He checked his parachute once again, and upon command from a member of the crew, jumped into the darkness of the night and looked skyward to see the plane fly off into the distance.
The following day, a farmer drove him into Berlin. Jerry told him that his motorbike had had a blowout and lay crumpled in a ditch. A large bruise on the elbow of his right arm and a cut on his forehead that he received when he landed on rocky ground the night before seemed to authenticate his story in the man's mind.
The following night, Jerry entered a bar and saw an officer of the SS sitting alone. There was no way he could even remotely inquire about aircraft assembly plants, without arousing suspicion. He planned merely to make a friend and try to gauge the man's loyalties to the State. He had hoped that he would find someone who believed that the Nazi cause was unjust.
In German he asked,
"Do you mind if I sit here?" The man didn't say a word but pushed a chair out with his foot so that Jerry could sit down opposite him. The German was friendly, but even if he had been sympathetic to the Allied cause, there was little chance he would have let it be known. In the course of conversation he found that a week earlier, a soldier whose tongue had been loosened by a few beers, spoke too loudly. He casually said that he considered something that the Third Reich had done had been detrimental to Germany.
About an hour later, the SS showed up and took him away for questioning. At 11:00 a.m. the next day, he was taken to the Main Square and shot in public. His bullet-riddled body was left tied to a post for two days as a warning to others not to resist the State. They wanted it to be known that if they didn't hesitate to shoot one of their own, they would gladly deal with others who refused to come into line with their wishes.
After hearing that, Jerry decided that the only place he would find someone who would give him the information he needed was in one of Berlin's ghettos.
As he stood at the checkpoint of the largest of the ghettos, an officer looked closely at his papers and asked,
"Why are you wanting to enter here?"
Jerry answered with an air of authority,
"We understand that a number of Norwegian children are being hidden by the Jews. I have come to make a few inquiries. I find that a little money here and there can loosen the tightest tongue, especially when the belly is hungry."
The officer smiled, obviously impressed that the orders came directly from Bormann himself, and said,
"To make sure you are not put in danger, I will provide you with an escort of two soldiers and my personal vehicle."
As the automobile was driven through the ghetto, Jerry looked in horror at starving women whose husbands had either been imprisoned in the nearby Concentration Camps or shot. They were lying with their children on the sidewalks. Their emaciated faces and pleading and empty eyes slowly followed his car.
After driving around for about ten minutes, he told the driver to stop the vehicle, charged both soldiers to stay in the car, and walked over to a woman who lay on the cold sidewalk.
To be continued...
