And so it Begins
Berlin, 1934
The humid night air had pulled Lothar De la Rey from a troubled sleep. It was mid June in the German capital and the weather had been overcast for the passt week, as if a storm was threatening to decend on the city but couldnt quite make up its mind.
Lothar swung his feet off the bed and quickly pulled on the shirt he had left discarded on the nightstand, opening the set of double doors and walking out onto the small balcony of his flat that overlooked the city.
Lothar was a young man of 25 years and the youngest son of the famous Independance War hero Koos De la Rey. As a slight breeze ruffled the tall Boer's blonde hair he gazed out at the lights of the German capital. Alot had changed here since he had arrived four years ago to persue further studies at Berlins prestigious Friedrich Wilhelm University. Four years ago Berlin had been a center for new and radical thaught, he had brushed shoulders with the greatest minds of the age walking through the ancient corridors of the University, Lothar had passed Albert Einstien several times while walking between classes. Now however free thaught was tabboo, as soon as the first Swastikas that now lined the main thourghourfair through the Brandenburg Gate, almost visible in the distance if Lothar strained his eyes, had been erected in 1933 they had all gone. The artists, the musicians, the scientists.
Lothar could still vividly remember the day the Brown shirted Nazi goons had burst into the University library with orders to sieze any works by "degenerates." Over 20, 000 books had been taken that day. And he had helped them
Lothar couldnt help but wonder why he couldnt sleep. Was it becuase of the heat or something else. The next month would bring either complete dissaster or joyous victory, and how he had worked to get this far.
It had began innocently enough three years earlier. It was no secret around the University that the handsome young South African student was a supporter of the ideals of the Nazi movement, indeed many in South Africa could not help but admire the man Adolf Hitler, a man who promised a return to greatness for his people and freedom from the shackles of the Great Depression. As Lothar had sat late one night in the campus library two men dressed in leather trenchcoats to ward off the early winter chill.
"Are you Lothar De la Rey?" one had asked, causing the young man to look up from his notes.
"That depends who's asking"
"We would like you to come with us please sir, someone would like to meet you"
Lothar had looked around the room, it was nearly 1am and the library was deserted, plus it seemed the two were not going to take no for an answer, he simply shrugged, shouldered his carry bag full of books and followed the two to a waiting black Merciedies.
Hitler himself had met the Lothar that night. In a daze the South African had been told that great things were happening in Germany and he, HE had been chosen from a list of fellow visionaries in his country to help South Africa achieve greatness and it was here that he had been completley drawn into the machinations of the Nazi leader. Soon, Hitler had said, soon he would rule Germany and when the time came he would need allies, the world would turn against Germany and yet the German race would emerge victorious. German blood ran in Lothars viens, he had always dreamed of attaining the fame of his father and this was an irresistable opportunity to do so.
It had been nearly two years since that night and the plot had as they said in the American films he once frequented with his university friends, "thickened" For two years he had run back and forwards between his homeland and Germany, he had taken money and weapons and where necissary he had killed those that stood in his way. He had wooed important military officials with his firey rhetoric borrowed from the German leader, he had bribed politicians with visions of grandure and now it was all to come to a head.
Lothar kicked the sheets off the bed and lay stairing into nothing. Soon he thaught, soon we too shall have our time...