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Andreas Cranz Blog Entry |
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December 2, 2022, 4:00:16 AM December 2, 2022, 4:00:26 AM May 28, 2023, 11:20:35 PM 12/2/22: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Andreas Cranz, sans cap (top drawing) and with cap (bottom drawing). He pays for his chronically sick mother's care with a job as a limo chauffeur for some of the bad guys...though he also gets paid by the good guys to eavesdrop on his clients and pass along info. So...I guess you could say he's moonlighting for the resistance. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding his design, he's no particular breed of dog, likely a mutt, though he looks like he could be part white Alsatian. I had to fight the urge to draw a cigarette in his mouth as he frequently smokes in between rides. He wears a black chauffeur's uniform and cap and always looks rather mopey/bored. Oh, and he's known to drive like a maniac, so his clients are rarely late. TUMBLR EDIT: Andreas Cranz isn't a major character, so I don't know a lot about his past. I do know he lives in the unnamed city of the Trench Rats series, in a tiny dingy flat with his mother. Father isn't in the picture, don't know what became of him, though I suspect Cranz started working at quite an early age. It's just his mother and him and they love each other dearly, though not in a creepy Ernst Dannecker way. (Ah, I've learned some...stuff...about Dannecker's past. Shan't get into it here.) The two are working class, undereducated, quite impoverished. His mother develops some sort of chronic respiratory ailment which makes her break down in coughing fits and lose her breath sometimes; she gets weak and thin and can't work, so this is why Cranz takes up working odd jobs at a young age, to take care of her. She frequently expresses sorrow and guilt that she's holding him back, and urges him to leave her and go live his life, but he always gently rebukes her: "You took care of me, now I take care of you." He's a heavy smoker, but he never smokes in the building or when around his mother. (Being the child of a former smoker, and hypersensitive to cigarette smoke myself, I know that Cranz would still carry the smoke smell in his clothes and hair and breath, but I guess it isn't enough to trigger his mother's symptoms.) Eventually, he finds a halfway decent job as a freelance cab driver; it's the Thirties, lots of people still don't have cars and prefer to eschew public transportation, so he does okay enough for them to scrape by, though the medical help he can afford for his mother is minimal. He works on saving up what he can in hopes of eventually moving her out of the city and someplace healthier, someplace with fresh air and sunshine, and maybe finding a decent doctor, too. One day while he's leaning against his cab smoking and waiting for a fare, a tall man in a black uniform comes striding his way, calling out, "You there! Taxifahrer!" For a moment Cranz is sure he's in trouble--the man has a skull-and-crossbones on his cap and his collar, which means he's with the Schutzstaffel. Cranz tries to think up an explanation for whatever law he must have broken, but the tall guy just jerks a hand at Cranz's cab and gruffly says, "My ride's broken down. Drive me to the camp." Relieved that this is just a customer and he isn't being detained, Cranz lets the guy in, then gets in himself. "And make it quick," the SS guy says, to which Cranz shrugs and says, "All right," and floors it. The tires squeal, the SS guy falls back in his seat, and the cab tears off through the busy streets, spinning around corners and somehow managing to avoid mowing anyone down or running into anything, though there are a few close calls. Cranz looks like a reckless driver but he's actually quite skilled. They reach the labor camp at the edge of the city and stop. The SS guy looks flustered, but gives Cranz a few bills, lets himself out, and heads toward the gate. Cranz counts the money, then departs; it was an odd little job but he's not complaining. Several days later while he's sitting in his cab, someone raps sharply on his window, startling him; looking up, he sees the same SS officer as before, gesturing him to open the door. He exits the cab, asking, "Your ride still broke down...?" But instead of demanding another ride, the officer waves to the side; Cranz sees a huge shiny black limousine with SS and swastika flags adorning it. "Follow us," he says, and heads toward the limo. Cranz furrows his brow, perplexed--"Where we going?" he asks, wondering if he made a mistake getting involved, like he had much choice. "The garage," the SS guy answers, and gets in the limo, which pulls into the road and drives off. Cranz hurries to follow. They pull in at a large building off to the left of the labor camp; it's obviously associated with the camp even though not located inside. The limo drives right in so Cranz does the same, feeling nervous as the black-clad officers guarding the entrance look at him but don't ask him to stop. Once inside it becomes clear this is indeed the garage for the SS's fleet of vehicles, and he ends up parking near the black limo; the SS guy and a chauffeur exit the limo, and Cranz exits his cab. SS guy gets right to the point: "You work freelance--? No boss?" "Ja," Cranz says. "How much do you make a day? Average?" the SS guy asks, and Cranz tells him. "How would you like to make twice as much?" the SS guy offers. Cranz blinks--"Twice? Doing what?" "Driving me and my men to and from the camp," the SS guy says. "You'll be on call, 24/7." Cranz glances at the chauffeur, who looks equally confused now--"What about him?" At which the SS guy says to the chauffeur, "You're fired. Turn in your uniform." Chauffeur blinks this time, looks nonplussed, then walks away. Cranz abruptly finds himself with a new job chauffeuring camp commandant Ernst Dannecker and other members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände to and from work. He's rather perplexed about the specifics at first, but he's a fast learner. There's no catch: Dannecker wants somebody who's both a good driver and fast, and Cranz fits the bill. All he has to do is be on call at the SS garage when they need him. He doesn't need to go through the grueling screening process SS members go through, the battery of physical exams and submitting detailed genealogical information, as he's not joining the SS itself and so doesn't need to meet all their requirements; he isn't an official SS auxiliary, either (Dannecker's method of hiring him was rather unsanctioned), so he doesn't get all the same benefits they do--such as a much nicer city apartment--but he does get to wear a fancy black chauffeur uniform and SS pin and to drive the big black limo, and most importantly, his income is doubled. This means he can save up twice as fast to help his mother, so although he dislikes everything he's heard about the SS, he swallows his distaste, and tells his mother. Naturally, she's distraught at this development--she too has heard unpleasant things about the SS--and begs him to reconsider, but he refuses--the money is just too much to turn down, and he's doing it for her. Frau Cranz is forced to bite down her worry and her son starts his new job as SS chauffeur. It's an unglamorous but vaguely interesting job, mainly because the officers he transports, most of them guards in the SS-Totenkopfverbände but also several members of the Waffen-SS, and the rare Allgemeine-SS official, can get quite chatty while seated in the back. They tend to forget Cranz is even there, meaning they let their guard down (no pun intended) and discuss not just official and private matters, but gossip about each other as well. The motto of the SS might be "My honor is loyalty," but damn, they are definitely anything but loyal. Cranz gets the distinct feeling they'd all sell each other out the first chance they got, and is rather relieved he's never been interested in joining. Eavesdropping on their talk keeps the job from getting tedious. Dannecker himself, though, is the most unsettling of the lot. He starts bringing his teenaged stepdaughter, Margarethe, to visit the camp with him. And...their rides together are kind of weird. Cranz can't help but peer in the rearview mirror now and then to notice how closely Dannecker sits to Gret, often putting his arm around her and/or touching her knee and murmuring in her ear, while Gret just sits there stiff as a statue, staring ahead and occasionally replying, "Ja, Papa" or "Nein, Papa." Often she wears a black dress with white accents that almost mimics Dannecker's SS uniform. Once Cranz learns Dannecker has three other stepkids--plus his wife--yet brings none but Gret along with him, that settles it for him--he's not sure what exactly is going on, but he knows it isn't good. He keeps hoping Gret herself will speak up, but she's never out of Dannecker's sight long enough to do so, so Cranz can't think of anything to do. One day, Gret wears a yellow dress with green ribbons. As she and Dannecker exit the limo and walk arm in arm to the administration building, Cranz notices something odd just before he turns to drive back out the gate: A few of the prisoners are staring in her direction. At least two of them are wearing yellow-and-green stars. Cranz doesn't know what to make of this, and leaves. By the time news breaks some weeks later about a prisoner escape at the camp--Dannecker has been shot and killed, and Gret has gone missing, believed to be taken hostage by the prisoners--he's completely forgotten about the odd incident. His suspicion is piqued regarding Gret, however; he finds it difficult to believe she wasn't involved somehow. And indeed, not long after, the SS officials investigating the case change Gret Dannecker's designation from "Hostage" to "Shoot on sight." Cranz's suspicion was right: Gret collaborated with Josef Diamant, one of the prisoners, to trick and murder Dannecker and escape the camp. Diamant wears a yellow-and green Star of David on his prison clothes, identifying him as a criminal Jew; Gret's yellow-and-green ensemble was her way of letting him know she was open to communicating with him (he'd made eye contact and smiled at her a few times as she walked by), and not long after the incident Cranz witnessed, the two met secretly to come up with a plan. (Incidentally, one of the other prisoners with a yellow-and-green star was Isaak Schindel, the camp kapo--he, too, took note of Gret's odd clothing choice, deduced that something was up, and knocked Diamant around a little bit as a warning but couldn't do much else without any proof.) The theory is that Diamant seduced Gret into collaborating with him to kill her stepfather; Cranz has other thoughts, but also no proof, so he loses interest in the case. The camp acquires a new commandant, Hasso Reinhardt, who forces the adjutant, Lars Franke, to resign and appoints a new one, Jan Delbrück; Cranz now answers primarily to them, though he drives Reinhardt around considerably less than Dannecker, since Dannecker violated SS-Totenkopfverbände rules in living in a house off camp grounds--Reinhardt abides by the regulations and moves into private quarters in the camp. Life goes on. Then one day while Cranz is whistling to himself and browsing around a fruit stand, he just happens to glance up, and directly across from him, on the other side of the apples, he sees a familiar face staring back at him. He has just enough time to blink in surprise--the other person does the same--and blurts out, "Fräulein Gret--?" before she turns and flees into a nearby alley. She was wearing a long coat over her dress, with a hood that shielded her face and covered her distinctive long blond braids, but there's no mistaking that was her; and there's no mistaking that she recognized him, too. Cranz is dumbfounded by the odd sighting, but it doesn't even cross his mind to report her to the authorities; he finishes his shopping and then goes back to work. A week or so after that, he returns home after a long day (the SS paid to have a telephone line installed in his apartment in case he's needed during off hours), to find his mother waiting for him at the door, wringing her hands; that behavior in itself is nothing unusual, but he instantly knows something is wrong, and asks what it is. Frau Cranz says they have a visitor who wants to talk to him. She pulls him close and whispers, "He's dressed SS, but I don't think he's one of 'em! I don't know what he is!" That sounds strange, so Cranz nudges her behind him, pulls out the pistol he keeps concealed on himself, and edges into the kitchen, where they have a small table. A man in an SS uniform is indeed seated there waiting, and he lifts his head to look at Cranz, though his cap and the poor lighting partly conceal his face. SS officer: "Herr Cranz...?" Cranz: "What d'you want?" SS officer: "If you're Herr Cranz, I'm here to talk to you." Cranz: "Ja, well, get it out and go on." SS officer: "You talk to all your superiors like this?" Cranz: "I know you ain't SS no matter what you're dressed like. And I don't appreciate you spooking my ma, so spit it out and go on." SS officer: "I hadn't meant to frighten your mother, so I apologize. But how do you know I'm not who I say I am?" Cranz: "You don't carry yourself right. SS guys carry 'emselves like a**holes. Now what d'you want?" Rather than annoy or anger the SS guy, this comment seems to amuse him. He takes off his cap. His head isn't shaven anymore but Cranz vaguely recognizes him as one of the prisoners from the camp, and he quickly puts two and two together: This must be Josef Diamant, the one who led the prisoner escape and killed Dannecker. Another rule Dannecker flouted was to have a photo taken of every prisoner who worked in the camp, and so by chance, no known photo of Diamant exists; so although the SS could print up posters of Gret and the others involved in the escape, all they have to go on for the ringleader himself is a general description. This enables him to go out in public, though usually in disguise, as he does look distinctively Jewish--the main reason Frau Cranz doubted he was in the SS. He gets to the point, mentioning Cranz's earlier run-in with Gret; Gret had been uncharacteristically distraught when she returned to where Diamant and a few others who'd escaped had currently been holed up, explaining how she'd seen the camp chauffeur and she was sure he'd recognized her, too. They spent the following days waiting for an increase in SS activity or for them to come for Gret directly; yet nothing had happened. Diamant and his men had kept an eye on Cranz when he was out in public but never saw any indication that he was interested in turning Gret in. Diamant suspected then that, despite his job, Cranz might not be so loyal to his employers, and sought corroborating evidence. Cranz pretty much keeps to himself, so there isn't much corroborating evidence to be found...but when Diamant learned about his sick mother, it gave him leverage--he knows what Cranz's motivation is in working for the SS, since they're known to pay well. He offers Cranz a new job: Keep on with his SS chauffeur job, but report back to Diamant anything he overhears, and Diamant's resistance group, the Diamond Network, will reimburse him as well. In other words, get paid twice as much for the same amount of work. Of course, the gears in Cranz's head immediately start spinning. His mother pulls him aside this time and tries to talk him out of saying yes--"How you know you can trust this man come off the street? He already lied! He impersonates an officer! Who knows what else he does? This brings only trouble! You want the real SS knocking down our door...?" (Good thing she's unaware of that whole Jewish thing. And that ID forging thing. And that murdering Dannecker thing...) Cranz is exasperated--"Ma! You worry so much! I'm grown up now, ja? It's twice the money, means I get you out of this hole twice as soon, ja? It's not like I ain't doing it already, huh...?" Diamant sits examining his cap and pretending not to hear as mother and son whisper-argue back and forth for a moment before Cranz cuts her off--"Is settled, Ma, stop your fussing"--and agrees to Diamant's proposition, albeit cautiously. He asks how exactly this'll work. Diamant replies that Cranz is to simply continue with his SS job, act naturally, don't do anything he hasn't done before--for example, don't try to prompt the officers for further information, or try to engage them in chat if it's not his custom, as this will tip them off that something is up, just let them speak naturally--and at least once a week, report to a designated meeting place to pass on any potentially useful information to the Diamond Network. That's literally it. He just has to make sure he isn't spotted during his info drops. At these points he'll also be paid. There are various Diamond Network operatives who work in the city, so if Cranz ever has any especially important information that can't wait until the designated time, he can reach out to one of them, and they'll put him in touch with Diamant. And if anything ever strikes him as suspicious, or like it's not going right, "You trust your gut and bail out first chance you get, because chances are, your gut is right." Cranz accepts the job, and Diamant sets up a meeting date and time. He resumes work as usual the next day, keeps at it for the week, then during his break, makes his way to the meeting place. He feels extremely uneasy but reminds himself why he's doing this. He reaches the corner he was told to approach and sees a man leaning against the building, apparently waiting for him, yet it isn't Diamant, so he gets suspicious and stops a few paces away, fidgeting. Stranger: "Herr Cranz?" Cranz: "Who asks?" Stranger: "Lukas. Mettbach." Cranz: "Don't know no Lukas Mettbach." Lukas: "Ja, well I don't know you either, so we're even. You have what I'm looking for?" Cranz: "Was here to meet someone else, not you." Lukas: (sour look) "He sent me, Dummkopf. You think I stand here for fun?" Cranz: "And I can trust you why...?" Lukas looks peeved, but responds by pulling down the front of his coat to show his shirt. It's striped, and he's wearing a black triangle with a Z. Cranz isn't sure what it means but he knows nobody would wear something like that for the hell of it*, so he approaches and they step into the alley. Lukas offers him a cigarette--this breaks the ice considerably--and they smoke and try to look like acquaintances having a casual chat as Cranz relays everything his passengers have talked about the past week. When he's done, Lukas pays him, gives the next designated meeting point, and they part ways. Cranz counts his money as he sits in the limo. The same as his SS salary, just as promised--but with an extra bill included. There's a jack of diamonds playing card tucked in. Cranz turns it over and scribbled on it are the words FOR YOUR MA--JD. (*Lukas is Sinti--thus the black "asocial/work-shy" badge with a Z for "Zigeuner" (Gypsy)--and one of Diamant's fellow escapees, basically his right-hand man. He made a personal vow to keep his head shaved and never stop wearing his prison shirt until "every last Nazi bastard is dead." Unfortunately he doesn't get to keep this vow--not because he gets killed or anything, he survives the war and settles down with Gret, but because too many Nazis end up escaping justice--among them Dr. Mengele, one of Lukas's tormentors. Mengele dies in 1979; I'm not sure if he outlives Lukas or not, but it's close.) It might seem like there'd never be any especially important info to pass on, and indeed most of what Cranz reports is meaningless gossip, but scattered in is the occasional big deal--for example, later in the story, Cranz is the one to pass along information regarding a plot against the chief of SS intelligence, Rupprecht Heidenreich, although the Diamond Network doesn't recognize its significance at the time--and even more helpful are the details of SS meetings and gatherings (good opportunities to plant bombs), as well as personal details that can be used for blackmail or profiling. Although the Network chooses not to make use of the info, Cranz is also the one to suggest a brothel for the camp adjutant, Delbrück, to visit; as well, he becomes acquainted with Trudi Detzer, a young woman who lives with an SS doctor (Erich Arzt) and agrees, much as Cranz did, to provide intel to the Network; she even calls him for aid one day after killing a Nazi who's entered the house uninvited, and Cranz disposes of the body. Like Cranz, Trudi's only family is her mother, and she takes the Network job to help protect her; Trudi and Cranz grow rather close, with her nicknaming him "Cranberry" while he refers to her as Schwesterchen, or Little Sister. Gret Dannecker is another recipient of Cranz's affection--he often lightly teases her (calling her "Mags," which she despises) and she insults him back, though she seems to like the attention. The SS soon realizes there's at least one, possibly more, very big leaks getting out information regarding their activities and whereabouts; they know it must be Diamond Network related, but they can't for the life of them figure out how they're doing it. Cranz, and Trudi, are just so innocuous, and so good at their jobs, that no one ever suspects them. Even when Trudi ends up going into Diamond Network protection after Arzt commits suicide, thus revealing herself as one of the leaks, Cranz's cover is never broken and he stays with his job to the literal end--absconding with the SS limousine as the city is on the verge of falling to the Allies, stopping just long enough to pick up his mother and his savings, then fetching Delbrück as well as Mirjam Zweifel, a Jewish prostitute, and her daughter Gabriele, and shuttling them all out of the city (plowing through an SS blockade and getting the limo riddled with gunfire as he does so). He drops his other passengers off and then it's just his mother and him, heading into the country; he clasps her hand as the fields sweep past and she peers at him uncertainly. Cranz: "Just us again, Ma." Frau Cranz: (sighs, lowers her head) Cranz: "Hey now, why you worrying? We made it, ja?" Frau Cranz: "But with what, for what? Everything's gone. Home, city, everything. You don't got a job no more. We got nothing but this messed-up ol' car, and it's just a big target on our backs." Cranz: "We'll dump it and get a nice new car without bullet holes or a Nazi flag, ja?" Frau Cranz: "Stop jokes! Isn't funny! What are we to do with nothing?" Cranz: "Why you keep saying we got nothing, Ma? I got you and you got me, and we got this money I saved up. I told you I'll take care of everything, and I mean it." Frau Cranz: "What is you can do to take care of everything?" Cranz: "First off, a nice lil' house, all nice in the country. Fresh air to give your cough a rest. Then, a good doctor in case the fresh air ain't enough. No more quacks who don't know what they're doing. You can get better, you'll get better. It'll be like old times. You'll look and feel like you're twenty. Dance around in public. Fetch yourself a nice new man." Frau Cranz: (pushing his arm, scoffing) "Andreas! Stop! Silly!" Cranz: "I mean it though, Ma. It'll work out. You'll see." Eventually they stop at an old Junker estate; Cranz was given some addresses and names of potential Diamond Network contacts and how they might help. He's concerned about the money; Reichsmarks will surely be obsolete soon. The older man who fearfully answers the door lets the Cranzes in as soon as Cranz shows him the jack of diamonds card, and after some discussion Cranz trades out some of the money for gold, just in case. When Frau Cranz asks for a sip of water, he provides them with a jug and some food and supplies; outside, he spots the battered limo, and after a brief pause asks Cranz to follow him to the barn. He pulls a tarp aside to reveal a gleaming gray Mercedes-Benz--not much different from the SS limo--and offers it to him. Cranz, nonplussed, asks how much he wants, but he refuses payment, insisting it's going unused anyway; he starts to say, "It was my son's car..." but trails off and swallows hard, eyes getting wet. Cranz promises to treat the car well, and fetches his mother; she marvels at it as he drives it out of the barn and gets out to help her in. Wishing the man goodbye, they depart again, heading toward the nearest city. Frau Cranz: (weeping) "Gott ist gut! Our luck! Ein Schutzengel watches over us. We're blessed." Cranz: (patting her shoulder) "Told you, Ma. You took care of me, now I take care of you." The Cranzes survive the war and start over, settling in a tiny but cozy cottage just outside the city where Frau Cranz gets a decent doctor and her fresh air--her cough never entirely goes away, though it does improve, and her spirits pick up keeping the house, tending the little garden, and making meals for the two of them--and Cranz resumes his old job as cab driver in the nearby city, setting his own hours and returning to keep her company in the evenings. When they visit their old city, Cranz runs into Trudi Detzer, who throws her arms around her "Cranberry" while he hugs "mein Schwesterchen" back. They introduce each other to their mothers (Frau Cranz mistakenly thinks they were involved with each other, which Cranz corrects, saying Trudi is like his sister) and decide to catch up. I'm pretty sure he gets to say hello to Gret Dannecker, who lives above Josef Diamant's new jeweler's shop in a mountain town and gets involved with Lukas Mettbach, also; Lukas works as a courier to the shop and so they probably come in contact that way. Again, it isn't a glamorous life, but it's a content, comfortable one, which is exactly what Cranz promised his mother. [Andreas Cranz 2022 [Friday, December 2, 2022, 4:00:16 AM]] [Andreas Cranz 2022 2 [Friday, December 2, 2022, 4:00:26 AM]] 5/28/23: Rough character sketches anticipating the next theme. [Rough Character Sketches 2023 [May 28, 2023, 11:20:35 PM]] |