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Konstantin Klaus Blog Entry |
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September 23, 2022, 4:00:14 AM 9/23/22: r/SketchDaily theme, "Moving Water/Free Draw Friday." (I did Free Draw Friday.) Two portraits today. This week's (second) character from my anthro WWII storyline is a very new fellow, Sturmbannführer (Major) Konstantin Klaus. Regarding his design, his cap looks funny because he wears it with the stiffener removed for a "crushed" look. He also has a nasty scar over his eye, though his eyesight is unaffected. About his facial expression, he isn't sad or depressed, he's just a rather bored apathetic sort. There'll be some info about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. TUMBLR EDIT: Major Klaus (I kind of got attached to the name Klaus from a couple of different sources and wanted to use it, but since my characters are mostly referred to by surname, had to check if that was acceptable--it is--then had to come up with a first name--Konstantin--so yeah, you end up with Kommandant (Commandant) Konstantin Klaus, that's rather...uh...anyway) is a very very new character about whom I don't know much yet, though he did tell me a bit of his story. More will likely surface as he develops. Not that long ago, the only SS who were meant to appear in my story were the Allgemeine-SS, but gradually the SS-Totenkopfverbände and Waffen-SS emerged with their own characters, so there went that intention! And not that long ago the only camp directly referenced in the story was the smallish labor camp belonging to Commandant Dannecker/Commandant Reinhardt, but very recently, the thought of a camp in the rodent half of the story seeped into my mind. Probably because of Dr. Kammler seeking test subjects from there, and getting Wolfstein. I knew Wolfstein had spent time in a camp, but it wasn't intended to be in the story. Well! So much for that. A second camp appeared. This one was much different from the previous camp. It was MUCH bigger, and not just a labor camp, but a death camp, too. Mostly because I don't want it to seem like I figure all camps were just places someone went to to work and that was it, not by a long shot. I take LOTS of liberties with this fictional camp system (like why do my characters ride trains there when the camps are, like, at the other side of the city?--LEAVE ME ALONE) but that's not one of them. The new camp needed a commandant and that's where Klaus came from. Almost from the start he came across as glum and apathetic, not because he's particularly guilty feeling or anything, but because...well, he just is. He doesn't seem to care too much about anything. This put him in direct contrast with my other two commandants, Ernst Dannecker and Hasso Reinhardt. Dannecker was the commandant dreaded and feared by everyone he came into contact with, with a reputation for not just violence and malice but for sadistic mind games as well. I hesitate to call his behavior "horrific violence" because he didn't do the sort of stuff you can read about real SS guards doing. But he was nasty enough anyway. For him, terrorizing his prisoners was more satisfying than killing them, so he'd draw that psychological torture out as long as he could. (Though yeah, he'd outright kill them on occasion, too.) He was also just a gigantic skeezebag who broke/neglected numerous SS rules, terrorized his own guards, literally TRADED A HUMAN BEING for the price of a tapestry, had a creepy weird relationship with his stepdaughter, called his devoted wife (the only person to miss him when he was gone) a cow and reviled her behind her back, subjected even his obedient kapo, Isaak Schindel, to a particularly humiliating punishment he didn't even deserve, etc. etc. Reinhardt, who takes his place, is a reformer. Yes, he's still in the SS, yes, he still runs a labor camp. He focuses, though, on trying to make things a LITTLE more humane as well as productive and less wasteful. He's strict, but technically not cruel or spiteful. Do your job decently and he leaves you alone. The drawback is he constantly has to defend his actions to the rest of the SS, who find this sort of behavior counterproductive. The prisoners do their work well enough under him, however, that his superiors don't question TOO much. He even improves living conditions and tries to sort out the system of execution (something necessary even in a labor camp) to not be so messy anymore, and assigns tasks better suited for particular inmates; one of the recipients of his kindness, Schindel, even stays behind in the camp after Reinhardt opens the gates following the Allied takeover of the city, and remains by the wounded Reinhardt's side until the Americans show up. (They assume he's one of the SS guards in disguise at first since he refuses to leave Reinhardt.) Reinhardt ends up in a prison rather than executed due to these actions. (Oh, right. Dannecker would have definitely ended up executed, if one of his prisoners hadn't murdered him first.) Klaus is neither a psychopath nor a reformer. He's just...there. Doing his job, because it's what he was told to do. He in fact parrots this line unthinkingly more than once in the story, that he's just doing what he was told to do. (Sound familiar?) It seems like an excuse but Klaus genuinely believes it, because it turns out he's never really thought it through all the way. He's been taught not to question things and just do his job. So, he does. I believe Klaus starts out in the Waffen-SS, like Major Jäger, and similar to him, is wounded--likely how he got the nasty scar over his eye--and transfers out. (Same thing happens with Lt. Hesse on the canine side, though I don't think Klaus is old enough to have served in the Great War.) Unlike Jäger and Hesse, he doesn't transfer to the Allgemeine-SS but in the direction that actually makes more sense, to the SS-Totenkopfverbände. There was a lot of overlap between these two branches, with members switching between one and the other; Klaus can't stomach the thought of pushing papers in a bureaucracy like Jäger does, so he decides to head for the camps. An opening appears for a commandant and he's placed in charge of the camp in the story--not exactly the position of authority he'd wished for (he's not the most motivated guy), but what can you do. The weird thing is, he's very good at this job. He's s**t with names, not so good with faces, but he remembers numbers, he remembers dates and times and places, and he can pair them up in relation to each other to keep track of lots of information with minimal hassle. And given that running a camp depends so heavily on numbers and dates and times and places, that means he keeps very good track of everything that's going on, down to where prisoners with particular ID numbers were sent off to after leaving his camp, and when. He may be apathetic but he's also very efficient, and keeps the camp running much more smoothly than Dannecker's much smaller camp ever did. (In this respect, he has a lot in common with Lance Corporal Mahogany Rat, who's quite obviously on the spectrum and thinks of people more as numbers than as names/faces, except this particular...skill?--deficit?...is a lot more useful in a place where people give up their names and become numbers.) One disturbing aspect of this is how Klaus's flat affect manifests itself in relation to his prisoners. He frequently refers to them as his "sticks"--inanimate objects, bundles of wood, often stacked atop each other and placed in the ovens to be burned. Really disgusting and disturbing, but he says it without even thinking, like he's barely ever considered the possibility that he's dealing with actual people. Weirdly, he shows no malice toward the prisoners--it would be like showing malice toward an object, and that makes no sense. So while this contrasts with the usual more sadistic guards, it's perfectly in keeping with his personality. Objects are beneath him but they aren't worth getting mad at, either. Something Klaus becomes well known for is his business and bargaining savvy. His ability to keep track of his prisoners means he knows which ones are most productive or most talented, and this serves him well in determining who gets assigned to craft duties such as manufacturing SS uniforms, memorabilia such as Julleuchter (kitschy SS holiday lanterns), and various items to sell to provide funding for the SS. (Jeez the SS is tacky.) One such prisoner is Jakob Wolfstein, who catches Klaus's attention when he offers to fix Klaus's coat sleeve after another prisoner accidentally tears it (one of the rare occasions Klaus loses his temper and threatens an inmate); Wolfstein's quick but precise stitching impresses Klaus enough to assign him permanently to craft duties. Just as he bargains and strikes deals with other officials to either save or make money, he's willing to do the same with the prisoners if they have something to offer, and occasionally hands out privileges as incentives for better work. Inmates can even directly approach him when he walks through the camp and plead their case; he listens to all reasonable offers, and at the very least doesn't punish anyone just for having the audacity to ask. He's relatively frugal, though he makes enough money for himself to have a nice comfortable home and staff located on camp property (as required). An issue arises, however, which bemuses and annoys him: The SS wishes for him to get married. The birth rate in Germany has dropped, and the Third Reich places a great emphasis on its citizens having children, the more the better. SS rules actually stipulate that a good SS man is to marry a decent Aryan woman and father at least four children. Not all officers follow through on this, though, and Klaus has zero interest in starting a family. Even the financial incentives the SS offers aren't enough to convince him otherwise; he's content being on his own. The SS is insistent in this case though, presumably because Klaus is such a public figure, and after some further resistance on his part, they decide to arrange a marriage on his behalf. (Was this sort of thing actually done in the SS? I dunno. It's done for the sake of this story, though.) If Klaus isn't interested in seeking out a suitable bride, they'll just find one for him. Klaus isn't happy about this at all--"What time have I for a wife?--a family?--when I have my camp to run and my guards to watch and my sticks to keep in line?" he grouses--but has no choice. An acquaintance of his helps facilitate the process and keeps him up to date. It doesn't take long for the SS to locate a suitable mate, but she has to attend an SS bride school first to make sure she's ready for the role. This is all really weird for the asocial Klaus and for the most part he just tries to put it out of his mind until the young woman completes bride school and the time comes for them to marry. Yep--they're to get married without ever having even met each other first. "What if I don't like her?" Klaus asks his acquaintance (unknown to him, his intended bride is asking her own family, "What if he doesn't like me?"); that doesn't matter, what matters is they produce pure Aryan children for the Reich. Love?--romance?--those are unnecessary, a mere side benefit to those who experience them. Just treat her halfway decently, father some children, and he'll be set. The SS performs its own weird occultish version of wedding ceremonies; I don't know all the details, but Klaus arrives in his dress uniform and his intended bride in her dress, and they meet each other for the first time. It's awkward, but not terribly so; they don't get a chance to talk to each other yet but do kind of timidly peer at each other. Emma, her name is, is a little bit stocky and brunette (she wears her hair in braids coiled on the sides) and somewhat plain but when she peers at him sideways she offers a small smile which makes him blush and look away. (She thinks he's handsome, though rather stiff and standoffish so she wonders if she's offended him or if he's disappointed.) The marriage ceremony goes through without a hitch (nyuk nyuk) and the new husband and wife head back to the camp, where Klaus's home is located. The two of them know exactly nothing about each other (well, she knows he's the commandant of the camp, that's it), so they have some catching up to do. His reasons are obvious, but Klaus wonders why Emma agreed to an arranged marriage sight unseen; she explains she wasn't any good at finding a partner for herself, being so plain and shy, so her aunt and uncle decided to find a husband for her. They'd thought of trying to find one through the Lebensborn program, though this isn't the specific purpose of the program (Major Ludolf Jäger, in the Allgemeine-SS, found his wife through Lebensborn, though she was an unwed mother-to-be at the time and he adopted the child as his own when she was born); her aunt then just happened to run into Klaus's acquaintance at a social gathering, and the two got to talking--when they realized they both had a common goal in mind, they exchanged information and started making plans. Emma fit all the SS's racial hygiene requirements, but didn't know much about housekeeping and women's work, so went to attend the SS bride school. (Just a quick aside to say that yes, SS bride schools WERE a thing, they were apparently called Reich Bride Schools, though I know little about them and have taken lots of liberties as usual.) She's lucky--as camp commandant and such a skilled businessman, Klaus is technically a "catch," though he doesn't feel like one. Klaus doesn't know if he's lucky or not. They arrive at Klaus's house--"Just a heads-up, I don't have any fancy mountain chateau, if that's what you expected"--and Emma meets his small help staff, who greet her warmly (they figure it's about time he got married). She asks when she's to make him his dinner; confused, he says he has his staff to do that, but she insists it's part of her bridal duties to prepare the food; finally they agree that the staff will show her the ropes first and then they can figure it out amongst themselves. (Again, this is stuff Klaus never bothered thinking about before.) She asks when he gets up to go to work in the morning so she knows when to have his uniform washed and pressed and polished and ready to go; all of this flusters him terribly. (A high point, she makes strudel for dessert, and Klaus LOVES strudel. And Emma makes very good strudel.) The most flustering thing of all is when the time comes for bed; the two of them avoid the obvious for as long as they can, Emma fiddling her fingers nervously, until Klaus finally blurts out, "We don't have to do anything tonight if you don't want." It isn't pure altruism on his part--he's feeling as uncomfortable about their conjugal duties as she is. Emma is obviously relieved (so is he) but says, "Just, let me have until tomorrow night, bitte?--I'll be prepared by then, I promise." He suspects he won't feel any less awkward by then, but for the sake of a decent night's sleep agrees. Not that either of them gets a decent night's sleep though, I'm pretty sure they spend most of the night lying beside each other wide awake and agonizing. Emma seems nice, she has a pretty smile and makes fantastic strudel, but Klaus just wants his solitary bachelor life back. He goes to work early the next day, comes home late the next evening. (It's a full-time job running a camp.) While he's away Emma keeps herself distracted getting to know the house and staff better. She's puzzled to find a grand piano. Yep, a grand piano. It's kept dusted off and such but looks unused and the staff confirm that this is so, Klaus never plays it, because he doesn't know how. Why does he have a grand piano? Apparently it was a weird gift somebody gave him. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Emma, however, knows how to play the piano, so she fiddles around with it (well...pianos around with it?) a bit to amuse herself--it's a tiny bit out of tune--before going on to other things. She helps prepare dinner this time and makes sure everything is nice and ready for when her new husband comes home. Just as before, the staff all leave them alone when they eat together and Klaus is about as awkward as the previous day, though they do try to make a bit more smalltalk to get to know each other. Emma brings up the piano, and Klaus confirms it was a gift, albeit one he had no use for, thus why it's stashed away in an empty sunroom he never uses, either. When Emma says she knows how to play it, he humors her and they pay the instrument another visit; she plays a tune he finds familiar, and she's surprised when he joins her on a harmonica (which he does know how to play). It's odd, but it breaks the ice. That night, and the next morning, aren't nearly so awkward. Later that day while Klaus is at work, Emma is surprised again when someone shows up to tune the piano. Well, turns out Emma's family and the SS actually made a good match, and Klaus and Emma get along quite well, calling each other "sweet Em" and "my Konstantin." Emma likes doing her best to be a good traditional wife though Klaus is lenient enough that it's fine if she slips up. Klaus has very few words though the few he does have seem good enough for Emma. She gives him something to look forward to when he gets off work, and he doesn't miss being a bachelor so much anymore. They never do meet the SS goal of at least four children, though they do have two young sons, and although Klaus isn't the most emotionally demonstrative dad in the world he adores them both. It's really not a bad life. (For him, at least; can't really speak for the people in the camp.) Of course Klaus interacts regularly with his fellow SS members, including those in the other branches. He comes into contact with Capt. Otto Himmel as a result of dealing with requests from his brother-in-law, Dr. Dietmar Kammler. Dr. Kammler is running a medical experiment which requires subjects with a very rare blood type, so he regularly sends out requests to places with large populations of prisoners, disabled persons, and other "undesirables" who might fit the bill; Klaus's camp is a good source of test subjects, even those who don't fit this particular requirement yet can be useful in other experiments. Klaus actually finds these requests annoying; he doesn't see the point of experimentation. If sticks aren't good enough to be on equal standing with Aryans then how can they be any good as test subjects? But obviously the rest of the Third Reich doesn't share his opinion on this, so every time one of Kammler's requests comes through, he has to go over it and accept or deny it. SS regulations stipulate that the vast majority of requests be granted so he isn't actually required to go over every request, but he does so anyway, mostly to annoy Kammler for the hassle, and he makes a point of complaining whenever Kammler pays a visit as well. It's obvious he and Kammler dislike but have to tolerate each other. This is the likely reason why he gets along with Capt. Himmel, because Himmel also despises but has to get along with Kammler. Himmel is also a rather gloomy, taciturn sort, another thing they have in common. In fact, for a brief time Emma even develops a crush on him, always bringing a strudel when she visits where he works (Himmel also has a fondness for sweets); Himmel is even more awkward around women than Klaus is, yet they keep hitting on him anyway. (He's one of very very few guys doing secretarial-type work in an office full of female SS auxiliaries and let's just say there's a lot of thirst going on.) Himmel is incredibly flustered by the attention, yet the observant Klaus has a theory about the reason: Himmel is a widower, and "Women like to fix broken men." "Like moths to a flame," he adds, making it clear that he knows Emma has a crush on Himmel, because she keeps bringing him strudel--"She must really like you." Himmel, alarmed by this, privately asks Emma to stop bringing him strudel, because that's something she should do for her husband instead. Emma is mortified and ashamed to realize how inappropriately she's been acting, and hurries back to Klaus to beg forgiveness for her unfaithfulness, though really all she's done is express her condolences and bring Himmel lots of dessert pastries. Klaus is infuriated--but not with Emma, because like I said, he already knew about her "impure thoughts." He confronts Himmel to lambaste him for making Emma feel bad--"I told you that in confidence!" he snaps, regarding his comments about women needing to fix broken men. Himmel, even more bewildered by this turn of events, tries to stammer an explanation, but Klaus just clenches his fists, yells, "STOP TALKING TO MY WIFE!!" and departs. Himmel's boss, Maj. Jäger, witnesses part of this exchange and exclaims, "Kamerad! What is this? There are plenty of single women out there, you don't need to target the married ones!" Himmel just hides his face and grumbles. Anyway...although he dislikes it, Klaus has to put up with Kammler's frequent requests for test subjects. One day after blood samples are taken of everyone currently in the camp, a second such request comes through, though for only one inmate--Jakob Wolfstein, who is so skilled at making kitschy craft items for sale, and once fixed Klaus's torn sleeve. After the second blood sample is processed, Kammler requests Wolfstein to be sent to him as a test subject. This request is an odd one, not like the others; Kammler has never shown interest in a specific prisoner. Klaus is rather sorry to see Wolfstein go (even if he can't remember his name); he was good at what he did, and the commandant feels like sending him away to some experiment is most likely a waste. I don't think he ever learns of Wolfstein's fate, becoming the first success of Project Doomsday; the incident is kept somewhat quiet considering that Wolfstein is Jewish, and Kammler soon after switches his attention to Himmel's son, Kolten, who's mentally disabled but at least he's Aryan. Klaus has no involvement in any of this, and really doesn't care to be involved. Since he's more of a secondary/tertiary character, I don't know much about Klaus's role in the bulk of the story; he's there kind of at the start, and toward the end. More about him may come to light later, but it's hazy at the moment. He reenters the story when the Third Reich is on its last legs and the Americans are approaching the city from one side, the Red Army from the other. Klaus had rather prided himself on how well he ran his camp, but times have grown tough by now and conditions have significantly deteriorated--the trains aren't running as reliably as before, with more coming than going, and he has significantly more prisoners than the camp was intended to hold. Disease, exposure, and starvation are starting to run rampant. Communication with higher-ups in the SS has become sporadic too, since many of them have bailed out early, so he has no real recourse to get everything sorted out. Not to mention everyone in the city is starting to panic, including his own guards. Most of them end up fleeing, disobeying his direct orders and making off with many of the camp's records to try to cover up any evidence of their crimes. The camp is left with just a skeleton staff...and a bunch of very, very angry inmates. When word reaches them that the Allies have finally entered the city, and American troops come within sight of the camp's fences and demand the surrender of the remaining SS officers, the prisoners who are in good enough physical shape revolt. One of the kapos strikes Klaus in the leg with his club--smashing his kneecap and crippling him instantly--and a group of inmates knocks him to the ground and starts pummeling him, breaking his nose, blackening his eyes, fracturing a rib; it's only the intervention of the American soldiers who breach the camp that saves his life, and they have to push the prisoners back and drag the badly injured Klaus out of the brawl, ignoring the prisoners' yells to let them take care of him. Klaus was never particularly horrible to his prisoners, but a Nazi is a Nazi at the end of the day, and he was responsible for the selections and the gas chambers. He and the few guards remaining are taken into American custody while the Allies try to figure out what to do about the camp itself, which is freaking huge, and full of sick and dying prisoners. They weren't quite prepared to handle this. They also aren't really prepared to handle Klaus. They argue a bit over what to do with him--giving him back to the inmates is a popular idea--before deciding to hand him over to the Trench Rats, an American unit which has been active in the area for years already, keeping an eye on the Nazis' medical project; they have a medical ward, surely they can figure out what to do with him. Klaus is handed over with little ceremony, someone mentioning offhandedly that he should be seen by a doctor, but he's shoved into a cell and left there without this happening. He sits there for quite a while, every inch of him throbbing, before receiving his first visitor, a Trench Rat with a sergeant's insignia and a blinded eye. He's been told that Klaus likes to make bargains. As a war criminal, Klaus most likely faces execution after he'll be tried by a military tribunal; but he might just get a prison sentence of his own instead, if he helps. Thinking of Emma and his sons--whom he told to hide in the cellar of his house if everything went to s**t as he was expecting it to--he asks what it is they need to know. They're looking for a particular prisoner, the Trench Rat says, a Zigeuner (Roma) man named Nikolas; his last known location was in Klaus's camp. Klaus replies that he needs more information than that, because he doesn't know the names of his "sticks." A second Trench Rat assisting the sergeant provides an ID number, and Klaus pauses a moment to sort through his mental records before explaining that prisoners in certain groups of ID numbers such as this one went to one of various locations--some left for another camp, while some were assigned to a particular area of his camp. When was the date the ID number was assigned? The two Rats share a perplexed look before the second one looks through his file--Klaus realizes it's one of the partial files his guards left behind--and gives a date. Klaus pauses again before answering that the prisoners in that group were sent to a specific set of barracks, and the Zigeuner prisoners to one building in particular. If Nikolas is still in his camp, that's where he'll be. The Trench Rat sergeant, who gives his name as "Gold," turns to leave, when Klaus warns him he better hurry as most of his Zigeuner prisoners are in bad shape: "Killing 'em off would've been a mercy." Gold gets a disgusted look but says nothing as he departs. A short time later, a third Trench Rat with a red cross on his helmet arrives and signals the guard to unlock the door and let him in; Klaus jumps back when he touches his face, and only then gets a very brief, dim look at his helmet, because by now his eyes are nearly swollen shut. He gives Klaus an ice pack to press against his face and examines Klaus's knee, determining that he can put it in a splint and cast but do little else, the patella is crushed and it's unlikely he'll be able to walk on it again. Klaus reacts as he always does, with indifferent resignation. When the surgeon asks what happened and learns it was the prisoners who inflicted the injuries, Klaus adds that he can't even blame them, they were just doing what prisoners do. The surgeon asks if he has any other serious injuries and he says no, though a brief examination reveals he has a broken rib as well, and the surgeon orders that he be brought to the medical ward for treatment. Once there, another patient--one of Klaus's "sticks"--sees him, and attempts to attack him, having to be restrained by a couple of Rats; Klaus can't see what's happening, though he hears a woman (Lyndsey Skye) ordering the patient back to his bed, and the patient complaining that someone like Klaus doesn't deserve to take up a bed. The woman starts to tend to him and Klaus says matter-of-factly, "He's right, you know; you shouldn't be wasting beds on people like me (he gestures at his crippled leg) when you have patients who might actually recover." "Yes, well," the woman replies, "unlike your people, we don't make distinctions like 'worthy' or 'unworthy.'" Klaus says nothing, though the comment makes him pause. By the time Klaus is able to see again and is moved to a different part of the medical ward, Sgt. Gold pays him another visit; they succeeded in locating Nikolas based on the information he gave them. They've realized that Klaus is a mnemonist, with an unusually gifted memory for numbers and data. (Gold's companion, Mahogany, noticed that every time he's asked to recall such a detail, Klaus lifts his head and appears to be "reading" the air, as if scanning an invisible ledger; this is how he visualizes and remembers such things.) Most of the prisoner records from his camp are missing, stolen by the guards who fled and complicating the process of sorting out the remaining prisoners; however, they may not need these records, if Klaus himself remembers the necessary details. "And what's in it for me?" Klaus asks; he's already been promised a prison sentence rather than execution (if possible), so there's little left to bargain with. Gold replies that the Allies found Emma Klaus and their two children hiding in his house and took them into custody. For the first time, Klaus shows a flicker of concern; obviously anxious, he asks if his family is all right, and insists they had nothing to do with his work. Gold assures him they're safe and will be protected while in Trench Rat custody. Klaus doesn't need any further prompting--"You keep my wife and kids safe, I'll tell you everything you want to know." He does ask if he can see Emma; independently, she's asked if she can see him. His children aren't allowed in, but the Rats do allow Emma in just briefly; she and Klaus embrace, and she frets over his black eyes and injured leg while he insists he's fine, and instructs her to do what the Rats say, and let the boys know he loves them; they share a few endearing words before she's led away again, her eyes full of tears. Klaus wipes his own eyes, takes a breath, and says, "Well, what do you need me to do?" Even with the threat of a military tribunal hanging over his head--and no absolute guarantee that Gold's promise can be kept--Klaus proves to be one of the Allies' most useful resources. He not only gives what information he remembers from the missing records, but provides information on the most likely locations of the guards who stole them--in effect, selling out the SS-Totenkopfverbände to protect his family. When the time comes for him to stand trial, he claims he was simply following the orders of the SS, but also takes responsibility for his own actions, and testifies truthfully as to everything he and his guards did. He's found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and belonging to a criminal organization (the SS); the usual punishment for such offenses is execution, but Gold kept his promise of working to get him a prison sentence instead, and knowing that Klaus may be able to provide further information, he's given a ten-year sentence (obviously, not everyone is happy about this--including Camo, the original sergeant of the Trench Rats), and is brought to an old castle which has been converted into a prison to serve his time. (I've toyed with the idea, but am not sure yet, that this castle is the most prominent one in the story, informally known as Castle Schavitz after its former inhabitant. Needless to say, he wasn't the original owner, and there was likely at least one murder involved.) The American military continues to make good use of Klaus while he's in prison. A particular pair visits him often, a high-ranking man and a woman, the man asking numerous questions while the woman takes notes and sorts through files. Klaus answers whatever they ask to the best of his ability. His interest is piqued when he learns that the female officer is Jewish; it's odd to him that the male officer, while formal, is cold and blunt and obviously dislikes him, yet the female officer is more courteous and seems indifferent. Klaus asks her one day, after the male officer has left and while she's picking up her files, why she doesn't seem to hate him. "What have you done to me?" she asks, to which he says, "Your people. I was certainly not good to them." She replies that while that's true, she can't let it interfere with her work. Realizing that she's a person doing a job makes Klaus stop and think, probably for one of the first times in his life. Although the male officer obviously disapproves, the two start to communicate a little more in between questioning sessions; Klaus had never thought of Jews as being anything other than the "sticks" in his camp, and the closest he'd ever gotten to one was when he briefly regretted having to send Jakob Wolfstein away. It's kind of jarring to him to realize he can hold a decent conversation with one, and not only that, but she seems smarter than he is, as well. She brings him a book to read; Klaus has never been very big on reading--the Nazi party actually advocated against learning TOO much--but he has little else to do while alone in his cell, so he accepts it. He knows enough to recognize that it's a book that was banned by the Nazis yet he reads it anyway. The next time she visits, he gives the book back; she says she'd intended for him to keep it, to which he replies, "They don't allow me to collect books here...I was hoping I could trade it for another one." Taking the hint, she brings him a different book, and every time they meet he returns the old book and receives a new one. She brings particular books--mostly books banned by the SS--for a reason, and he's aware of what she's doing but goes along with it anyway, not only because he has nothing better to do, but because it's finally occurred to him to think about everything he's just blindly believed up till now. The more he reads, the more uncomfortable he feels, but it doesn't quite hit him until one day after answering questions he casually uses the term "sticks" for the umpteenth time and it suddenly strikes him that he's not talking about sticks, he's talking about people, not much different from the one in front of him. "Not sticks," he says; then, "So many not-sticks." He abruptly loses his voice, can't say anything further; the officers leave, and he's returned to his cell. He has lots of time to think now, and he doesn't like what he's realizing. Basically, he's realizing what a truly awful person he really is. Emma is allowed to visit him briefly once in a while. The Trench Rats, who've maintained a skeleton force in Germany and repurposed the old Project Doomsday headquarters for their own use in sorting through the records the Allgemeine-SS left behind (Himmel, who faced a military tribunal himself, helps with this), kept their promise to maintain her and the children's safety, and for the time being they've been living in headquarters along with several other former SS members and relatives to protect them from the public. As before, it's not an arrangement everyone likes--Camo Rat, Noah Kirchheimer (a relative of Wolfstein's), Champere (a French partisan leader), and Didrika (a Roma partisan leader) are especially displeased with it--but it has to do for now. Emma expresses some concern one day that Klaus's attitude seems to have changed; he brushes off her observation with a vague excuse. The truth is he's at last starting to question the SS values he's held as long as he can remember, but seeing as she attended the SS bride school and had to meet all their criteria just to marry him, and was required to raise their sons with the same values, he doesn't want her to know this. The Allies are implementing the process of "denazifying" Germany, which means purging Nazis from positions of authority and influence, though in at least a few cases, they're attempting to flip former Nazi officials to their side as well. This isn't for purely idealistic reasons--mainly, they're attempting to counter the Soviet Communists--and it isn't even always required to "convert" the Nazis before bringing them on board--lots of them get off scot-free. But this is what starts happening with Klaus. He can't quite hide his feelings one day when Emma visits, but still refuses to explain why until he asks how the boys are doing with their lessons. Emma confesses that she's gradually stopped trying to instill SS values in them, in hopes of blending in better once they leave the Americans' custody. She expects anger and disappointment; but Klaus just offers a small resigned laugh, and briefly clasps her hands (touching isn't allowed, though they manage it a few times). He allays her worry and confusion by simply saying she's done the right thing. Klaus's continued assistance to the Allies, combined with his apparent harmlessness--he's permanently lost the use of his leg and needs to get around on crutches or in a wheelchair, and expresses no interest in trying to get back in touch with any of his former SS colleagues still remaining (I mean why would he, when he pretty much sold them all out)--play a large role in authorities determining he can be released from prison early. Several parties, including Camo and the male military official in charge of questioning him, argue vehemently against this, and even Klaus himself makes no case for his early release (he doesn't protest it, but he doesn't plead for it either), but when he agrees to continue providing information, his prison sentence is commuted, and he's released several years early, into the custody of his wife. (The first thing Klaus does after exiting the prison is to embrace Emma and his sons for a few moments; they all leave together without saying a word.) The Allies secure a small cottage for them and they move in, Emma taking a job to support them as Klaus is unable to work; additionally, he decides to rarely leave the house, as the German citizens recognize him and often react with anger and hostility--he doesn't want to bring such treatment down on his family, so determines that keeping himself away out of sight is the one thing he can do to protect them. Emma is saddened by this, but can't persuade him otherwise. It isn't an ideal situation, but, as Klaus reasons, at least they're all together again, that's what counts. There may be more to Klaus's story--I've toyed with the idea of him moving out to the country similar to Himmel, and living a relatively peaceful life there--BUT I'm uncomfortable with the thought of it looking like I'm letting him off too easily. Yes, I do feel his "conversion" is sincere, and yes, I have plenty of other Nazi characters who meet suitably unpleasant ends, but still, considering the scope of Klaus's crimes, I'm really undecided on this one. Maybe his fate is to remain in a prison of his own making; that seems rather ironically suitable. I do think that eventually Himmel reaches out to him though, and then Wolfstein--it's kind of awkward, considering: Emma, answering the door cautiously: "May I help you...?" Wolfstein, holding a couple of boxes: "I'd like to speak with Herr Klaus, bitte? I was told he lives here...?" Emma: "Who's calling?" Wolfstein: "Wolfstein, Jakob Wolfstein." Emma: "Hold on, bitte." (goes inside) Klaus: "Who is it?" Emma: "A man to visit you, he says his name is Jakob Wolfstein?" Klaus: "I don't know this name." Emma, returning to the door: "I'm sorry, my husband doesn't remember you." Wolfstein, a bit confused, then thinking of something: "Oh...wait a moment." (looks around, holds out the boxes) "Could you?" (Emma takes the boxes and Wolfstein unbuttons and rolls up his left sleeve to show his arm; Emma lets out a small gasp) Emma, reading the number then giving back the boxes: "Hold on a moment, bitte." (goes back inside) Klaus: "He's still here?" Emma, anxious: "He...has a tattoo on his arm." (recites the number) Klaus, looking up in the air a moment, then widening his eyes: "Let him in." (Emma returns to the door, gestures for Wolfstein to enter; Klaus rolls out to meet him in his wheelchair) Klaus: "You fixed my sleeve." Wolfstein: "You remember that?" Klaus: "I'm sorry, I don't remember your name or your face...what's your name again?" Wolfstein: "Wolfstein, Jakob Wolfstein." Klaus, looking up in the air: "Jakob Wolfstein." (looking at Wolfstein again, perplexed) "Why are you here...?" Turns out Wolfstein is there to check in on him, same as he did with Himmel, as Himmel--who'd run into Klaus not long before while he was briefly hospitalized--expressed concern about his wellbeing. Wolfstein mentions how Klaus was once kind to him, offering him privileges, to which Klaus, always painfully honest, protests, "That wasn't a kindness, was just a quid pro quo." Wolfstein doesn't care. They talk a bit to catch up (Wolfstein mentions he's friends with Himmel, and his sister is involved with the former SS officer--a concept Klaus still finds surprising) before he offers the first box; Klaus gingerly opens it (like Himmel, he feels very uncomfortable receiving gifts), then laughs a little--it's a Julleuchter, which he gives to Emma to put on the mantel, saying, "He always made the best Julleuchter." Wolfstein promises to check on them again though Klaus can't figure out why he wants to, and Wolfstein leaves the second box with them before departing. Once he's gone, the Klauses open the package and curiously peer within. It's a box of Jewish pastries. [Konstantin Klaus 2022 [Friday, September 23, 2022, 4:00:14 AM]] |