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Stephen Gerhardt Blog Entry |
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July 29, 2022, 4:01:53 AM July 29, 2022, 4:02:01 AM 7/29/22: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Unteroffizier (Sergeant) Stephen Gerhardt, without garrison cap (top drawing) and with garrison cap (bottom drawing). He's one of the soldiers sent to help guard the Dobermann estate and there he befriends Adelina Dobermann. He has a pretty big secret though, he's not actually German, he's a Jewish American spy. Very complicated all around. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding his design, he's a German shepherd; I had to look up bunches of pics of this breed to see just how much facial markings differ so I went with this. I didn't expect him to look so much like a wild dog. 🤔 In theory he could also wear a Stahlhelm, though he spends most of the story gathering intel and not fighting so I decided not to draw him in one. The blond hair and blue eyes help him blend in better (he takes after his father, who actually was German). EDIT, original text: This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Unteroffizier (Sergeant) Stephen Gerhardt, without garrison cap and with garrison cap. He's one of the soldiers sent to help guard the Dobermann estate and there he befriends Adelina Dobermann. He has a pretty big secret though, he's not actually German, he's an American spy. Very complicated all around. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding his design, he's a German shepherd; I had to look up bunches of pics of this breed to see just how much facial markings differ so I went with this. I didn't expect him to look so much like a wild dog. 🤔 In theory he could also wear a helmet, though he spends most of the story gathering intel and not fighting so I decided not to draw him in one. TUMBLR EDIT: Why two descriptions? This is only the second portrait of mine to get downvoted not only once, but twice--meaning it was especially disliked. The other was Sophie Sommer. I normally don't mention these things anymore but it happens so frequently, and I can't mention it in the sub, that I guess I'll get it off my chest. In Sophie's entry, I suspected the offending word was "mistress"--I suspected it could be offensive ahead of time, in fact--yet used it anyway, and regretted it. I changed it to the inadequate/inaccurate "girlfriend" and that was that. Here, I don't know WHAT could be seen as offensive. I pick my words v-e-r-y carefully and avoid all mention of Nazis, Aryans, camps, that kind of stuff, in case it's taken out of context. (There's a sub devoted to making fun of people who "fangirl" a bit too much over the WWII German military and I keep worrying my stuff will end up there. The lone benefit of me being near-invisible is that the chances of this are highly unlikely. Lots of people assume that if you write about it, you must endorse it. I am honestly not a Nazi fangirl, by a long shot. Check my Twitter.) I worried even that the word "Jewish" might be offensive! There was zero backlash for my Tobias Schäfer portrait, though (it actually got a couple of upvotes!--very rare for my portraits, which are near-universally ignored, if not outright disliked), so I assumed it was okay. Well, apparently something angered a couple of people (if this wasn't just a garden-variety troll). Here's how I modified the post to try to make it even MORE inoffensive. (This is actually a third version, first I modified the sentence about Gerhardt's looks, then decided to omit it entirely. Yep, I worried it's offensive that most of my Aryan bad guys...look Aryan.) It takes me a while to type these up so we'll see if the revised comment is still offensive or not (though the alternative is more likely not that it's inoffensive, but that simply nobody looked at it). Maybe I just jinxed myself getting so excited about the latest developments of this character that I had to share my text entry about him and then he just ended up getting hate. All my life I've been punished for my enthusiasm and desire to share it with others, which is why I'm left posting to myself in a blog nobody looks at, because I'm too painfully shy to really toot my own horn; and I always regret when I try. Anyway, following is all that stuff I was so excited to share, before. Sorry nobody else shares my enthusiasm. (EDIT, while typing this I got an upvote. Thanks, kind stranger.) ... Recall the other day's text entry. Stephen Gerhardt is a character whose history is still VERY much under development, and much is still foggy; go figure that after I asked him to tell me his story, I got distracted by working on Hesse's extended profile and then Gerhardt clammed up! So I've been having to sit and really focus on him to try to figure him out, which is a bit difficult for me. More of his story started tying together just a couple of hours ago so here we go. Watch out for falling construction material. Stephen Gerhardt's the older of the two sons born to a German father (American citizen) and a Jewish American mother. This is sometime early in the 20th century, so antisemitism is an even bigger issue than it is now, though considering the mixed makeup of Gerhardt's family, hostility comes from both sides. This whole part of the history is still being ironed out though best I can understand it is that Gerhardt's German-born father travels a lot for his work, meets Gerhardt's mother, falls head over heels, she feels the same, and for some years they and their two young sons move around the country frequently until Gerhardt's father finally lands a position in the city (New York?--Chicago?--someplace big and urban) where they won't need to move around for a while, so Gerhardt's mother decides to find a synagogue for her sons and herself to attend. Things are...a little stressful. Husband and wife are quite obviously from two different worlds--she's dark eyed, dark haired, dark skinned, while he's fair eyed, fair haired, fair skinned--and what's more is that Stephen takes after his father while his brother takes after their mother. This isn't an Orthodox congregation or anything like that, but there are some obvious antagonistic feelings toward the family, especially toward Stephen and his father. Meanwhile, the more heavily gentile society Stephen's dad works with frown upon his wife and younger son. And everyone frowns upon the whole family when they're together. Gerhardt's father decides on a drastic solution: He'll convert. This is rather unusual, but he hates the stress the family goes through, and it's not like he's much of a practicing Christian anyway. He makes a good-faith effort of it, but it doesn't make much difference in everyone else's eyes. He and Stephen are still outsiders to the Jewish community, and Stephen's mother and brother are outsiders to everyone else. It's like an invisible schism runs down the middle of the family. Then Stephen's father is killed in a work-related accident, leaving Stephen feeling even more isolated and alone. He and his mother are close, but he's always painfully aware of the differences between them when he catches a glimpse of himself, and now the invisible schism runs between his mother and brother, and himself. The hostility from the others in the congregation becomes even more overt, and Stephen finally decides to drop out. The decision breaks his mother's heart, though she understands why. What she doesn't understand is why Stephen appears to completely lose his faith, along with losing his sense of community. He isn't entirely sure why, either; all he can tell her is that when he tries, he doesn't feel God anymore, and isn't sure if he ever did. Before I continue, did you see it there? I mentioned before that Gerhardt's story runs somewhat parallel to Adelina Dobermann's. When both of them look in the mirror, all they can see is someone who doesn't quite belong. They just see it for slightly different reasons. Addy hates that she looks like her Jewish mother, and longs to look more like her German father. Gerhardt, meanwhile, dislikes that he looks like his German father, and wishes he looked a little more like his Jewish mother. Also, Addy lost her mother, while Gerhardt lost his father. They both feel cut off from their remaining family and like there's no place for them, so they try to seek that sense of belonging elsewhere: Addy fantasizes about being swept away by a dashing Aryan man who won't care about her looks, while Gerhardt focuses on the military. Gerhardt and his brother already don't get along that well, mostly due to Gerhardt no longer going to synagogue with them. When war starts brewing and Gerhardt enlists, his brother becomes even more hostile, and the two have a falling out. Gerhardt's mother is saddened by him leaving but wishes him well. He promises to stay in touch, though it's easier said than done. Something Gerhardt isn't prepared for is what exactly is going on in Europe. In my version of events, the war starts sooner and the US gets involved earlier, though not on a massive scale just yet, more to gather information than anything. And Gerhardt is exposed to some particularly unpleasant information, when his unit comes across an abandoned cattle car full of corpses. News of people being forcibly relocated to "camps" has started spreading, though the Allies aren't sure of the magnitude of the issue yet, or what entirely it entails. Gerhardt's unit manages to collect quite a bit of useful info on the matter, and what he learns turns his stomach. If he hadn't lost his faith before, he would now. He doesn't get to dwell on it long, though, before news arrives from home. Something terrible has happened with his family. His commanding officer arranges so he can head back home as quickly as possible. I'm still foggy on the details of this part, but Gerhardt's mother and brother were both killed in what may have been what's now known as a hate crime, though at the time of this story this sort of thing isn't as shocking. The police are sympathetic but not terribly motivated to do much with little evidence. The two were to be buried with 24 hours of their death, but the rabbi--whom Gerhardt doesn't recognize--held off on the funeral to give him time to arrive, for which he's grateful. Afterward the rabbi asks to speak with him. He explains that some time after Gerhardt left, his mother changed synagogues, and his brother reluctantly followed. This congregation is rather more accepting than the previous one; she'd joined in the hopes that when Gerhardt returned from overseas, he might join them and regain his faith and sense of belonging. Gerhardt feels guilt about not writing back or going on leave sooner, and wonders if they'd still be alive if they'd stayed with the previous synagogue; the rabbi tries to convince him it's not his fault but he breaks down anyway. He's grateful for the comforting he receives, but still doesn't think he can return after what he's seen; he tries to describe the situation overseas, but can tell that he just sounds crazy, so he stops trying and thanks the rabbi for what he's done. He leaves the family's property to the synagogue since "There's nothing left for me here," and he departs once more. Gerhardt continues with his information gathering in and around Germany, trying to put the empty hole in his heart behind him. He ends up injured and temporarily unable to perform his duties. His commanding officer comes to him with a possible change of assignment: They're interested in placing someone with a German family with known Nazi ties, whose property is also known to be in use by the Diamond Network, a resistance movement that's been spiriting Jews and other persecuted persons out of the country. If the American troops can establish proper contact with the Network and gain their trust, it'll be of great benefit, but the Network is exceedingly difficult to get in touch with; even the Trench Rats, a different group of American troops who arrived earlier, have only sporadic contact with them. Gerhardt is seen as the perfect candidate for this job: He's Aryan looking, speaks near-perfect German thanks to his father, and has no more personal ties to home, meaning that if his mission, and possible extraction, fails, he can be cut loose. There's also the hope that him being Jewish, at least nominally, can give him an in with the Network's leader, Josef Diamant, who doesn't trust others easily. Along with getting in touch with the Network, he's expected to figure out where the family's loyalties lie, if they're actually in league with the Nazis, or are aiding the Network, or both, or neither, because this is a family of great influence and it'd be useful to know where they stand. Gerhardt's a bit skeptical, but asks who it is he'd be staying with. It's the Dobermann family, and Gerhardt is expected to go undercover as a Wehrmacht soldier helping to guard their estate. He'll be provided with forged papers he's expected to deliberately present. Gerhardt asks why do this unless he's asked. Because, he's told, a Schutzstaffel intelligence officer named Hesse also resides on the property, and if anyone knows how to find any errors in paperwork it'll be him. If Gerhardt offers them first, it won't look like he's trying to hide anything. Gerhardt thinks them mentioning an SS officer NOW is rather burying the lede, but decides he may as well give it a shot, since he can't return to his other duties just yet anyway. He accordingly goes undercover and presents himself as having been fighting someplace out of the country so of course he's a bit out of touch with what's going on locally, and requests a post at the Dobermann estate while he recuperates. The Wehrmacht grants the request and off he goes. The Dobermanns are an old Junker family and live on a large tract of land full of open fields, small tree groves, and numerous buildings still partially dedicated to old farming activities, now mostly related to production of dairy goods and meat rather than the production of crops as there aren't enough people to farm the land. This supplements the money they already possess and they have a large in-home staff and are pretty well off despite no longer wielding much actual power. The estate with its sprawling mansion is strategically located and members of the Nazi party are constantly courting the owner, "Inspector" Louis Dobermann, for access to his land; he has yet to grant it, yet still allows said Nazis to pay visits and even wander the house at times. Thus the Allies' suspicions that the Dobermann family is sympathetic to the Nazi cause. The Dobermanns also have an odd arrangement with the Heer (land army of the Wehrmacht) to help patrol the house and estate, ostensibly to protect it from "bandits" and partisans, in actuality to help stave off annoying Nazis who might take advantage of Dobermann's hospitality. So basically, Dobermann is using the German army to ward off Nazis. Weird and complicated, especially considering that some of the Wehrmacht soldiers guarding the estate have Nazi ties, but I guess Dobey is good at playing people against each other that way because they do a decent job keeping the more militant ones away. When Gerhardt arrives he finds the situation is even more complex and bizarre than he'd thought. In addition to the Wehrmacht guards and the various Nazis always paying social visits, there's the help staff including maids, kitchen staff, and stable hands, there's an illegal Jewish doctor named Tobias Schäfer whom Dobey apparently bought from the labor camp commandant for the price of a tapestry (he wears a big yellow star on his clothes, and never leaves the estate), and then of course there's the SS officer Lt. Gunter Hesse, who divides his time between here and his apartment in the city, and Hesse's right-hand man Master Sgt. Theodor Schulte, who visits on occasion to run various (usually dirty) errands for Hesse. Oh, and Dobey and his daughter, Adelina. And all these people get along, somehow. They even attend dinner together, socialize in the parlor, unwind out on the patio with drinks (sparkling water for Hesse since he avoids most drink) and smokes. Nobody finds this weird, not even the visiting Nazis; if it weren't for Schäfer's star and all the uniforms, one couldn't even tell there's a war going on. Gerhardt can't understand it but there it is. Ironically, all this sociability makes it difficult for Gerhardt to fit in since he's the outsider, nobody knows him, and nobody trusts him. Dobermann himself is rarely to be seen; Addy is reserved and distant; both the staff and the Wehrmacht guards are polite but restrained; and Hesse is suspicious and borderline hostile, browsing and accepting Gerhardt's papers but otherwise rebuffing his attempts at conversation. Schäfer is courteous and willing to talk to him, though not very much, as he seems perpetually nervous. (Gerhardt takes note of his star and the numbers tattooed on his arm and really can't blame him.) Gerhardt focuses on a few of the more prominent Wehrmacht guests: Sgt. Alger Holt, Lt. Senta Werner, and PFC Konrad Helmstadt. Holt, a Great War veteran like Hesse and Dobermann, is the oldest and has been there the longest; he's the one most in the know, and is the one most willing, seemingly, to give Gerhardt a chance. Werner, a woman, is a strange case--apparently her rich family helped pay her way into an honorary position in the Wehrmacht, and although she's been relegated to a fluff post at the Dobermann estate, she really is quite skilled at combat and is constantly competing with the men in an effort to prove herself. Helmstadt, despite his low rank, acts as Dobey's majordomo, supervising everyone else, handing out messages and orders, mediating between Dobey and the Nazis, and pretty much keeping everything running smoothly. He's the one Gerhardt reports to first, yet he's also quite aloof and forbidding and only minimally helpful to Gerhardt. (He and Senta also occasionally boink each other's brains out on the sly but that's neither here nor there.) Holt is the most receptive of the three and helps Gerhardt get settled in, also giving him advice on how best to earn the others' trust. Despite this, he privately asks Gerhardt why exactly he's come there; both he and Hesse have apparently seen right through Gerhardt's ruse (Hesse when Gerhardt offered his papers--since none of the other Wehrmacht soldiers did this). Gerhardt insists it's as he said, he just wanted an easier post while recovering from his injury. Holt doesn't threaten Gerhardt, but he does reply that he knows everything that goes on in the household, and leaves it at that. Gerhardt attempts to befriend Addy Dobermann, or "Lina," as Hesse calls her. (The one time Gerhardt tries calling her Lina, she retorts that "ONLY Mama and Uncle Gunter call me that!") He realizes that she and Hesse are very close, as Hesse practically raised her while recovering from his own injuries at the Dobermann estate. He was also quite close to her recently deceased mother, Inga, which explains why he stays here so often. Addy's father is not quite as fond of him, and the two mostly avoid each other. Despite their unpleasant feelings toward each other, Hesse used his SS connections to make sure investigation into Inga's death--she was shot while defending herself from one of the Nazis who was wandering the house when and where he had no permission to, and she shot and killed him as well--was placed under his control and was kept as quiet as possible, to prevent hassle for the family. Dobey keeps Hesse around as he's even more skilled than Helmstadt in keeping the pushy Nazis in their place--none of them will dare mess with the Schutzstaffel. Gerhardt starts to see just how complex the situation is, especially when he finally manages to get Dr. Schäfer to warm to him. Once that happens, oddly, Hesse starts to trust him more as well. Turns out that although Schäfer is Jewish, and despite them getting off to a very rocky start, he and Hesse respect each other, and even sometimes communicate via sign language, since Schäfer is deaf. (Gerhardt often finds himself frustrated trying to keep up with household gossip when Schäfer and Hesse just sit there in the parlor silently signing things at each other. It's like gradeschoolers passing notes, except it's a Jewish doctor and an SS officer doing it. Either way, Gerhardt feels left out.) Since Hesse and Addy are close, getting close to Hesse means getting close to her as well. Gerhardt learns she's not quite as cheerful as she used to be, since her mother's death. Addy has led a very sheltered life, homeschooled and not having any friends her own age; in fact, Hesse seems to be her only friend, as odd and sad as that is. So she's pretty naive and childlike despite her age (I think she's around 19 or so when Gerhardt meets her). He's surprised by just how ignorant she is of the outside world and especially the war; turns out Hesse is mostly to blame for her overly idealistic worldview, not to mention the rare but unpleasant opinions she offers on Jews and other enemies of the Reich. Gerhardt finds her innocence combined with these hateful comments to be quite jarring; he wants to hate Hesse for this, but also finds this difficult as by now Hesse is on good terms with him and under any other circumstances, they might be casual friends. He constantly has to be on guard against getting TOO comfortable with anyone. Being in a position to see both sides of so many people, who are kind and caring on the one hand and hateful and even murderous on the other, just makes him even more cynical and depressed. Hesse is the perfect example of this, as Gerhardt is allowed to get a look at the other side of his life which he hides even from Addy, namely his work with the Allgemeine-SS. Hesse is involved in intelligence, which primarily means he's considered a "rat" who investigates fellow SS members suspected of breaking protocol or even more serious offenses, though he's also responsible for helping enforce the racial hygiene laws. This frequently involves threatening and intimidating others, as well as the occasional murder or massacre, though Hesse leaves most of the latter to Schulte. Addy has no idea about any of this, preferring to think of SS officers as some sort of modern "knights" with a code of honor and chivalry and everything; Hesse raised her on such stories since he believes in them, in principle, himself, even while he does the decidedly un-chivalrous things he does. While in the city (which Addy only rarely visits), Gerhardt comes across a gutted, burnt-out shop with broken windows and the words "J. DIAMANT, DER JUWELIER" on the remaining section of the window; the latter two words have been crossed out in paint and replaced with "DER JUDE." Gerhardt recognizes the surname as the same as that of the leader of the Diamond Network, and Hesse confirms this; Josef Diamant was a skilled jeweler (he also occasionally repaired items like watches and music boxes) who was suspected of forging identity documents to help other Jews escape the country. Although the SS tortured him with his own jeweler's tools after raiding his shop, he refused to identify any of his clients, and they were unable to locate any concrete proof of his activities; it didn't matter though, he was Jewish and that was enough--he was loaded in a truck, then a train, then taken to the nearby labor camp. There, he had the misfortune of crossing the commandant, Ernst Dannecker, who made a point of tormenting Diamant every chance he could get, including subjecting him to multiple rounds of Russian roulette, and jamming a jeweler's needle file through his right hand, forcing him to switch to using his left hand. Realizing Dannecker wouldn't let up until one or the other of them was dead, Diamant came up with an elaborate plot to ensure this would be Dannecker, even recruiting Dannecker's own stepdaughter, Margarethe, for this purpose; after murdering Dannecker via a round of Russian roulette, he, Gret, and a handful of other prisoners escaped, though no one has been able to figure out how, yet. Not long after, the Diamond Network formed. Diamant's shop was left partially standing as a warning, the Network being considered a terrorist organization by the SS, and even Gret Dannecker ordered to be executed on sight. Hesse knows the Network makes use of passageways hidden in and between houses and buildings, but has had difficulty locating all of them; Network members are especially resilient, most of them withstanding the SS's questioning and threats. Just recently Hesse has been involved in the murder of an entire household of Network allies, and he himself executed one of Dobermann's neighbors, who refused to give up the location of a Network member who used her house. Gerhardt is disturbed by how casually Hesse mentions all this, while maintaining that Diamant is the true enemy, who's endangered multiple people's lives by sending out clockwork bombs and weapons disguised as harmless gifts; even Hesse was the recipient of one, a goosestepping toy SS officer, which turned out to be a single-shot gun which went off some time later while sitting in Addy's room (she decided to take the doll when Hesse refused it). Considering what little value the Network places on others' lives, Hesse finds executing them to be perfectly justified. Gerhardt manages to contact the Trench Rats, Allied forces who arrived earlier to gather information on the Nazis' activities. They're informative, but insist that he'll have to establish contact with the Network on his own. Gerhardt is frustrated by his lack of progress and is wondering if this entire mission is a bust, when late one night, unable to sleep, he steps into his bathroom for a drink of water and tries to light a cigarette, only for the match to go out. Mildly annoyed, he lights another one--and it promptly goes out as well. He lights a third, this time pensive--same result. Something in the room keeps blowing out the matches. He cups his hand around the fourth match and it stays lit; when he lowers his hand and slowly turns, it sputters out, he realizes just as he's facing the mirror. Immediately, he knows what this must mean: There's a hidden passage behind the wall. The presence of these passages is widely known, Helmstadt even showed him a layout map of the house and its known passageways, but obviously, not all of them have been identified--this one wasn't on the map. He manages to force an entry into it, and starts exploring. He doesn't get far, however, before somebody places a gun to the back of his head and asks what he's doing there. When Gerhardt isn't quick enough to answer, he pulls the trigger, but nothing happens so he cocks the gun again--it's Russian roulette. He repeats his question and Gerhardt gives his cover story, but the man doesn't buy it, and pulls the trigger a second time--no shot--cocks the gun again. This time Gerhardt tells him the truth but again, the man doesn't believe him, pulls the trigger, no shot, cocks the gun. Gerhardt finally yells for him to check the seam of his jacket, under his arm. The man pats around under Gerhardt's arm, feels something sewn into the jacket, and pulls out a knife to cut the seam open; he pulls out a small Star of David pendant. He steps around in front of Gerhardt and says, "You're really stupid to carry this around on you, you know," and tosses it back. Gerhardt notices he wields the gun with his left hand, and has numbers tattooed on his arm--this is Josef Diamant himself. As if to confirm this, a voice from behind Gerhardt addresses him as "Herr Diamant," and Tobias Schäfer appears, insisting that Diamant can trust Gerhardt. Gerhardt is beyond perplexed until Schäfer explains that he helped the Network gain access to the Dobermann estate, and he--as well as Sgt. Holt, and most of the household staff--have been assisting the Network ever since. Holt and Schäfer had had their suspicions that Gerhardt wasn't who he said he was--Holt had picked up on Gerhardt's slight accent, which Hesse couldn't place, yet Holt recognized as American--but they couldn't confirm it until now. Diamant is skeptical--he finds Gerhardt rather ignorant and not good enough at maintaining his disguise, especially with how he caved in to the Russian roulette--but grudgingly agrees to take him into the Network. He's introduced to the other core members: Lukas Mettbach, a Sinto (Gypsy) and former test subject of Dr. Mengele who--to Gerhardt's alarm--often creeps through the household at night, completely undetected; Arno Spiegel, a former accountant who's nervous, soft, and mousy, but skilled with numbers and strategy, so often plans out the Network's movements; and of course Gret Dannecker, who joined the Network out of necessity after fleeing her stepfather's camp but still dresses and acts very...Nazi-ish...and wields Dannecker's dress sword as a weapon. They make a very strange alliance but are obviously quite skilled at what they do. Gerhardt has an "in" with Hesse and the other Nazis, so is instructed to make use of this. He hates the position he's now in, since betraying Hesse means harming Addy's trust as well--it's bad enough how Hesse lies to her like crazy, and Gerhardt's had trouble maintaining his own lies to her. I. e., he really wasn't made for all this deception. Diamant is adamant, though, so much that Gerhardt detects more than a trace of touchiness regarding Addy, but when asked about this he refuses to answer. Gerhardt wonders, despite the difference in their ages, if he harbors romantic feelings for her. Regarding Addy and romance, things are...complicated. She didn't grow up with any peers her own age, and her ideas of romance and love are almost entirely based on what she saw of her parents' marriage, the outdated concepts of knightly honor and chivalry Hesse has hand-fed her since childhood, and the Third Reich's and SS's ideal that the perfect German bride is an Aryan woman who knows her place, obeys her husband, and gives him as many children as possible. So...yeah. There's that. She spends her younger years dreaming and making believe about the day a handsome knight will come and take her away to his castle and she'll give him a big litter of children because that's what women do. As she gets older, her childish imaginary knight gradually turns into a more realistic SS officer and her feelings for "Uncle Gunter" become decidedly less familial. In short, she develops a full-blown crush on him, desperately trying to keep his attention as he's become less of a play companion and more preoccupied with his work and his own romantic interest, nightclub singer Sophie Sommer. (Oh WOW is Addy jealous of Sophie.) When regular methods don't work, she becomes prone to "accidents" that always result in Hesse hurrying to "rescue" her, which in turn angers the otherwise rather distant and uninvolved Dobermann, which in turn means Hesse has to comfort Addy all over again. It's a terribly dysfunctional dynamic, with Hesse--who's already harried due to all his regular responsibilities plus Sophie's occasional outbursts--basically playing the role of both of Addy's parents as well as her romantic interest, while attempting to conceal half of his life from her, and Gerhardt is amazed it's been going on so long without him snapping. That's not all, though. There's also Wilhelm "Wil" Volker, a young Wehrmacht sergeant--and Nazi--who's recently joined the household, albeit informally--he doesn't stay there all/most of the time like the others. In fact the only reason he comes by as often as he does is Addy. He promptly falls head over heels for her, going out of his way to spend as much time as he can with her and pretty much fill the role of the "knight" she's been seeking all these years. He's close to her age, he's handsome, he's kind and friendly and entertains all her rather childish behaviors and beliefs, and most of all, he doesn't care that she's not the tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty the Reich says she should be (something that's been a very sore point for her--did I mention Sophie fits that ideal?). In short, he's everything she's been hoping for. Except he's not Hesse. Addy is polite to Volker, but she doesn't notice or pay attention to a single romantic gesture he makes, because her mind and heart are already settled. Gerhardt notices, and can't help but hurt a little for poor Wil who tries so hard but gets nowhere. After a while Volker starts to catch on that it's Hesse Addy is interested in; he half-jokingly, half-resignedly confides in Gerhardt that perhaps he should apply to join the SS since "It seems she's looking for a dashing Teutonic knight to sweep her off her feet, and I'm not quite that." As the war draws on, things get more complicated as it becomes clear Germany is losing the fight. A potential consequence of this manifests in the SS as the corruption that had been simmering under the surface begins to boil over, so much so that even Hesse starts expressing his disillusionment and indicates to Sophie that if the SS won't approve his marriage proposal to her, he'll choose her over them, and resign. Considering that the SS has been his life's purpose for over a decade, this is a very big decision. The Diamond Network additionally ramps up its activities and Hesse grows especially frustrated trying to track down Diamant, who leaves taunting messages every chance he gets. One precipitating incident comes in the form of Lukas sneaking into the Dobermann house late at night and confronting Hesse, stabbing him repeatedly; he survives the attack, and in a rare display of spite, sends a tip that ends up getting a trainload of Sinti prisoners executed as revenge. Even after everything else he's seen, Gerhardt is horrified by this particular incident, and Lukas is shaken as well. Another incident has even further-reaching implications, when someone--presumably the Diamond Network--sends a clockwork bomb to the home of Col. Rupprecht Heidenreich, chief of the Allgemeine-SS intelligence division, and Hesse's boss. The assassination of such an important figure is unheard of, and Hesse leads the investigation, focusing on the Network. Gerhardt confronts Diamant about it, but Diamant insists they had nothing to do with it--they never send bombs to private residences, and even he knows how foolish it would be to kill someone as important as Heidenreich. When Gerhardt obtains a description of the bomb from Hesse, Diamant confirms it's not his work; whoever designed it obviously isn't a jeweler or watchmaker. Hesse ignores Gerhardt's theory that the murder is merely mimicking the Network's MO, until it's discovered that the only way the bomb could have gone off in Heidenreich's office--not at the entrance, where it was intercepted and examined and deemed harmless--is if the person who took it to him activated it themselves...and this particular someone was Heidenreich's wife, Eva. The two have an unhappy marriage, with Heidenreich cheating on Eva constantly, but the possible straw that broke the camel's back was Heidenreich getting involved with Sophie's coworker Mitzi, who's half Jewish--a HUGE breach of SS protocol. Eva doesn't deny her involvement, but refuses to tell Hesse who actually built the bomb; ironically, before being executed, she compliments Hesse for upholding the standards her husband failed to, and recommends him for Heidenreich's job. As if that isn't bad enough, a watch gear used in the manufacture of the bomb is traced back to a unique personalized watch made for a Waffen-SS member, Capt. Erich Arzt, who's the one who helped Hesse transfer from the Waffen-SS to the Allgemeine-SS after he was wounded. Arzt is the bomber, not the Diamond Network. He, too, freely admits his involvement, but commits suicide before he can be executed. Hesse refuses a promotion though he does agree to temporarily fill Heidenreich's post until a replacement can be found; by now he's incredibly jaded, having dug up so much corruption within all the branches of the SS (he'd also investigated members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, including Dannecker), that he's not sure who he can trust or if it's worth staying on board. Despite the deaths of Eva and Arzt, somehow confidential information about the SS is being leaked to the Diamond Network, and now that he's seen how broken the entire organization is he has no idea who could be doing it. Gerhardt, however, knows--he's met the leak, and unknown to him, so has Hesse. It's Trudi Detzer, a young, unassuming woman who's been living with Capt. Arzt in an unusual arrangement and to whom he inexplicably left all his belongings in his will. (Even Trudi was perplexed.) She's a double agent for the Diamond Network, recruited by Diamant to spy on Arzt and the SS, while choosing to continue living with Arzt and pretending to spy on the Diamond Network for him. Despite Arzt's cleverness and discretion, sex can sink ships like loose lips can, and he shared a bit too much with her. A glance at the medical records Arzt left behind clarifies why exactly Trudi was living with him, but by the time Hesse's men discover this, she's long gone. The Diamond Network is cleared of the assassination, but they're still very much involved. Throughout all this, more and more hints have been reaching Addy that things aren't as they seem, and the one common denominator in all the lies and unpleasantness she's discovering is Hesse. Even while he's still trying to reassure her things are fine, and Volker is still trying to win her over, Holt, Schäfer, and even Lukas, who earlier had killed another Nazi who was trying to attack her, try to convince her to trust her own intuition rather than just go by what Hesse tells her. Addy finally seeks answers from Gerhardt, thinking that as an outsider who just recently came from the war himself, maybe he knows what's going on. He's too reluctant at first to tell her the truth, which just makes her angrier. He decides to take a big risk, and clears up one lie Hesse had told her, that the trains she loves hearing pass by at night are full of soldiers and supplies for the war effort. (Addy already got a hint about this when Schäfer told her, "I'm glad I can't hear the trains.") They're not full of soldiers, Gerhardt says; they're full of prisoners, headed to the camps. Addy has already gotten a look at the labor camp--she was stunned when the adjutant, Maj. Jan Delbrück (whom Hesse also investigated), showed her the prisoners' barracks and the crematorium and told her the SS is behind the whole thing. That kind of camp? Gerhardt replies there are other, worse camps--camps where people go specifically to die. He mentions them getting their hair cut off and being put in gas chambers--which confirms a comment Eva Heidenreich made to Addy earlier. Delbrück said everyone in the SS knows about the camps, meaning Hesse does, too. Addy feebly tries to justify all of this anyway--after all, hadn't the Jews been responsible for them losing the Great War? Gerhardt loses his temper at this and outs his identity, insisting this is one of the worst lies Hesse has told her, as it's the basis for the mass slaughter of thousands of innocent people--the same people on the trains she loves to hear. This is a bit much for her, and she flees. She's faltering, though. Dr. Schäfer was in the camp, so maybe he knows more about what's happening. Schäfer knows how close Addy and Hesse are and is reluctant to say too much, but he does show her more of the hidden passages she didn't know about. Gerhardt shows up in time for Addy to meet Diamant face to face, startling both of them--Addy because she actually met him once before (in disguise), Diamant because he hadn't planned on revealing himself to her yet. So of course both of them are pissed off at Gerhardt. (Brief aside in my meandering narrative to inform you parts of this are likely out of order--see Addy's entry for what I mean (an important plot detail in that entry is out of order, too). The gist is the same, though. This story is still heavily under construction.) Addy lays into Diamant, blaming him for all the misfortune that's befallen her family, because surely the Jews, and the Diamond Network in particular, are behind most of the bad things that have been happening. Diamant's just as stunned by her comments as Gerhardt was, so all he can do is listen silently at first, but when she finally runs out of steam he instructs her to follow him to her neighbor's house to meet someone. "Another one of your Jew Network friends?" Addy says, to which Diamant replies, "You could say that." The neighbor is startled too, to see Diamant and Addy together--but it's especially strange that she seems to know Diamant. He tells her it's time, and she leaves the room and returns with her maid. The maid gingerly says, "Lina...?" Only two people ever call her that...Hesse, and her mother. The maid's hair has been cut shorter and bleached blond but there's no mistaking her, it's Inga Dobermann. Her death was faked and instead, she was taken into hiding by the Diamond Network, not that far away from home--and Diamant, Holt, and Addy's father were in on it. On the one hand, Addy's beyond grateful to have her mother back, but on the other...HER OWN DAD HAS BEEN LYING TO HER ALL THIS TIME, TOO. As well as her mother, who's been hiding in plain sight this whole time! So, yeah, that's messed up. Not only that, though--Addy learns that Inga is actually Jewish, meaning Addy is "Mischling," half Jewish, with a Jewish mother and German father just like Gerhardt. So that explains a lot of things, too, even while it opens up a whole new world of confusion. I believe they get word that it isn't safe at the neighbor's house, and use the passages to return to the Dobermann estate. Gerhardt remained behind and he and Schäfer are stunned to see Inga alive (Schäfer, who introduced Inga to the Network, had had his suspicions, but was never let in on the plot). Diamant explains that this was the only way to ensure the Dobermanns' safety following the shooting, and Dobermann and Holt successfully used Hesse to help provide a cover story, counting on his feelings for Inga to cloud his better judgement. Diamant's been keeping an eye on both her and Addy (from afar); he fell in love with Inga too, although he never acted on it, and considers Addy to be almost like a daughter. Gerhardt was correct when he sensed that Diamant has feelings for Addy--he just assumed the wrong reason. Dobermann appears and after a brief pause he and Inga embrace--making it clear to Addy that he's known about this situation all along. The other main Wehrmacht residents, including Helmstadt, Senta, and Volker--along with Hesse--then arrive, with news that the Allies have arrived at the city. Finding Inga and Diamant there is...well, the word "surprising" doesn't do it justice. Hesse and Diamant are sworn enemies, and considering what's now abruptly learned about Inga's ancestry, everyone expects Hesse to react first, but it's Private Helmstadt who explodes, pulling his gun and yelling that Dobermann is nothing more than a race traitor with a filthy Jew family. He tries to shoot Dobermann, but is shot and killed by--Volker, the only actual Nazi among the present Wehrmacht members. (Volker himself has already been wounded.) Volker seems confused by his own actions but has apparently picked his side. Hesse, the other Nazi present, finally comes to his senses and pulls his own gun, stammering that he has to take the Dobermanns into custody; they make a move to leave anyway and he aims, exclaiming, "I don't want to shoot you but I will!" Addy jumps in front of her father--making Hesse hesitate (the first time he's hesitated to shoot somebody throughout the story, I believe) just long enough for Diamant to shoot him. Addy cries out in grief--even to the very end, with his gun drawn on them, she considered Hesse her friend--but there's no time to linger, noises in the rest of the house make it clear the other Nazis have arrived, determined to seize the estate for their own use. Holt, Senta, and the wounded Volker decide to remain behind and defend the estate and the help staff, while Gerhardt and Diamant help guide the Dobermanns and Schäfer to safety. After they flee, Lukas briefly meets with them, having secured the horses from the Dobermann estate--including Gewitter, Hesse's horse from his time in the Waffen-SS--and he hands these over to aid them in making it into the mountains. (Gewitter is given to Addy, who breaks down again.) He and Diamant part ways with the group, and Gerhardt and Dobermann take charge. There's likely some more drama in this part that I haven't worked out yet--possibly a run-in with the Waffen-SS--but that's to be figured out later. Long story short is that Gerhardt, Schäfer, and the Dobermanns manage to reach safety in the mountains, and settle in a small, isolated town. They get word that, while Lukas, Gret, and even Trudi manage to escape harm, Arno is fatally wounded, and Diamant is captured by the SS and put on a train to be taken to one of the remaining death camps (the commandant of the local labor camp opened the gates and most of the inmates and guards, including Delbrück, fled). (Mitzi escapes, BTW, but Schulte is shot by a Diamond Network member while trying to warn Sophie to leave as Hesse is dead, and Sophie commits suicide.) Despite their grief over Diamant's fate, Gerhardt decides to remain in Germany and he and Addy get engaged (more on this in a moment), yet shortly after their wedding, matching gold rings arrive in a gift box with a jack of diamonds card--the old calling card of the Diamond Network during the war. Allied troops managed to stop Diamant's train before it could reach the camp, and he's survived. He ends up moving, along with Gret and Lukas, into the mountain town, while Schäfer decides to move back down to the city and see what he's missed. Some time after this the events of Ultima Thule take place and Gerhardt, the Dobermanns, and several others (along with a Trench Rats faction working separately) make their way further north to the Alpine Fortress after hearing some Nazis escaped the Allied takeover and have been continuing work on Project Doomsday, now known as Project Ultima Thule, a medical experiment initially focused on creating a "super soldier" but now tweaked to confer a sort of immortality on its participants. The serum has the ability to bring people back to life given that certain criteria are met, mainly that the brain is still intact. And so it's ESPECIALLY startling when the group runs into Helmstadt and Hesse. The details are in another entry; suffice it to say both Dobermann and Hesse (who's had the chance to see the wrong in what he's done) sacrifice themselves to defeat Helmstadt (who had the chance to see the wrong he's done but again chooses the Nazi side) and the remaining Nazis, leaving the others to depart without them. It's an apparently final victory, but it's a crushing one. The others try their best to pick up their lives in the little town, where Diamant (who gets involved with Inga) has a new jewelry shop. All right. You'll notice the big thing I didn't really spend time on, namely, how Gerhardt and Adelina fall in love. This is because I haven't entirely figured it out yet. I know it's very gradual and catches at least Gerhardt by surprise when he realizes it. Originally I was going to have it happen right near the end of the story, after the escape, but that's boring. I want to show it happening. Addy is the one who first shows feelings for Gerhardt, otherwise he'd never act on it, due to his mission. So far, a few scenes have formed in my head. In one, Addy asks Gerhardt if he thinks she's pretty; he replies that he thinks she's beautiful. This seemingly small incident that flies right by him is quite significant for Addy; at an earlier point, while lamenting over her un-Aryan looks, she mentions how people try to placate her by saying she's "pretty"--like a little girl--yet nobody ever calls her beautiful. Gerhardt is the first. Addy's heart almost skips a beat and she finally really notices him, although so far he's shown no interest in her. It takes Volker commenting on the situation for him to even realize that he's been taking a more active role in her life, similar to Hesse. This is shown in another potential scene where Addy runs and hides in this sort of hedge tunnel on the family property; she's been running and hiding in this thing since she was a little girl, and always, Hesse was the one to chase her. Sometimes Addy hides there while playing, but she also hides there when upset, and nobody quite knows where she runs off to, except Hesse. He even crawls in after her to either chase her out or console her until she's ready to come out on her own. Hesse's first appearance in the story is meant to take place in this manner, when Addy, upset and acting out, hides away in the bushes and then an SS officer comes crawling in after her, sitting down beside her to talk; "Uncle Gunter" seems kind and concerned when he first appears, making it all the more jarring when not long after he orders the murder of an entire family. Well, Hesse has less time for this sort of childish behavior as the story goes on, and spends less time with her. At one point Addy crawls into the hedges and invites Gerhardt to follow; thinking she's just engaging in her usual play, he does, though once inside, she kisses him. He's startled by this--but reciprocates. Before they can get very far, though, she accidentally says the wrong name--Gerhardt looks down at her and echoes, "'Gunter'--?" Mortified, Addy crawls back out and runs off. Left unsaid, but hopefully implied, here is that Addy's reason for hiding in the hedges and waiting for Hesse to follow has changed from what it used to be. She hides in there in the hopes that he'll follow her, and she can show him how she really feels about him. When it becomes clear this will never happen, she makes a move on Gerhardt instead, but her feelings aren't resolved quite yet. By this point, Gerhardt gets it, that she's interested in him and he's interested in her. He doesn't push the issue since he's in such an awkward spot and knows the risks, plus he too is aware of her complicated feelings for Hesse. They somehow finally end up in her room together, though, and although still nervous, Addy follows through. She even asks Gerhardt to call her "Lina"--terribly meaningful, as the only others to call her by that name are Inga and Hesse, the two others she trusts most in the world (and by this point in the story, her trust in Hesse is faltering). They fall asleep together, Gerhardt intending to leave early the next day without anyone noticing, except a knock comes on the door in the morning. He uneasily gets dressed and goes to peer out since the knock is insistent and Addy doesn't feel like waking up. Dumb move on Gerhardt's part, since it's Hesse at the door. The two of them stare at each other very awkwardly indeed for a moment--Hesse looks over Gerhardt's shoulder, sees Addy still sleeping, arms bare--then gives Gerhardt a withering glare, tells him to finish doing up his tunic, and to follow him. He walks away. Gerhardt does so, feeling very uncertain. As soon as he rounds the corner, Hesse abruptly shoves him against the wall hard enough to knock the breath out of him, arm pressed up under his chin, and presses his gun against Gerhardt's stomach. "If you harm a hair on her head, or make her shed so much as one tear," he says under his breath, "I'll empty my gun in the back of your neck." "I have no such intentions," Gerhardt manages to say, and Hesse lets him go, though there's murder in his eyes. Gerhardt decides he'd better be a little more circumspect, especially when Diamant catches word of what happened and throws his arms up at him, livid, exclaiming, "What are you thinking? Are you f**king stupid? If Herr Hesse doesn't kill you first then I gladly will!" Gerhardt runs into Dobermann not long after and all Dobermann does is give him a death glare. But yeah, that's good enough. Addy basically has three very overprotective dads. He makes a point to not return to Addy's room, though the two obviously have feelings for each other, now, and they do end up as a couple. There's one other scene where Gerhardt, seeking to console Addy when she wishes she were more like her father (and wonders if he can even possibly love her), takes a chance (he's still in disguise) and shows her an old photo he carries around, of his family. Addy stares curiously at the light-haired, light-eyed man and the dark-haired, dark-eyed woman, and at the two young boys, one the spitting image of the father, one the spitting image of the mother. (She has no idea about either Gerhardt's mother, or her own, being Jewish yet.) At first, she expresses envy over Gerhardt taking after his father. Gerhardt replies that while he was in his father's company, among others like them, things were indeed good; but while in his mother's and brother's company, among people like his mother, all he faced was criticism and rejection, the same as his mother and brother did in the opposite situation. After his father died, it was even more difficult, since he had no one he felt he belonged with--similar to how Addy feels now. He traces his finger over the photo and explains that it was always like an invisible line ran down the middle of the family, cutting one half off from the other, and after his father's death he was left alone on his "side." Addy realizes an invisible line runs through her own family portrait, always cutting Dobermann off from his own wife and daughter, and suddenly, at least some of his distant behavior makes sense. Like Addy feels now, he's never quite felt like he belongs in his own family. "I never noticed," Addy murmurs, and vows to herself that since he can't seem to reach out to her, she'll try harder to reach out to him. It took Gerhardt's similar situation for her to realize this. ...WELP, that was quite a lot, much of it not directly related to Gerhardt, I know. I still need to flesh him out somewhat, as well as sort out the order of certain things. Yet at least he's not just a name anymore. [Stephen Gerhardt 2022 [Friday, July 29, 2022, 4:01:53 AM]] [Stephen Gerhardt 2022 2 [Friday, July 29, 2022, 4:02:01 AM]] |