CHAPTER 3

"Blimey, Colonel, listen to this nonsense." Cpl. Newkirk pointed to the coffee pot. "Are the Gestapo really wasting their time on penny-ante stuff like this?"

Through the transmitter hidden in the coffee pot, the prisoners heard Major Hochstetter's voice. "Why did your family buy its food at a kosher grocery store?"

"The Liebman's store was just down the block from our apartment, Major," Gefreiter Karl Moeller stammered out. "It was the closest store."

"It was a Jewish owned store, with kosher food!" Hochstetter roared.

Cpl. LeBeau shook his head. "Schlausen not going to boys' club meetings, Meusel being second cousin to some church lady in Berlin. Doofenshmirtz being a Drüselsteiner. Bonhoeffer for -"

"They keep this up, they won't have time to investigate us," Col. Hogan interrupted.

"What's a Drüselsteiner?" Carter asked.

"Somebody from Drüselstein," Kinch explained. Anticipating Carter's next question, he added, "A postage stamp kingdom on the border of Germany. Hitler took it over."

"All 'Itler wants is peace." Newkirk quoted, "A little piece of Poland, a little piece of France ..."

"Greedy cochon," LeBeau declared.

"We'd better win this war, Colonel, 'cause I refuse to live under the Gestapo," Kinch announced. He knew how hard it was to be a Negro in Detroit. He knew - from visits to his cousins - how much worse it was for Negroes in the South. He didn't want to even think about what life would be like for him and his people if the Nazis won the war.

"Boy, I sure wouldn't want to live in any country the Gestapo ran," Carter agreed. "How can they treat their own people this way? Don't they know about government being of the people, by the people, for the people?"

"Unfortunately, Carter, in Germany it's government of Hitler, by Hitler, for Hitler," Hogan informed him.

SCENE BREAK

Hochstetter used language unbecoming to an officer and a gentleman as he got into his black staff car. He returned to Berlin alone. He left all of Klink's guards behind, to their relief and his disgust.

Stalag 13 got as back to normal as it ever did: Hogan and his crew bombed bridges, passed information to London, helped escaped prisoners from other POW camps get back to allied lines, etc. Klink fought the never-ending war against red tape. The guards and prisoners alike were glad of the warmer weather. Neither the prisoners' barracks nor the guards' barracks had any insulation; everyone was glad that winter was finally over. Hogan was mildly annoyed at the longer days and shorter nights, as he had less time for sneaking out of camp.

Then one Tuesday in March, things weren't quite normal.

Author's Notes: Marga Meusel was a deaconess at a Berlin church who dared to speak out against anti-Semitism. Her pastor was Martin Niemöller, who wrote the famous "First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out, because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me. "** "A little piece of Poland, a little piece of France" is from a song in the Mel Brooks remake of To Be or Not To Be. (A good movie, but the Jack Benny original is better.)