The Masada Faktor Read online

  THE MASADA

  FAKTOR

  Also by Naomi Litvin

  We Never Lost Hope: A Holocaust Memoir and Love Story

  Foreword by Sir Martin Gilbert

  Beneath A Stormy Cloud: Moving On Without her

  THE MASADA FAKTOR

  Naomi Litvin

  This book is a work of fiction. Any reference to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously.

  Copyright © 2015 Naomi Litvin

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1512210064

  ISBN 13: 9781512210064

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2015908139

  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

  North Charleston, South Carolina

  For Editke

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I have no one to thank but myself.

  THE COVER IMAGE

  The cover image is a stained glass masterpiece that was created by the Maumejean Brothers in July 1941 at the Saint Jacques Church in Montgeron south of Paris, France as a visible sign of French Resistance during the Nazi occupation. It was not noticed for seventy years until January 2011. The stained glass depicts Adolph Hitler as King Herod. Hitler’s moustache is hidden behind his arm in order not to be noticeable but the black fringed hair clearly depicts Hitler as Herod, violently murdering Saint Jacques who represents the Jewish people. Jacques is French for James which is Jacob in Hebrew. Jacob, considered a patriarch, was the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.

  Contents

  PROLOGUE

  INTRODUCTION

  PART ONE: HAIFA

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  PART TWO: TEL AVIV

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  PART THREE: HADERA

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  PROLOGUE

  A group of six Schutzstaffel, SS German Nazis met in secret toward the end of World War II. It was the first week of May 1945 and they had gathered in their favorite location, a member’s home, in a downstairs hidden room, with access through a false wall built into the water closet next to the boiler.

  The light was dim and yellowed and the chairs smelled musty. Several cases of German cognac that had been stashed there by German troops was available to fortify and bolster their courage and assuage the boredom while they waited for instructions.

  Higher level SS operatives had organized these groups of four to six SS per cell. They called the overall group Odessa, the Organization of Former SS Members and it was secretly founded the year before as it became clear that Germany was losing the war.

  The immense amount of stolen wealth from the Jews would finance their plan for the continuation of post-war mischief related to the annihilation of remaining Jews. With these monetary resources and technical and military Nazi experts they and the other groups organized and awaited their orders.

  What this group finally received by messenger that night came in a worn grey leather pouch, and inside was a folder, the label handwritten with purple ink: The Masada Faktor. This group did not include technical experts, their value however, was in their dedication to the cause. They felt relief but trepidation as they opened the envelope which contained six sets of duplicate secret orders.

  Their meetings so far had included speculation as to what their orders would be but they knew whatever it was, it would include the continuation of the destruction of the Jews worldwide. Their mission would be to strictly follow those orders.

  They also drank freely. Sometimes Bruno would bring drugs that they would share.

  “Tonight I have a special treat,” Bruno rasped.

  The five others included Wilhelm, Erich, Gustav, Joachim, and Oskar. “I told you no more drugs,” Gustav growled, and pushed Bruno off his chair.

  “Stop this immediately,” Oskar piped in with his bizarre high pitched voice. “From this moment on we will not use any more pharmaceuticals, only alcohol will be allowed.”

  Oskar slapped first Bruno and then Gustav across the face as Wilhelm, Joachim, and Erich watched wide-eyed, nodding with a mixture of fear and disgust.

  Silence ensued as they sat and read the plans for the operation. The Masada Faktor was a strategy that sought to tie a new fiasco against the Jews to an important historical event in Jewish history that was an obsession of Hitler’s.

  Hitler had studied King Herod in depth and in his grandiose fanaticism he identified with Herod. This was obvious in the preface to the instructions. Hitler knew that seventy or so years after Herod’s death, Masada, which was Herod’s most ambitious fortress project in Israel, was where a three year siege by Romans ended in a mass suicide of Jews who would not be taken alive. And so Hitler used the seventy year mark of his death to plan a parallel siege in Israel.

  Herod had been the ruthless King of Israel, a sexual pervert and psychopath who was appointed by the Roman Senate. His most ambitious project was building Masada between 37 BCE and 31 BCE with thousands of Jewish slave laborers moving gigantic limestone blocks weighing over ten tons. Hitler modeled policies of slave labor, murdering all opposition, and complete authoritarianism with King Herod in mind.

  The Masada Faktor predicated the use of Nazis and their collaborators. They would train their children and their children’s children in the plan. This became a highly argued subject as to how the offspring would be recruited into this conspiracy.

  Because the orchestration would take a long time they accepted that they would all be dead long before the event unraveled. Luckily they had unlimited monetary funds from liquidated Jewish property, which they could use to bribe their progeny, in case their dedication to Naziism weakened with time.

  They were nervous at this meeting. The news of Hitler’s death had been reported as suicide by gunshot and possible simultaneous ingestion of cyanide on 30 April 1945. His wife Eva Braun killed herself by swallowing cyanide. They all agreed that it was now up to them to continue the effort. Instinctively knew they had no choice.

  The news that master propagandist Joseph Goebbels had killed all six of his children with lethal injections and planned out the fatal shooting of himself and his wife had shook this group of six faithful Nazis.

  “We must vow that our children will have a different fate, a glorious fate, and should continue their mission to destroy the Jews wherever they live.” Oskar was the appointed leader of this group. “I want you all to stand and Sieg Heil to swear your allegiance!” They quickly jumped to their feet and in unison avowed commitment.

  Despite the audacity and delusional proportions of this diabolical plan, they were convinced of it. No doubt fed by cognac and hatred, they were to enlist the o
ther mortal enemy of the Jews, the Arabs.

  Hitler had financially supported The Muslim Brotherhood and had enlisted Arabs in large numbers for the infamous all-Muslim Hanzer battalion divisions for the German military in the war. They had proven their skills in massacres and atrocities. These Germans knew that any future goal of The Muslim Brotherhood would include making the Middle East Judenrein, free of Jews.

  They were given all the names and connections they needed, including propaganda wizards and were told that Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf had been translated into Arabic to fuel the allegiance of the Arabs.

  The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem had given his anti-Semitic propaganda skills in support to Hitler and was being housed and protected by the Fuerher himself, in a luxurious Jewish home that had been confiscated in Berlin.

  The idea that the Jews could have sovereignty over their ancient homeland made it unquestionable that Zionism would continue to draw Jews to colonize Palestine. The Jews would multiply in that land and would be an easy target, vulnerable to their nefarious plot.

  They had a small but faithful following within the German Tempelgesellschaft, Templar society in Palestine and could count on them for support. The Templars had established seven settlements in the Holy Land, with the biggest group in Haifa.

  The men were pleased with the Fuerher’s choice. They vowed to abide by Hitler’s last written statement, known as My Political Testament and continue his work.

  They were ready to flee utilizing the ratlines that were already set up as escape routes to South America, the Middle East, United States of America, Canada, and other countries in Europe.

  In order to do this, they were to be assisted in their escape from Allied Forces by Catholic priests who had pledged to provide false papers and passports in an underground network through Switzerland and then Italy.

  And they knew they could escape to Arab lands, convert to Islam, marry and have children while enlisting and fraternizing with those who felt the same hatred for the Jews. They had the option to join the Arab militaries, do their part with propaganda, and change to Arab names which would complete their assimilation.

  Not many Nazis were left to stand trial at Nuremberg. They were going to be welcomed to Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and Jordan, all known to be havens for European Nazis, where anti-Jewish propaganda was in force thanks to the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Al-Husseini.

  Each packet of instructions included Hitler’s last statement:

  My Political Testament by Adolph Hitler

  More than thirty years have passed since I contributed my modest strength in 1914 as a volunteer in the First World War, which was forced upon the Reich.

  In these three decades only love and loyalty to my people have guided me in my thinking, my actions and my life. They gave me the strength to make the difficult decisions, such as have never before confronted mortal man. I have used up my time, my working strength and my health in these three decades.

  It is untrue that I or anybody else in Germany wanted war in 1939....

  But nor have I left any doubt that if the nations of Europe are once more to be treated only as collections of stocks and shares of these international conspirators in money and finance, then those who carry the real guilt for the murderous struggle, this people will also be held responsible: the Jews!

  I have further left no one in doubt that this time it will not be only millions of children of Europeans of the Aryan peoples who will starve to death, not only millions of grown men who will suffer death, and not only hundreds of thousands of women and children who will be burned and bombed to death in the cities, without those who are really responsible also having to atone for their crime, even if by more humane means....

  But before everything else I call upon the leadership of the nation and those who follow it to observe the racial laws most carefully, to fight mercilessly against the poisoners of all the peoples of the world, international Jewry.

  Set down in Berlin, April 29, 1945, 4.00 o’clock.

  Witnesses:

  Dr. Joseph Goebbels

  Wilhelm Burgdorf

  Martin Bormann

  Hans Krebs

  INTRODUCTION

  I thought back to Mother’s last day. She was whispering into my ear as I laid next to her knowing this was the end of her life. Urging her to conserve her strength was unproductive.

  “Hitler had become obsessed with King Herod and wanted to be like him. He knew that the Romans had surrounded Masada seventy years after King Herod died. Hitler was a maniac! He wanted the Jews to perish in great numbers again, seventy years after his own death.”

  I didn’t care what she was saying, even if it was insanity, as long as I could hear her beautiful Hungarian accent one last time. “Go on, Mother, tell me everything.”

  “This is like a time bomb.” She urgently motioned to the bureau next to her bed. “Open the bottom drawer, and take the yellow envelope.” She was speaking slowly, and had a begging, whining tone to her voice. “They want to mimic the Masada Zealots’ mass suicide, instead as mass murder. It was Hitler’s last order.”

  “They hoped that during the seventy years after the Holocaust so very many Jews will have made Aliyah to Israel, and because Europe will have been emptied out once again of Jews, that Israel will be full of Jews to slaughter.”

  “Natasha, you must stop them, you must save Israel. Take my Jewish star, the Magan David to keep you safe.”

  As I unclasped her necklace and put it on my own neck, she closed her eyes for the last time. And then I kissed her cheek and kissed her left forearm, on the tattoo that she had gotten on her first day in Auschwitz.

  Those were Mother’s last words to me. The so-called plot to destroy Israel. It was nuts. But it didn’t matter. Mother was gone now. It was time to move on.

  I was a late bloomer. I had no regrets about spending the last fifteen years with Mother. It was my Mitzvah, a commandment to honor my mother, but it had come with a cost.

  I had gotten old during those years but I still had the desires of a young woman. I was determined to live my life now and I wanted to hear her voice in my head cheering me on, not telling me to be a savior.

  A part of me was angry, that her last words to me involved Hitler. I had had enough of the Holocaust. I didn’t want to be born as a tool; of keeping remembrance alive. I never had a chance to be normal. Yes, I was angry.

  The first thing on my agenda was to get my hair colored and cut and buy some new clothes. I knew that I had the prized young Hungarian skin and slim physique that Mother’s clan was known for. It was the Hungarian genes. I decided to be ten years younger since I knew I could pull it off if I didn’t have grey streaks in my hair.

  I had obsessively thought about moving somewhere out of the San Francisco Bay Area after Mother was gone, imagining myself in locales all over the world. All places though, except Israel, would limit the extent of my visa.

  Except for Australia, I did not have any connection to anywhere outside of the United States. Immigrating to Israel was always fleetingly in the back of my mind and when I realized that Mother’s last wish was for me to go there and save Israel from destruction, I took that as a sign from the heavens.

  Yes, I would go to Israel. The ridiculous notion that she had information on a plot to destroy the Jews was beside the point. I had humored her. After all, that was the finale.

  I didn’t open the yellow envelope. I thought I might look at it while I was on the flight to my new life.

  Once I was settled into my seat on the plane and had ordered a brandy I opened the envelope. There was a handwritten note from Mother to me explaining how she had gotten the envelope in the first place. Any time I saw her handwriting it grabbed me in such a way that immediate tears were inevitable. I downed my brandy and pushed the service button to order another. Mother’s note said the following:

  Darling Natasha,

  The old Nazi guard that helped me go out of the slave factory to the death mar
ch before it was to be bombed worked for Commandant Gustav. The guard had worked in the head office and had inside knowledge of a plan for future events to continue killing the Jews.

  It was not that he had a soft spot for Jews, but he was old and feared meeting his Maker with so much on his conscience. It could be that he thought if he did one good deed it might save him from Hell. That was for God to decide.

  I was a feisty Jewish girl in the factory and the old guard liked me. I do not remember his name, but he said that he’d decided to copy the plans that he had seen Commandant Gustav reading.

  He had overheard a lot of things when the other five SS joined Gustav for meetings. He wanted to give me an envelope with the secret contents before the impending Death March when we were forced out of the factory into the forest, at the end of the war.

  Ahead of time he was able to smuggle a piece of burlap, needle and thread, and ordered me to sew an inside pocket into my one and only garment. I was told to await something that needed to be smuggled out with me for the future of the world. I did as I was ordered.