Herman Wouk - War and Remembrance

by War

  Another rambling entry! But I have done my six pages. I have been writing in great abdominal pain, clenching my teeth to get the words down. I shall find it hard to rise from this chair, I feel so weak and poorly. There is something gravely wrong with me. These are not psychosomatic spasms.

  Alarm thrills through my system. I shall certainly see the doctor again.

  FEBRUARY 26, 1943.

  BADEN-BADEN.

  I am feeling a little better than I did in the hospital.

  Actually, it was a relief to get away for three days from the boredom of Brenner's Park Hotel and the smell of the bad food. The hospital jellies and custards went down well, though I am sure they were distilled by German inventive genius out of petroleum waste or old tires. I was put through every possible gastrointestinal test. I still await the diagnosis.

  The hospital time passed quickly because I talked a lot with Dr. R He wants me to bear witness, when I return to the United States, that the "other Germany" lives on, shamed, silenced, and horrified by the Hitler regime; the Germany of the great poets and philosophers, of Goethe and Beethoven, of the scientific pioneers, of the advanced social legislators Of Weimar, of the progressive labor movement that Hitler destroyed, of the good-hearted common people who in the last free election voted by an increased majority against the Nazis; only to be betrayed by the old-line politicians like Papen and the senile Hindenburg who took Hitler into the government when he had passed his peak, and brought on the great disaster.

  As for what ensued, he asks me to picture the Ku Klux Klan seizing power in the United States. That is what has happened to Germany, he says. The Nazi Party is an enormous German Ku Klux Klan.

  He points to the dramatic use of fire rituals at night, the anti-Semitism, the bizarre uniforms, the bellicose know-nothing hatred of liberal ideas and of foreigners and so forth. I rejoined that the Klan is a mere lunatic splinter group, not a major party capable of governing the nation. Then he cited the Klan of Reconstruction days, a respectable widespread movement which many of the leading Southerners joined; also the role of the modern Klan in the Democratic politics of the twenties.

  Extremism, he says, is the universal tuberculosis of modern society: a world infection of resentment and hatred generated by rapid change and the breakdown of old values. In the stabler nations the tubercles are sealed off in scar tissue, and these are the harmless lunatic movements. In times of social disorder, depression, war, or revolution, the germs can break forth and infect the nation. This has happened in Germany. It could happen anywhere, even in the United States.

  Germany is sick unto death of the infection, the doctor says.

  Millions of Germans know it and are grieved by it. He himself is a Social Democrat. One day Germany will return to that path, the only road to the future and to freedom.

  German culture, and the German people as a whole, must never be condemned for producing Hitler, and for what he is doing to the Jews.

  The greatest misfortune of the Hitler era has befallen the Germans themselves. There is Dr. s thesis.

  What of Hitler's popularity with the Germans?"well, he argues that terror, and total control of the press and radio, produce a mere simulacrum of popularity. But I wrote magazine pieces on Hitler. I know facts and figures. I know how the universities in a body went over to Hitler, how eagerly Germany's best minds began touting this great man of destiny, how readily and enthusiastically the civil service, the business world, the judiciary, and the army swore allegiance to him. I said to the doctor that in future study of this insane era, the chief phenomenon to explain will be the almost general spiritual surrender to Hitler of the German nation. If you call his movement a Ku Klux Klan, then all Germany overnight either turned Klansmen or cheered the Klan, as though liberalism, humanism, and democracy had never existed on this soil.

  His retort: the American mind cannot comprehend the Germans' predicament. They are imprisoned on a narrow patch of central Europe's poorest earth, living for centuries under the pressure of the Russian threat, with France harrying them at their back. Heir two great cultural foci, Prussia and Austria, were trodden under the boots of Napoleon's armies. England intrigued with czarist Russia for a century to keep the German people weak. This led to the ascendancy of Bismarck; and because of his stubborn preservation of absolutism when all of Europe was swept by liberalism, the German people remained politically immature. When the amorphous Weimar "system-time" began to fall apart in the Depressions-and Btler's clear strong voice of command rang out, there was a reflex of energy and enthusiasm. Hitler played upon the best qualities of the nation to bring about an economic recovery much like Roosevelt's New Deal. Unfortunately his military successes, to a nation hungry for self-respect, swamped resistance to his evil tendencies. Were not the Americans themselves worshippers of success?

  On my bed lay a copy of the Propaganda Ministry's foreign-language-magazine, Signal, with a long obfuscated account in French of the Stalengrad surrender. The story made it sound almost like a victory. Of course here in Baden-Baden one cannot learn much about Stalingrad, but obviously it was a towering defeat, possibly the pivot of the war. Yet Signal declares it all went according to plan; the sacrifice of the Sixth Army strengthened the eastern battle line and foiled the Bolsheviks, campaign. Did Dr. R think the German people would swallow that, I asked, or would resistance to Hitler grow now?

  He commented that my very impressive historical insight did not extend to current military expertise. In point of fact the Stalingrad operation had stabilized the eastern front. His own son, an army officer, had written him to this effect. It was in any case irrelevant to the discussion of the nature and culture of the German people. It was very important to him, he said, that a man of my standing should grasp these ideas, for a time was coming when the world should be told them by a powerful literary voice.

  It has occurred to me that the doctor may be a Gestapo agent, but he does not strike me as such. His manner is immensely earnest and sincere. He is a big blond chap with thick glasses, and small eyes that peer with eager seriousness as he makes his points. He speaks in low tones, unconsciously looking over his shoulder now and then at the blank wall of my room. I think he has approached me in all ingenuousness to convince me that the "other Germany" survives. No doubt it does, and I believe he is part of it. Pity it counts for so little.

  FEBRUARY 27.

  The tentative diagnosis is diverticulitis. The treatment: a special diet, bed rest, and continuous medication. Ulcers and similar digestive ailments have afflicted several other members of our group.

  One of the U.P. correspondents, a heavy drinker, was taken to Frankfurt last week under Gestapo guard for an operation. If my condition greatly worsens, I also could be sent to Frankfurt for surgery. Would this mean separation from Natalie? I shag take that up with Pinkney Tuck. It must not happen, if I have to die here.

  SINCE THE DAY Miriam CaStelnuovo arrived at the children's home outside Toulouse, she has been a favorite of the director. In happier times long ago Madame Rosen - not married, not pretty, not hopeful-spent her vacations in Italy, loved Italian art and music, and once almost married a nice Italian Jewish man, who was too ill with heart trouble to go through with it. Miriam's clear Tuscan speech brings back those golden days, and Miriam's disposition is so sweet that Madame Rosen, who tries -not to play favorites-the home was built for three hundred children, and more than eight hundred are jammed in now-despite herself rather dotes on this newcomer.

  It is the free play period before bedtime. Madame Rosen knows where Miriam probably is. The girl has a favorite herself, a little French orphan named Jean Halphan, barely a year and a half old. Jean resembles Louis Henry, above all in the way his large blue eyes light up when he smiles. While Miriam was still' with her parents she never stopped talking about Louis. She soon ceased asking questions, because she saw that they Saddened her mother and irritated her father.

  But she endlessly reminisced, reliving her time with him, displaying a memory lik
e a film library. Now that her parents are gone, and she has nobody, she has fastened on Jean. The I little boy adores her, and when she is with him she is happyMadame Rosen finds them on the floor of Jean's big dormitory room, carefully building blocks amid milling children. She chides Miriam for sitting on the cold floor, though both children are bundled up as though they were outside in the snow. The home has not yet received its meager fuel ration this month. What little coal is left must be used to keep the water pipes from freezing, and to cook the meals.

  Miriam wears the fringed red shawl Madame Rosen gave her.

  It is so big it quite hides her face, but it is very warm. Miriam and Jean perch on a cot, and Madame Rosen talks to the girl in Italian.

  Miriam always likes that; she holds Jean on her lap, playing with his hands, and making him repeat Italian words.

  This visit of Madame Rosen's does not last long. She returns to the office, warmed and cheered to face her problems.

  They are the old administrative ones, many times magnified: overcrowding, shortages, staffing difficulties, lack of funds. Now that the small Toulouse Jewish community is almost gone, she is all but overwhelmed. Happily, the mayor of Toulouse is a kindly man. When matters get des rate, as. pe they are now regarding fuel, medicine, bed linen, and the milk supply, she appeals to him. She sits at her desk to resume writing her letter, this time with dimmed expectations.

  The French friends of the Jewish children have become very wary of showing their sympathy. This wizened yellowfaced little woman in her late fifties, wrapped in a faded coat and a torn shawl, weeps as she writes. The situation seems hopeless when she puts it down on paper.

  But she must do something, or what will become of the children?

  Worse yet, warnings have been chilling the remainin$ Jews in the area for a week: another action impending. Madame Rosen feels safe herself.

  She has an official position, and clear papers of native French citizenship. So far, only foreign Jews have been taken, though in the last action some of the deportees were naturalized citizens.

  Her concern"is for the children. Nearly all the newcomers are foreigners. Hundreds of them! For about a third she has no papers at all. They were dumped on her by the police; the French government separates children from parents being deported to the east, and puts them anywhere. The Jewish orphanages are becoming swamped. The regulation seems humanely intended, despite the anguish for the torn-apart families, for horrible stories circulate about the east; but why is so little provision made for the children?

  And now supposing that in this new action, the police come and ask for the foreign tots? Dare she claim she has no records of any child's origin? Or since that is so farfetched in bureaucratic France, can she plead that she -burned her records in panic when the Allies landed in North Africa?

  Shall she actually burn the records now? Will that save the foreign waifs, or merely condemn the French-born children to be taken off with them?

  Madame Rosen has no reason to believe that the Germans are collecting foreign children. She has not yet heard of such a thing, and the fact that they have been dumped on her argues that they are meant to be spared deportation. But the anxiety haunts her. It is about midnight, bitter cold, and she is folding the letter up with numbed fingers in the candlelight (the electricity has long since gone off) when she hears crashing knocks at the street door.

  Her office is close to the street. The knocks startle her out of the chair. Crash! Crash! Crash! My God, all the children will wake up! They will be frightened to death!

  "Ouvrez! Ouvrez!" Loud coarse male shouts. ,Ouvrez!" SS Obersturmftlhrer Nagel has a problem too.

  A tremendous flap is going on: a quota unfilled, and a partly empty train scheduled to pass through Toulouse in the mornin - The top SS man in Jewish affairs in Paris is in a gigantic rage, but there just aren't that many Jews left in this Prefecture. they have melted into the countryside, or fled to the Italian-occupied zone. There is just no way to fill three entire freight cars. so has coil The Toulouse action far ected from five hundred. The demanded count in Pa s is fifteen hundred.

  Fortunately, the Toulouse police records show that the children and the staff here add up to nine hundred and seven from Jews. Nagel has obtained permission in Paris to pick them up, while a squad combs Toulouse for the balance needed; any Jews, no protection applicable.

  So the SS lieutenant sits in a car across the street from the children's home, watching the French policemen knocking at the door.

  Given half a chance, those fellows would report back with some lame excuse and no results. He will sit here until the police chief comes out and reports to him.

  The story Nagel has given the chief to tell is a good one.

  The occupation authority needs the building as a convalescent home for wounded German soldiers. Therefore the children and staff will be moved to a ski resort in the Tyrol, where all the hotels have been converted into an enormous special care center for children, with a school, a hospital, and many playgrounds; and where thousands of children from the bigger camps near Paris are already settled. In transporting Jews, standard procedure requires giving them some kind of reassuring story. Secret circulated instructions from Berlin emphasize that the Jews are very trusting, and eagerly believe any kind of flimsy official information. This greatly facilitates the processing of the Jews.

  The door opens, the police disappear inside. Lieutenant Nagel waits.

  He is on his third cigarette, very chilled despite his warm new greatcoat and wool-lined service boots, and he is nervously thinking of going over there himself, though the uniform may scare the Jew staffers, when the door opens again, and out comes the police chief.

  That fellow manages to stay nice and fat on French rations; plenty of black-market fat on that belly. He comes to the car, and reports with very garlicky breath that it is all arranged.

  The staff people will pack their belongings, and the central records of the institution. Nagel emphasized that touch about taking the records; it makes the story more plausible. The children will be wakened at three, dressed, and given a hot meal. The police vans and the trucks will come for them at five. They will all be on the railroad station platform at six.

  The Frenchman's fat face in the pallid moonlight is expressionless, and when Lieutenant Nagel says, "Bon," the drooping mustache lifts in a nasty sad smile.

  So all is well. The train is due at a quarter to seven, and at that hour most people of the town won't be up and about.

  That is a bit of luck, Nagel thinks, as he drives back to his apartment to catch a few winks before the morning's business. Orders are to avoid arousing sympathy in the population when transports leave.

  Repeated bulletins from Berlin caution that there can be unpleasant episodes, especially if children are moved about by day in populous places.

  In fact, it turns out to be a gloomy morning, and when the train pulls in it is still almost dark. The Jews are shadowy figures, climbing into the cars. The station lights have to be turned on to speed up the loading of the children. They march quietly up the wooden ramps into the freight cars, two abreast, hand in hand as they have been told to do, the staff women carrying the youngest ones.

  Miriam Castelnuovo is wailing with little Jean. She has been moved several times in this fashion, so she is used to it. This is not as bad as when they took her from her parents. Jean's hand in hers makes her happy. Madame Rosen walks behind her carrying a baby, and that too is reassuring.

  Lieutenant Nagel wonders at the last minute whether there is any point in shoving those twelve big cartons of records into the freight car. They will just be a nuisance, and they may Puzzle the fellows at the other end. But he sees the white terrorized face of Madame'Rosen, Who is staring out of the freight car at the cartons, as if her life hung on what happened to them. Why panic her? She's the one to keep the children quiet all the way to the end. He gestures with his stick at the cartons. The SS men load them into the car, and shut the big sliding doors on
the children. Black gloved hands seize the frigid iron levers, rotate them, lock the doors in place.

  The train starts with no whistle sound, only the chuffing of the locomotive.

  PUG HENRY HAD made a fast departure for the Soviet Union.

  However, he was awhile getting there.

  As the Clipper slapped and pounded clear of Baltimore harbor and roared up into low gray January murk, he pulled from his dispatch case two letters which he had had no time to read. He opened the bulky White House envelope first to skim the typewritten pages, a lengthy harangue by Hopkins on Lend-Lease.

  "I'm taking breakfast orders, sir." A white-coated steward touched his elbow. Pug ordered ham and eggs and pancakes, though his uniform was tight after two weeks of Rhoda's food and wine. One should fatten up for Soviet Union duty, he thought, like a bear for the winter sleep.