Der kleine Löwe und die Großen oder Die Patriarchen und die Diplomatie Page #5

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for a city you hardly know?

Well?

Hold on...

I need an answer.

I need one now.

What would you do in my shoes?

Answer me, will you?

Answer me!

I don't know.

Just as I thought.

Enter!

I've been sent by Colonel Jay.

General, listen...

Get out. Stand ready.

We'll find a way...

I told you, I won't surrender.

Think of the consequences.

The Americans

are on the outskirts of Paris.

Your wife can surely be...

Put me through to Hegger.

Yes, Hegger.

At the parliament building.

We'll find a way

to get your family out.

Baden-Baden is on the border.

They could reach Switzerland via France.

I know a group

that will be able to help them.

Corporal Mayer

can drive them to Strasbourg

and to the group I know.

Tomorrow, they'll be safe.

I can't get through to Hegger.

The field telephone's dead.

With the French engineer

to guide you.

It's just across the Seine.

The parliament building.

The parliament building, yes.

I must speak with him personally.

Take a radio with you.

Yes, sir. I'm on my way.

Watch out! Sniper!

I can get them across the border,

at no risk.

One word from you

and tomorrow they'll be in Switzerland.

Why do you think

Sippenhaft was decreed

the day before I was posted here?

A pure coincidence? No.

It's a law aimed at me personally.

My family can't leave Baden-Baden

without the Gestapo after them.

They'll be arrested,

incarcerated and executed.

It could be worse, couldn't it?

They could be sent to the camps.

Ravensbrck.

Are you familiar with that name?

Believe me,

in some cases, death is preferable.

You did your duty

by coming this far.

Now, let me do mine.

If you'd be so kind...

The pill bottle...

Sorry?

The bottle in my desk.

In the drawer.

- Which one?

- Near the phone.

Hurry!

- How many?

- Two. Two pills.

Here.

Breathe deeply.

Long, deep breaths.

Come with me.

Drink this.

Thank you.

This is grotesque. I'm sorry.

No, not at all.

It's this damn asthma that...

I've had it for years

and with the heat, it...

You should keep your pills on you.

Thanks.

How do you feel?

Exhausted.

Move!

- Which way now?

- This way.

Can we trust him?

You have a better idea?

Forget the war a moment.

Picture yourself in five years

on this balcony.

It's one day in the week,

just another day...

You hear the horns of tugboats

coming up the Seine,

glaziers and clothes merchants

hawking their wares,

a newspaper vendor

shouting out headlines...

You hear the swish

of the broom bristles,

scraping the sidewalk

with a noise like an ocean tide.

It's in the bold light of March,

or misty November.

It is Paris

as you've never seen it,

nothing like occupied Paris

5 years earlier.

You come from Baden-Baden

with wife and children

and you think,

I, General Dietrich von Choltitz,

one day in August '44,

might have put an end to this.

But I didn't.

What will you feel, do you think,

at that precise moment?

Generals often

have the power to destroy,

rarely the power to edify.

Paris would owe its existence

to you alone.

Is that not worth

all the glory due a conqueror?

You are a fine advocate,

but if I ever return

and your capital is still standing,

I'll be traveling alone.

My wife and children won't be with me

to admire your city.

Why get me back on my feet?

Pardon me?

You came to my aid.

I'd like to understand why.

What's to understand?

You could've let me choke to death.

I am a diplomat, not a soldier,

as you said.

Death is not my business.

Paris has only one ace in its hand

to save it from destruction.

You.

The Nazis here would blow it up

in a flash,

but you're not like them.

How would you know?

You asked me what I'd do

in your shoes. I'll tell you.

For nothing in the world

would I want to be in your shoes.

It's not the destruction of a city

but of millions of people.

Until now, you have managed

to keep intact your self-respect.

If you carry out

the orders of that tyrant,

believe me,

you'll lose it forever.

General, should we get in position?

What?

The enemy's at the city gates.

And Bressensdorf?

He hasn't reported back yet.

Thank you. Leave us now.

Sir, there's only 20 of us here.

And so?

Should we set up defenses downstairs,

on the roof or on this floor?

How old are you?

Eighteen.

All men under 20

must leave the city.

We're all under 20,

except 3 or 4 of us.

They stay with me

and you others go.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

My men are scared.

They're kids. It's not their war.

It's no longer yours, either.

It's that of a man alone,

aging, fading,

fooling himself and fooling others.

A man reduced to blackmail,

demanding inhuman obedience

of his generals to commit crimes.

Hitler.

The man had a gift, you know.

He had a gift for captivating you,

giving you confidence

and making you believe

in Germany's historic destiny.

And today?

Today...

Your superiors tried to assassinate him.

Why?

I can't imagine

they attempted it for no reason.

I played no part in their plot.

You must have an idea.

You knew them all.

They weren't revolutionaries

or fanatics.

So why try to kill him?

They were a step ahead.

Sorry?

They were in contact with Hitler.

I wasn't.

Two weeks

after the assassination attempt,

I was summoned to Rastenburg,

Hitler's headquarters.

I was ready to renew my trust,

to continue to believe

we had a chance.

But the man I saw

was absolutely not

the man I once knew.

He was slobbering at the mouth.

His face was wracked

with spasms and...

The eyes...

Those eyes.

When I left Rastenburg,

I had made up my mind

not to obey his orders to the letter,

to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.

But since then, there is this ax

over my children's heads.

Today,

I have no other way of saving them.

Just one question.

If you surrender Paris

without resistance,

what exactly will happen?

Sorry, I wasn't listening.

If you don't destroy Paris,

what will be the consequences?

A debacle?

Something like that, yes.

The frontline north of the Seine

will be shattered,

with the Allies

free to strike at the Reich.

And the immediate repercussions?

What happens next?

If Paris falls,

how will Germany and the army react

when they find out?

With astonishment, at first.

But soon it will be total panic.

Panic?

So, risk sending your family

to Switzerland.

The impact of your capitulation

means your wife and children

won't be Hitler's priority.

That will give us a few days to act.

If I capitulate,

I'll be arrested immediately.

How can I do anything then?

Leave it all to me.

To you?

What guarantees do I have?

You have two.

First, Caporal Mayer.

He drives your family

from Baden-Baden to Strasbourg,

on to Mulhouse, around the Jura,

to Annemasse, in Haute-Savoie.

Driving all night,

they'll be there tomorrow morning.

Why not go straight to Basle?

It's closer, true,

but the border's tightly guarded.

From Annemasse,

it's quicker and safer.

No mountains to climb,

the border's a formality...

Your family

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