Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Hogan's Heroes, but I do the complete DVD series and enjoy watching them daily. The character of Captain Hermann Diels is mine.
A/N: This story is darker than the usual stories I have done. But I wanted to try something different. I also want to thank Jennaya for posting my stories for me until I'm able to get a new computer.
Addiction
Chapter 1---Taken Away
Captain Hermann Diels of the Gestapo slammed his fist down on Colonel Wilhelm Klink's desk so hard, the Kommandant nearly jumped out of his skin.
"I'm ordering you for the last time, Klink, to have Colonel Hogan brought to me at once! You've seen the written orders signed by Major Hochstetter authorizing you to turn the prisoner over to me. You will comply, or I'll take you in his place. The decision is yours."
Klink seemed to shrivel before the Captain's cold stare.
"But…but…Captain, if you could just tell me what Colonel Hogan is suppose to have done…"
Diels brought his face very close to Klink's, his dark eyes bore into the Colonel's very soul.
"What he is suppose to have done is none of your concern, Klink. Now, for the last time, I want this prisoner and I want him now!"
Klink swallowed hard. "Yes, sir," he said nervously. "I'll see that Colonel Hogan is brought to you immediately. Schuuuuultz!"
The office door opened, and the rotund figure of Sergeant Hans Schultz entered. Coming to attention, he saluted his Kommandant.
"Herr Kommandant, Sergeant Schultz reporting as ordered."
Klink returned the salute. "Schultz, I want you to go to barracks two and bring Colonel Hogan to my office at once."
"Jawohl, Herr Kommandant." Schultz saluted, spun around, and exited the office. As he was leaving, the guard glanced at the Gestapo Captain and immediately suspected he was going to cause trouble for Colonel Hogan.
"What do you suppose this Captain Diels wants with you, mon Colonel?" asked a worried LeBeau.
Hogan glanced at the four men gathered in his quarters. A frown appeared on his face as he wrapped his arms around himself after having heard the conversation over the coffeepot speaker.
"I haven't the slightest idea, LeBeau, " Hogan remarked. "I've never even heard of him before. Must be a new man."
Just then there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," Hogan called out.
The door opened and Schultz ambled inside. There was a look of sadness on his face.
"What is it, Schultz?" Hogan asked innocently. "Klink need my help to find his monocle?"
"Colonel Hogan, I wish it was that simple. I really hate to tell you this. But Kommandant Klink wants me to bring you to his office right away. And not only does Kommandant Klink want to see you, so does a Captain Diels of the Gestapo. He has a paper signed by Major Hochstetter ordering the Kommandant to turn you over to the Gestapo."
Hogan's eyes narrowed. "What for, Schultz? I haven't done anything."
"I know noth-ing. Noth-ing!" Schultz stressed out each word.
"C'mon, Schultzie," Newkirk playfully poked the fat guard in the stomach. "You must know something?"
"I do not know, nor did I ask," Schultz replied.
With a sigh, Hogan grabbed his crush cap off the table and, placing it on his head, pushed it back. He glanced at Schultz.
"Schultz, wait outside for a moment. I'll be right out." Hogan started pushing the guard towards the open door.
"Colonel Hogan, what are you doing? My orders are to bring you with me."
"And I'll be right with you. Just wait outside. I need to speak with my men for a moment."
"You are up to some monkey business, Colonel Hogan," Schultz said accusingly.
Hogan sighed. "You want to know what we're up to, Schultz? I'll tell you. Y'see, it's like this…"
"Never mind. I wait for you outside," Schultz answered, stepping outside and closing the door.
Hogan turned his attention to the four men standing in front of him. The men who not only made up his team, but who were his close friends. He suddenly had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that he might not see them again.
"I'll have to make this quick or Schultz will get suspicious," Hogan explained seriously. "Listen in on the coffee pot. If it appears we've been exposed, I'll buy you as much time as I can. Contact London, evacuate the entire camp, and get everybody out. And that's an order. Understand?"
"Colonel, don't ask us to leave you behind," said Kinch.
Hogan held up a hand requesting silence. "I don't want anybody risking their lives to save mine. If I can get out somehow, I'll see all of you in London. If it ends here, it's been both an honor and a pleasure serving with you." Hogan took a deep breath as his eyes misted over. Turning, he reached for the doorknob. Pausing, he took a final look over his shoulder at his men. "Goodbye," he added before opening the door and leaving.
"Kinch, we must do something!" LeBeau insisted.
"You heard the Colonel," the radioman said. "He ordered nobody to risk their life to save his."
"Dammit, Kinch!" Newkirk angrily replied. "Orders or not, we can't leave the Gov'nor in the hands of the bloody Gestapo! You know as well as the rest of us what they'll do to him before they kill him!"
"I know, I know," said Kinch. "I'll hopefully come up with something. But we may have to face the fact that if we can't save the Colonel, then we must make sure he won't suffer."
"You mean if we can't rescue Colonel Hogan, we'll have to take his life?" asked Carter who, up until now, had been quiet.
"Afraid so," Kinch explained sadly. "You wouldn't want the Colonel to suffer in the hands of the Gestapo, would you?" He saw Carter's face. "I didn't think so. Look, I don't like it either. But it'll be the only option open to us if we can't save him."
As the others talked, Carter suddenly motioned for them to be quiet. "Hey, listen," he said.
"Colonel Hogan, this is Captain Diels of the Gestapo," Klink announced once the Senior POW officer had walked in. "He has orders signed by Major Hochstetter authorizing me to turn you over to the Gestapo." Klink looked at Hogan almost apologetically. "I'm sorry, Hogan," he added.
Diels looked Hogan up and down with disdain. The American Colonel eyed the Captain warily.
The Gestapo Captain then motioned to the two Gestapo guards who stepped forward and stood behind Hogan who watched them out of the corner of his eye.
"Captain, can I help you with something?" Hogan asked innocently, hoping to hide the nervousness he felt.
Diels ignored Hogan's question. "Take him," he ordered.
Hogan suddenly found himself slammed face-forward on Klink's desk, his arms roughly seized and jerked behind him. He felt handcuffs tightly fastened around his wrists. He was then yanked upright and turned around to face Diels.
"Just what is it I'm accused of doing this time?" Hogan asked. "You seem to have me at a bit of a disadvantage."
Diels glanced at Hogan, but addressed one of the guards. "Gag him," he ordered with a smirk.
Klink watched in stunned disbelief as one of the guards, removing a handkerchief from his pocket, twisted it, and tied it around Hogan's mouth causing the American to wince because it was tied so tightly.
"Captain…" Klink began nervously. "Is it really necessary to gag Colonel Hogan?"
The Gestapo officer again glared at Klink as if annoyed at being asked a question by someone he considered an incompetent fool.
"I say it's necessary, Klink. And that's the only reason you need. And now, Colonel, we shall take our leave of you." Nodding to the two guards, they roughly shoved Hogan out of the office door with Diels following behind them. For some reason, Klink found himself trailing Diels.
Agitated, Klink said nothing until he stood with Diels on the porch of the Kommandantur. Both men watched as one guard opened the back passenger side door and roughly pushed Hogan inside and climbed in beside him, closing the door. The other guard walked around the back of the car and climbed in the other side. Hogan was now seated between the two guards.
A look around the compound revealed to Klink that the prisoners were all watching intently the mishandling of their commanding officer. Klink could sense their anger.
"Captain Diels," Klink said following the Gestapo officer down the steps. "Colonel Hogan is my Senior POW officer. The men in the camp all look up to and respect him. When will I get him back?"
Opening the front passenger door, Diels glanced back at the Kommandant. He shrugged his shoulders. "You may or may not get him back. I can't say for sure. Nor can I say in what condition." That said, he got inside and closed the door.
Klink shivered at hearing those words, still wondering what Hogan was accused of this time. After watching the car drive away and out the front gates, Klink then took another look around the compound. He saw over a thousand pairs of eyes, accusatory eyes, staring at him. Eyes full of anger and loathing. Klink quickly turned and hurried back up the stairs and inside the safety of the Kommandantur. He had thought of a way he might be able to help Hogan. Reaching his office, he sat down behind his desk and grabbed his telephone.
"Fraulein Hilda, get me General Burkhalter in Berlin. Priority call."
"Now what do we do?" asked an anxious Carter, unplugging the coffeepot.
"We'll contact the underground both in Hammelburg and in Berlin and have them keep an eye out for this Captain Diels and the Colonel. Other than that, all we can do is wait," Kinch told him. And hope that waiting doesn't end up costing the Colonel his life, Kinch thought grimly.
As the five people in the car drove in silence, Hogan kept looking out the closed windows, trying to commit to memory anything and everything which might help him should he be able to escape. Seated between two guards didn't make it easy to see out the windows, but Hogan was determined to gather as much information as possible.
Diels watched Hogan in the mirror with an amused look from where he sat. He knew exactly what the American was doing and it didn't bother him in the least, because in the end, if this new technique worked and Hogan survived it, all that would matter would be the results.
The Gestapo Captain allowed himself to daydream. He was the son of Rudolf Diels (1), who had been in charge of the Gestapo from 1933 to 1934 and later became Chief of the Regional Government. Having been a protégé of Hermann Goring's, Goring appointed Rudolf Diels Chief of the new Prussian State Police Dept 1A, which was concerned with political crimes in April 1933. Dept. 1A was soon renamed the Gestapo. In fact, the elder Diels thought so highly of Goring that he named his first-born son Hermann after him.
The young Hermann Diels had wanted to be a member of the Gestapo since he learned what his father did. When he was old enough to join the Nazi Party he did and was recruited by the Gestapo immediately in mid 1933. He rose quickly through the ranks and was soon promoted to Captain in early 1934. His father was so proud. Then the Gestapo section 8 department began working on a new interrogation technique that the young Diels heard and was excited about. It showed great promise. He managed to get himself assigned to Major Wolfgang Hochstetter as an aide simply because he had heard that Hochstetter had been after the elusive Papa Bear for two or three years and Diels saw potential for advancement. He read everything Hochstetter had on Papa Bear and came to the same conclusion as Hochstetter; that Colonel Hogan, more than likely was Papa Bear. But there was no direct link between them.
Then luck shined down on Captain Diels one day. He was involved in the arrest of several prisoners including a member of the underground. The Gestapo allowed him to interrogate each of the prisoners using the new technique. Unfortunately, all of the prisoners died; some in agony. None of them gave any useful information except for the underground member. Before he died he disclosed that Colonel Hogan was indeed Papa Bear. Diels was overjoyed. But instead of sharing this revelation with anybody, he kept it to himself and only told Hochstetter and his superiors that no useful information had been revealed despite the new technique.
But with the apparent success of this new technique on the underground operative, Diels made the decision on his own that the time was right to try the technique on Colonel Hogan. The fact that nobody survived its use didn't matter. Diels figured if it worked on Hogan and he somehow survived, he, Captain Hermann Diels, would be forever known as the man who not only brought down Papa Bear and his organization, but the entire underground as well as who knew who else. It would probably result in a promotion and all the glory that accompanied it. He would succeed where Hochstetter had failed.
The possibilities that would be available to the Gestapo if Hogan survived would be endless. Turning around in the front seat, he studied Hogan's face for signs of fear. He saw none; but there would be later.
"Enjoy the ride, Colonel Hogan," Diels said innocently. "Because when we reach our destination, you will not only belong to me, but by the time I am finished with you, you will see me as your best and only friend."
Hogan stared at the Gestapo officer. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that statement, but suspected he wasn't going to like it.
The car slowed when it came to a fork in the road; the right leading to Gestapo headquarters in Hammelburg, the other Hogan had no idea. The driver, to Hogan's surprise, suddenly veered to the left and continued on. Hogan now knew wherever he was being taken, it was not to Gestapo headquarters in Hammelburg. He continued looking at Diels who seemed amused at his prisoner's confusion.
"By now, Colonel, I'm certain you're aware we are not headed to Gestapo headquarters. You see, these orders signed by Major Hochstetter are phony. But it was the only way I could think of to remove you from Stalag 13 without arousing suspicion or with that stupid Kommandant of yours checking. We are going to a place not even my superiors know about. We can get better acquainted there without being disturbed."
Hogan hoped the fear he felt wasn't visible to Diels. He also wondered why the Gestapo officer would reveal this information to him so willingly without apparent concern the Colonel would use it somehow. Then Hogan realized why. Diels wasn't concerned about him using the information because he already knew with what he had planned, Hogan wouldn't be able to use what he had told him. And Hogan also knew something else. He knew that whatever he was facing, he would be facing it totally alone.
(1) Rudolf Diels was dismissed April 1, 1934 when control of the Gestapo was given to Heinrich Himmler. Information is courtesy of Wikipedia.