The Yellow Hibiscus Chapter 7

I raced for the door, but these words stopped me.

"Ignorance forces many of us to repeat history," he warned.

The pain of knowing nothing of my parents' past swirled around in my head, making me dizzy.

He continued as fear immobilized me.

"Your father was one of the many SS men who served as core leaders. He helped send thousands of Jews to their death. Your grandfather got word that the Allies were advancing. So, they destroyed as much evidence as they could. Your father, mother, and SS Joseph Muller fled to Rio using fake passports.

Muller oversaw the records at Treblinka. He was in love with your mother, and they were to be married. He is the soldier in the picture with his hand around her waist. And your mother was your father's sister."

I turned and dragged myself back in, sitting down facing him. My head drooped in penitence as a sheep before its shearer. He had something. I had nothing, not an iota of family history, to contradict anything he had said.

"Franz Stangl," he continued. "Is your grandfather. He commanded the Treblinka death camp and is the oldest soldier in the picture. Your father has been hiding here for over sixty years, according to the Justice Department Office of Special Investigations, or the OSI as we called it."

"The Justice Department knows about this?" I asked, shocked.

"Yes."

"How can that be?" I was enraged. "With all the media coverage, the extensive work the Anti-Defamation League and the FBI does, how is it possible?"

"Easy. By lying to the Red Cross about their past and using Jewish names. Since most records were unavailable, the Red Cross unwittingly aided in their escape by issuing passports in Jewish names. Others got help from Escape Organizations through 'Rat Mines,' an underground escape route," he explained. "Regrettably, some of them escaped the hand of justice by making deals with CIA agents, both in the US and Britain," he whirled in anger.

"Others received help from even the church and their families. We have no fingerprint records from WWII and not many photographs. That makes our chances of capturing any SS officer next to impossible. We sometimes have to rely on ship logs and immigration entries, which aren't always accurate."

"Are you saying that Nazis lived here under the protection of our Government?"

"Of course," he replied in disgust. "The USA and Britain aren't the only countries," he added angrily.

"Are my parents one of them?"

"I don't know yet; a lot of information is in the process of declassification," he disclosed. "But they lied to the Red Cross."

"The declassified information tells you that they aren't only brother and sister; they are criminals too?"

"Only your father. Women weren't allowed to be members of the Nazi party. However, she aided and abetted a fugitive. Mr. & Mrs. Simon Shade are the fake names they used when entering the US. There were a lot of Jews in Rio. When the war ended, Jews from worldwide were searching for their families.

My theory is that your father and SS Muller had the Jew's loot when en route to Rio. He ripped off Muller. We don't know what happened along the way, but somehow Muller got separated from your father. We have unconfirmed reports that Rio's 'Third Reich' is clandestinely regrouping.

They need money. I also believe that SS Muller may have died recently. We aren't sure since we have no corroborating evidence. I am sure he has been searching for your father. Now his heirs may have found him or the descendant of any Holocaust survivor who experienced Treblinka. All my information points to Muller as our prime target."

He continued passionately, "I think that someone connected to SS Joseph Muller found your father, and if they don't find what they are looking for, they will come after you! Many SS soldiers escaped prosecution; most of them captured and prosecuted were lower-ranking Nazis. The Nuremberg Trials in 1946 took care of them.

The remaining soldiers provided the Allies with information on what Stangl and Muller did with the Jew's bounty. Even though they were ordered to ship all of the Jew's belongings to a Germany, they pillaged for themselves."

"Oh God, this can't be true! Lies, they are all lies! Please!" I begged. "Please stop these lies!"

He stopped talking and gave me some papers with the Justice Department's seal. They were official declassified documents from the Office of Special Investigation (OSI) of the United States Justice Department. After reading them, I handed them back to him, wiping away my tears.

"But how can this be? She gave birth to me. She nurtured me. They loved me; they always said so," I sobbed uncontrollably.

"Yeah, now it is our mission and duty to find out who killed them and why."

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.