Minor Fictional Characters in The Man With the Iron Heart

This article lists the various minor fictional characters who appear in The Man With the Iron Heart. These characters are identified by name, but play at best a peripheral role in the novel. Most were simply mentioned or had a very brief, unimportant speaking role that did not impact the plot, and never appeared again.

Boris Antipov
Major General Boris Antipov was a member of the Soviet Red Army. In the aftermath of World War II, Antipov was a divisional commander in tthe German city of Dresden.

A German Freedom Front Werewolf named Gustav Fenstermacher attempted to blow himself and several Soviet soldiers up in the fall of 1945. For unclear reasons, his bomb didn't go off, and he was taken captive. Antipov informed the NKVD in Berlin, who sent Captain Vladimir Bokov to collect Fenstermacher.

Antipov had a German mistress named Trudi. Bokov very carefully (so as not to anger the general) asked as to whether or not she spoke Russian.

Rudolf Bauer
Rudolf Bauer was a Scharfuhrer of the Waffen-SS during World War II, and a member of the German Freedom Front after the war. He was part of an assault group that attacked a unit of American soldiers on the road between Nuremberg and Munich. The GFF had been outgunned and nearly wiped out. Bauer had received a severe leg wound and was taken prisoner. Under morphine, he was interrogated by Lt. Lou Weissberg, who convinced Bauer that he was in Soviet hands. Bauer gave up his immediate superior, Egon Steinbrecher.

R.R.R. Baxter
R.R.R. Baxter was a Brigadier General in the United States Army's Counter-Intelligence Corps. He informed Lou Weissberg and Howard Frank that the Soviet NKVD had contacted the CIC about turning over a person who might know where German Freedom Front leader Reinhard Heydrich was. Both agreed to a meeting.

Weissberg wondered just what the three r's stood for in Baxter's name.

Bruce
Bruce was a morale officer in the United States Army. He ran a movie projector for Captain Howard Frank and Lt. Lou Weissberg when they viewed a film produced by the German Freedom Front showing captive Ameerican solider Matthew Cunningham.

Like the two officers, Bruce was horrified. He also astutely pointed out that this was probably not the only copy of the film.

Douglas Catledge
Douglas Catledge was a twice-wounded veteran of World War II. He was Jerry Duncan's Democratic opponent in 1947. As Catledge was pro-war and pro-occupation of Germany, and Duncan was one of the key politicians leading opposition to the occupation, Duncan won handily. During his concession call, Catledge tried to convince Duncan that withdrawal was a mistake, but Duncan paid no heed.

Jean Desroches
Jean Desroches was a captain in the French Army during and after World War II. When the United States received information that the German Freedom Front was planning some sort of event in Hechingen in the French zone of Occupied Germany, Lt. Lou Weissberg visited Desroches. Desroches noted the warning, but dismissed it because of its lack of specificity. Moreover Desroches had adopted the French policy of hostility towards the Americans, this despite the fact that Desroches was wearing an American uniform and carried American equipment.

The meeting did not go well, as Desroches was more interested in asserting French independence than cooperating with Weissberg.

Days later, Desroches returned and informed Weissberg, and then Weissberg's immediate superior, Captain Howard Frank, that the GFF had attacked a rubbish dump outside the building where ten German scientists had been captured after the war. When Frank followed up, he learned what the GFF had taken, but couldn't tell Desroches.

Ihor Eschenko
Ihor Eschenko was a major in the Soviet Red Army. In the aftermath of the assassination of Ivan Koniev, Eschenko ordered the round up of German POWs for execution and interrogation. He reported his findings to Vladimir Bokov of the NKVD, and then supervised a retaliatory mass execution.

To Bokov's surprise, Eschenko was indiscrete in sharing some of his opinions. While Eschenko actually outranked Bokov, Bokov wielded greater power. However, Bokov saw little harm in Eschenko's tactless utterings, and was far more interested in catching Koniev's assassin.

Gustav Fenstermacher
Gustav Fenstermacher was an Obergefreiter in the German Wehrmacht. After Germany surrendered in May, 1945, Fenstermacher joined the German Freedom Front. In the fall of 1945, he strapped explosives to his body and attempted to detonate himself in Soviet-occupied Dresden. His bomb did not detonate, however (either it was defective or Fenstermacher lost his nerve), and Fenstermacher was indentified and captured by Soviet troops. He was turned over to NKVD agent Vladimir Bokov.

Fenstermacher attempted to assert his rights as a POW under the Geneva Convention. Bokov quickly disabused Fenstermacher of this erroneous belief.

Fenstermacher was subjected to interrogation by the NKVD. His ultimate fate is unknown.

Fritzi
Fritzi was a veteran of the Eastern Front of World War II and a staunch Nazi. He lived in the swamps outside Erlangen, smuggling cigarettes. While in the presence of Americans, he spoke hatefully of Adolf Hitler, which lulled the Americans into a false sense of security. When Reinhard Heydrich and Johannes Klein were nearly captured by American troops, Fritzi found them and smuggled them to safety in his false-bottomed boat. They even passed an American checkpoint, but the troops knew Fritzi, and so didn't search Fritzi's boat.

Fyodor Furmanov
Fyodor Furmanov was a colonel in the Soviet Red Army. In July, 1945, he was leading a parade of troops through the streets of Berlin, when a German Freedom Front Werewolf drove up in a truck loaded with explosives. The Werewolf blew himself and the truck up, killing several Red Army soldiers and destroying half of a city block. Furmanov survived with minimal injuries--the explosion happened right behind him. Furmanov realized that the responsibility was his, and was forthright with Captain Vladimir Bokov of the NKVD when the latter investigated.

Furmanov wanted revenge, but he shared concerns that if the Soviet Union was too brutal in dealing with the GFF, it might simply drive more people into their camp.

Gabe
Gabe was a medic with the US Army. He helped carry the wounded Lt. Colonel Alexander Volchkov from the rubble of the Palace of Justice after the German Freedom Front destroyed it in December, 1945.

Nikolai Sergeyevich Golovko
Nikolai Sergeyevich Golovko (d. 1945) was a Superior Private in the Soviet Red Army. In December, 1945, he was kidnapped by the German Freedom Front. He was filmed reading the GFF's demands that the Soviet Union withdraw from Germany. Vladimir Bokov and Moisei Shteinberg quickly dismissed any thought of meeting those demands, knowing full well it meant Golovko would be killed.

Gorinovich
Gorinovich was Vladimir Bokov's driver in Dresden. Gorinovich was quite content Dresden (and by extension Germany) had gotten what it deserved. Bokov, while disturbed by the remains of Dresden, quickly agreed.

Tony Hawkins
Tony Hawkins was a major in the United States Army. He oversaw security at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg prior to the planned trials of several Nazi officials in December, 1945. He and Lou Weissberg were witness to the truck-bombing of the Palace just before the trials were scheduled to begin.

Heinz
Heinz was a member of Jochim Peiper's cell of the German Freedom Front. When Reinhard Heydrich was killed in 1947, Peiper took control. Heinz was somewhat skeptical of the regime change, but Peiper won him over.

Danny Holmquist
Danny Holmquist (d. 1945) was the son of Sven and Susan Holmquist. He was killed by the German Freedom Front at about the same time Pat McGraw was. His parents joined Diana McGraw's Mothers Against the Madness in Germany.

Rudyard Holmyard
Rudyard Holmyard was a bridagdier general in the United States Army. He was called to testify before Congress after the German Freedom Front was able to capture several prominent German physicists in 1946.

Holmyard was heavily grilled by Indiana Republican Jerry Duncan. Holmyard was able to derail Duncan when he shared the fact that General Leslie Groves (who'd overseen the Manhattan Project) was convinced that the GFF could not build an atomic bomb of its own.

Duncan felt a small amount of pity for Holmyard because of his name.

Hudgeons
Hudgeons was a major in the British Army. He was stationed in Cologne after World War II, acting as a liason between the Allies and Konrad Adenauer in early 1946. Hudgeons met with United States CIC Captain Lou Weissberg, introducing the American to Adenauer.

Izzy
Izzy was a soldier who'd served in the American occupation of Germany. He returned home in 1947, after the Truman Administration began withdrawing troops. Izzy encountered Diana McGraw, the leader of the anti-occupation forces in the U.S. Izzy cursed her in Yiddish, and attempted to argue with her, but a friend of his convinced him to move on.

Diana McGraw realized that Izzy was Jewish, and decided that "regular" Americans were plenty happy, even if the Jews weren't.

Sheldon Jacoby
Sheldon Jacoby was a soldier stationed in Munich after World War II. His uncle, Abe Jacoby, was the accountant for Mothers Against the Madness in Germany.

Uwe Kupferstein
Uwe Kupferstein was the bartender at the Soviet New Year's Eve party in 1945. After the German Freedom Front poisoned the celebration liquor, killing several officials, Kupferstein was detained by NKVD officers Vladimir Bokov and Moisei Shteinberg. Kupferstein asserted that he wasn't a Werewolf and he wanted to get on with his life. The NKVD agents let him go.

Kupferstein had served in World War II. He'd lost his foot at Dunkirk.

Boris Aleksandrovich Kuznetsov
Boris Aleksandrovich Kuznetsov (d. 1947) was a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Red Army stationed in Berlin. As he was arguing with NKVD Captain Vladimir Bokov in February, 1947, a truck bomb exploded outside the building. When Kuznetsov, Bokov, and other inhabitants of the building went out to investigate, an ambulance arrived, and another truck bomb went off. The blast ripped off the top of Kuznetsov's head.

Walt Lefevre
Walt Lefevre was part of Bernie Cobb's squad. He and Cobb found themselves fighting the German Freedom Front in the immediate aftermath of World War II. This included a firefight with a GFF Werewolf in the forests of Erlangen in the winter of 1945.

Leszczynksi
Leszczynski was a captain in the Polish Army. Although he had received medals from the Soviet Red Army, Leszczynski was a Polish nationalist, a fact that NKVD Captain Vladimir Bokov quietly picked up on, and knew that meant that Leszczynski would eventually be eliminated.

Leszczynski was Bokov's contact in Wroclaw. After Wroclaw governor Pietruska was assassinated by the German Freedom Front, the Polish Army rounded up every ethnic German in the city, until it found a Waffen-SS officer named Adrian Marwede. Bokov and Leszczynski interrogated Marwede, who confirmed two things that both men already knew: that Reinhard Heydrich had been hiding weapons, even as they were needed at the Front, and that lightly wounded men were kept by Heydrich rather than returned to battle after they healed. What Marwede revealed for the first time (although Leszczynski didn't register much surprise) was that Heydrich had been doing this since summer 1943.

Ludwig
Ludwig was a German Freedom Front Werewolf captured by the US Army CIC in the fall of 1945. Under threat of castration, Ludwig revealed the location of a GFF storage bunker in the forests of Bavaria. Lou Weissberg led a squad to seize it.

Privately, Weissberg doubted that the CIC would have really castrated Ludwig. Weissberg was also disappointed that the bunker contained weapons and propaganda tools, but no better links to the GFF leadership.

Mel
Mel was an American soldier in Germany after World War II. He drove Tom Schmidt to an interview with General Dwight Eisenhower in Munich in December, 1945. When they arrived in the city, Mel was relieved to have made it through "Injun Country" in one piece.

Mel also answered to "Horseface".

Ezra Robertson
Ezra Robertson was a major in the United States Army. He was assigned to help prosecute the various German war criminals the Allies apprehended after World War II. Those plans had been derailed twice by the German Freedom Front by 1946.

While drinking in an officer's club in Nuremberg with Howard Frank and Lou Weissberg, Robertson warned Weissberg that suggestions that the US and the Soviet Union cooperate more would be bad for Weissberg's career.