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Gertraud Detzer Blog Entry |
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August 5, 2022, 4:00:07 AM 8/5/22: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Gertraud "Trudi" Detzer. She's one of the LGBT+ characters in the story (I've actually posted a few others); given the time period, though, she has to hide this fact. She has an unusual advantage that aids her in helping the resistance Diamond Network. There'll be more about her later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding her design, you can't really tell but she's a cream-colored poodle (just doesn't have a weird poodle haircut). Yes, the poodle is a German dog. Her hair is wavy and kind of flares out at the bottom though you can't really tell that here, either. TUMBLR EDIT: Most of Trudi's backstory is still vague and unlikely to be highly developed (unless she decides to step forward and spill things), since she's more of a secondary character. I do know that she was born Gerwin Detzer--biologically male, yet intersex, possessing genitalia of both sexes--functional external genitalia of both, though he requires surgery for undescended testicles and to open up the vagina. (Sorry if this is TMI. Even sorrier if I get any terminology wrong, which is likely but unintentional.) As the boy gets older he realizes he feels like a girl, and his appearance--including developing breasts (gynecomastia)--just strengthens this feeling--so he begins to dress and present himself as female, taking the name Gertraud. Trudi Detzer is born. (An aside. The closest thing I've been able to find to this specific situation is a condition called "Persistent Müllerian Duct Syndrome," though as I warned, I might be getting details wrong, so the specific name of the condition is never given in the story. In fact, given the place and time period--Nazi Germany--lots of outdated and downright offensive language is used as a matter of course, even by "good guys" and those who fall under such labels themselves. Some examples being the homosexual Klemper repeatedly using the pejorative "Schwuchtel" to refer to other men hitting on him, and Diamant using this term when mentioning that Commandant Dannecker definitely isn't gay despite using an overtly sexual gesture to intimidate him (Diamant isn't intentionally homophobic, he just doesn't really "get it" since it's outside his personal experience); Didrika and Lukas Mettbach occasionally refer to themselves as Gypsies or even Zigeuner (the now-pejorative term the Nazis used) as they know these are the terms others know better than "Romani" or "Sinti"; Lukas uses the term "ladyman" when referring to Trudi since that's the term Dr. Mengele used when asking him about intersex people in his own family, plus he's just trying hard to understand what to him is a very strange concept; etc. For the most part, these characters either aren't trying to be offensive, or, when they are (Klemper, e. g.), they're just making use of what was generally acceptable back then. Ignorance is the main issue. I know my story is unrealistic, but it'd be REALLY unrealistic if, every time somebody uses an insulting term for gays or Roma or Jews or whatever, somebody else would be all, "That's really offensive, you know!" So, tl;dr, expect insulting terminology, just please don't think it reflects my or even my characters' true opinions. Except many of the Nazi characters, they really are just bigoted a-holes.) I don't know the story with Trudi's dad, he seems absent from the story. Her mother, obviously, is supportive (she's the one who approved and funded the surgery, after all), and accepts Trudi as a daughter, also trying to protect her identity in the face of the Nazis' rise to power. This isn't terribly difficult at first--Trudi is lucky in that she's naturally feminine in appearance, and although her voice is a bit deeper and huskier than usual, it passes as well. But somehow, for reasons I haven't figured out yet, she has the misfortune to become acquainted with Dr. Erich Arzt. Dr. Arzt--or even more accurately, Captain Arzt--is a Hauptsturmführer and physician in the Waffen-SS. He's instrumental in helping Lt. Hesse obtain a transfer from the Waffen-SS to the Allgemeine-SS after he's wounded, and later in the story plays a pivotal role in the assassination of SS intelligence chief Rupprecht Heidenreich. But for most of the story he's more of a background character, a polite, sociable doctor who likes to pass time at General Vincenz Immerwahr's estate with him and Capt. Oskar Ettlinger. The three of them have an occasional, casual thing going--Immerwahr and Ettlinger are both gay (the latter married and in the closet), whereas Arzt would probably best fit the definition of pansexual--he's easily attracted to men and women, and although the concept of any genders other than that is a very strange and taboo one for the Nazis, he's willing to try almost anything at least once. He's perpetually curious about his fellow humans, viewing every interaction almost as a sort of "experiment," and sex, especially, falls under this description. He's almost certainly a sociopath (note for anyone who might pick at this, I go by the accepted psychological terminology for antisocial personality disorder--sociopath--and don't make a distinction between this and "psychopath," which isn't an official diagnostic term), albeit a well-controlled, highly functioning one. He doesn't take things personally or bear grudges, not because he's magnanimous, but because he just doesn't care what others think of him, they're not worth the bother. He's handsome and intelligent and charming, which means women and men are drawn to him, and he doesn't mind that at all because he gets bored easily, and "experimenting" with other people wards off the boredom. He's viewed as kind of a playboy with a bit of a reputation, but unlike Immerwahr, who doesn't bother trying to hide such things anymore, he manages to keep the details of his sex life discreet, so there isn't much scandal surrounding him. And for some reason, nobody's really interested in spreading stories about him. Meaning he gets to be as promiscuous and pervy as he wishes, with few repercussions. In a manner I haven't figured out yet--perhaps she gets injured somehow and needs emergency treatment, and he's the only doctor available?--dunno--Arzt comes into contact with Trudi Detzer. And finds out her secret. Trudi is filled with dread, as she knows very well what she's considered to be by the SS. A freak of nature, a life unworthy of life. At best, she'll be an experimental subject, before she'll end up gassed to death in a camp. At worst, well...that's not worth mentioning. Arzt, though, is more interested in something else. He offers Trudi a deal. He'll keep her secret, and protect her from the rest of the Schutzstaffel, and even provide her a safe place to stay, with him. All she has to do is keep house for him...and take part in his experiment. Trudi understands the implications perfectly. She weighs her options: the camps, brutal work and brutal experiments, and possibly many men, followed by certain death...or a decent house, simple work, and this one man, plus the chance to live. After stipulating that her mother will be protected as well (Arzt concedes), she agrees to Arzt's proposal. It...doesn't go entirely smoothly, as expected. Although for the most part Trudi "consents"--if you could really call it that (technically, you can't)--to whatever weird stuff Arzt wants to try with her, there are a few things that make her uncomfortable and she refuses to do, though suffice it to say that doesn't stop him. There's some very clear NONconsensual activity in the arrangement, also. Sometimes Trudi fights back, sometimes she doesn't, the result is always the same because he's bigger and stronger than she is and has training. Oddly, he never beats or threatens her--because he sees no need to. He never even hints that, if she breaks the agreement, he'll turn her over to the SS--he just won't protect her if she gets caught. Trudi fighting back is just another part of his experiment. She manages to turn the tables a few times and try things out on him instead--the first time out of rage for him (unintentionally, but also without any concern) hurting her--and he even goes along with that, because it's something different. (He takes no offense that she feels the need to go shower every time he's finished with her, either.) The rest of the time is spent with her answering his endless invasive questions about her, and taking care of his house when he's working. He has a single stipulation, that she keep out of his study. She has the run of the rest of the house, and can even come and go as she likes as long as she returns at night. Trudi's a practical sort. Aside from Arzt's "experiment," it's a decent life, considering the alternative. Then one day while she's at home alone, she catches an intruder in the act of rifling through Arzt's study: A petite, prim, beautiful young woman in a black dress and tall black boots, with big blue eyes, long blond braids, and an SS honor sword almost as long as she is tall. The two of them gawk at each other for a brief moment, before Arzt enters the house and calls out for Trudi. Trudi hesitates just briefly before leaving, making some excuses why she was looking in Arzt's office and distracting him long enough for the other young woman to escape undetected. Trudi has just met Margarethe "Gret" Dannecker of the resistance movement Diamond Network, and is instantly smitten. Gret, for her part, hastily returns to her Diamond Network allies, cursing and panicky that she's been caught. It takes Network leader Josef Diamant a bit to get the story out of her, she's so upset. (Gret doesn't tend to freak out easily, so he knows it must be serious.) Diamant and fellow member Lukas Mettbach are mystified about the presence of this strange young woman in Arzt's house, and especially why she would let Gret go. Something similar happened in the past, however: Not too long after the formation of the Diamond Network--when Gret was especially wanted for death by the SS due to her involvement in the murder of her stepfather, camp commandant Ernst Dannecker, and Josef Diamant's escape--she was spotted in public by Dannecker's chauffeur, Andreas Cranz--who was obviously stunned to see her, yet did nothing to report her to the authorities. While waiting for the other shoe to drop, Diamant did some digging, learning that Cranz--who works FOR the SS yet isn't a MEMBER of the SS--lives in a tiny city apartment with his mother, who's chronically ill. Cranz, who was originally a cab driver, took a better-paying job chauffering Dannecker and other members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände to and from the camp so he could pay for his mother's medicine and doctor visits. Diamant saw a clear opportunity to gain access to sensitive SS information, and paid Cranz a visit, offering to pay him to spy on the SS--while Cranz continued working for, and getting paid by, the SS. He would get paid twice as well for pretty much doing the same work. Like Trudi, Cranz is a practical sort, and despite his anxious mother's misgivings he didn't need to think it over long. The camp commandant's own personal chauffeur was successfully recruited by the Diamond Network and became a valued asset, given how much the SS members like to gossip while riding around. (A mildly edited account of how he explains this to Adelina Dobermann in a story of mine: "Here's the thing, though. People get in a car, they want to talk, kinda like we're doing now. That includes SS guys. They love to talk. They're no good at keeping secrets, though. They'll have a nice private chat, then they'll rat each other out to their superiors the first chance they get...them more than anybody. So, they have an SS driver, they have someone who listens to everything they say then rats them all out. Now, they have a driver like me, they talk, I listen, I keep my mouth shut, they pay me. Win for everybody." Of course, he doesn't tell Addy that HE then rats out the SS to the Diamond Network...) After several days pass and nobody comes gunning for Gret any harder than they already have been, Diamant decides it's worth the risk trying to recruit the young woman staying in the SS doctor's house. He just needs to find out who she is and why she's there, if, like Cranz, she has any weaknesses he can exploit. Although Cranz technically works for the SS-Totenkopfverbände--a branch different from the Waffen-SS--members of the Waffen-SS often transfer out to the SS-Totenkopfverbände to guard the camp, so Diamant requests Cranz to try to wheedle out some information regarding Capt. Arzt. Cranz reports back that the young woman is named Gertraud Detzer, and she's been living with Arzt while he treats her for a "medical condition." Her only known relative is her mother. It isn't much to go on, but Diamant tries to make do; he figures there must be something more going on, because what sort of "medical condition" would interest an SS physician like this? He attempts paying Trudi's mother a visit, similar to what he did with Cranz, but she's even more skittish than Frau Cranz (I guess that's how she'd be called?--heh) is, and when Trudi herself arrives, she outright threatens Diamant to get lost, pulling a gun she took from Arzt's house to protect herself with. His initial recruitment effort is unsuccessful, but Diamant's positive now that he wants Trudi in the Network--her attitude, and lack of apparent fear when dealing with him, are good signs. He takes the next logical step, and sends Gret. Gret is extremely skeptical, but waits until Arzt is gone before again breaking into his house and deliberately confronting Trudi. Trudi is again surprised to run into this strange woman in Arzt's house, but is much more willing to listen to her plead her case for Trudi to join her efforts. She can't really understand why the Diamond Network is interested in her, and to Gret's confusion, is reluctant to turn on Arzt. Gret is a victim of repeated sexual abuse herself--at the hands of her stepfather--and so easily guesses what sort of "arrangement" is going on between Arzt and Trudi. Why on earth would she want to stay with him? Trudi explains that he's the only protection she has from the rest of the SS regarding her medical status. So, what sort of special medical condition does she have, that she needs Arzt to protect her, Gret wants to know? Trudi replies simply that her real name is Gerwin. Takes a moment or two for Gret to catch on, at which Trudi briefly describes her situation, and why she relies on Arzt's protection. She's open to talking to Diamant now, however, knowing that Gret works with him. "You're very beautiful, you know," she tells Gret as she gets ready to leave, and smiles. "Dan...ke?" Gret replies, and, suddenly feeling very flustered and confused, departs. (Gret tries, by the way, to explain exactly "what" Trudi is to the other core members of the Network, Diamant and Lukas and Arno Spiegel. Diamant's basic response: Uh...what? Arno's basic response: Well that's odd, but anyway. Lukas's basic response: So, she's a boy, with the parts of a boy and a girl, who thinks she's a girl, and likes girls?--does she have any supernatural powers?--because where he comes from, people like that have supernatural powers, obviously.) Diamant manages to meet with Trudi, and pleads his case for her to join them. Once she understands what their mission is, she expresses interest in participating, but still refuses to leave with him. She gives the same explanation, Arzt protects her and her mother from an even worse fate. Diamant promises that the Network will protect her as well, but she's skeptical that they can ensure such a thing; if she goes with him, she'll have to stay in hiding like the rest of them, and won't be able to move about freely like she does now. Besides, she adds, as long as she stays with Arzt, she has a direct link to information on the SS: She's literally in the lion's den, and sometimes, Arzt likes to talk. She bets that if she's careful yet convincing enough, she can get him to talk more. Diamant says he can't ask her to risk her safety like that, to which she replies, "You don't have to. I already am." So, Trudi officially becomes a spy for the Diamond Network. Diamant arranges methods, times, places, certain signals to meet with other members and update them with new information, and Trudi works on gaining more of Arzt's trust. Arzt isn't stupid--he's naturally suspicious of everyone, and never gets very close to anyone--but sex is a good motivator, and Trudi makes use of it. He never divulges any sort of top-secret info to her, but he does let slip occasional details which are mostly meaningless to him yet quite useful to the Network, for example, occasions and locations where the SS plans to gather. Like I said, though...Arzt isn't stupid, and he trusts no one. Despite his lenient attitude, he still keeps an eye on Trudi, and occasionally has other officers keep track of what she's up to. One day she meets with a Network member yet tells Arzt she was visiting her mother; an officer had been watching her mother's house, and knew she wasn't there. For the first time, Arzt physically threatens Trudi, pressing a kitchen knife to her neck and asking what she was really up to. And Trudi decides to tell him the truth: The Diamond Network reached out to her to recruit her, she explains, and instructed her to gather info from him and report back at specified times. When Arzt's grip on the knife just tightens, she adds that this is what she WANTS the Diamond Network to think she's doing--the truth is, she's actually gathering info from THEM, to give to HIM. Skeptical, Arzt asks why she would do that?--to have something else useful to offer him when what she usually offers isn't good enough, she replies. So, why has she kept this secret from him?--she wanted to have something concrete to offer first, as she wasn't sure how he'd respond. So...why hasn't she offered any info, yet?--she's still trying to earn the Network's trust enough to offer him something REALLY good, she says. She has a reasonable answer for every question he asks, and he finally lowers the knife. He still doesn't really trust her, but agrees to let her continue with her outings, as long as she starts reporting to him whatever she finds out. As long as he gets his officers to back off--they'll spook the other Network members if they're seen--she promises to do so. Diamant is beyond incensed when Trudi reports the situation back to him, so she has to explain what she's doing: She's living with Arzt, while working for the Diamond Network, spying on Arzt, while pretending to him that she's spying on the Network. I. e., she's effectively made herself into a double agent. Diamant can't believe it, but it's true, and it means that now Trudi can meet with Network members without the fear of Arzt's officers catching her in the act: All she has to do is keep providing seemingly useful information to both sides to remain indispensable. The Network is the side she's chosen, though. Diamant can't quite bring himself to trust someone so naturally deceitful--Trudi seems to have a knack for it--but Gret trusts her, and even the especially paranoid Lukas decides the risk is worth it (maybe because he's pretty deceitful, himself), and Arno's on board, so he agrees to start providing Trudi with leads to feed to Arzt. Arzt, meanwhile, does the exact same thing, and Trudi passes effortlessly from one side to the other, giving the SS just enough truthful--yet ultimately insignificant--info about the Diamond Network to keep them hanging on, while also giving the Diamond Network everything she knows about the SS. Trudi's involved in an incident that only just popped into my head and developed as I was writing this up. She returns to the house from an outing one day to find a strange man there, and he's not a member of the Diamond Network--he's wearing a Nazi armband. He's surprised to learn of her staying there, and claims he's a friend whom Arzt asked to stop by and pick up something, but Trudi knows this is a lie, because Arzt allows NOBODY in his study without him. The man soon grows threatening and Trudi ends up having to fight him off; she injures him enough to slightly incapacitate him, then manages to get hold of him from behind and strangle him with a cord. This takes considerably longer than it does on TV, of course, and Trudi is thoroughly rattled by the time she's sure he's dead. Even though she killed him, it was kind of in an adrenaline-fueled haze, and now she's left with a body and no idea how to handle it so she does all she can think of, and calls Andreas Cranz. (Diamant gave her a telephone number with which to reach him at the place he gets dispatched from, though of course this involves going through an operator, and hoping he's actually there to receive the call, and having to wait for him to return if he's out. Ah! The good old days!) Fortunately, Cranz isn't out on a drive, and when Trudi tells him it's an emergency he comes out to the house. The two of them bundle the body into the SS limo and, reassuring Trudi that he "knows a guy," Cranz takes the dead guy away. Before they do this, however, they rifle through his clothes for identifying information and anything that may be of use. Trudi finds an image of an odd-looking swastika and asks Cranz if he knows what it is, since she saw a similar design among Arzt's belongings. Cranz has no idea, and brushes it off as more Nazi nonsense before departing. The man's disappearance makes minor ripples since it turns out Arzt actually DID know him, though yes, he certainly didn't invite the guy to visit his place while he was gone. Arzt shrugs this off too and life goes on. Trudi forgets about the strange symbol, which is a broken sun cross swastika, the emblem of the Thule Society. (BIG OL' SPOILER ALERT.) Trudi is literally right in the middle of the Heidenreich affair when it erupts. Eva, the wife of Rupprecht Heidenreich, the chief of the Allgemeine-SS's intelligence division, grows fed up with his constant philandering and starts having affairs of her own. Most of Heidenreich's fellow SS officers are far too reluctant to get involved with his wife, but Capt. Arzt has no such qualms. In fact, realizing how dissatisfied she is, he makes a move on her, first. Eva accompanies Arzt to his home a few times for an afternoon diversion while Heidenreich is at work, and of course, Trudi is there. The first time Eva visits, she's startled and dismayed by this--even though Arzt, and even she, made it pretty clear this is nothing serious and is plainly an effort to get back at her husband, still, she feels a pang of jealousy and spite seeing this attractive, much younger woman there. Arzt introduces them and Trudi politely says Guten Tag. Eva and Arzt then head off to his bedroom and while Trudi sits in the parlor eating a snack and trying to read she instead finds herself distracted by all the noise. o_o; Afterward Arzt even asks Eva, "Are you jealous of Fräulein Trudi...?" When Eva, flustered, wants to know why he'd ask, he replies that she yelled quite a bit more than usual. So, yeah...she's kind of jealous, and wants Trudi to know. Trudi informs the Diamond Network of this odd turn of events, though that's all it appears to be at first, an odd turn. Diamant files it away as potential extortion material and that's all they think of it for a while. Until somebody sends a bomb to Heidenreich's home office and blows him to smithereens, that is. The now-rudderless Allgemeine-SS nonetheless starts cracking down in its pursuit of Diamond Network members, so Trudi lies low and watches. Cranz, still uncompromised, fills her in that apparently the Network wasn't behind this. Trudi obviously has her suspicions, especially since Arzt and Eva have had a few extended conversations in his room. That's all they are, though, suspicions; she has nothing concrete to offer either Diamant or Lt. Gunter Hesse, the Allgemeine-SS officer who temporarily assumes Heidenreich's post to lead the investigation. (He questions everyone who knew Heidenreich, meaning a stop by Arzt's place and a few words with Trudi, whom he's puzzled to find living there.) Hesse, obviously, despises Diamant, so here's Trudi, answering questions on both sides of the incident. She does get the feeling that even Hesse has his doubts the Network is the culprit, since apparently the bomb in question didn't quite match the types of explosive devices Diamant manufactures, plus the MO--bombing a private residence--doesn't fit, either. She's not very surprised when Eva Heidenreich is implicated in her own husband's murder and executed by the SS; not surprising, either, is when Arzt's connection to the assassination is uncovered. Those discussions with Eva were plans for Heidenreich's death, just as Trudi suspected; Eva had asked if Arzt, being a doctor, could give her any information about poisons, at which he convinced her to use a bomb instead, and pin it on the Diamond Network. Arzt constructed the bomb partly utilizing a personalized pocket watch of his, which Hesse succeeded in tracing back to him. Arzt is an old acquaintance of Hesse's, being the doctor who treated his injuries when he was wounded serving in the Waffen-SS and then helped facilitate his transfer to the Allgemeine-SS, so Hesse is unhappy having to arrest him. Arzt is away from the house at the time, so only afterwards does Trudi learn what happened when Hesse and another officer went to take him into custody. He fully admitted to his role in the murder, denied that anyone but Eva and himself was involved, and accompanied them to their car without protest, even giving them the number to his safe and asking that they not "molest" Trudi when they visited his house. Hesse found him providing this information before they'd even set out to be odd, but brushed it off, until Arzt started frothing and convulsing in the car. He died--likely suicide by cyanide capsule--before they could get him to the hospital. Trudi is stunned when Hesse stops at the house to relay this information, but grants him access to the study to search for evidence of anyone else being involved. Hesse opens the safe first, among other documents finding an envelope with Trudi's name on it; within he locates Arzt's will. He's left his house and all his legal possessions to her. Trudi is even more confused by this information: "But--why? We weren't lovers. We weren't even friends. Why would he leave it to me?" Hesse doesn't know, but says that after they finish searching the study they'll let her be. Trudi says nothing, goes to her room. Arzt's house is nice to live in, but she knows it won't be safe anymore. She packs a small case with a few clothes and necessities, keeping her ears open to the conversation the SS officers are having as they search, and quietly makes a phone call. She slips out of the house unnoticed and hurries off while they're still searching the study. By the time they find her medical records and Arzt's notes on her--which fully explain exactly why he was so interested in her--she's long gone. Hesse is pissed--that's two people he lost in one day--but there's nothing he can do. Trudi, meanwhile, makes it to her pickup point, where Cranz collects her and shuttles her off to safety. Trudi effectively disappears into the Diamond Network. There's at least one other scene Trudi is meant to appear in, though the details haven't been worked out yet. The basics are that the Network is fighting off a Nazi or SS member and he fatally shoots Arno Spiegel, though not before Arno manages to seriously injure him first. Although he spent some time in a camp, Arno is known more for his brain than his brawn: He's very intelligent, good with numbers (he used to be an accountant), planning, and strategy, yet is also quite meek and mousy, soft and chubby and unassuming--fighting, like the other core members of the Network are skilled at, definitely isn't his strong suit. He always worries he's dragging them down. Here, though he's already proven his own skills numerous times, he badly injures an enemy and finally proves himself to be a fighter as well. Trudi, witnessing this, finishes the guy off before hurrying to Arno and lifting his head and shoulders into her lap. When he asks if he managed to kill the guy, Trudi says he did and that this action likely saved others' lives, and adds, "You're very brave." Arno expresses contentment that he was at last able to be of use, and passes away. Trudi stays holding him in her lap until the others arrive, and she again gives him the credit. Trudi is still very much a WIP, so there may be more about her in the future, including what happens to her at the war's end and beyond. She isn't expected to play a role in Ultima Thule, for example, though that could always change; I know that, as things currently stand, she does survive the end of the war. Obviously there's lots of potential for other things to happen. [Gertraud Detzer 2022 [Friday, August 5, 2022, 4:00:07 AM]] |