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Mitzi Blog Entry |
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December 30, 2022, 4:05:03 AM 12/30/22: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Mitzi (no last name ever given). She's a singer and hostess at the Mesmer Club (nightclub) where she works with Sophie Sommer. Quite sociable and flirty. She's not a hugely important character, but one of her decisions has a drastic impact on a lot of other characters. There'll be more about her later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding her design, she's some kind of Spitz, likely a Mittelspitz. This isn't quite how I envision her--she has very kinky, voluminous hair, more like something you'd see out of the Eighties than the Thirties/Forties--but this was the closest I could get for now. (The ponytail is also conjectural.) TUMBLR EDIT: Mitzi is quite a side character, so, not much info available on her. I don't know her past, her family, her deep motivations. Almost all of what I know is in how she relates to other characters, especially Sophie. It's her meeting with Sophie (outside the scope of the main story) that opens up both their parts of the plot, in fact. I'm not sure I'm remembering the details entirely right; but Sophie, in an adult WIP, shares part of her past with her lover, Lt. Gunter Hesse. Her parents died and left her on her own when she was a teenager, so she had to find a way to make ends meet--and that way was of course prostitution. She runs across Mitzi, who technically isn't a prostitute, though she's engaged in a dubious line of work, singing--and entertaining patrons in other ways--at a kind of shady nightclub called Mesmer; it's especially well liked by members of the Schutzstaffel, who go there to drink and smoke and relax their usually strict Nazi principles. She offers Sophie a job there as a hostess like herself--Sophie has the looks to get by, surely she'll do fine. Yes, the work sometimes involves more than waiting tables and flirting around with the men...but she's already doing that, so how unpleasant could it be? At least this way, she'll have steady work, and a roof over her head. Sophie accepts. As Mitzi promised, Sophie does well, and even attracts more clients--her innate charm, as well as her more typically Aryan good looks, do her plenty of favors--but working at the club, she discovers another talent: singing. Her voice is mesmerizing (no pun intended), almost operatic, and bewitches all the men who stop by. Patronage at the club increases because of her, and although it's never the most aboveboard place, it does clean up a bit and become more glamorous, in a forbidden way. Sophie literally rises from the streets to become the club's head singer and hostess and even has a say in how things are run--easily overshadowing Mitzi. The two remain dear friends, however--Sophie refuses to forget how Mitzi helped her--and Mitzi doesn't mind being in her shadow. There's still enough work for her, too. (Brief aside to say there SHOULD be more hostesses at this club, just that so far Mitzi and Sophie are the only ones to show up.) Mitzi sticks by Sophie's side as she goes through some unfortunate experiences working at the club. Despite her background, Sophie is a bit naive, and still has dreams of finding her "knight in shining armor"--her parents told her stories of such things when she was little. Every man who shows her some attention has the potential to be the one, and she falls easily for their promises, which never turn out to be true. On one especially painful occasion, she goes off for the weekend with a young SS officer, enjoys the time with him at his mountain retreat; he says all the right words, makes all the big promises of sweeping her off her feet to live with him. Her head's still swimming when he drives her back to the nightclub. He vows he'll marry her...after his wife, who he's about to go visit now, gives birth to their child. It'd be a little complicated to leave her right now, but afterward, he promises. Sophie retreats to her room and cries while Mitzi comforts her. Needless to say, he never leaves his wife and they never get married, though he does get Sophie pregnant, and Mitzi takes her to a "specialist" for care, as she has no place for a baby right now. Sophie nearly dies afterward when she starts hemorrhaging; Mitzi contacts the doctor on call for the club, and he manages to save her. Mitzi is guilt stricken over this; she's gone to the specialist herself without any problems, she doesn't know what went wrong this time, but Sophie almost died because of her. Sophie doesn't blame her, though, and has to remind her that without Mitzi being there to call the doctor, she really WOULD have died. Mitzi has nothing to feel bad for. The whole experience jades Sophie somewhat, though; she decides from that point on that while she'll still enjoy herself with the men who show her interest, will still banter and flirt and do more with them (as long as they're paying customers), she won't give them her heart; she builds up a wall around it and sets aside her childhood dreams of finding her knight. Mitzi tries to encourage her not to close herself off completely to possibility, however: "Who knows? He might still be out there. It's not too silly to think. I'd like to find one someday, myself." Sophie is skeptical, but Mitzi's rather naive-sounding words end up coming true. As Sophie sings one night she locks eyes with an officer she's never seen in the club before; like most of the men, he looks utterly enamored. Something about him she can't describe catches her attention, though; she smiles, and he offers a small smile back. She returns to working the crowd; that's it for their interaction that night. She sings only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so it's a bit before she sees him again, and this time after her act is done she goes to his table to introduce herself. He introduces himself as Gunter. They sit and talk for hours, and they do this every other night she sings; she learns his full name is Gunter Hesse, and he's an Obersturmführer (lieutenant) in the Allgemeine-SS. His master sergeant, Theodor Schulte, is the one who convinced him to visit the club and hear "Songbird Sophie." At some point she mentions the look he'd had on his face, and asks why it is he enjoys her singing so much. He seems to struggle to think of a way to put the feeling he gets when he hears her voice, finally settling on an odd comparison. Hesse: "When you sing, it's like...morphine." Sophie: (amused) "Morphine? You're saying I put people to sleep?" Hesse: (shaking head) "Nein, not like that...I'm not explaining it well." Sophie: (soft laugh) "It's all right, I think I get what you mean. It distracts you...takes you someplace else, away from your troubles and pain, for a little while...am I right?" Hesse: "Exactly right." Sophie has the feeling he knows this from experience. (Take a music break. Here is "Love Exists" by Amy Lee. I imagine Sophie's singing voice sounding much like this, though in German, obviously. No wonder Hesse falls for her so hard.) He becomes a devoted visitor to the club, and she enjoys talking to him. He comes across another patron cornering her threateningly in the back hallway one evening and warns him off merely by looking at him. Sophie tries to explain the situation to him the next night. (From one of my adult WIPs, from Hesse's POV.) The next evening when they were left alone for a few moments to talk, though, she ventured, "I wished to explain, about last night..." "You owe me no explanation," Hesse said. She brushed her hair back; he noticed she did this when nervous, although she gave no other signs. "I realize...though I thought you should know." "Fräulein Sophie..." She lifted her head and they made eye contact. "I'm under no illusions where we stand in regards to each other," Hesse said. "What you do when I'm not around is none of my concern." She blinked, though it was a blink of realization, not surprise. Then smiled. Eventually she invites him back to her room, though she's so nervous that night that she gets drunk (very uncharacteristic of her) and passes out before they can get very far. When she wakes up in the morning she can't remember much, so asks Mitzi what happened; Mitzi reports that Hesse left her room not long after entering it, said that Sophie was sleeping, and departed. It would've been the perfect opportunity for him to try something with her, yet he hadn't. (Schulte even rebukes him for this; Hesse's terse reply: "I'm not f**king an unconscious woman, Schulte.") Their next encounter goes better, and he becomes such a regular visitor that she finally ends all her engagements with other male visitors; they're disappointed, but most of them handle it well. Mitzi gently jokes that Sophie's finally found her "knight"; Sophie brushes this off. It's just a fling--yes, an exclusive one now, but nothing more, nothing she expects will move beyond the inner world of the club. Just a little fun until Hesse decides to get married and move on. One of the club regulars doesn't take Sophie's rejection so well; I believe it's the same guy Hesse confronted threatening her in the back of the club. He shows up again when Hesse isn't there, and this time forces his way into Sophie's private room. You can figure out the rest. After he leaves, Sophie calls Mitzi to come to her room; Mitzi gets a look at her black eye and bruised arms and immediately starts tending to her, offering to call the doctor, though Sophie refuses, she just wants to try to forget about it. It's her night to sing; she begs Mitzi to take over for her that night, and Mitzi does so without protest--"You get your rest, feel a little bit better, ja?" Understandably, the club patrons are disappointed to hear that "Songbird Sophie" won't be performing that evening, though Mitzi does a decent job entertaining in her place, and club business continues as usual. After she finishes singing and schmoozing with the men a bit, Mitzi heads to the back hall where the private quarters are located. "Fräulein Mitzi...?" a voice calls; she glances back, and sees Lt. Hesse standing in the entrance to the hallway. He and Schulte arrived earlier for the show, and like everyone else were disappointed when Sophie didn't appear; however, a puzzled comment from Schulte--"That's odd, Fräulein Sophie never misses a show"--worried Hesse even more, and he wonders if she's all right. Sophie had instructed Mitzi to tell the crowd she merely wasn't feeling well, but Hesse's concern makes Mitzi pause; none of the other men have bothered to check on her, and she knows the two of them are pretty much exclusive by now. She says maybe he should speak with Sophie himself, and lets him come into the hall. Mitzi knocks on Sophie's door and calls her; she declines to answer until Hesse says, "Fräulein Sophie? It's Herr Gunter. Is everything all right...?" There's a brief silence, then Sophie's door cracks open and she peers out; "Kamerad Schulte said you never miss a performance, are you feeling well?" Hesse asks, and in response she opens the door further, revealing her blackened eye. Mitzi sees the stunned look flit across Hesse's face before Sophie steps aside to let him in; he glances at Mitzi, enters, and Sophie closes the door. Mitzi retreats, though she does notice when Hesse exits Sophie's room not long after. He looks PISSED. He stalks off from the club, practically fuming; Sophie doesn't explain what happened when Mitzi asks, so she doesn't press. A few days later, whispered word reaches the club: One of its patrons was killed. A freak accident--he'd grabbed on to a fence surrounding the labor camp, and it switched on just after, electrocuting him. The awful incident was witnessed by numerous passersby, both SS camp guards and civilians. Such an occurrence isn't completely outside the realm of possibility, but when Sophie and Mitzi learn who the victim was--the same man who'd assaulted Sophie--it's a little too much for either to buy. She doesn't reveal it to Mitzi at first, but now Sophie is the one who's pissed: After she'd let Hesse into her room, she'd briefly told him what had happened, and he'd been understandably angry. Sophie had ordered him not to take any action on her behalf--"If you do, you'll only make it worse. I have to see him and people like him every day." She'd refused to name the man responsible, though that was kind of futile--Hesse works in the intelligence division, he can easily find such things out, and this time, it looks like he did. Against Sophie's wishes, he acted anyway, ordering Schulte to use his connections to get the job done; Schulte followed through, and after a woman called out to the SS officer and asked him to help her retrieve something that had fallen beyond the electric fence, an SS-Totenkopfverbände guard had switched the fence back on while the officer was holding it. Hesse and Schulte were nowhere in the vicinity, they can't be connected to anything, but Sophie knows. And she's infuriated that Hesse took action despite her request. Mitzi, however, unaware of this, makes a comment without really thinking, which gives Sophie pause: "Wow, Sophie!...you have your very own knight in black armor!" Nevertheless, the next time Hesse is at the club, after her performance Sophie strides to his and Schulte's table, curtly says, "You. Follow me," and walks away, leaving Hesse to follow, casting Schulte an uncertain look before he does. Mitzi watches them both go into her room again and shut the door; she stands uncertainly in the hall for a moment, hears Sophie raise her voice, then returns to the main room, approaching Schulte's table. Mitzi: (awkwardly) "Ahm, may I sit...?" Schulte: (stands, offers a chair) "Bitte, of course, Fräulein." (both sit) (uneasy silence) Schulte: "Usually I give him fifteen minutes...then I leave." Mitzi: "Ah..." (nods) "Good policy." Schulte: "Seems pretty reliable." (long silence as they both drink and watch the night crew clean things up) Mitzi: "Seems it's been an awfully long time." Schulte: (frowns at his watch) "Almost an hour." (pause) "You think maybe he's staying?" Mitzi: (perplexed) "Sophie doesn't keep overnight guests..." (silence) Schulte: "You think maybe she makes an exception...?" Turns out Sophie did indeed make an exception. She eventually gives Mitzi some of the details: When she demanded to know if Hesse was behind the electrocution, he didn't confirm, yet he didn't deny, either; she knows him well enough by now to understand how he communicates. At first she lambasted him for ignoring her request--"I asked of you ONE thing, and you didn't listen! I thought you were different, but you're all the same!" He didn't speak up once during her tirade, just let her go off on him. She at last dropped her voice and gave him a withering glare. From another WIP: Sophie's eyes narrowed to slits. Her voice came out deadly low. "What if I told you," she said, "to leave here and never come back?" Hesse felt like he'd been stabbed in the gut. He didn't show it. "Is that what you wish?" he asked quietly. Sophie's expression didn't change. "What would you do?" He hesitated only briefly before turning away, to the door. Walked silently to it and placed his hand on the handle, started to twist. Then--Sophie's hand clasping over his, stopping him--he looked up in surprise, not even knowing she'd come up behind him. When he met her eyes, they were glassy and imploring. "Stay," she pleaded. Hesse stared at her. She let go of his hand and clasped his head, kissing him hard. He let go of the doorknob, paused, then clasped her face in return, opening his mouth to accept the kiss. They hungrily bit at each other for a moment until Sophie pulled away from his mouth, wrapping her arms around him and clasping him close. She was warm. "Bitte, stay," she moaned; then, in the smallest whisper: "You're my knight." This comment got an immediate reaction from Hesse, and Sophie let him stay the night. Both of them find out something unexpected they have in common. Slightly edited for content: "What you said earlier," he ventured. "When I was about to leave," he added when she lifted her head to peer at him. "You called me your knight. What did you mean...?" Sophie blushed and averted her eyes. "Ah...I'm sorry. That was silly..." "Nein," Hesse interrupted, a bit abruptly; she peered at him again and he took a breath. "It wasn't. I just...wish to know why you said it. Could you tell me?" Sophie bit her lip. Pulled her arms away from him and wrapped them around herself instead; he let go of her although he didn't want to, sensing she wanted a bit of space. "Well..." She shrugged one lovely shoulder, gave a sigh. "My mother told me stories when I was a little girl," she said, her expression a little embarrassed. "Knights rescuing maidens, damsels in distress, that sort of thing. Pure fairytales, I'm sure. She'd say every fair maiden had her own knight to fight for her and defend her. I kind of liked that thought, having my own knight to fight for me. Especially once my parents were gone and I was on my own. But as I said. I'm pretty sure it was just fairytales mothers tell their daughters. I was kind of foolish for believing in that." She stroked his arm. "Why did you want to know?" Hesse was silent for a moment, unsure if he should go into any detail or not. It was obvious he'd put more stock in the old tales than she had, and now he found himself uncertain about the whole thing, and starting to feel foolish, himself. Seeing her looking at him curiously, though, he knew he wouldn't have any other decent time to broach the subject. Best to just get it out of the way. "They...don't tell those stories to just the girls," he murmured. "They told me some of the same stories. I wanted to be a knight when I was just little, I know it sounds silly now but I was only a boy. Knights like that didn't exist anymore so I thought the army might be the next best choice. Turns out that works only so long as you're not seriously injured." He paused. "I...grew up a ward of the state. I think I liked the thought of being a knight and a maiden choosing me as her champion. No one ever chose me to go home with them. It was a nice thought to be chosen." He almost winced, the words were so pathetic coming out of his mouth now. His noble thoughts seemed so juvenile and silly for a grown man to have. He expected Sophie to start laughing, yet she didn't; a tentative look at her showed him she was staring intently. He wanted to squirm, and had a thought of kissing her just to make her stop, when she murmured, "So that's why you said that." Hesse furrowed his brow. "'Said'...?" "...Maybe you didn't know you were saying it. But you kept calling me your 'maiden.'" She paused. "Is this how you see me? Your fair maiden?" He couldn't tell if she were being critical or not. His ears grew hot at how awkward the conversation had become. "You called me your knight," he said. "I'm hardly a fair maiden," Sophie said. "In fact, I'm definitely not." "I'm definitely not a knight," Hesse said, "yet you chose me as yours." Sophie blinked. He saw understanding finally enter her eyes. Her voice was soft. "You'd fight for me?" He replied without hesitation, "Every hour of every day." As odd as it is, Mitzi's suggestion that Sophie had found her very own "knight in black armor" seems to have come true. Hesse isn't the knight Sophie expected--he doesn't make any grand promises to sweep her away to a fairytale life--and Sophie isn't the maiden Hesse expected--an entertainer he courts in the back of a shady nightclub--yet here they both are. Although there are a LOT of bumps and issues in the relationship (Hesse often has trouble dealing with Sophie's emotional instability, and Sophie sometimes has difficulty trusting Hesse's dominant nature), they remain devoted to each other from this moment to the end. Mitzi, on the other hand, never quite finds a "knight" of her own among the officers who visit and enjoy her company. She does enjoy, for a time at least, the patronage of another new visitor to the club. One night another officer stops in to visit Hesse's and Schulte's table to discuss something, and decides to sit and watch the show. Mitzi is the singer that night, and similar to Sophie and Hesse, she makes eye contact with the newcomer, and they both smile at each other. She doesn't really see a romantic knight in shining armor, but she does see the collar tabs of a Standartenführer--a colonel--and she sees opportunity. She smiles at him enough times during the performance to hope he sticks around afterward, and indeed, after the show he remains behind to speak with her. Their conversation is more flirty banter than the deep personal discussions Hesse and Sophie had, but Mitzi has his ear, so that's half the battle. She doesn't recognize the name "Heidenreich" though it's obvious he's Somebody Important, and she politely ignores his wedding ring. She's a faster worker than Sophie used to be, and doesn't want any of the other hostesses nabbing him, so invites him back to her room. He smiles and accepts. There's just ONE potential complication--well, aside from him being married (something Mitzi's never been picky about, unlike Sophie). While they're busy kissing each other she mentions to him that she's Mischling--half Jewish. That catches Heidenreich's attention. "My father was a Jew," she says, then, "Will that be a problem...?" Heidenreich stares at her for a moment. "Problem...?" he echoes; then his smile returns. "That just makes it more exciting." And he resumes kissing her, and Mitzi happily goes along. So, nope, the fact that under any other circumstances he'd likely be having her murdered is no problem here in the club. By the time he leaves they're both in very good moods, though Sophie, who'd seen Mitzi head off to her room with him, is uneasy; she accosts Mitzi in the hall afterward and asks if he in fact spent some time with her. When Mitzi confirms this, Sophie tries to warn her off: "Herr Gunter says he's very important...somebody very high up. Somebody who usually wouldn't bother with people like us. Even if you weren't...I mean...even if you were like me I'd think maybe you should be more careful. I have a bad feeling about him." But Mitzi pooh-poohs her concerns, protesting that it's just a bit of good fun, and if she gets some nice benefits out of the relationship then what's the harm, isn't that the point? Further pressing by Sophie raises a tiny spark of resentment--"If you weren't so steady with Herr Gunter I'd think maybe you're a little jealous I got the big fish," she grumbles, which Sophie of course denies--though Mitzi pushes down her annoyance and attempts to reassure her friend again: "It's fine, I know what I'm doing. I can take care of myself, ja?--you know I can." Sophie isn't convinced, but knows she can't change Mitzi's mind; "You promise you'll at least break it off if he gets pushy with you?" she pleads, to which Mitzi replies, "But I like 'pushy' once in a while"--then sighs at Sophie's reproachful look and says, "Fine, I promise, but you know I'd do it anyway, ja? Don't worry about me so much! It'll be fine. It's just a little fun, there's no harm." Well...maybe that's so for Mitzi...but there's a third party on the other side of Heidenreich's ring: His wife, Eva. And she's definitely NOT okay with the whole situation. Eva is barren--a very big hindrance in being the wife of an SS leader--but she makes Heidenreich look good when the two go out to gatherings--tall, blond, beautiful (as well as cunning, and ruthless--she feeds and then shoots a Jewish child she finds on their property, and shows off the body to her husband--even he's like o_o; ), she always walks arm in arm with him and the two smile adoringly at each other and make the perfect Aryan couple, if only it weren't for them being childless. This is one of the reasons Eva tolerates--just barely--her husband's numerous affairs with other women. The other reason is the amount of social and political influence the marriage gives her; her mother instructed her earlier in life to not throw a good thing away over a minor inconvenience, and her bitter feelings over her husband's philandering are a minor inconvenience. She even settles on a sort of arrangement with him when she finds out that he got one of their maids pregnant. After luring him to bed she directly confronts him about it. From an adult WIP: You don't marry for love, dear. Don't throw away everything you've worked for over one foolish petty thing. She drew in a long breath. Held it a moment, slowly let it out; it sounded almost like a sigh. She put her hand against the bed and pushed herself up onto her elbow so they faced each other in the dimness. "The one woman you'll always come back to," she said, taking another calculated risk. He stared at her. The corner of his mouth twitched upward. He reached out to stroke her face; she grasped his hand before he could, twining her fingers with his. He followed suit, their hands clasping tightly; he leaned forward to kiss her knuckle. She watched, feeling her heartbeat pick up just a little. "The only woman worth coming back to," he replied. Eva sat up so they directly faced each other. They stared each other in the eyes. She reached out to trail her finger down his arm now. "I'd really prefer we be frank with each other," she said. "If we both want this to work." He was silent a moment before shifting his head. A nod. "This is the arrangement you had before I came to live here? Not something new?" "I have an understanding with certain of my staff," he said. She forced down the tiniest sting; even though she'd known, still, to hear it admitted so plainly niggled at her. His admission made it clear it wasn't anything personal; until then she'd suspected he'd gone to the maid after her own attentions proved unsatisfying, but now it was obvious there was no direct connection. "Then I won't infringe on your arrangement," she said. "As long as it remains exactly that, an arrangement." "I have no interest in it being anything else. There's a reason I haven't married my maid." "You do know she's with child now, ja? Says it's the stable boy's, but should I have reason to think otherwise?" "It's likely mine, ja." Eva took a deep breath--an irrational surge of rage and despair--and let it out. Felt an odd sense of relief along with the other emotions. Something felt good about not needing to twist words around, or untwist words. "And so what do you plan to do about it?" He lifted a shoulder. "She's German. Kid's a bastard but still good blood. The decision is hers." "What if she wanted to be rid of it?" "I know a decent doctor. Discreet. Good at what he does. A few days' bed rest and she'd be fine." "She says she wants to keep it." "You've talked with her?" "I sort of had to. She won't exactly be able to hide it much longer." "Then she keeps it. It isn't like we're wanting for room in this house." "And what about you?" "I house her, I pay her, I feed her. Same for the kid. She'll have to wrangle the stable boy if she wants someone helping to raise it, though." "Why do I feel you've done this before?" "Not nearly as many times as you might think." Eva paused. "If she wishes a nurse of some sort to help her, then we get her a nurse." She said it not so much out of any concern for the little whore, as to see if he'd tolerate a demand. He moved his head again, a single nod. "Very well, a nurse." "This 'understanding' of yours, it pertains to anyone else?" When he cocked an eyebrow at her, she knew the question was a foolish one, and changed tack. "It doesn't pertain to anyone who'd cause a scandal, does it? Any Jews or Zigeuner on your staff--?" "Bitte," he spat, lip curling up in disgust. "I employ only good Germans! You think I'd let garbage anywhere near my estate? Just when I was thinking we understood each other--?" "You'd be surprised how many men drop their morals if it's something they want badly enough," Eva said. "Actually, I would not. You forget my job. I deal with such people every f**king day. I have an entire organization to deal with such people every f**king day. And as it is, that very organization would be whittled down quite a bit if I could find the time to pick out all those men who drop their morals for wanting something badly enough. Feel free to educate me, love, but not on this one particular topic. I know a lot more than you'd think." "Very well," Eva said. "You know that better than I do. An upstanding man can still employ subhumans if he needs to, I'm sure there are exceptions." "I don't need any filthy Zigeuner touching my horses, which is all they're good for aside from begging and stealing. As for Jews, the first one who sets foot on my land will be shot. There are plenty of good Germans needing work." After a bit more questioning and clarification (and some more time spent in bed) they reach their own arrangement. Eva won't protest her husband's "extracurricular activities" as long as that's what they remain--she's his wife, she's the only one of any importance, the only one who should have his ear--and as long as they don't cause any scandal. Despite all their focus on the devoted Aryan family, SS leaders are well known for their affairs, that in itself is pretty mundane and unlikely to cause a stir. As long as he sticks to German women, everything should be acceptable, if not fine. Eva won't even raise a fuss over any kids he might father out of wedlock (since she isn't exactly contributing any herself). She's only human, though, and the more she learns about just how much Heidenreich fools around, the more it hurts; she really did love him when they got married, and they really did have some good times and understood each other very well (he didn't divorce her upon discovering she couldn't have children, for example). There's only so much she can stand, and after a while she starts having affairs herself, mostly with what few SS officers are willing to take the risk. She doesn't really enjoy it the way he enjoys his affairs--it's solely to try to hurt him in return--though aside from a twinge of jealousy here and there, he doesn't really care. So Eva finds her sole means of trying to get back at him frustrated. Then, a family friend informs her of Heidenreich's latest dalliance, with a hostess from Club Mesmer. Such a woman is exceptionally trashy, and beneath someone like Heidenreich, but so what?--she's just another whore. Eva doesn't care much. But then she's informed the rumor is that this hostess is Mischling--half Jewish--and apparently this is an open secret. That changes things. Eva calmly dismisses the man but inside she boils over with rage. When Heidenreich returns home that night, she promptly lays into him--she'd asked him for ONE promise, and he couldn't even do that. Heidenreich, well, he doesn't see the big deal--"She's only HALF Jewish." I don't think even he buys that lame excuse; Eva sure doesn't. He puts up with her barbs for a few moments before starting to sling some of his own, and the fight gets ugly before Eva smacks him across the face; then, it takes a truly nasty turn. He doesn't hit her back, but he does grab her wrist and drag her after him. She fights back all the way, but he's bigger and stronger than she is. The servants and help staff hear everything that happens but cower away in their rooms or at their posts, unwilling to intervene. Afterward, Heidenreich curtly informs Eva they're to attend a party at Waffen-SS general Vincenz Immerwahr's estate the next evening, and he expects her to be ready to go when he gets home. She responds merely by rolling onto her side and doesn't tell him goodbye in the morning. The next day, while Heidenreich's away, Eva washes up, does her daily routine, goes through everything as usual. The staff notice the stony stare on her face (she's not the weeping sort) and the bruises on her arms but say nothing, just meekly tend to their duties. In the afternoon she gets out her husband's best uniform, irons it, polishes things, lays it out on the bed; goes through her wardrobe and selects a red dress, some simple but elegant jewelry (the Nazis don't like gaudy women), gets done up (no makeup aside from on her arms, the Nazis don't like that either, plus she's beautiful enough to go without), brushes and braids her long blond hair. A maid informs her Heidenreich has arrived and she stands up and puts on a welcoming face when he enters the room--having expected another fight, he's surprised that she's actually ready to go. He blinks when he sees her and says, "You look...stunning." He hasn't sounded so sincere in ages. Eva offers a smile--she's become a very skilled actress. He gets cleaned up and dressed and they head off to Immerwahr's estate. Immerwahr lives in the middle of the city, in a palatial residence overlooking the square, and is known for his lavish art collections and his lavish parties. (I guess he's the one Nazi who LOVES gaudiness; in fact it's kind of a running gag throughout the series, Heidenreich reacting with horror and disgust to the same things Immerwahr insists are just wonderful. Heidenreich: "It's hideous!" Immerwahr: "I love it!") The Heidenreichs arrive, arm in arm, and mingle around for a while before Eva excuses herself to get some air out on the balcony. There, completely by coincidence, she happens to meet Capt. Erich Arzt, a Waffen-SS physician...and everything changes. You can catch Arzt's part of the story HERE, and just for funsies, HERE'S Eva's entry. I had a bit more to share, but those entries lay out how it all goes. Heidenreich was indeed Somebody Important, so word of his gruesome death spreads very quickly, including to the Mesmer Club. Sophie tends to sleep late but when she awakens the place is abuzz with horrified whispers. Master Sgt. Schulte had stopped by earlier to share the news why business there might be slow for a bit, as most of the Allgemeine-SS is surely to be busy with the investigation--Heidenreich was their boss, after all. Sophie is informed of this by a member of the staff, then peers into Mitzi's room when she hears her crying. Mitzi is sitting on her bed with her head in her hands, shoulders shaking. Sophie is rather surprised that Mitzi is honestly upset over Heidenreich's death: "He was really nice to me," she weeps. (And indeed he was, showering her with money and gifts.) Hesse, who has no idea about Mitzi's genealogy (which is admittedly kind of weird, considering his job), was nevertheless the one to warn Sophie about him--he's in a better position than most to know what an awful person his boss actually is, and he'd suggested she try to nudge Mitzi away from getting involved with him. Obviously that had just made Mitzi even more stubborn; she doesn't have the same morals Hesse and Sophie have, so even though she was fully aware of his other affairs AND of his marriage, still, "I kind of hoped...you know...maybe someday, something might come of it." She confesses that, like Sophie, she's longed for one of the many officers who frequent the club to sweep her off her feet and give her a better life; she laments that they only seem interested in a life with someone who looks like Sophie--fair skinned, fair haired, blue eyed--and not with someone like her. Sophie is caught off guard by this admission--Mitzi has never shown any jealousy toward her. She tries to reassure her there's surely someone who will treat her like that, just that Heidenreich definitely wasn't the one. Mitzi corrects her--she very well knows he wasn't "the one," but at least "He was SOMEone...maybe he could've helped me up from all this." She can't help but feel a tad resentful: "You found your knight in shining armor...some of us don't have a knight of our own." Unknown to Mitzi, what was meant as a fun fling at the least, an opportunity for her to better her life at the most, ends up having sweeping consequences. She's fortunate enough to miss out on most of them, secure within the comfort of the club, but others aren't so lucky. The SS first jumps to the (not terribly unreasonable) conclusion that the resistance Diamond Network is behind the murder--they have a history of bombing known SS meeting sites, after all--and they start cracking down even harder on suspected resistance hideouts, leading to several mass-murders of both Network members and a few innocent citizens who end up caught in the sweep. Hesse, who's been tapped to lead the investigation, soon gets hints that the Network isn't involved after all when its leader, Josef Diamant, passes along info to an American spy familiar with Hesse that the bombing doesn't fit his MO--he doesn't target private residences for bombings, and he DEFINITELY wouldn't go after Heidenreich, who's considered way too high profile and thus risky--he knows from experience that killing an SS leader will only bring greater trouble for the Network, and the SS's overreaction proves this. He suspects the culprit is closer to home. Hesse doesn't want to admit it, but he'd had his own suspicions this was so, and his investigation soon proves it--the sole blame lies on Eva Heidenreich and Capt. Arzt. The murderer was literally inside the SS itself. As a result, the Allgemeine-SS ends up temporarily without a leader, and the whole incident, with the Heidenreichs' corruption and hypocrisy coming out in the open, is a terrible black eye for an organization that prides itself on honor, loyalty, and family; since there had already been another scandal with the SS-Totenkopfverbände (Diamant's murder of camp commandant Ernst Dannecker), the rest of the SS leadership take a good hard look at themselves and the enforcement of their policies. There are smaller repercussions to Mitzi's actions as well, chief among them Hesse's reaction to the scandal. He'd already been growing rather jaded about his formerly beloved SS, which for years provided him with a purpose and a sense of belonging he'd lacked the rest of his life; Heidenreich's death--at the hands of Eva and Arzt, the latter of whom had suggested Hesse join the Allgemeine-SS in the first place (ironically)--just helps harden his resolve that the organization has grown far too corrupt and no longer aligns with his principles. Sophie informing him that she's pregnant also helps seal the deal, and he proposes to her, promising that if the SS refuses his request, he'll leave them for her. Sophie knows just how much the SS means to him, so this would be a very big decision indeed--yet he's firm in his insistence that he means it. The Schutzstaffel is collapsing in on itself, making Sophie the lone constant in his life, and now that there's the prospect of a family, he makes his choice. The war is coming to a head and even if the SS accepts Sophie's dubious ancestry as suitable marriage material, Hesse suspects his days as an officer are limited anyway. He's gotten tired of it all. Allied troops approach the city, and some citizens make an early break for it. Among them is Mitzi. The Mesmer Club is already starting to flounder, what with most of its patrons being too tied up in protecting the city (or their own behinds), and she tells Sophie she plans on leaving the city for a bit, holing up someplace safer until the worst is past; she suggests Sophie do the same. Sophie refuses to go anywhere without Hesse, so Mitzi says she should ask him to take her away: "He's your knight, he'll listen to you, he'll do whatever you ask." Sophie knows it's true, at that point at least, Hesse would drop everything for her--and that's exactly why she refuses to ask. She knows how important it is for him to follow through on his obligations. Mitzi sadly wishes her farewell and good luck, hoping to see her again when it's safer, and she departs, leaving Sophie behind at the club. Mitzi survives the war...Sophie, Hesse, and Schulte don't, mostly because of their devotion to each other and their responsibilities. Hesse had actually left the city to hurry to the country estate of family friends of his, the Dobermanns, and while there ended up shot and killed by Diamant; Schulte, discovering his "boss" dead, hurried back to the city to warn Sophie to flee--she'd been waiting for Hesse, but now Schulte informs her he won't be coming for her. He vows to protect her if she goes with him, but she refuses; he leaves without her, and is himself promptly shot by a Diamond Network operative working for the club. Sophie hears the shot, knows what's in store for her, and retrieves a gift Hesse had given her previously--a gun, meant to protect herself when he couldn't be there. "I know you would have come for me, if you could have, my knight," she whispers tearfully, before putting the gun to her head, taking her own life and that of her and Hesse's unborn child with her. Mitzi is heartbroken to learn her dearest friends are all dead. She's basically left on her own; she saved up her earnings from the club, and can afford a small apartment when she moves back into the now Allied-run city, and she's resourceful enough to find a job waiting tables in a cafe. She'll get by, but she's crushed inside, and lonely, wondering why she made it when so many others didn't. Her formerly hopeful, optimistic attitude has faded considerably, and the city, while safe, seems cold and unfriendly now. While hurrying home one evening she trips, twists her ankle sharply, and falls; she scootches herself back against a building to keep out of the way of the other pedestrians striding by and pointedly ignoring her. She grimaces while checking out her ankle, then gasps in surprise when a soft voice says, "Fräulein, are you all right?" She looks up to see a slight, red-haired man in glasses, looking back down at her in concern. "I think I broke my ankle," she says; "Bitte, may I look?" he asks; she furrows her brow a little so he adds, "I'm a doctor." As he stoops to give her ankle a look, she notices he's wearing a small Star of David necklace. He checks out her ankle, reassures her it's not broken, recommends she put ice on it and take it easy. Upon learning her apartment is just a block over, he offers to walk her there and she can lean on his arm, and he even helps her up the stairs. Mitzi thanks him--honestly, his kindness and the fact that he talked to her at all strike her far more than his medical attention--though as he descends the steps and she calls out, "I didn't get your name!" he doesn't reply, just keeps walking, so that perplexes her. She sighs to herself, enters her apartment, goes on with life. She spots him again some time later, though, seated eating lunch at the base of a new statue, Der Wächter der Stadt, which overlooks the city square. He's surprised this time when she greets him, but friendly enough; she mentions that she'd asked him his name the last time they met and he hadn't replied, to which he says, "Oh...I didn't hear you. I'm deaf." He can read her lips, though, as long as she's looking right at him. She introduces herself--Mitzi--and he does the same--Tobias Schäfer. She's surprised to learn that not only is he a doctor, but he practiced medicine during the war--something which was illegal for Jews. He explains that this was possible due to the actions of Freiherr Louis Dobermann, and gestures up at Wächter der Stadt--"Watchman of the City" is the nickname Dobermann was given for his family's history of charitable donations to the city and the hospital during the Spanish Flu and the war. Another one of Dobermann's acts was to rescue Schäfer from the labor camp before he could be killed, illegally employing him in his home and risking the wrath of the Nazi officials should they find out. Schäfer was devoted to him ever since, but he's been grieving since Dobermann's death in the mountains not long ago; taking his lunches at the memorial dedicated to him is a little bit comforting. Mitzi listens, wrapt, finding his story fascinating compared to her own; when it's time for him to go, she tentatively asks if it'd be all right if she joined him for lunch at the statue now and then. Schäfer seems a bit puzzled, but says he doesn't mind. Since he left the Dobermanns he's been alone in the city, it'll be good to have some company. As Mitzi leaves she finds herself wondering if, similar to Sophie, her own knight in shining armor isn't quite what she'd expect. I don't know for sure yet if these two end up as a couple, but I do know that at least the city isn't so cold and unfriendly to her anymore. [Mitzi 2022 [Friday, December 30, 2022, 4:05:03 AM]] |