"Uris, Leon - QBVII" - читать интересную книгу автора (Uris Leon M)

'Free?'
'Not exactly. He is being detained at Brixton Prison. We are trying to get him extradited to Poland. You ought to know the situation here in England with the Polish fascists. They have made a cause celebre out of him. They've managed to attract enough attention in high places to make the British do a fence-sitting act. You knew him intimately in Jadwiga?'
'Yes,' Tesslar whispered.
'Then you must be aware of the charges against him.'
'I know he committed experimental surgery on our people.'
'How do you know this?'
'I saw it with my own eyes.'
The Under-Secretary of State The Home Office Aliens Department 10 Old Bailey London EC 4
Hobbins, Newton & Smiddy
Solicitors
32B Chancery Lane
London WC 2
Re- Dr. Adam Kelno
Gentlemen:
I am directed by the Secretary of State to inform you that he has carefully considered all the circumstances including information furnished by the Polish government. With the recent sworn statement of Dr. Mark Tesslar the
Secretary of State considers that a prima facie case has been established. It is not within our jurisdiction to comment on the right or wrong of Polish law but to comply with treaties in effect with that government.
Therefore, the Secretary of State has decided to enforce the deportation order by sending Dr. Kelno to Poland.
I am, gentlemen Your obedient servant,
John Clayton-Hill
FIVE
The guard led Adam Kelno into the glassed consultation room where he was seated opposite Robert Highsmith and Richard Smiddy.
'I'm going to come right to the point, Kelno,' Highsmith said, 'we are in a nasty bind. Nathan Goldmark has obtained a very damaging affidavit against you. What does the name Mark Tesslar mean to you?'
Fear was evident in him.
'Well?'
'He is in England?'
'Yes.'
'It is all very clear. Once the Polish government could not establish a case against me, they sent one of them after me.'
'One of whom?'
'The Communists. The Jews.'
'What about Tesslar?'
'He swore to get me years ago.' Kelno hung his head. 'Oh God, what's the use.'
'See here, man, you pull yourself together. There is no time for sinking spells. We have to keep our wits.'
'What do you want to know?'
'When did you first meet Tesslar?'
'Around 1930 at the university when we were students together. He concluded his medical training in Europe, Switzerland, I think.'
'Did you see him when he returned to Warsaw to practise before the war?'
'No, but he was known to carry out abortions. As a Roman Catholic it was difficult for me to recommend abortions, but a few times I felt it best for the life of the patient, and once a close relative was in trouble. Tesslar never knew I sent people to him. It was always done through a blind party.'
'Go on.'
'By some insane quirk of fate I met him again in Jadwiga. Late in 1942 the Germans took him from the Warsaw Ghetto and removed him to Majdanek Concentration Camp outside the city of Lublin. Here he was charged by the SS doctors to keep the camp prostitutes free of disease and to perform abortions when necessary.'
Smiddy, who had been writing notes quickly, looked up. 'How do you know this?'
'Word of this sort spreads quickly even from one camp to another. The doctors were in a very small community and a few transfers here and there would give us all the news. Also, as a member of the Nationalist underground I had access to this kind of information. We all knew about Tesslar when he arrived in Jadwiga in 1943.'
'You were the chief medical officer, so you must have had close contact with him?'
'No. It was not the case. You see, there were twenty-six barracks in the medical complex but Barracks One to Five were where the SS doctors conducted secret experiments. Tesslar lived down there. It is he who should be standing trial, not me. I warned him he would have to answer for his crimes, but he was under the protection of the Germans.
When the war was over, Tesslar became a Communist and joined the secret police as a medical officer in order to save himself. That is when he swore those lies against me.'
'I want you to answer this very carefully, Dr. Kelno,' Highsmith accentuated. 'Did you ever perform any amputations of testicles and ovaries?'
Kelno shrugged. 'Of course. I performed ten thousand, fifteen thousand operations. Large ones, small ones. A man's testicles or a woman's ovary can become diseased like any other part of the body. When I operated, I did it to save a patient's life. I recall cancers and tumours of the sexual glands. But you see how such things can become distorted. I never operated on a healthy man.'
'Who accused you of that?'
'I know all of Tesslar's accusations. Do you want to hear them? They are stamped on my brain.'
'Very well,' Highsmith said. 'We were able to get a short delay in order to give you time to answer Tesslar's statement. You must go about it coldly, dispassionately, and honestly and don't inject your personal animosity against him. You must answer every charge, point by point. Here, study this statement tonight with great care. We will be back tomorrow with a shorthand writer to take your answer.'
'I categorically deny that I boasted to Dr. Tesslar the performing of fifteen thousand experiments in surgery without anaesthetic. Too many people have testified to my good behaviour to make this anything but the wildest sort of slander.'