by Herman Wouk
“Will you need a navy?”
Rabinovitz briefly sourly smiled. “Between you and me, we have one. I helped organize it. A goddamn small one, so far.”
“Well, I’ll never be separated from this kid, once I’m demobilized. That much I know.”
“Isn’t he very quiet?”
“He doesn’t talk.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just that. He doesn’t smile, and he doesn’t talk. He hasn’t said a word to me yet. I had a time getting him released. They had him classified as psychologically disabled, some such fancy category. He’s fine. He eats, he dresses and cleans himself, in fact he’s very neat, and he understands anything you say. He obeys. He doesn’t talk.”
Rabinovitz said in Yiddish, “Louis, look at me.” The boy turned and faced him. “Smile, little fellow.” Louis’s large eyes conveyed faint dislike and contempt, and he looked out of the window again.
“Let him be,” Byron said. “I had to sign more damned papers and raise more hell before I could pry him loose. It’s lucky I got there when I did. They’re shipping about a hundred of these so-called psychologically disabled kids to Canada next week. God knows if we could ever have traced him there.”
“What’s the story on him?”
“Very sparse. I can’t read Czech, naturally, and the translation of the card was pretty poor. I gather he was picked up in a woods near Prague, where the Germans took a lot of Jews and Czechs and shot them. The bodies were just lying around. That’s where somebody found him, among the bodies.”
As they walked into the sunny garden of the convalescent home, Byron said, “Look, Louis, there’s Mama.”
Natalie stood near the same stone bench, in a new white frock. Louis let go of his father’s hand, walked toward Natalie, then broke into a run and leaped at her.
“Oh, my God! How big you are! How heavy you are! Oh, Louis!”
She sat down, embracing him. The child clung, his face buried on her shoulder, and she rocked him, saying through tears, “Louis, you came back. You came back!” She looked up at Byron. “He’s glad to see me.”
“Sort of.”
“Byron, you can do anything, can’t you?”
His face still hidden, the boy was gripping his mother hard. Rocking him back and forth, she began to sing slowly in Yiddish,
Under Louis’s cradle,
Lies a little white goat.
The little goat went into business —
Louis let go of her, sat up smiling on her lap, and tried to sing along in Yiddish, in a faltering hoarse voice, a word here and there,
“Dos vet zein dein baruf,
Rozhinkes mit mandlen —”
Almost at the same moment, Byron and Rabinovitz each put a hand over his eyes, as though dazzled by an unbearable sudden light.
In a shallow, hastily dug grave in the wood outside Prague, Berel Jastrow’s bones lie unmarked, like so many bones all over Europe. And so this story ends.
It is only a story, of course. Berel Jastrow was never born and never existed. He was a parable. In truth his bones stretch from the French coast to the Urals, dry bones of a murdered giant. And in truth a marvelous thing happens; his story does not end there, for the bones stand up and take on flesh. God breathes spirit into the bones, and Berel Jastrow turns eastward and goes home. In the glare, the great and terrible light of this happening, God seems to signal that the story of the rest of us need not end, and that the new light can prove a troubled dawn.
For the rest of us, perhaps. Not for the dead, not for the more than fifty million real dead in the world’s worst catastrophe: victors and vanquished, combatants and civilians, people of so many nations, men, women, and children, all cut down. For them there can be no new earthly dawn. Yet though their bones lie in the darkness of the grave, they will not have died in vain, if their remembrance can lead us from the long, long time of war to the time for peace.
Historical Notes
The history of the war in this romance, as in The Winds of War, is offered as accurate; the statistics, as reliable; the words and acts of the great personages, as either historical, or derived from accounts of their words and deeds in similar situations. Major figures of history do not appear in times and places not historically true.
World Holocaust, the military treatise by “Armin von Roon,” is of course an invention from start to finish. Still, General von Roon’s book is offered as a professional German view of the other side of the hill, reliable within the limits peculiar to that self-justifying literature. Except where directly challenged by Victor Henry, Roon’s facts are accurate, however warped by nationalism his judgments may be.
The reliability of detail in the well-known battles, campaigns, and events of the war — Singapore, Midway, Leyte Gulf, the Tehran Conference, the sieges of Imphal and Leningrad, and the like — will, it is hoped, be evident to the informed reader. The notes that follow deal with little-known or unusual historical elements of the story, and with passages where fact and fiction are especially intertwined.
The exploits of the fictional submarines Devilfish, Moray, and Barracuda are improvisations on actual wartime submarine patrol reports. The death of Carter Aster is based on the famous self-sacrifice of Commander Howard W. Gilmore of U.S.S. Growler, for which he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Aster, however, is a different and fictional character.
All other Navy vessels in the novel are actual and their movements and actions follow the historical record. All admirals in the Pacific are real personages and are treated like the major political figures. The story of the heavy cruiser Northampton, except for the fictitious captains Hickman and Henry, follows its war diary from Pearl Harbor to its sinking at the Battle of Tassafaronga.
The names of the pilots and gunners in the three torpedo squadrons at Midway proved surprisingly difficult to recover and verify, so quickly is the record fading. The rosters printed in the novel are the result of a long search. Any reliable corrections will be welcomed for future editions.
The story of the Izmir is a fictionalization of actual illegal voyages of refugees from the Nazis, who reached Palestine in this way or died trying.
“The Wannsee Protocol” is a historical document, and as described in the story, only one copy out of thirty of this top-secret record was preserved, through an accident of bureaucratic overthoroughness. Disclosure of a smuggled photocopy to the American legation in Bern is fictional, as are the characters in the legation.
Americans caught in Italy by the war were interned in Siena, as narrated. Those caught in southern France were first interned in Lourdes, then moved to Baden-Baden, as in the story; and harshly bargained for by the Germans thereafter, for more than a year.
The Comte and Comtesse de Chambrun are real figures; the comte did administer the American Hospital in Paris. The German ambassador in Paris, Otto Abetz, is historical. Werner Beck is a fictional character.
The Joint Declaration of the United Nations in December 1942, which led to the Bermuda Conference, is history. Its text is given in full in the novel. Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long is an actual person, whose conversation and actions are drawn largely from his own writings and his congressional testimony. Foxy Davis is fictitious.
The Bermuda Conference happened as described. The public reaction that gradually ensued, and the establishment of the War Refugee Board, are facts.
The main source for the furor in 1943 over Soviet suppression of Lend-Lease facts is Admiral William Standley’s autobiography. This Soviet practice, incidentally, continues to the present day. General Yevlenko is fictional.
“The Declaration of the Three Powers Regarding Iran” (referred to in the text as “The Declaration of Iran”) is a historical fact, as is the general outline of how it came about; though of course Victor Henry’s conversation with the Minister of the Imperial Court, Hussein Ala — a real person — is invented. General Connolly of the Persian Gulf Command is an actual officer, and th
e description of Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union through that corridor is factual. The fictitious Granville Seaton describes true Persian history.
“The Paradise Ghetto” in Terezin, or Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, was known about during the war. Nothing is invented or exaggerated in this account, though the parts played by Natalie and Dr. Jastrow are fictitious. The SS officers are all real, as are the High Elders Eppstein and Murmelstein. The general history of the ghetto is true. The “Great Beautification for the one visit of neutral Red Cross observers is a well-documented fact, in all its bizarre details, as is the visit itself. A fragment of the film “The Führer Grants the Jews a Town” survives in the Yad Vashem archive in Jerusalem. The making of the film took place as described, but the film was never exhibited.
The scenes in Oswiecim, or Auschwitz, are based on a study of the available documents and literature, as well as on consultations with survivors. These scenes have been meticulously reviewed for authenticity by eminent authorities on this terrible subject. Oswiecim may be forever beyond the grasp of the human mind, now that nothing is left of it but a dead museum. It is hoped that living survivors of Auschwitz, comparing their recollections with this fictional Remembrance, created by one who was not there, will see an honest effort to make the vanished horror live for all the world that was not there.
The march of Soviet prisoners from Lamsdorf to Oswiecim, the episodes of cannibalism, the experimental gassing of these Soviet prisoners of war with Zyklon B to test its efficacy for killing Jews en masse: all. these are facts. An important source is the memoir of the Commandant himself, Rudolf Hoess, written while he was awaiting trial after the war. He was found guilty of the mass murders, which he freely admitted, and was hanged in Auschwitz.
The other SS officers are real people, except that Klinger is fictitious. The inspection visit of Himmler, and his viewing of the gassing process from beginning to end, took place as described; in July, however, not in June. The construction of the crematoriums, the general picture of the Auschwitz Interest Area with its industries and agricultural installations, the treatment of prisoners who attempted to escape, the roll calls, “Canada": all facts.
Kommando 1005, the roving German unit that exhumed and eradicated the mass graves, is a matter of history. SS Colonel Paul Blobel is an actual person. The mutiny of Mutterperl is fictitious. The mass escape of some prisoners is improvised out of accounts of such escapes from SS slave gangs.
Berel Jastrow’s fictitious journey from Ternopol through the Carpathians to Prague is based on several such incredible journeys, made by Jews who escaped from the death camps with photographic and documentary evidence, and crossed all of Nazi-held Europe to bring the revelation to the outside world; only to encounter the almost universal “will not to believe.” The fictitious partisan bands of Nikonov and Levine are derived from existing partisan literature. Reference is made in this passage to some actual partisan bands.
The treatment of the landing craft and atomic bomb programs is factual. There was a conflict over priorities involving a coupling. Victor Henry’s part in it is of course fictitious; Dr. Oppenheimer’s visit to Oak Ridge is a fictional scene; and Kirby, Peters, and Anderson are fictional characters. It is a fact that Dr. Oppenheimer recommended the very late introduction of the Navy’s thermal diffusion system into Oak Ridge, to provide enriched feed for the electromagnetic separation process; and that this made possible the production of one U-235 bomb for use in the war, over Hiroshima. The Nagasaki bomb of plutonium was produced in the Hanford reactors. It is also a fact that no other bombs were available from the Manhattan Project when these two were dropped.
The account of the FM sonar, “Hell’s Bells,” and of its use late in the war, is factual.
To sum up: the purpose of the author in both War and Remembrance and The Winds of War was to bring the past to vivid life through the experiences, perceptions, and passions of a few people caught in the war’s maelstrom. This purpose was best served by scrupulous accuracy of locale and historical fact, as the backdrop against which the invented drama would play. Such at least was the working ideal.
Herman Wouk
1962-1978
Also by Herman Wouk
The Winds of War
“Wouk is a matchless storyteller with a gift for characterization, an ear for convincing dialogue, and a masterful grasp of what was at stake in World War II.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
“First-rate storytelling.”
— New York Times
“With the whole world as its setting, The Winds of War tells the intimate story of an American family — a Navy family — caught up in the vortex of world conflict…. World history comes to life at a personal, eyewitness level.”
— Philadelphia Inquirer
And the magnificent saga, encompassing two novels, that brings brilliantly to life the epic adventure of Israel’s founding and struggle to survive:
The Hope
“Inspiring and full of excitement…. The Hope seamlessly weaves epic events into everyday life.”
— Entertainment Weekly
“One of our best writers today — a modern Charles Dickens — is Herman Wouk…. The Hope is not only a good read, but it also causes a good think.”
— William Safire, New York Times
The Glory
“A sprawling, action-packed novel…. The Glory is gripping historical fiction. Wouk’s portraits of historical figures are altogether convincing.”
— Philadelphia Inquirer
“STIRRING…. A JOURNEY OF EXTRAORDINARY RICHES.” —NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
A MASTERPIECE OF HISTORICAL FICTION—
THE GREAT NOVEL OF AMERICA’S “GREATEST GENERATION
Herman Wouk’s sweeping epic of World War II, which begins with 77ie Winds of War and continues in War ancf Remembrance, stands as the crowning achievement of one of America’s most celebrated storytellers. Like no other books about the war, Wouk’s spellbinding narrative captures the tide of global events—and all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of World War II—as it immerses us in the lives of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war’s maelstrom.
“Brilliant…. An outstanding novel and at the same time a great work of history Wouk has more than recaptured the period; he has given it life.”
—HENRY KISSINGER
“Moving, thrilling fiction…. Wouk is a magnificent storyteller.”
—BOSTON GLOBE
“One of the great narratives of our time What is so extraordinary about this novel is the sense of authenticity which it conveys whether at the scene of great battles or eavesdropping on the dialogue of historic personages Quite simply, I haven’t read a novel in years full of so many moving episodes.”
—CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
“Those who lived through World War II can most fully appreciate the resonances in this uncommonly readable book. But it is clearly meant-and recommended-for those who did not.”
—TIME
HERMAN WOUK’s acclaimed novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Caine Mutiny; Marjorie Morningstar; Don’t Stop the Carnival; Youngblood Hawke; The Winds of War; War and Remembrance; Inside, Outside; The Hope; and The Glory.
* ln German this is run together as one word; acronym RSHA.— V.H.
* German:
* Roon is in error. The printed excerpts from the top-secret “Victory Program,” a resources analysis. — V.H.
* Army advocacy was less than unanimous. My memorandum in support of Raeder survives in my files. Generals on the Russian front tended to scorn the Mediterranean strategy as a “fantasy.” It was no more a “fantasy,” as it turned out, than the notion of beating the Soviet Union. — A.v.R.
* ln fact, a Chicago newspaper did dig out and print the story of the code-breaking. The Japanese missed it, evidently. President Roosevelt wisely ignored this treason, instead of prosecuting it in a blaze of publicity. — V.H.
* General v
on Roon wrote in prison. — V.H.
* German:
* The code name was altered to (Brunswick) during the campaign. This translation retains “Blue” throughout. — V.H.
* German a military term borrowed from tennis. — V.H.