Von Heurten-Mitnitz informed Murphy then that he was convinced Germany was in the hands of a madman and that the only salvation he saw for Germany was its quick defeat by the Western Powers. He was therefore prepared, he said, to do whatever was necessary to see that Germany lost the war as quickly as possible.
The German diplomat went on to tell Murphy that Obersturmbannfuhrer Muller, for his own reasons, had come to the same conclusion and was similarly offe ring his services, Through his own aofficial” sources, Muller had come into knowledge of the atrocities committed by the SS’Special Squads” on the Eastern Front and of the extermination camps operated at several locations by the SS. Muller was a professional policeman, and he was shocked by what the SS was doing (it was not only inhuman, it was unprofessional).
Also, Muller understood that his one great ambition in life–to retire to the Hessian farm where he had been born–would not be possible if he were tried as a war criminal and hanged.
This being not only the real world, but also the real world at war, Helmut von Heurten-Mitnitz’s noble offer could not be accepted at face value. His intentions had to be tested. He was offered a choice, He could do a job for the Americans, at genuine risk to himself, or he could choose to satisfy other needs.
Enter the pawns, There were in French Morocco a number of French officers, Army, Service de l’aire, and Navy, who did not regard it as their duty to obey the terms of the Franco-German Armistice. Rather, they saw it as their duty as off ficers to continue the fight against Germany. These officers had provided considerable information and other assistance to curious Americans. And they were fully aware that what they were doing was considered treason.
Helmut von Heurten-Mitnitz’s controller told him that he would be expected to round up twenty “treasonous” French officers whom the Americans wished to protect from French forces loyal to Vichy, and from the Germans themselves, and take them to the palace of the Pasha of Ksar es Souk, where they would be turned over to an American officer.
The American off ficer was to be parachuted into Morocco shortly before the invasion began. As soon as possible after the ships of the American force appeared off the Moroccan coast, he would contact Helmut von Heurten-Mitnitz to furnish the names of the twenty officers.
Finally, Helmut von Heurten-Mitnitz was informed that the American officer’s name was Second Lieutenant Eric Fulmar. Von Heurten-Mitnitz would not fail to take note of this. A U. S. Army second lieutenant, even one assigned to the Office of Strategic Services, was small potatoes. But Second Lieutenant Fulmar, Infantry, United States Army, held dual citizenship. His. father, the Baron von Fulmar, was not only highly placed in the Nazi Party, but was General Director of Fulmar Elektrische G. m. b. H. For months Eric Fulmar had been a thorn in the side of his father and of many highly placed Party officials. When the war began, Eric had been a student of electrical engineering at the University of Marburg an der Lahn. But he had not remained in Germany to accept his duty to don a uniform to fight for the Fatherland. Young Fulmar’s departure was of course seen as a mighty thumbing of his nose at the Thousand-Year Reich. In other words, he was a messy embarrassment to his father and the Party.
Worse yet, he had not dignified his desertion by going to the United States. That could have been more or less explained. But he had gone to Morocco, of all places, as the guest of his classmate, Sidi Hassan el Ferruch, Pasha of Ksar es Souk.
Once there, he promptly made matters even worse by entering into the profitable business of smuggling gold, currency, and precious gems out of France through Morocco. His American passport and a diplomatic passport issued to him by the Pasha of Ksar es Souk saved him from arrest and prosecution.
When Helmut von Heurten-Mitnitz was named to the Franco-German Armistice Commission, one of his missions had been to see that young Fulmar was returned to Germany. His best efforts (really those of Obersturmbannfuhrer Muller) had been to no avail. And when the Americans entered the war–when he could have been arrested without offending American neutrality–Eric von Fulmar had simply disappeared.