Chapter 14 Candlesticks in Bogotá - 5

That ship was called the Wildcat.The oak hull was twenty-six meters long, with an excess weight of seventy tons, and was equipped with a full set of Marconi rigging and a 185-horsepower internal combustion engine.Carrying 660 cases of Philip Morris, 200 cases of Chesterfield and 60 cases of Camel, it left Tangier on January 17, 1947. , At dusk on the 23rd, Cape San Vito at the western end of the Bay of Castellamare was seen, about fifty kilometers from Palermo.There must not be any Italian customs patrol boats within fifty nautical miles.In addition, the manifest and the bill of lading were all fine, and the listed cargo was also consistent with what was stated, and the port of destination indicated was Corfu Island in Greece.

As instructed, DeGroot stopped and waited.About eleven o'clock, a yellow light on the shore came on three times, indicating that this part of the coast was clear. The Wildcat headed for shore, stopped again at another signal.Soon, they heard the splashing of waves, which was approaching by a barge team composed of a dozen large fishing boats.The fishermen start to transfer, and two or three customs officers are also involved, because they can earn extra money—thousand Italian lire per case.A few back and forth were enough, and the last time they boarded the freighter, they brought a few barrels of Greek wine (if you believe the label above). A Sicilian tore up the manifest and the bill of lading and burned them, and took out another manifest and bill of lading to prove that the "Wild Cat" was loaded at the port of Corfu and was on the way back.

At seven o'clock the next morning, they entered the port of Palermo and asked for a free call, that is, a stop without loading or unloading cargo.They had been at sea for nearly eight days, without the slightest trouble.The sale was a success. "Our Italian client was so happy with us that he invited us all to lunch," announced Dolf Lazarus. He gave Reb a sharp look.Of course, he had a big smile on his face. They started from Mondello on the outskirts of Palermo and drove up the Pellegrino Hill along the winding road. When they were still some distance from the observation tower, they turned on a path lined with eucalyptus trees, where There is a white house with blue shutters.There were two cars, both American; Dolph Lazarus, Langan, and an Italian-American named Saul Mancusa (who supplied this part of the story) were in one , and on the other were Reb Klimrod, De Groot, two Sicilian sailors from the "Wildcat" and the driver.

The car stopped at the foot of the steps.The driver remained in the car, and the sailors fell behind to talk.The rest climbed up to the loggia, where a tall wisteria which is still there may shade the whole loggia in summer, from which there is a wonderful view over the Gulf of Palermo. Perhaps it was only at this time that the two so-called Dutchmen realized what was going to happen. There was no lunch ready to be seen in the house, just two blank-faced men dressed in black except for their white shirts, with neither collars nor bow ties.Each of them held a "Lupala" - a shotgun used by Sicilians to hunt wolves.But they didn't intervene; neither did Mancusa, who stood by and watched.

Dolph Lazarus, who had now conjured the Colt Automatic, said, "Your name is Langan? The lad and I have been wondering about one thing since Tangier: What exactly is your real name?" Langan replied that it was exactly his real name, saying that he was indeed Dutch and nothing else, and he didn't understand what that meant.Lazarus shook his head. "Come, come on, come on....One thing I know for sure about this lad: he has a marvelous memory, marvelous indeed. He never forgets anything; a name, a face, a number or a This book. It's unbelievable, Langan: He only needs to read a book once, only once, and listen, it does: he keeps it in his head forever. His ability to remember faces Equally remarkable. Since he said he saw you at Treblinka..."

"In Beuzets," Reber corrected, his voice hollow and his eyes downcast. "I'm sorry, lad, it was indeed in Belzec. Langen, since the lad said he saw you in the SS uniform in Belzec concentration camp, and when you killed his mother and sisters, since He said that, and he couldn't be wrong. It couldn't be wrong, anyone..." "That's not the way to say it. I might be mistaken," Reber whispered. "No one, not even the lad himself, can convince me he's mistaken. Get on your knees, Langan. Get on your knees, or I'll knock your Nazi Schlong out with one shot. I'm asking you: 'Today The weather is fine' How do you say that in Yiddish? Langen? Do you really want to suffer before you go to heaven?"

"Sara sheyn veter haynt," Langan said. "Isn't his accent croaky, lad?" Lazarus uttered an exclamation. He drew another Colt automatic, and at the same time he must have noticed the other so-called Dutchman starting to shift position behind him, so without looking back, he said calmly, "DeGroot, as long as you Move one step and I'll shoot you in the ass." Then he smiled at Reber: "You've got to kill him. Do it now, we ain't going to waste a day on it. It ain't worth it. Take this thing of mine, boy. Take it!" Pistols are easy to get.

"Don't shoot him in the head. Shoot it in the mouth. He can see your finger pull the trigger, you know? Look, you gotta..." He taught Reb how to do it, and plunged the barrel of the gun deep into Langan's mouth. Suddenly, he shouted loudly in Yiddish: "Do it, Reb! He killed your mother and sisters! What did he do to them, Reb? He burned them alive, didn't he? Killed them!" Him! Kill him, son of a bitch!" silence. "O.K, boy, you go away," Lazarus said mildly, this time in English. "You just go away, you don't mind what's going on here." Then, a few seconds later, he said, "Suck this thing, Langan...suck this gun as if it were a fat The Jewish Schlong... yes, that's exactly it... great, Langan..."

As soon as the last words were spoken, the gunshots rang out.He turned and killed DeGroot with the other Colt he was holding in his left hand, hitting him in the head, right to the temple. Dolf Lazarus and Reb Klimrod came to the house of Simon Wiesenthal, 36 Linzlandstrasse, Austria.Henry Alter did not know what had happened to them, but a man named Saul Mancusa, now captain of the Wildcat, told him that they had quarreled with the two Dutchmen , was delayed for a while in Italy. Wiesenthal asked if Klimrod belonged to any organization, and Reber replied that he did not belong to any organization and acted alone.

"And the other one?" Wiesenthal asked. "Who's that one waiting in the street?" "Friend," Reber replied simply. Reber wanted to inquire about two people, one named Exie Joachim Steyr and the other named Wilhelm Hochreiner. Neither name was familiar to Wiesenthal, and neither was on his list.In early 1947, however, very little was known about the personnel of the death camp administration or—after May 1945—their whereabouts.Wiesenthal has just been compiling a list of rebels who have worked closely with Adolf Eckermann It is not known if Aikman is still alive.He was even more ignorant of the vast and complex system "Odessa Contact Network" established in 1947 to help the Nazis escape. "I have a few Steyrs here, but none named Erich Joachim. You say he was born in Graz, when? . . . "

"April 14, 1905," said Reber, "his father was Joachim Steyr, born in Graz on November 6, 1879; Erwinagel was born in Klagenfurt on October 23, 1883. Erich Steyr is now forty-two years old, 1.82 meters tall, very beautiful with blond hair and green clothes. He has a star-shaped scar. Before the war he was a lawyer in Vienna. He could speak English and a little French. He was very interested in art, especially painting. His favorite painters were..." Reber recited the facts in a slow, indifferent tone.This happened often, and there would be many more who, like this tall, bewildered and sad-looking young man, were as unknown to Simon Wiesenthal as they would be to tell him.What they told often provided new clues to his search.Names and facts would suddenly come together.So he took down the names of Erich Steyr and Wilhelm Hochreiner. "Are they war criminals?" "Yes." Reber said. "I need the facts. If you agree to give evidence and..." "What if I give evidence?" "The two men will be arrested. If the evidence is sufficient and the two men can be found, they will be arrested, tried and sentenced." The young man smiled slightly. "I see," he said, "I will think about it, and perhaps I will come to you again someday." He got up to say goodbye. Wiesenthal asked, "Is there a personal vendetta between you and these two men?" "You could say the same thing," Reber replied, slowly breaking into his intriguing smile. "Do you wish to tell me this? I have lost eighty-five relatives myself." The young man shook his head politely. "Maybe next time. Thank you for your hospitality." Wiesenthal watched him go and passed Gate 40, where the OSS offices were, to meet another man; Wear a pair of infinity goggles.He never saw Reb Klimrod again. In 1932, Erich Steyr joined the law firm headed by Johann Klimrod.He formally oversaw the firm in 1941, but actually managed it for more than six years, based on a power of attorney signed by Johann Klimrod, who was only able to use a wheelchair because of his hemiplegia. Transportation, unable to host business.When the war ended, Steyr was not seen again in Vienna or elsewhere.In February 1947, before the Graz trial, his wife filed a declaration of her husband's death on the grounds that a man had testified under oath that he had witnessed Erich Steyr being shot dead by Soviet machine guns in Prague.The court readily granted its request because it was a matter of routine.Steyr's name disappeared from the list of Nazi war criminals, if it ever appeared on it. Steyer has a well-documented track record in both politics and the military.His participation in the attempted coup of 1934 was attested by police reports, which mentioned that Johann Klimrod had come forward to speak for him.He joined the Nazi Party in February 1938, party card number 6330372.By then he had become a recognized legal expert on the "Jewish question".Appointed legal adviser to the Central Jewish Immigration Bureau, he was involved in the arrest, detention and deportation of Baron Louis de Rothschild for millions of dollars.In 1940 he worked on the legal aspects of the Madagascar programme, which foresaw the deportation of all the Jews in Europe and for the first time used the term "final solution of the Jewish question".In the following year, under the orders of Reinhard Heydrich, he traveled several times to the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and other countries to deal with property and pension matters belonging to 140,000 Jews, of whom only 5,000 survived.In the meantime, he has been running Klimrod's office in his own way. In 1943, he went to the Eastern Front with the SS, and returned to the rear in March 1944 to be hospitalized.By October 1944, his official activities dwindled.After that, there was less and less information about him until he disappeared completely in April 1945. The above is the official experience of Erich Joachim Steyr.David Setiniaz can provide a more complete account of this man's life and activities.Steyer's activities in Nazi Germany were carefully considered.Steyr took advantage of developments of the situation purely for his own ends, that kind of naked utilitarianism is rare.His goal is to possess all the property belonging to the Klimrod family, as well as the already dark years of 1938-1941, when Johann Klimrod's client commissioned the Although paralyzed, property that honest lawyer takes care of.Steyer also listed Hannah Klimrod as his target.As a result of an investigation in 1982 at the urging of David Setiniaz, he obtained a photograph of Hannah Klimrod on the Venice Lido Beach on August 7, 1937 photo.Standing in the middle of a crowd, with her three children, looking into the camera with the strangely pale eyes from which Reber inherited her beauty is simply astonishing, a stately, Demure yet radiant beauty.Steyer was standing about two meters away, looking at her instead of the camera.Steyr failed to possess this treasure, more precious than all the rest.He sent Hannah and her three children to Lviv with ulterior motives, with the passports he had obtained for them, and with all the guarantees he could give them as a senior Nazi official... ...and fully convinced that he was sending them to a dead end that he might have designed himself. davidSetniaz believes that the deliberate steps of Johann Klimrod's capture and his transport to Hartheim Castle to be used as guinea pigs by future death-camp executioners were all due to Steyr handwriting.Steyr completed his personal Anschluss (Note: German: Merge. The author uses this word to refer to Steyr's compared it to the so-called "Annexation" of Austria by Nazi Germany). So what did Erich Steyr do after April 1945? … At first he found refuge under an alias in a prisoner-of-war camp administered by the US military, waiting for an opportunity to reappear in public.When Reber Klimrod reappeared—and now he was even more dangerous than two years ago—Steyer realized that his safety was seriously threatened... ...which is why the Dead Mountain scene, which unfolds below, took place...and the flight of Steyr to South America in March 1947. For Setienaz there was no doubt; of all the possible avenues Steyer used the one known as the "monastic route".