removing his jacket. ‘I’m very grateful for your help.’
‘Maybe it would be quicker if we took a volume each,’ Magda suggested.
‘Aren’t you a little overdressed for this?’ He pointed to the dark silk of her suit.
‘You’re talking to someone who’s been up to her armpits in a Melanesian cesspit.’ She pulled up the jacket’s sleeves. ‘Never let it be said an anthropologist was afraid to get her hands dirty. If there’s any permanent damage I’ll take it up with the House of Chanel.’
‘All right. If you check January nineteen thirty-seven, I’ll do the winter of ’thirty-six.’
‘Why don’t we broaden the search a month either side of our window, just in case?’ she suggested.
‘Good idea.’ Jamie opened the thick volume so the weight of the paper slapped back against the wooden surface, raising a small cloud of dust that made his nose twitch. ‘A pity they didn’t provide gas masks.’
He leafed through the dog-eared pages until he came to October. Front page after front page carried pictures of Hitler, Goering or Goebbels saluting long columns of marching men, shaking hands with other Nazi bigwigs or attending enormous rallies of cheering Hitler Youths. Apart from what seemed an odd fascination with the United States, the stories had a familiar theme. They focused on the success of the regime, vilification of Jews and saboteurs, and how well things were going in Spain where Franco was preparing for an offensive against Madrid. The never-ending diet of Nazi propaganda left him cold, but Jamie forced himself to focus on every paragraph. The only reference he could find of any interest was the arrival of a military delegation from Japan for talks with their Wehrmacht counterparts late in October. The true reason for the visit was revealed a few editions later. On 25 November, the Japanese ambassador to Germany, Kintomo Mushakoji, and the host nation’s foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, committing the two countries to deter the expansion of Communism. Jamie reflected that by November 1936 the Nazis were well experienced on that front, given the number of Communists they’d already killed. He turned back a few pages to an article he’d noticed earlier: the beheading on 4 November of the activist Edgar Andre, rounded up during the anti-Communist witch hunt after the Reichstag fire three years earlier. It would be just like the Nazis to have staged the execution to impress their Oriental guests. Turning back to the page that announced the arrival of the Japanese military mission, he noted down the names of the officers involved. He looked up to find Magda studying him intently. ‘Do you have anything?’
She shook her head. ‘I’ve been though every edition twice and the only thing I can find for January and February is a visit from a low-level US trade delegation.’
‘Nothing else?’ Jamie frowned.
‘Do you have anything particular in mind?’
‘There’s something missing. Can you look again, but take it as far as April?’
‘What am I looking for?’ she persisted.
‘The Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan was about turning back the tide of Communism. Communism meant Stalin.’ He picked up the 1936 volume and took it across to her table, opening it at the picture of Mushakoji and von Ribbentrop. ‘It was a diplomatic initiative that would have generated a diplomatic response. Japan and Germany signed the pact in November, but they would have been negotiating the detail for months in advance, that’s why we have a military mission in Berlin in October. It’s a sure bet the GRU – the Soviet intelligence directorate – would have been keeping Stalin informed. Despite their mutual distrust, relations between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were very polite and formal. The Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe had only closed their secret Russian training schools three years earlier. Once the treaty had been signed – forming an alliance that
‘Maybe it would be quicker if we took a volume each,’ Magda suggested.
‘Aren’t you a little overdressed for this?’ He pointed to the dark silk of her suit.
‘You’re talking to someone who’s been up to her armpits in a Melanesian cesspit.’ She pulled up the jacket’s sleeves. ‘Never let it be said an anthropologist was afraid to get her hands dirty. If there’s any permanent damage I’ll take it up with the House of Chanel.’
‘All right. If you check January nineteen thirty-seven, I’ll do the winter of ’thirty-six.’
‘Why don’t we broaden the search a month either side of our window, just in case?’ she suggested.
‘Good idea.’ Jamie opened the thick volume so the weight of the paper slapped back against the wooden surface, raising a small cloud of dust that made his nose twitch. ‘A pity they didn’t provide gas masks.’
He leafed through the dog-eared pages until he came to October. Front page after front page carried pictures of Hitler, Goering or Goebbels saluting long columns of marching men, shaking hands with other Nazi bigwigs or attending enormous rallies of cheering Hitler Youths. Apart from what seemed an odd fascination with the United States, the stories had a familiar theme. They focused on the success of the regime, vilification of Jews and saboteurs, and how well things were going in Spain where Franco was preparing for an offensive against Madrid. The never-ending diet of Nazi propaganda left him cold, but Jamie forced himself to focus on every paragraph. The only reference he could find of any interest was the arrival of a military delegation from Japan for talks with their Wehrmacht counterparts late in October. The true reason for the visit was revealed a few editions later. On 25 November, the Japanese ambassador to Germany, Kintomo Mushakoji, and the host nation’s foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, committing the two countries to deter the expansion of Communism. Jamie reflected that by November 1936 the Nazis were well experienced on that front, given the number of Communists they’d already killed. He turned back a few pages to an article he’d noticed earlier: the beheading on 4 November of the activist Edgar Andre, rounded up during the anti-Communist witch hunt after the Reichstag fire three years earlier. It would be just like the Nazis to have staged the execution to impress their Oriental guests. Turning back to the page that announced the arrival of the Japanese military mission, he noted down the names of the officers involved. He looked up to find Magda studying him intently. ‘Do you have anything?’
She shook her head. ‘I’ve been though every edition twice and the only thing I can find for January and February is a visit from a low-level US trade delegation.’
‘Nothing else?’ Jamie frowned.
‘Do you have anything particular in mind?’
‘There’s something missing. Can you look again, but take it as far as April?’
‘What am I looking for?’ she persisted.
‘The Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan was about turning back the tide of Communism. Communism meant Stalin.’ He picked up the 1936 volume and took it across to her table, opening it at the picture of Mushakoji and von Ribbentrop. ‘It was a diplomatic initiative that would have generated a diplomatic response. Japan and Germany signed the pact in November, but they would have been negotiating the detail for months in advance, that’s why we have a military mission in Berlin in October. It’s a sure bet the GRU – the Soviet intelligence directorate – would have been keeping Stalin informed. Despite their mutual distrust, relations between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were very polite and formal. The Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe had only closed their secret Russian training schools three years earlier. Once the treaty had been signed – forming an alliance that
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