Dead?

In the little village of Bebenhausen, in the French zone of Germany, Herr & Frau Stuckebrock lived a quiet life. Stucke-brock, 51, plowed and planted part of a onetime German Army parade ground nearby. His wife made Christmas tree decorations and other knickknacks from colored paper and pine cones. One night last week, a group of U.S., French and German police aroused them at midnight. Stuckebrock leaped for his coat. A German policeman stopped him before he got a poison vial. Under guard, the two former Nazi leaders were taken away.

Under his real name of Colonel General August Heiszmeyer, Stuckebrock had been head of the "Ubergestapo"--the Supreme SS Tribunal, the Gestapo of the Gestapo. As Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, Frau Stuckebrock was Hitler's No. 1 Nazi woman, director of all the women's organizations in the Reich. According to Nuernberg's war criminals' list, Heiszmeyer was "presumed dead," Scholtz-Klink was "dead." Witnesses had "identified" her body among those removed from Hitler's Berlin air-raid bunker.

Arrested also was the pink and plump 71-year-old Pauline, Princess of Wuerttemberg, who sheltered them in their escape and established them in Bebenhausen, part of her former domain. When told that she could go out on bail, the cigar-smoking princess tickled her nurse and rocked with glee. The pair she sheltered will be turned over to U.S. authorities.

How to Propagate Germans. In 1929, 27-year-old Gertrud ScholtzKlink joined the Nazi movement. Five years later, Hitler appointed her Leader of German Women. She told German women: "We do everything regularly and jointly in accordance with the Fuehrer's will. We obey unconditionally." She sent them to factories and farms, relentlessly pursued the Nazi race creed. "We bring the fruits of our motherhood to the Fuehrer," she said, "and say to him, 'It is the best that we have. Therefore it belongs to you.'"

To this end, she established homes where selected Aryans might meet and mate. She moved into Paris and arranged hospitalization for French girls pregnant by German soldiers. She set up a "bonus" scheme to buy their babies and send them to German homes. She had four children by two previous husbands, Heiszmeyer seven from a previous marriage. In 1940, when they announced their wedding in the Berlin press, the pair declared, "We have given our eleven children a joint home." Later their family was increased to twelve.

And Lose Track of Them. In May 1945, the Leader of German Women and her husband fled from Berlin. Caught in a crossfire between German and U.S. troops, she was wounded five times. They picked up the youngest child, took refuge with Princess Pauline, who said that she cared for Frau Heiszmeyer "as one would help a wounded animal."

Last week Frau Heiszmeyer could tell the authorities nothing about the other eleven offspring. "It's funny," she said, "how you can lose track of your children." At this her husband broke into laughter. "Yes," he roared, "funny indeed."

The unmasking of the Heiszmeyers raised the question: Are other Nazis, listed as dead, still alive? Last week Gertrud Scholtz-Klink emphasized the doubt. "The spirit of Hitler is not dead," she declared.

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