Synopsis

In Chapter 1 (KTB #148) ERICH begins his career as a spy, and he lets us know of his love of beautiful women. In Chapter 2 (KTB #149), he was transferred home to Germany and his shipboard romance with Karen ended. In Chapter 3 (KTB #151) he began his training as a spy – and he learned that a spy who falls in love with an enemy spy – gets shot!

In Chapter 4 (KTB #152) we read where ERICH himself falls for a woman who turned out to be a German spy herself and her job was to lure German spies in training to betray themselves – and ERICH is nearly washed out of spy training. In Chapter 5 (KTB #153) we learned that ERICH was to be in charge of Operation PELIKAN, the plan to blow up the Panama Canal with two Ju 87 STUKA dive bombers brought over on two U-boats. At the last moment, it was thought by the German agency, that someone had tipped off the Americans to this plot, so the plan was scrapped. In Chapter 6 (KTB #154 and KTB #155) we read how ERICH and the Abwehr tried to find him a partner for his mission into the USA with the intended purpose of sabotaging the Manhattan Project – the atomic bomb project in the United States. In Chapter 7 (KTB #156) we read about the Atlantic crossing to the USA where ERICH and Billy were to be put ashore to assault the ‘Manhattan Project’. In Chapter 8 (KTB #157), the two agents landed on the coast of Maine, ready to begin their sabotage of the atomic bomb project. In Chapter 9 (KTB #158) ERICH gets the shock of learning that Billy has taken all the money and the diamonds, and deserted not only the mission, but ERICH as well.

In the first part of Chapter 10 (KTB #159) ERICH is trying desperately to find Billy – and get his $60,000 and diamonds back. In the balance of Chapter 10, we see how ERICH outwitted Billy and got his suitcases, filled with money and spy equipment back – at Billy’s expense but in the meantime to nobody’s surprise, ERICH has found another woman. In chapter 11, ERICH is doing well with this new woman, an old contact is going to tell him about the Manhattan Project - but his time is running out and Billy is about to betray him to the F.B.I.

In Chapter 12, ERICH was happily spending Christmas with Joan, but his tour of duty as a spy – and his life, were almost over. He was arrested by the F.B.I. and headed for the gallows. In Chapter 13, he's grilled by the F.B.I. In Chapter 14, he faces the probability of the hangman. In Chapter 15, he's sentenced to death.

Chapter 16 (II): Sized Up by the Hangman

And then Joan – tall, slim, graceful.

“It’s odd,” she said. “I’ve a feeling that we’ve known each other for such a long time…..I always seem to know in advance what you’re going to say and what you’re thinking. Men like you always say what they think and they think straight.”

She put her arms round me and I looked into her eyes. Time stood still. Dare I kiss her? Dare I love her? Dare I bind her for life to the curse that clung to my life as a spy? Heart and head were at a variance. We laughed, we whispered, we kissed. Then in a few hours it was all over and I had to leave her.

Was an hour then the same length as a hour now? Now, as I waited for the sergeant with the sharp little face who was expertly to tie the thirteen knots about my neck? I threw myself onto my cell bed only to jerk myself up again in the same moment.

Once again I was bathed in sweat, once more there was the dryness in my mouth, my tongue like a piece of leather. “No, don’t think about it! Keep away from it!” I told myself. “Think of something else! Think of the good things of life! Keep off this thrice-damned war! Keep off your own accursed end! Best of all, make your mind a blank!”

And then I saw the motto of the Reich Security in front of me and heard one of my chiefs say: “Leave thinking to horses – they’ve got bigger heads.”

It was now ten o’clock and Johnny was relieved. He’d be back again at twelve. His colleague immediately offered me a cigarette. It was odd how at Fort Jay all the regulations were punctiliously observed except that concerning smoking. All the prison officers made an exception of smoking.

A G.I. from the kitchen brought me a mid-morning snack, coffee, rolls, butter and marmalade. “Now eat up today,” he said, putting the food on the small cell table. “You can’t go on like this, you know. You left half your food yesterday. Take a cue from the others, they eat like horses.”

“I don’t want anything.”

“You’re only making matters worse,” he said. “Keep your stomach full and the world takes on a different look.” He grinned. “You need a good square meal.”

“Oh, shut up!” I said.

We weren’t refined at Fort Jay, but we understood each other.

“The chef wants to know what you’d like to eat tomorrow,” continued the soldier from the kitchen. “He says he knows how to do a goose in the European way with chestnut puree. He’ll roast one for you, if you like.”

“No, thank you,” I said. “It doesn’t appeal to me at all. All I want is to be left in peace. Now shut the door from the outside, will you?”

“Right you are,” he replied, and went on: “I don’t know, the others always seem to be in better spirits when I visit them.”

“Well, the others aren’t going to be hanged the day after tomorrow.”

“True enough,” he agreed, and finally took off.

For a quarter of an hour everything was quiet. I lay on the bed and tried to sleep, but of course it was hopeless. There was still today. And tomorrow. And the next day. Then, I told myself for the one hundredth time, it would be all over. They would come for me at five o’clock in the morning and offer me a last cigarette.

The death sentence would once more be read out to me. It was short enough and it would not take long. Then they would put me in black jacket with a hood, and I would have to put the hood on my head. Then they would take me to the place of execution. It was a little outside Fort Jay. As a rule, no one was executed in Fort Jay. Fort Jay was military territory, and the military was not the competent body for executions, not at any rate in the ordinary course of events. Prisoners under sentence of death were sent to Sing Sing in New York State and there put in the electric chair.

But I had been expressly sentenced to death by hanging and Sing Sing was not a place for that. Therefore the matter of execution had been left within the province of Fort Jay. That was why there had been all the excitement, the constant visits, the care for me personally. It was only the attraction of something novel – my execution was something out of the ordinary for Fort Jay.

Until now, I had never thought much of death. Who does think of death when he’s young and healthy? To me, dying had always been something that lay a long time off. When I was seventy or eighty perhaps, or even later. When you’re old and tired, when you’ve lost all interest in food, when your eyesight’s failing and your hands are shaking, then you might perhaps give a thought to the eternal sleep, and in the circumstances the thought may not be unpleasant. Then one day you close your eyes for good and people say: “Well, well – poor old Erich. He lived to a good old age; it was time for him to pop off.”

But I wasn’t old, damn it I didn’t want to die. Damn it again, I wanted to live, to live like everyone else who was young and healthy. I looked in the mirror. I was certainly paler and thinner than I had been but apart from that, I looked just about the same. And yet I was to be in the land of the living for only a few more days – a few more days, another ninety-four hours and a few minutes and then a notice would be posted at the gate of Fort Jay:

“For espionage, sabotage and conspiracy against the United States of North America, the German citizen Erich Gimpel, alias Edward Green, was hanged by the rope this morning at 5:13. According to the results of the medical examination, death occurred seventy seconds after execution. Gimpel was found guilty by court martial. The Supreme Court of the United States confirmed the death sentence. A petition from the German spy for mercy was refused by the President.”

It was now twelve o’clock and Johnny came back. “Here I am again,” he called.

“So I see.” I replied.

This time I was glad he was back on duty again. His chatter was preferable to my own thoughts. But I could not stop my thoughts from straying constantly to the grim scene in the half-light of dawn. I could not help thinking of the unthinkable. Years before, I had seen a film about Mata Hari. It was a piece of sentimental trash with a tragic end. Practically everyone in the cinema was in tears. I think Margarete was with me and she too had tears in her eyes. The woman spy wore a dark dress and had a face well suited to the tragedy of execution. She wore a silver cross round her neck and this she kissed and presented to her wardress. The wardress wept. A soldier in a steel helmet entered, his face twitching. He was a young French lieutenant.

“My duty, Madam,” he said.

Any who had so far restrained themselves now finally gave way to tears, but I laughed even louder. The lieutenant’s voice was hoarse.

“I can’t think why she’s being executed if she’s so noble,” I said to my companion. A woman behind me angrily told me to be quiet. Mata Hari was led down a seemingly endless corridor. One saw her face from the front, the back, the side. Above all, one saw her face. From every angle it looked equally beautiful and noble and sad and lost.

Then at last the corridor came to an end and she stepped out into the open air. There was a dense mist. Suddenly a group of soldiers appeared. They were all wearing a funeral expression for the occasion. Then the salvo was heard and Mata Hari died slowly and photogenically. How would I die? Would I call out? Would I try to tear myself free? Would I scream for help? What’s left of the photogenic, heroic approach to death when the hangman is close upon one’s heels?

Spy for Germany

Chapter 7: To America by Submarine (KTB # 156)
Chapter 8: The Landing in America (KTB # 157)
Chapter 9: Tricked by Billy in NYC (KTB # 158)
Chapter 10 (I): I Work Out My Own Situation (KTB # 159)
Chapter 10 (II): I Work Out My Own Situation (KTB # 160)
Chapter 11 (I): Billy Betrays Me to the F.B.I. (KTB # 161)
Chapter 11 (II): Billy Betrays Me to the F.B.I. (KTB # 162)
Chapter 12 (I): Love -- and then Arrest! (KTB # 163)
Chapter 12 (II): Love -- and then Arrest! (KTB # 164)
Chapter 13 (I): Grilled by the FBI (KTB # 165)
Chapter 13 (II): Grilled by the FBI (KTB # 166)
Chapter 13 (III): Grilled by the FBI (KTB # 167)
Chapter 14 (I): In the Shadow of the Hangman (KTB # 168)
Chapter 14 (II): In the Shadow of the Hangman (KTB # 169)
Chapter 15 (I): Sentenced to Death (KTB # 170)
Chapter 15 (II): Sentenced to Death (KTB # 172)
Chapter 15 (III): Sentenced to Death (KTB # 173)
Chapter 16 (I): Sized Up by the Hangman (KTB # 174)
Chapter 16 (II): Sized Up by the Hangman (KTB # 175)
Chapter 16 (III): Sized Up by the Hangman (KTB # 176)