The Second Book

   The Second Book

Suzanne Marsh

August 27^th, 1945

“Move it Ranko, hurry up, we still have drawers full of papers that the Nazi’s did not burn.”

“Sergeant Brooks, we been at this since early this morning, no lunch, nothin. You might

not need lunch but I do. Why do we have to pack all this stuff up in boxes, if the Krauts

had no use for it why do we?” Sergeant Brooks was just as inclined as Private John Ranko, to just toss everything into boxes and let the historians and archivists do what they do best, sort through every piece of paper.

“Ranko, get the rest of those empty boxes, fill them with the remaining papers, and lets

get out of here.” Ranko smiled:

“Sarge, I thought you were never gonna say that.”

Between the two men they filled the rest of the boxes they brought with them. They were just finishing up when Ranko found a large manila envelope with something scribbled in German, since neihter of them spoke German, the only thing they could do was to place it in the last box. There was something about that manila envelope that bothered Sergeant Thomas Brooks, a niggle that it could be important. He made a mental note to inform the captain about the discovery, he thought they might have made. He decided against that idea, simply because he had seen enough Nazi papers in the last week to last him a life time, he knew Ranko felt the same way.

Once their chore was done they took the Deuce and a Half back to Berchtesgaden, a small village not far from Berghof, Hitler’s favorite home where he went to relax. They had explored the bunker that was there, the only items they found were rugs, a divan, after all Hitler wanted to remain comfortable while bombs were dropped.

The following morning was gray, a sad day since the unit was being shipped out. Now that Germany had been defeated most of soldiers were being sent to the Philippines, to end the war in the Pacific. Ranko and Brooks were not being shipped to the Philippines they were being sent back home with all the papers that were confiscated.

1958 United States National Archives

Major Thomas Brooks, smiled to himself as he remembered when all those papers had to be loaded onto the deuce and a half, then put on a plane headed for Washington. Here he was standing here in a vault belonging to the National Archives, he had no idea why he was here, then he heard a voice he had not heard in thirteen years, he thought; ‘oh no it can’t be, even the army could not screw things up again.’ Brooks turned around, there stood Ranko, dressed in suit and tie, he strode over and shook hands with Brooks:

“Hey sarge, been a while, sorry Major.” Brooks smiled: “yeah thirteen years to be exact. What

are you doing here anyway Ranko?” It was Ranko’s turn to be surprised:

“I went to college on the GI bill, I am a historian here at the archives. Surprise huh?”

Surprise did not even cover the thoughts that Brooks was having. He knew there had to be a reason he was here:

“Tom, you don’t mind if I call you Tom do you? The reason you are here is aid me in finding

a manila envelope, we believe it could be a sequel to Mein Kampf. Do remember when

we were tossing everything into boxes? That is where we believe it is..” Major Tom Brooks had no idea what they had done with one box, perhaps this was their needle in a haystack. Tom knew then this new assignment was to find that manuscript, the question was what to do with it once they found it. He thought it could be eventually returned to German archives, then again he thought they may not wish to be reminded of the horrors at the hands of the Nazi’s.

“Ranko, have you any ideas how many boxes we loaded on that deuce? Hundreds and

hundreds, I have no idea where to even start.” Ranko gave Brooks a half smile:

“We search every box, I labeled some the day we finished but I have no idea there was

anything valuable, like Hitler’s Second Book. Those were some crazy days.” Brooks thought for several moments:

“What makes someone think there was a manuscript?” Ranko, thought carefully before he answered:

“Someone higher up thinks it is possible since they found some notes in Himmler’s

desk, so you and I are assigned to find it if it exists.”

With some resignation, Brooks nodded:

“Might as well start looking, Ranko, it took us two months to pack all that stuff up

and there is little doubt in my mind it will take as long to find it..” The strode over toward the boxes that were piled almost to the ceiling. They began looking through the papers in the boxes. The first ten days were a bust for both men. Brooks wondered what the title of the book would be, since it was a follow up to Mein Kampf, who knew. Brooks thought to himself: ‘to bad we did not realize we had that manuscript in our hands, now we are going to be looking for this manuscript, I wonder what they will do with it once we find it. Publish it in a few more years?’ He worked as he thought. The National Archives had a great many impressive documents, he just hoped they found this thing before to long.

Ranko, opened a box the later end of June, there was the manila envelope they sought. A plain brown manila envelope that contained what? More ravings, what ever was in it, the world would know soon enough. Ranko called his supervisor to come and take a look, a bring a translator. This find was just to good to be true, had they actually found the manuscript? Time stood still as Ranko and Brooks waited for the supervisor, and the translator.

Once both were on site, the translator picked up the manila envelope carefully, then it was opened there in their hands in Hitler’s words was The Second Book. They began to read it, then understood why there had been no need for Hitler to have it published, it was his foreign policies and other ideas for creating the growth of Nazism. The book was published in 1961, and called The Second Book.