The Night of the Generals

Take cover!

There's some more, over there!

Back up, around the other way.

[SPEAKS IN POLISH]

What's the odd smell

in this house, inspector?

The smell of war,

Major Grau.

Good morning, inspector.

Major.

I'm sorry to call you

at such an ungodly hour.

Not very nice, I'm afraid.

The work of an amateur

butcher, I should say.

Why have you called me?

The dead woman's Polish,

isn't she?

This is not a case

for the German authorities.

Her name was Kupiecka.

Maria Kupiecka.

Kupiecka?

Oh, yes, she was a prostitute

and a good friend to us.

She was also a German agent.

Killed by a Polish patriot?

Providing the Polish patriot

was also a sexual degenerate.

Patriotism has been known

to have its vicious side.

One hundred knife wounds

goes beyond normal patriotic zeal.

One hundred?

That's just my guess, sir.

It would be impossible

to count.

As you can see, the focus

of the murderer's attack

was on the woman's

sexual organs,

using what appears to have been

a large clasp knife...

Thank you, doctor,

there's no need to be vivid.

[SPEAKING IN POLISH]

Find anything?

No, not yet.

Who reported the murder?

A voice on the telephone.

A man. He heard screams

at about 11:
10.

Identify himself?

No.

Who lives in this house?

One of you...

One of you heard a scream

and telephoned the police.

One of you knows something

about the way in which

this woman died.

If that person does not tell us

everything he knows,

we shall assume

that her death was political.

That she was killed by a member

of the Polish underground

and that you are all

accomplices.

In which case,

it will be my sad duty

to turn the whole lot of you

over to the Gestapo.

The man who

telephoned the police

has one minute in which

to make himself known.

I heard the scream.

This one terrible scream.

And then, well, I...

I hid in the lavatory.

Then later,

perhaps 10 minutes later,

I telephoned the police.

That's all.

You did not give

the police your name.

That means that there

was something you didn't

want them to know.

What could that something be?

Well, there's a...

There's this crack in the door

to the lavatory.

And naturally, you put your eye

to the crack and you saw?

I saw a man

coming down the stairs.

Describe him, please.

Well, it... It was dark.

Describe him, please.

I couldn't see all of him.

Just the lower part,

the trousers.

Why are you so frightened

by what you saw?

Because it was a uniform, sir.

Like yours.

Like mine?

A German officer?

The man's a liar.

German officers can commit

murders like anyone else.

Is that all you noticed?

That the trousers were like mine?

Exactly like mine?

No.

Not exactly, sir. No.

There was a...

There was a red stripe

running down the leg.

He's lying.

Are you aware that

only German generals

wear the red stripe?

Yes, sir. That's why I was afraid.

I see.

It's impossible.

Nothing is impossible.

A German general.

Well, well.

I don't think we need to take

this testimony too seriously.

After all, it was dark on the stairs.

Sir, I swear...

I swear, I'm telling the truth.

And I believe you,

until there's evidence

to the contrary.

Why would he tell a dangerous lie?

I want a complete investigation.

But what happens if

the murderer really is a general?

What happens? Well, justice

is blind, my dear inspector.

Justice cannot see

the red stripe or the gold braid,

but justice can sometimes

hear the cry of a murdered woman.

If a general is responsible,

why, we shall have to hang him.

Don't worry, Liesowski,

the responsibility is mine.

Good night.

Well, Inspector Morand,

you can't blame me

for not quite remembering a case that

occurred almost a generation ago.

But as they say,

it's the long arm of the law.

It's... It's 23 years ago.

My God, how time passes.

When I left the police,

right after the war

I managed to keep

some of my files.

Always glad to help a colleague.

Ah, here we are, inspector.

"Kupiecka, Maria.

Murdered. Unsolved."

The suspects were...

Oh, yes. Yes, now I remember.

A German general was seen

allegedly leaving her room.

And of all the generals in Warsaw,

only three had no alibis

for the night in question.

Here, this is the Lichnowsky Palace.

It used to belong

to the Polish kings.

Then later it became a museum.

As you can see,

today it's still a museum.

During the war,

the German headquarters

in Warsaw was located here.

As I was saying,

we were quite thorough, I thought,

in the way we eliminated suspects.

Had to proceed tactfully, of course.

They were generals, after all,

and it was war.

And Poland was occupied.

Ready for inspection, sir.

One of them was

General von Seidlitz-Gabler,

7th Corps commander.

He was a Junker of the old school.

He lived like royalty in the palace,

with his wife and daughter.

The night of the murder,

he was not in his quarters.

His chief of staff,

Major General Klaus Kahlenberge

also had no alibi that night.

Of all the generals,

he was the least disagreeable.

An interesting man.

No wife, no children.

General Gabler, a message.

Yes?

A message from General Tanz, sir.

Thank you, Fraulein Neumaier.

It seems we have failed

to keep proper order in the city.

You have read it?

Oh, yes.

And because

of our notorious incompetence...

Incompetence?

They don't realize that

this is a garrison post,

that I am given only

the dregs of the army,

the misfits.

Well, that was General Tanz's word.

"Incompetence."

Not to mention subordinates

who shirk responsibility.

And because of our failure,

the Fuhrer has ordered General Tanz

to solve the problem of Warsaw.

How?

Meticulously.

In three phases.

Using the most

drastic means, I suppose.

Drastic?

Monstrous.

Lieutenant General Tanz

commanded the Nibelungen Division.

He was the youngest

Wehrmacht general.

A hero at Leningrad, a pet of Hitler,

a remarkable officer.

We Poles detested him.

He arrived in Warsaw on the day

the woman was killed.

He, too, was unaccounted for

that night.

First roadblock, set up there.

Yes, sir.

The sniping last night came

from a street two blocks away.

The entire quarter

is to be sealed off.

We shall take a leaf

from the fisherman's book.

First, we'll mark out a wide

perimeter, then we'll start

combing the outlying streets.

That should set the fish in motion.

Of course, they'll try to make off

in the opposite direction,

but we'll have roadblocks there

to cut them off.

By the time we've closed the net,

we'll have them exactly

where we want them.

With their backs to the ghetto wall.

Excuse me, general, what about

the civilian population?

The latest estimate,

this section of the city contains

about 80,000 inhabitants.

One can hardly talk of a normal

civilian population in this place.

I regard the experience to

be gained from this operation

as absolutely indispensable.

Hold it at 20.

Now, about those

flamethrowers, sir,

to be on the safe side,

I've requested three times

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