Oskar Schindler, page 6
At this point, Kreuziger reemphasized that he remained very interested in military matters. Schindler, perhaps sensing Kreuziger’s frustration with Pruscha’s lack of such knowledge, answered that they both knew one soldier, Ryba, who worked in military construction. Leo said he doubted they could convince Ryba to work for Abwehr. Oskar assured Kreuziger that he would begin to work on Ryba and was sure he could win him over. If Schindler was successful in convincing Ryba to work with him, Kreuziger responded, he would need information on “defense works, the direction of their embrasures [parapet of a fortification for firing cannon], thickness of walls, location of fortifications and, if possible, the plan of the fortifications.” One of the key concerns in German military planning was the quick breaching of Czechoslovakia’s considerable border fortifications. The Wehrmacht also worried about the buildup of new fortifications along the Czechoslovak-Austrian border, particularly after the May Crisis. Operation Green laid out as one of the principal tasks of the army and the Luftwaffe (airforce) the rapid destruction of Czechoslovak border defenses and fortifications. One of the key elements in these efforts was “cooperation with the Sudeten German frontier population” and “deserters from the Czechoslovak Army.”101
Kreuziger now turned to Pruscha and said that he should give any information he gathered to Schindler. The German agent thought it would be a good idea for Leo to bring a bit of information as a gesture of his willingness to work with military counterintelligence. Pruscha answered that because he was on vacation, he would not be able to get hold of anything until after July 14. He promised he would have something for Schindler in Brno by July 16. Kreuziger told Leo that he would generously pay for all his expenses and reward him accordingly for valuable information. Pruscha said that “as a nationalist German” he did not want to make any “profits” out of this. He felt “it was the moral obligation of a German to do these kinds of duties.” He reemphasized his “Germanness” to Kreuziger and said that his daughter also belonged to Henlein’s SdP. This did not seem to interest Kreuziger. The Abwehr agent promised Leo that if something ever happened to him, he could get him a job in Germany. If Pruscha ever needed anything, he should ask Oskar “Müller.”102
Leo Pruscha told the Czech police that their conversation ended late in the evening. They walked to another restaurant where many people were dancing. Along the way, people greeted Kreuziger as they walked along the street. About midnight, they went back to the Deutsches Haus and drank coffee and wine in a “special room.” Kreuziger left after an hour and the two Sudeten Germans went to their separate rooms on the first floor of the Deutsches Haus. The next morning, Kreuziger met the two at the Deutsches Haus restaurant at 9:00 A.M. Pruscha said that another German met them there, though he was never formally introduced to him. It was the mysterious Peter. He described Peter in some detail to his Czechoslovak interrogators. He was about forty years old and about 165 cm (5’3”). He thought he might have had one gold tooth. Peter had dark hair and dressed in a well-worn dark grey coat. He wore a hat of similar color and a shirt with a “sawed-on collar” without a tie. Leo said that they stayed in the restaurant until about 1:00 P.M., when Oskar left.103
Schindler claimed that only Kreuziger met them in the restaurant at 9:00 A.M. and took them to his apartment where the German agent lived with his family. Oskar told his Czechoslovak interrogators that they talked for about an hour. He noted that he had spotted Peter in the kitchen, though he never came out to talk with Schindler and the others. Kreuziger asked Oskar and Leo to stay for lunch, but Oskar declined because he had to meet Gritt Schwarzer. Before he left, he arranged for Kreuziger to have Peter meet him at 3:00 P.M. with a car. He promised Kreuziger that he would return to Zlaté Hory on July 18 or 19 with the materials from Pruscha. Because “Müller” was uncertain about which day he would come to the frontier, Kreuziger said he would have Peter wait there each day between 6:00 P.M. and 8:00 P.M.104
At this point, the testimonies of Schindler and Pruscha diverge again. Oskar said that after his meeting with Gritt, he met Peter and Leo at the prearranged spot in Ziegenhals, where a car was waiting for them. Leo evidently felt he did not have enough time to get the information that Kreuziger wanted and told Oskar he needed an extra day or so. “Müller” told Peter that he would not come to Zlaté Hory on July 17 or 18 but on July 18 or 19. Pruscha’s account is different. He said that Kreuziger met the two Sudeten Germans in the Deutsches Haus on the morning of July 11. Oskar excused himself at 1:00 P.M. while Leo and Peter went to a street corner near the restaurant. At 1:45 P.M., Schindler returned with a car which drove them to the German border village of Arnoldsdorf (Pruscha said Altmansdorf). “Müller” then called for a car to meet them on the Czechoslovak side of the frontier. Oskar and Peter left Pruscha hidden in a room at a local restaurant. Schindler finally returned and they walked together to a red church in Arnoldsdorf. Suddenly, Peter walked past them and signaled them to walk quickly towards the Czechoslovak border. He gave hand signals when it was safe to cross the border. They crossed at the same spot that Oskar had first learned on July 1 and walked safely to Skřivánkov. About halfway to Zlaté Hory, Peter passed them on a bicycle. They met him in a pub in Zlaté Hory. Pruscha went to the bar and bought a beer and some sausages while Oskar and Peter stood in the hallway talking. After Leo had finished, “Müller” paid his tab and they walked towards the train station along a special route laid out by Peter. They arrived at the station at 5:15 P.M. and caught a train ten minutes later for Mikulovice.105
In Mikulovice, they changed trains for Jeseník (Fryvaldov in both testimonies). On their arrival, Schindler got off the train and told him to meet him in Zábřeh (Hohenstadt), where he would give Pruscha the coat that he had left in the car in Germany. He said he was getting off in Jeseník because he had customers to visit there. When Leo got into Zábřeh at 10:00 P.M., Oskar was waiting for him. Unknown to Pruscha, Schindler’s private car and driver were waiting for him in Zábřeh. Oskar said that as he was being driven to Zábřeh, he remembered that there were no more late evening connections from there to Brno. Consequently, he met Leo at the train station and offered to take him to Svitavy by private car because otherwise he would have to wait four hours for another train. Before they left, Oskar took Leo to the Zur Eiche (by the Oak Tree) tavern while he “settled a private matter.” Pruscha explained that “Müller” told him to have dinner and wait for him. After fifteen minutes, Oskar returned with the driver and the three of them had dinner together. He paid the bill with a 100 crown ($3.46) note and gave the change of 60 crowns ($2.14) to Leo. As they were driving to Svitavy, Leo and Oskar agreed to meet in Brno at 9:30 P.M. on July 16 at the Europa Café. If for some reason one of them was not there, they would meet the next evening at 10:00 P.M. in the Grimm restaurant on the Vaclavska in Brno. Pruscha promised that he would try to have the graphicons. When they reached Svitavy, Oskar took Leo to the Unger Hotel to wait for his train to Brno. Oskar left Pruscha at the hotel and went home.106
Schindler stopped at this point in his interrogation statement and explained that he wanted to add another remark by Pruscha to his testimony. Oskar said that Pruscha told him that he had a good German friend in Brno, Vaclav Ryba, who was a “military master builder.” Leo added that he regularly played cards with Ryba. According to Schindler, Pruscha would try to “attract him to our thing,” but that they would have to deal with Ryba very carefully because he was “known to be very correct and dutiful.” Ryba constructed barracks in Slovakia but returned home on weekends. His financial situation was “stable.” Pruscha felt it best that he talk to Ryba alone. If he seemed interested, Oskar could meet with him. Regardless of Ryba’s interest, Leo promised to introduce him to “Müller.”107
Pruscha spent the last two days of his vacation at home and returned to work on Thursday, July 14. The following day, July 15, he went to the pub U Hradeckü on Rasinova street, where he met Ryba, who was having a drink in the beer garden with an architect, Nemecek. Pruscha was surprised to see Ryba, who usually came to Brno only on weekends. The Czechoslovak army officer explained that he came home early because “he had to arrange things in Brno.” After Nemecek left, Leo spoke to Ryba in German and asked him how he would react should he be asked to do something for his “German culture and way of life.” Ryba immediately understood the intent of Pruscha’s question. He asked “my dear Leo” whether he had forgotten that Ryba was a soldier. If a civilian was caught doing such things, Ryba sharply added, he might get a year. A soldier would get “a bullet.” Pruscha said that after these comments he decided not to try to “win Ryba over for espionage anymore because [he] was discouraged by his words.” Ryba left the pub to go to lunch and Leo stayed behind and ate his packed lunch. Afterwards, he returned to work.108
The next day, Pruscha went to Department V of the directorate of the Czechoslovak National Railways to find Ladislav Novak. He also approached another employee, Pokorny, who worked in the lithographic department. Pokorny told Leo that he did not have any spare graphicons to give him. At noon, he went to the outer office where Novak worked and asked that he meet him in the corridor. Pruscha explained that he had scratched some graphicons he had been preparing for his boss. When he tried to repair them with glue, he irreparably damaged them. His boss was quite angry, and Leo hoped he could get some new ones to give his supervisor when he returned from vacation “to put the whole thing right.” Novak told Pruscha that he would give him new ones only if Leo gave him the damaged graphicons. Novak was in charge of the drawing and production of graphicons in his department. Since 1936, railway authorities had treated them as confidential and kept them under lock and key because of their strategic military value. Graphicons with military margins had to be put in a special case. Anyone who wanted a graphicon, such as a station master, had to sign a written release form to obtain it. At the end of each year, all graphicons had to be returned to Novak’s department, where the old ones were burned. Pruscha knew this but begged Novak to give him some new ones immediately so that he could finish working on them over the weekend. Novak gave him the only two he had for the routes from Brno to Hrušovany nad Jevišovkou and Břeclav-Brno-Česká Třebová. They were missing the military margins, or “tear off slips.” Novak reiterated that he would give Leo replacements if he would bring in the damaged graphicons. He added that he doubted that Pruscha had ruined them all. Instead, Ladislav suspected, Leo had lost them. Pruscha thanked Novak for the graphicons and promised to buy him a beer in return, though Novak declined. Pruscha took the graphicons back to his railway office. Leo also got a copy of a 1930 graphicon, which he later gave to “Müller.”109
As Pruscha was meeting with Novak in the offices of the railway directorate, Oskar Schindler boarded a noon train for Brno. He conducted “several private and business matters” most of the afternoon and went to the Europa Café at 9:00 P.M. Leo spent the evening at the Hradecky pub and left about 9:15 P.M. for his meeting with “Müller” at the Europa. Oskar was frustrated when Leo did not arrive by 9:30 P.M. and left. As he was walking down the street he met Pruscha and asked where they could go to talk. He suggested the Hradecky pub. According to Schindler, Leo said that he had just paid gas and electric bills and had no money. He lamented that he had not even been able to pay his earlier bar tab at the Hradecky. His wife was out, so he could not even get money from her. Oskar gave Leo 100 crowns ($3.46) as they walked down the street. In the tavern, they ordered beers and began to talk about the graphicons that Leo had brought with him. Pruscha had them in his coat pocket and advised “Müller” to hide them in the same place in his coat. Schindler said that Pruscha gave him a package with the graphicons inside and put it in his briefcase. Leo apologized because the military information was missing from the graphicons but thought he knew where “he could get them.” He promised to get more for Kreuziger.110
Oskar then asked Leo about Ryba. The ticket agent told “Müller” about the conversation he had with him. He repeated his question to Ryba in German as well as his response. Leo felt that “we cannot do anything with him.” Schindler disagreed and said he was not turned off by Ryba’s answer. He would like Leo to introduce the two of them. “Müller” would try to convince Ryba to work for him. Pruscha said that he played cards every Sunday with Ryba and others between 10:00 A.M. and noon at the Grimm pub. Oskar said he would meet him there the next day and try to talk to Ryba. He spent the night in Brno and went to the Grimm tavern about 11:00 A.M. Leo and Ryba, whom the other players called Va-clav, were already at the Grimm pub with the usual Sunday group. When Schindler arrived, Leo introduced him to everyone. One of the members of the card-playing group was the retired military officer Igl whom Pruscha had earlier mentioned to “Müller.” Ryba asked Schindler whether he was a colleague of Leo’s and Oskar replied that they were old acquaintances. Schindler watched the group play cards and kept his eye on Ryba, whom Pruscha had described as the “master builder.”111
At noon, Ryba got up to leave. Leo stopped him and asked whether he would come back that evening, but Ryba said he did not know. Schindler told Leo that if that was the case, he would return as well. “Müller” took a tram to town where he had lunch and Leo went home. He returned to the Grimm tavern at 9:00 P.M. and Oskar came in half an hour later. They waited for Ryba for two and a half hours and finally decided that he was not going to show up. “Müller” asked Pruscha whether he thought Ryba knew what was going on. Leo answered that he thought he did. Schindler shrugged this off and said he would try to talk to him next Sunday. He still felt that he could convince Ryba to work with them. Oskar said in his testimony that he never intended to make Ryba an offer at their first meeting because he thought that getting him to work for Abwehr “would be much more difficult than in Pruša’s case.” It was almost midnight and both men agreed to meet the following Wednesday or Thursday at the Hradecky pub or the following Sunday at Grimm’s. The next day, Oskar Schindler was arrested by the Czech police for his espionage activities. They arrested Leo Pruscha the following day.112
The incident that led to their arrests was Oskar Schindler’s effort to recruit Rudolf Huschka, a sergeant major in the state police. Schindler had known Huschka for quite a while. According to a 1966 report of the Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior (secret police), Schindler met Huschka while Oskar, dressed in his reserve corporal’s military uniform, was inspecting fortifications near Opava and Králíky. Oskar had a meeting planned with Huschka on July 13 or 14 after his weekend with Pruscha, Kreuziger, Gritt, and Peter in Ziegenhals. He met the state police sergeant in the Ungar Hotel bar in Svitavy. Oskar began his conversation with Huschka carefully. He wanted to find out what Huschka knew and whether it would be worth the effort to recruit him. Schindler was probably frustrated with Pruscha’s limited knowledge of military affairs and wanted to be certain that if he invested the same amount of time in recruiting Huschka that it would be fruitful. He also wanted to impress Kreuziger with a better “catch.” Schindler asked the state policeman whether his agency “had institutions or other things of military-political significance.” Oskar met with Huschka over the next few days and told him that he would do what he could “to work out a connection with competent authorities in Germany.” Schindler said that the policeman was delighted over his willingness “to create access to the reichsdeutschen Nachrichtendienst.” Huschka was particularly concerned about his pay and promised regular deliveries of important information to Oskar. They agreed to meet at the Hotel Ungar at 10:00 P.M. on Monday July 18. 113
Oskar arrived on time and both men began to talk about Abwehr matters. According to Oskar, Huschka tried to give him an envelope containing important information, which Oskar refused to accept. It is possible that Schindler knew the police had him under surveillance in the hotel lobby. While they were talking, several policemen, Dr. Janda and Inspector Hrbek, as well as the head of Svitavy’s police unit, Tomek, arrested Schindler and Huschka. They were taken to local police headquarters for an initial interrogation. Schindler quickly confessed to espionage and was sent to the National Police Office in àumperk. The police promised “certain considerations” if he confessed and threatened to arrest Emilie and Oskar’s father, Hans, if he did not. After further “interrogations and confrontations,” authorities sent him to the headquarters of the Police Directorate in Brno, where authorities prepared criminal charges against him.114
