we’re getting bigger every day. ”

“Isn’t Romania a member of the Axis powers? And isn’t France under Nazi control? Aren’t they our enemies now? How can the Treasury Department fund those areas?”

“It’s complicated,” Teddy said. “We’re not raising money to fund the country.

It’s for the victims, the refugees. I admit I don’t know that much about Romania.

It’s in southeastern Europe, in the Balkans, on the Black Sea.

From what I hear, conditions are awful there.

Their leader, Ion Antonescu, is as hateful as Hitler.

They are two of a kind. We intercepted a message earlier this year where Hitler promised Antonescu that after the war, the Germanic and Latin races would rule the world in a partnership. ”

“Horrible thought. Now it’s the world, not just Europe.”

“There are over a half million Jews in Romania, so you can appreciate the scope of our problem. Many are escaping into Hungary.”

“How does the Treasury Department provide aid to Jewish refugees in Europe?”

“We have to work around the system,” answered Teddy.

“Funds are earmarked here in Treasury to aid refugees. That wasn’t being done at the State Department.

There wasn’t any money channeled to aid refugees.

That’s why Sumner took me out of State and placed me here at Treasury.

He knows my history; he calls me a rescuer.

He knows all about what we did in Holland to help people.

Hell, he knows all about what you did, Julia, rescuing children and then sending out intelligence briefs to OSS.

He asked me about you when he transferred me here.

He wanted to know if you were coming with me.

Regretfully, I said no, but I’m sure he’d put you with our group if you changed your mind. ”

“Don’t tempt me, Teddy. You’re killing me.”

“Sorry. Sumner knows our history, and he also knows that there are those in the State Department who don’t have any desire to help refugees, especially Jews.”

“Oh, come on.”

“It’s true, and that’s why he transferred me here to work with a man named John Pehle.

He’s a Yale lawyer who came over to Treasury last summer.

He can tell you stories about certain State Department officers who are trying to suppress the news of Nazi atrocities.

Can you believe that? Suppress! They don’t want anyone to know. ”

“I can’t believe that,” Julia said. “Why would any State Department officer suppress the truth? Which officers? Who is doing that? If they doubt that the atrocities are really happening, just have them talk to me. I’ll set them straight.”

“I know you would, but I can’t reveal their names. They’re pretty high up. You can appreciate why I shouldn’t even be discussing this over the phone. I’ve already said too much. This stuff is highly confidential.”

“Can you tell me what your Foreign Funds Control group is doing now?”

“Well, not really. Again, it’s confidential.

Generally speaking, we’re funding escape routes.

Some go west from Romania into Hungary, or north into Ukraine or Russia.

There are passages to Palestine if you can get to the coast, maybe through Turkey.

It’s dangerous, and we need to hire people on the ground.

We need boats, we need trucks. Unfortunately, the bulk of the money necessary for our work is being held up in Congress by those certain people who I can’t mention on the phone. ”

“Is it the same ones who are trying to suppress information about atrocities? Is it the America First people, or the anti-immigration people, or the antisemites? One of those? The same ones who tried to block America from entering the war at all? I remember them well.”

“You got it,” said Teddy.

“So it’s hard to help the people who need it, the refugees?”

“It’s tough. There are other ways, other agencies for helping refugees.

Organizations like the JDC, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as JOINT.

It raises money through charitable donations, mostly through religious organizations.

The JDC was formed thirty years ago to help Palestinian refugees.

Now it provides money and food for refugees in wartime Europe, who are mostly Jewish. ”

“Does the JDC have offices in Europe?”

“No, it used to, but since the war started, they are not allowed to have offices in German-controlled countries.”

“What about your group, Foreign Funds Control?”

“There is a lot of positive momentum in our group too, and pretty soon, you’re going to hear a lot about us.”

“What do you mean pretty soon ?”

“Soon, that’s all I can say. John has been working on this project for weeks. Come work for us; you’ll find out everything you want to know.”

“Sounds like the Teddy I know,” Julia said.

“Let me think about it. Speaking of southeast Europe, I have a very close friend here in Detroit, Theresa Weissbach. She’s Hungarian.

Her family is very prominent in Budapest, and they sent her to study at the University of Michigan ten years ago.

When I was down there, she and I became close friends.

After graduation, like so many others, she decided to stay.

She’s even teaching at the university. I’ve met her mom and dad a couple of times and they are really nice people, but unfortunately, they’re back in Budapest. She hasn’t heard from them in a long time. ”

“Are they Jewish?”

“They are. Do you know anything about the Jewish families in Budapest?”

“I don’t know anything specifically,” Teddy said.

“I just know that there is a very large Jewish community in Hungary, getting larger every day, maybe close to nine hundred thousand. I haven’t heard any reports of mass arrests or killings in Hungary, but like I just told you, that news would be buried at the State Department.

I’m not really the one to ask. It’s possible that there are other staffers who have better information.

Even though Hungary is a member of the Axis powers and a military ally of Germany, I understood that Hungary’s leader is not a solid Nazi.

He doesn’t treat Jewish citizens like we saw in the Netherlands.

” Teddy paused. “Can you believe what we’re saying?

How callous it has all become? In modern times, in 1943, we question whether a ruler is either making plans or not making plans to murder all the Jews in his country. ”

“When we were in Amsterdam,” Julia said, “the Jewish population was one hundred seventy thousand. It was the first city in Europe where Jews were free from persecution and where they enjoyed enough religious liberty that it was referred to as the ‘Jerusalem of the North.’ We found it hard to believe that Germany could or would try to capture or kill a community that large. We were wrong. Except for those who were able to find hiding places, the Nazis succeeded in eradicating them in only a matter of months. That’s the terrifying part; they can do it in a matter of months . ”

“Think about the bigger picture, Julia; when this war started, there were eleven million Jews in Europe, and unless he’s stopped, Hitler will kill them all. It’s insane, and that’s why I’m here in Washington.”

“I’m proud of you,” Julia said. “You’re the man for the job. Soon the US Army will defeat Germany and do away with Hitler. We have to believe that.”

“I wish it were soon, but to be realistic, Germany’s defeat is pretty far off. There are no US or Allied forces on the European continent. Not even close. You were with me last March when we were following the army’s Africa Corps on our shortwave.”

Julia grimaced. “I remember. They were defeated by Rommel at the Kasserine Pass.”

“True, but they did regroup under General Patton and defeated the Germans in Tunisia. Now they are landing on the island of Sicily. That’s progress. Italy is next. Sadly, that’s a long way from landing in Germany or protecting your friend’s family in Hungary.”

“Do you think you could ask around? Their name is Weissbach. He’s a doctor in a big hospital in Budapest.”

“Happy to do it. Let me talk to someone who knows about Budapest and I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, there is a chair right next to mine, and it has your name on it. Isn’t that a coincidence? No one can fill it like you can.”

“I appreciate your kind thoughts, but I don’t think I’m up to it right now. Maybe in a little while.”