“Gentlemen, this company has operated successfully for over fifteen years. We are already in more areas of major construction that most in the United States. We are going to make it even bigger. Does anyone have any questions?”
“Eric, you have no idea…”
Eric stopped him in mid sentence. “Mister Gleeson, you may bring your doubts up with me in my office.” He turned back to the room. Most of the men had the look on their face that told him Gleeson had just stepped in it. “Any other comments?”
The men remained silent.
“Then thank you for your time. Mister Jackson will you join me along with Mister Gleeson?” Eric said as he picked up his writing pad and left the room. The men stood and filed out of the room as Eric walked into his father’s office. The two men followed him there. Gleeson looked slightly angry but Jackson had a slight smile on his face.
Eric sat in his chair behind the desk. “Mister Gleeson, you have been with our company for five years. Strangely enough, my father had me in on the company decision making since I was sixteen, so I have been here for seven years. You have done a good job helping my father out but even he sometimes got tired of having to drag you up to a new level. Today I gave out my marching orders. Once again, you tried to block things. But more to the point, you tried to treat me like some child off the street in front of the management team. Although I do not want a “yes” man around me, I cannot have someone undermining me in my own company. I will accept your resignation without prejudice. I will have your paycheck ready by the end of the day. Thank you for your service to Anderson Construction,” he said.
Gleeson was stunned. He hadn’t expected to get fired. Only then did it dawn on him what he had done. He started to say something, but slowly turned and left the office. After a minute Jackson let out a long breath and smiled at Eric.
“It took your father a long time to set some standards at the company. You did it in one hour. Not bad young Eric,” Jackson said.
Eric grinned back at him. “I didn’t overstep it by firing Gleeson? He really just pissed me off.”
“No, Gleeson needed to be brought down. A lot of the guys will be happier,” Jackson said.
“Now what will we do to replace him?”
Jackson gave him a sly smile. “We can always advertise and see about getting some fresh blood.”
“Okay, you are my personnel man. Find me a good one,” Eric said.
“Not a problem,” Jackson said. Then he paused and thought a moment. “Is there anyone in the Innsbruck or Bonn office you might want to bring up?”
A smile came on Eric’s face. “You know, that’s not a bad idea. Let me think about that. You think we are alright until we find someone?”
Jackson scoffed at the thought. “Of course we can. These guys know their stuff. And after what you just did to Gleeson, they will line up just fine,” Jackson said.
“Thanks Mister Jackson. You’ll let me know before I start stepping into a hole?”
Jackson laughed. “I have a feeling you will do fine. Just go on and let us do our jobs. Take care of the funeral and get back to that young lady your Dad told me about. We’ll take care of things and keep you in the loop.”
“That sounds like a plan. By the way, I brought that young lady home with me. She will be Mrs. Anderson before too long,” Eric said.
“That’s good. You need to have a couple of kids to take over when you get old,” chided Jackson.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” said Eric.
Spandau prison was a lump of red brick in the small town of Spandau, in the suburbs of western Berlin. It had been built in 1876 near the Renaissance-era Spandau Citadel fortress and was currently being used for just one thing — a prison for the very top Nazi war criminals. Right now there were three there. The others had either served out their sentence or were released due to ill health.
Dresner was lucky. It was an ‘American month’ with the American authorities running the prison. The months shifted between the British, French, Soviets and the Americans. Three of the powers had become slightly more lenient over the years from the strict operating codes originally decided upon by the four powers. Only the Soviets remained strict in their operations. Once they knew of the seriousness of the request, the Americans allowed Dresner to see one of the prisoners. It was to be a one time visit and could only cover the topic agreed to. The men could not even shake hands. Dresner was searched carefully and thoroughly before entering the prison.
An American sergeant escorted him to a small room, painted white, with a small table and walls lined with books. Prisoner Number 5 was escorted into the room shortly thereafter.
Albert Speer was younger than the other prisoners and had been the only one to admit his guilt and repudiate Hitler at the Nuremburg trials. He was also the most ambitious of the prisoners, and dedicated himself to a rigorous physical and mental work regime. When he entered the room his eyes were sharp and spoke of the intelligence behind them. The sergeant reminded the men of the rules which must be enforced and the two men sat down. The sergeant stood against the wall just three feet away.
Dresner started the questioning. “Herr Speer, I have come today to ask your help on some cases I am working in Austria. I thank you for any assistance you might give,” he said in English.
Speer smiled and nodded. “I am only too happy to help where I can,” he said, also in English.
“In your official duties as Reichminister, do you recall any large scale facilities our services might have built around Innsbruck?”
Speer thought a moment. “There were a number of facilities built throughout southern Germany and the strip of Austria before you get to Italy. At the end of the war, I had ordered a specialized company of men to search out what was there and shut them down. By my knowledge the group was quite successful. I don’t know of any which were left active,” he said.
Dresner smiled and nodded. “Yes, Herr Speer, I still have that order in my possession. I was the officer in charge of that unit.”
Speer’s eyes opened wide. “Ahh. You must tell me how it went.”
The guard gave a slight cough. This was off the subject. He was also disturbed that Dresner had been under Speer’s orders.
Dresner sensed this and held up his hand and turned to the guard. “Just to let you know, I was in charge of a 30 man company which was tasked by Herr Speer to find all the Nazi facilities and shut them down. I was also instructed to make sure the information from those places did not pass to the Soviets. I never met Herr Speer although the orders were signed by him. I doubt he would have known who even got the orders. I need to discuss this with him because I fear we might have missed one of those facilities and it may be being used,” he explained. The sergeant nodded and stood back, visibly relieved.
Dresner pulled out an old map, unfolded it and laid it on the table. He also invited the guard over to see as well. There were positions marked on the map with notations of what each did.
“As you can see, Herr Speer, we found each of these facilities. The ones marked in red were army facilities, blue were SS, the green were private facilities by certain leaders and the purple were other agencies. You can also see what each did.” Dresner looked at the guard again. “This map was shared with the American occupation forces when we surrendered in 1945.” He turned back to Speer. “The Americans even helped us shut a few of them down,” he said pointing to a few of the places.
Speer studied the map and nodded. “This appears very thorough indeed. I’m glad you were able to get the information to the Americans. From my memory I recall many of these places. I was in charge of most of the construction, but not all. By 1944 things in Berlin were nearly chaos. Hitler was in his bunker almost every day from the bombing raids. The city itself was a shambles. Instead of consolidating our resources and our efforts, as I recommended, it seemed everyone had his own ideas of what should be built or what project should be started. Most simply wanted something that would please Hitler. Goering wanted more planes, the Jodl wanted more tanks, Himmler was busy building all kinds of secret little operations both to cripple the enemy and to harass our own people. Even Goebbels wanted more radio transmitters and propaganda tools. I was supposed to be the man in charge of all armaments and construction. I doubt I saw even half of it. As a result, most of our resources were squandered,” he said. There was no bitterness in his voice; only resignation.