Chapter 2 - Opening up the secret

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Aziz was waiting for him at the yard at 6 am. He stood there looking as excited as the previous day. They loaded the van with all they needed: jack-hammers, cutting-torches, hydraulic jacks and every sort of demolition tool they might just need. The only things that were not loaded were the oxygen and acetylene cylinders, there were four of them in all and they stood as high as Aziz, Kristian let him struggle with them until he managed to finally lever them on the truck.  

On arriving at the site they off-loaded the tools, this time Kristian took the gas cylinders on the trolley down the stairs. Aziz protested with his usual smile, but Kristian was firm, informing him he was not prepared to have a squashed apprentice. Once all was set Kristian, gave Aziz several Euros, to get breakfast from the café down the road. The usual combination of bread, sausage and coffee.

  'We've got a long day ahead, and we won't be stopping.' The look of disappointment was clear on Aziz's face, but nethertheless he set off to get breakfast. On his return Aziz consumed his while looking at the big door in front of him, the fact of the matter was, he could not take his eyes off it. On the top section of the door was the  imprint of an eagle and swastika, it fascinated him. It was if he had stumbled into an Indiana Jones movie.

  Eventually, they set to work, Aziz setting the tools up for Kristian, as Kristian checked which would be the easiest way to get the door open. He showed Aziz what he planned to do and with  their protective clothing on they set to work to open the mechanism. The torch burst into life and by the early afternoon they had cut open the mechanism and released the locking bars holding the door closed. After nearly seventy years of being closed, they heaved at the door. At first it held solid, then with the full weight of Kristian on a crowbar wedged into it, it began to move.

They were keen to see what awaited them, bringing forward one of the arc-lights and shining it in. They were both disappointed; no gold bars glinted at them, but instead a small ante-room with a desk, typewriter and a calendar for 1945. A mug on its side with a few papers scattered here and there on the table and floor and to finish the effect,  four old-fashioned wooden chairs against the wall, it looked like a small waiting room, it also looked like the occupants had left quickly.

They shone the light around this small room, there were windows at the rear and a door leading into a larger office which appeared to be full of filing cabinets. The door was locked, but this was only an internal door, with a clear glass panel on the top. This door did not take very long to open, the wood on the frame splitting as they forced their way in.

'We need some more light Aziz.' He duly obliged and within a few minutes they had set up enough lighting to illuminate the area. There was not really a lot to see, just several rows of filing cabinets, perhaps two hundred or more, above them were shelves with boxes, all of the filing cabinets were locked and not a key in sight. Again these were not difficult to begin opening with the tools that they had at their disposal, but after one or two they became bored.

  'What does it say Herr Kristian?' Kristian pulled out a file “CONFIDENTIAL” was typed across the front in bold lettering, on opening it he began reading it.

  'It's dated February 1942 and Sanctioned by the Minister of Armaments and War Production. 2000 typewriter ribbons for Adler and Olympia model typewriters, 200 new typewriters with SS keyboard. It is imperative that these be delivered to all ministry offices to avoid causing offence when referring to our colleagues.'

 'What is it?'

  'It appears we have discovered the place where Speer kept his shopping lists!' They pulled several files out and each proved to be as mundane as the next, showing the general mundane day-to-day nature of this high flying department of the Reich. Everything it seemed deserved a memo, down to the last screw and spring.

  'I don't think that we will find any gold here. Tomorrow... I'll go down to the police station and inform them. I'm sure I will get a slapped wrist for opening it, but all they will do is give it to some historians in a university, to tell us what we already know and waste two weeks of our time while they collect it!' They were both dejected.

 'Well the good news is there is no water damage.' He scuffed his foot on the floor.

  'So once they take this rubbish out, I can make a few Euros on scrap for that metal door. And make nice storage units for the flats, not a bad result.' It was a disappointment for Aziz, though for Kristian, this was as good a result as he could have hoped for. The university would take all this rubbish away for free, so no need hanging around.

  'I'm going upstairs to start marking up the things to be ripped out. Get the tools packed in the van and I’ll give you a hand when it comes to the cylinders.' With that Aziz was left alone to start packing away, he took a hand-light and started moving around the cabinets, this was all new to him, an Aladdin's cave of the past. To him it was like a time capsule, something which had been sealed, long before he had been born. He wandered round, at the far end something appeared to be protruding from the cabinet. As he got closer, he noticed that it was a bar fixed vertically to the front, running its length and locked by a padlock. On this, was a wax seal with a metal tag. He traced the wording, with his finger as he spoke them slowly and deliberately.

  'Only to be opened on order of the Minister of Armaments and War Production or Fuhrer.' He gasped it was as if the past had been opened up.

  A thought raced through his brain. Maybe this was where the gold was kept? Why lock paper up this well? He placed his lamp down ensuring that he kept the cabinets illuminated and raced up the stairs, within a few minutes they were both looking at the cabinet. A further couple of minutes saw a cold chisel and hammer remove the lock.

  Kristian opened each draw in turn, they appeared to house the same bland folders. As before, he opened one or two and scanned through them. Rather than place these back in though he kept reading.

  'My god, these contain everything... All those programmes with renowned historians guessing what happened at meetings, these tell you. It's like Speer's insurance policy, it is the entire lost history of the Nazis.'

  'The historians will take these away as well then Mr Kristian.' Kristian tapped his nose and winked at Aziz.

  'These just might be as much value as gold to us.' Aziz smiled broadly.

  'You did well Aziz, now let's clear that table and chair at the front. And put the files on, we need to see what we have.

  'I'm thinking Aziz that we might be able to sell these to the newspapers or television. They'll pay well for this.' They sat for the best part of two hours, Aziz not uttering a word, just waiting for Kristian to tell him the contents of each folder. Shaking his head as he was told a brief synopsis of each.

  They were on the contents of the last draw, Kristian pulled out quite a fat folder.

  'Oh - this is folder one of three. “Plan A " 1936”, well I hope that this is interesting, the title is as dull as dishwater!' It was clear as soon as he opened the folder that dull as dishwater this was not.

  'My God Germany and America signed a non-aggression treaty, in private, in 1936. Look it's all here in black and white, come and look.' He read out-a-loud from the first page. And look at the signatures. It's the President and the Fuhrer.

 “Overview - An approach was made in February 1936 by the United States to Reich Minister Speer  to discuss with Germany its role as the dominant power in Europe. With the imminent collapse of the British Empire, which is expected to take place in the next decade, England will become increasingly unstable.

It is expected that civil unrest aligned with this and with the current depressed economic situation will take place leading to a collapse in the current institutions of government in England. Any move towards a Stalinist state should be prevented.  Germany should re-arm and where necessary take active participation in preventing any other European countries moving towards this.

The United States will aid Germany in the following ways:

 1- Ensure that Financial assistance is available, to allow the rearming to take place as rapidly as possible.

 2 " The United States Government will not intervene in any disputes in what they consider to be the old world.”

Aziz was looking over Kristian's shoulder by now.

  'You know what this means Aziz?' Aziz looked back quite blank.

  'It means that everything we have been told since the end of the war is a lie. This is dynamite. It shows that America pay-rolled the Nazis. Not only that but they wildly underestimated them. No wonder Hitler was furious when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour. I need to make a few phone calls tomorrow.' Let’s get these folders into those clean rubble sacks.

They paid scant attention to the other folders and envelopes as they placed them in. That was history, they just packed them as tightly as possible. It was tempting to discard the manila folders  to make them more portable, but best leave them as they were, to ensure that they content did not get jumbled. By the time they had finished, there would have been enough to fit in two large suitcases.

'Should we leave them here Herr Kristian?'

'No let's get them in the van. I'm not risking some vandal or vagrant coming in here and making a fire out of them.'

After completing this task, they loaded the rubble sacks into the van. With the day's work complete and the premises locked up he reached into his pocket and pulled out his bulging wallet. He took several notes from it and gave them to Aziz.

  'There is a little bit extra for this week. Now don't say anything to anyone about this.' He looked directly at Aziz, he nodded back.

  'Now take the rest of the week off, enjoy yourself, and I shall see you here Monday morning for work...' He winked, 'and I’ll let you know then, how we are getting on.'