whenever an unemployed lawyer should stretch out his hangman’s hands again to grasp the white body of Koch. I know this because Koch circulated this letter widely. But I didn’t let him go. Koch was transferred here, to command the KL, and I followed him. I discovered a network of corruption that covered all the camps. Finally, last summer, Koch was suspended. But he had also had most of the witnesses assassinated, including a Hauptscharführer in Buchenwald, one of his accomplices. Here, he had all the Jewish witnesses killed; we opened an investigation into that too, but then all the Jews in the KL were executed; when we tried to react, they pleaded superior orders to us.”—“But such orders exist, you must know that.”—“I learned it then. And it’s clear that in that case we have no jurisdiction. But, still, there is a distinction: if a member of the SS has a Jew killed in the context of superior orders, that’s one thing; but if he has a Jew killed to cover his embezzlements, or for his own perverted pleasure, as also happens, that’s another thing, that’s a crime. Even if the Jew is to die anyway.”—“I entirely agree with you. But the distinction must be hard to make.”—“Legally, yes: you can have doubts, but to charge someone, you need evidence, and as I’ve told you, these men help each other out, they make witnesses disappear. Sometimes, of course, there’s no ambiguity: for instance, I’m also investigating Koch’s wife, a sexual deviant who had tattooed prisoners killed in order to remove their skin; she used the tanned skins for lampshades or other things like that. Once all the evidence is gathered, she’ll be arrested, and I don’t doubt she’ll be condemned to death.”—“And how did your investigations into Koch end?”—“They’re still under way; when I’ve finished my work here and have all the evidence in hand, I plan on arresting him again. He too deserves the death penalty.”—“So he was let go? I’m not following you very well.”—“He was acquitted in February. But I wasn’t in charge of the case anymore. I had problems with another man, not a camp officer but a Waffen-SS officer, a certain Dirlewanger. A raving lunatic, at the head of a unit of reprieved criminals and poachers. In 1941, I received information that he was conducting so-called scientific experiments, here in the GG, with his friends: he was killing girls with strychnine and watching them die while he smoked cigarettes. But when I wanted to prosecute him, he and his unit were transferred to Byelorussia. I can tell you that he benefits from protection at a very high level of the SS. Finally I was demoted, relieved of my functions, reduced to the rank of SS-Sturmmann, and sent to a field battalion, then to the SS-‘Wiking,’ in Russia. It was during that time that the proceedings against Koch collapsed. But in May the Reichsführer had me recalled, appointed me Sturmbannführer of the Reserve, and assigned me to the Kripo. After another complaint from the authorities in the district of Lublin, about thefts of property belonging to prisoners, he ordered me to form this commission.” I nodded admiringly: “You’re not afraid of trouble.” Morgen laughed dryly: “Not really. Already, before the war, when I was a judge in the Landgericht in Stettin, I was demoted because I disagreed with a ruling. That’s how I ended up in the SS-Gericht.”—“Can I ask you where you studied?”—“Oh, I moved around a lot. I studied in Frankfurt, Berlin, and Kiel, then also in Rome and in The Hague.”—“Kiel! At the Institute for World Economics? I did some of my studies there too. With Professor Jessen.”—“I know him well. I studied international law with Professor Ritterbusch.” We chatted for a while, exchanging memories of Kiel; Morgen, I discovered, spoke very good French, and four other languages besides. I returned to the initial subject: “Why did you begin with Lublin?”—“First of all to corner Koch. I’m almost there. And also the complaint about theft in the district gave me a good pretext. But all kinds of bizarre things go on here. Before I came, I received a report from the KdS on a Jewish wedding in a work camp. There were more than a thousand guests.”—“I don’t understand.”—“A Jew, an important kapo, got married in this Judenlager. There were astronomical quantities of food and alcohol. SS guards took part. Clearly, there must have been criminal infractions there.”—“Where did that take place?”—“I don’t know. When I arrived in Lublin, I asked Müller; he was very vague. He sent me to the camp of the DAW, but there they didn’t know anything. Then they advised me to go see Wirth, a Kriminalkommissar, you know who he is? And Wirth told me it was true, and that it was his method for the extermination of the Jews: he gave privileges to some, who helped him kill the others; then he killed them too. I wanted to learn more, but the Gruppenführer forbade me from going into the camps of the Einsatz, and the Reichsführer confirmed this prohibition.”—“So you have no jurisdiction over the Einsatz?”—“Not on the question of extermination, no. But no one forbade me from looking into what’s happening with the confiscated property. The Einsatz is generating colossal sums, in gold, currency, and goods. All that belongs to the Reich. I’ve already gone to see the warehouses here, on Chopin Street, and I count on investigating further.”—“Everything you say,” I said warmly, “is hugely interesting to me. I hope we can discuss it more in detail. In a certain sense, our missions are complementary.”—“Yes, I see what you mean: the Reichsführer wants to put his house in order. And maybe, since they don’t mistrust you as much, you’ll be able to dig up some things that are kept hidden from me. We’ll see each other again.”