Free The Blood Flag by James W. Huston Page B

promise you. At the very least, it will be an international conspiracy to undermine foreign governments. It may also be a conspiracy to undermine the German government itself.”
    Köhler nodded as he considered what I’d said. “You may be right. What is it you propose to do?”
    â€œI hadn’t thought about the castle very much. You say it’s located outside of Munich?”
    â€œYes.”
    Thoughts flooded into my head as something occurred to me. “After Recklinghausen, I took my family to Munich because I’d heard it was a beautiful city. We stayed in a wonderful hotel, and when we asked the concierge where we should go to dinner, she recommended that we go to the Hofbräuhaus am Platzl. She said it was a wonderful place with traditional German food, great beer. It was great. The place is huge. Great oompah band, men in lederhosen, women in those dresses—”
    â€œDerndls.”
    â€œRight. All very cheerful and upbeat. But when I got back to our hotel room—did I tell you that my father was a military historian?”
    Köhler shook his head.
    â€œQuite the expert on World War II history and American diplomatic history. Maybe that is why I knew, but I remembered that Hitler started his whole movement at a beer hall in Munich. I had to look it up to find out if I had just had dinner where Hitler marched. So, I looked it up, and that’s when I read about the beer hall
putsch
.”
    Köhler nodded. “It’s very famous.”
    â€œIt’s not widely known in the States. So the beer hall where the
putsch
occurred is gone. I guess that gave me a little bit of comfort, but I read on, trying to remember exactly what it was about. They stormed out of the beer hall, armed, and headed toward the center of the city. So Hitler’s gang and the hundreds of men—armed with guns and sticks and wearing swastikas and carrying a big Nazi flag—stormed toward the city hall. But somebody warned the authorities, and before they got there the police stopped them.
    They told the Nazis to stop advancing or they would be fired on. Hitler ordered them forward and the state police fired. I think sixteen were killed. The first Nazi martyrs, as Hitler called them. Hitler was arrested, thrown in prison, and that’s where he wrote
Mein Kampf
.”
    â€œExactly.”
    â€œSo this castle being in Bavaria is not coincidental. He’s starting where Hitler started.”
    â€œI agree.”
    I sat back, suddenly struck with an idea that made me start. It sent a chill through me. I said, “I may have just thought of the idea I was looking for.”
    â€œWhat is it?” Köhler asked.
    â€œOne of the men in front was carrying that large Nazi flag. He was shot and fell, and the flag fell to the ground. Other Nazis who were shot fell on top of the flag and bled to death on it. That flag became famous. It became known as the Blood Flag.”
    â€œIt is very famous. In German it is
die Blutfahne.
”
    I sat forward. “After the battle, somebody took the flag. They hid it until Hitler got out of prison. And when he began his public life again, he used the Blood Flag like it had magical powers. Any big ceremony or swearing in was always in front of the Blood Flag. He would have them touch it, to show respect to the original Nazi martyrs. In that movie,
Triumph of the Will
, the flag was right there, leading the parade. It was everywhere; it was Hitler’s favorite symbol. He touched it to other unit flags, passing on the strength of the Nazi martyrs.”
    Köhler nodded again. “All true. But so?”
    I spoke a little more quietly. “The flag disappeared in 1944 and has never been found. Most people think it’s still out there, in some basement, or in storage. Maybe in a safe deposit box in Switzerland. What if I tracked it down and used
die Blutfahne
to help the Southern Volk?”
    â€œHe would think it is