The Jewish Dog (20 page)

CHAPTER 27

A
s the sunset reached its most picturesque point
,
with half the sun above the horizon and half below
,
Ralph and the commandant arrived at the kennel
.
Ralph had gotten on the commandant's good side
.
When they finished their dinner together
,
they brought the leftovers to the dogs
.
Joshua
,
standing at attention
,
received the plate of leftovers from Ralph's hands.

“Tell the dogs
guten appetite
,” Ralph joked
.
“I made the chicken pot pie myself!”

“Yes
,
sir,” Joshua confirmed.

“And bring me Blitz
.
I want Blitz to join the commandant and me on an evening stroll.”

“Yes
,
sir.”

As Joshua let me out of my cage and untied my leash
,
Franz Stangl and Ralph pulled out cigarettes
.
The commandant wiggled a lighter out of his pocket and lit the end of Ralph's cigarette.

“Blitzy
,
Blitzy
,
Blitz!” Ralph called when he saw how excited I was to see him
.
Ralph tapped on his shirt pockets and
,
in accordance with our sign language
,
I stood on my hind legs and rested my paws lightly on his chest
.
I greeted him with a lick.

“This is my kind of dog,” Ralph told his commandant
.
“And this Jew takes good care of him!”

Franz Stangl was impressed.

“Take a cigarette,” Ralph said
,
extending his pack to Joshua.

Joshua was surprised by the gesture
.
He didn't know what was more dangerous – taking the cigarette or refusing it
.
He gathered his courage and drew a cigarette from the pack that was offered to him
.

We walked on together
,
the three of us
:
Ralph
,
the commandant
,
and myself
.
A pleasant evening stroll.

“Is there any special reason,” the commandant asked
,
“that you are so fond of the Jew?”

They walked at a leisurely pace
,
heading toward the east fence.

“He takes good care of the dogs. . . 
.
Yes
,
he knows how to take care of dogs.”

“And is it your common practice to offer cigarettes to Jews?” There was a hint of suspicion in the commandant's question.

“It was a one-time gesture,” Ralph assured him
.
Trying to further justify his behavior
,
he added
,
“But he really does work well
,
and in any case
,
he'll be shot in the head in just a few weeks.”

The commandant smiled
.
Ralph's simplicity pleased him
.
The warm summer evening and the sweet smell in the air helped make the atmosphere feel casual
.
I think my presence also contributed to the sense of camaraderie
.
They watched the clouds as the sun lit them ablaze.

“This is the scenery for a revelation,” the commandant said.

Ralph answered with a silent nod.

The commandant leaned toward me and petted my head
.
“Usually,” he confessed to Ralph
,
“I don't really get along with dogs
.
When I was a child
,
a dog bit me
,
and since then I've been a little scared of them.”

“You certainly have no reason to be scared of Blitz.”

“He also smells good,” Franz Stangl added
.
“Usually dogs have an unpleasant smell
.
You know what I mean
.
When you enter a house with a dog
,
you can smell it right away.”

“Yes
,
he smells excellent
.
The Jew washed him this morning
.
He gave him a shower and used lots of soap
,
just as he should!”

“Does the dog enjoy showers?”

“Blitz? No
,
I don't think he particularly enjoys that process.”

“Maybe he's Jewish,” Hauptsturmführer Stangl said.

Ralph looked at him
,
puzzled.

“You know,” the commandant said
,
hardly containing his laughter
,
“the Jews don't exactly enjoy our showers.”

Smiles spread across their faces as they walked
,
and Franz's eyes took on a nostalgic glitter
.
“You young folk won't understand it
.
It's hard to explain today how people used to look at you when you said
,
‘I'm leaving everything and dedicating my life to the party.'”

Ralph looked at the commandant for an explanation.

“It was the joy of eating fruit from the forbidden tree – joining a party that was still illegal.”

“Things today are simpler,” Ralph agreed.

“I felt like a babe thrown into deep water – either you learned how to swim or you drowned
.
But today I believe that is the most effective method
.
He who hesitates is lost
.
I'm telling you
,
the moment I was asked to participate in the Euthanasia program
,
I knew
:
now I officially belonged to the founding generation
.
Ach
,
those were the days. . . .”

He lit another cigarette.

“And what are the dog's special qualities?”

“Ho,” Ralph's eyes shone
,
“he's the smartest dog I've ever met
.
He understands everything
.
Just everything
.
It's like he has a dictionary in his head
.
I think that if he were able to speak
,
he would be able to have an intelligent conversation with any elementary school graduate
.
I think he's brighter than most of our Ukrainians.”

“Well,” the commandant said
,
looking at me fondly
,
“that's barely an impressive feat
.
I think the porcupines that vandalize my lettuce gardens at night have a fighting chance against the Ukrainians' intelligence.”

The two laughed in a typically restrained German ­manner.

As the commandant laughed with his subordinate
,
the barriers of rank began to crack and the two spoke like equals.

“Let me compliment you,” Franz Stangl said
.
“This is something I don't usually say
.
You should know
,
from the first day I received command of this camp
,
I've kept a diary
.
It's a personal diary and I write an entry every evening
.
I want to tell you that you are mentioned in my diary more than once or twice
,
and it's always a positive mention
.
You focus on completing the assignments that you were recruited for
.
You aren't like Sergeant Küttner and Kurt Franz
,
those brown-nosers
.
I'll tell you quite frankly – I have a lot of respect for folks like you.”

Ralph blushed.

The commandant seemed pleased at Ralph's bashfulness
.
It strengthened his sense of patronage
.
He conversed with Ralph in a friendly
,
personal manner.

“So what do you intend to do after the war?”

Ralph remained silent and pondered
.
The war was reality
.
Post-war times were post-reality – better left unconsidered.

Eventually he spoke in a decisive voice that surprised even himself
.
“I want to learn engineering
.
Or maybe theology.”

The commandant gave him a quizzical look.

“I'm not religious
,
but theology seems to be an interesting and worthy pursuit.”

“You don't want to continue working as a trainer?”

“My father
,
may he rest in peace
,
was a locomotive engineer
.
He took part in constructing the first train from Berlin to Düsseldorf
.
And my grandfather was an important theologian
.
I would like to continue in one of the family paths.”

“My father passed away when I was fifteen,” the commandant said
.
“I remember him well
.
I'm so sorry he can't see me now
.
My father was never in Germany.”

“He never visited Germany?” Ralph asked
,
disbelieving
.
For a moment he was taken aback by his own spontaneity.

The commandant was not ruffled by the question
.
“Not even once
.
He never got to see the great Germany in its glory days
.
A Germany spread over all of Europe.”

“Speaking of which
,
what
is
the latest news from the front?” Ralph tried to divert the conversation to a less personal topic.

“I'm afraid I don't know much more than you do
.
It seems things there are not so simple
.
But I'll tell you this
:
war and victory are all in the head
.
Listen to me,” the commandant said
,
walking slowly with his hands clasped behind his back
.
“If the soldiers are determined and the commanders are not afraid to give orders – victory is just a matter of time.”

Ralph looked alert.

“That doesn't mean that war is a simple thing
.
These Soviets are stubborn
.
You don't have to be a genius to see it
.
The Slavs are inferior
,
but stubborn as mules
.
A few bombs aren't enough to beat them
.
We have to break them completely
.
That's it!”

Ralph looked like he wanted to hear more
,
but his commandant was tired of military talk
.
“Why should we exhaust ourselves trying to fix all the Reich's problems when we have plenty of our own here?”

The two continued walking
,
but the conversation dwindled down
.
The evening stroll was almost over.

“Well,” the commandant said
,
trying to cover a yawn
,
“we have two trains coming in tomorrow morning
.
What do you say
,
time to return the dog to his kennel?”

It was
,
of course
,
a rhetorical question.

Ralph returned me to my cage just as Joshua was walking out of the kennel toward his shack
.
Joshua
,
who was caught off guard by our return
,
jumped to attention
.
A steak bone fell from his sleeve.

“The little Jew is stealing the food we brought for the dogs,” Ralph whispered
,
astonished
.
“And I thought I had seen it all.”

Ralph caught Joshua by the sleeve and dragged him toward the
lazaret
.
“How dare you
!
No wonder the dogs are hungry and bark all night.” More pieces of meat and fish dropped from Joshua's stained shirt.

I strode by Ralph's side upon command
.
Although dogs are not accustomed to praying
,
I looked up to the sky
.
Where are you
,
Heavenly Dog
,
I thought as I gazed at the black sky that silently watched us from above
.
Now you command me to escort Joshua
,
my own flesh and blood
,
to the pit of death?

Ralph ordered Joshua to stand on the wooden plank at the rim of the pit
.
There was an eternal flame burning between the plaster-covered bodies that lay one upon the other
.
Ralph aimed his gun
.
I must pounce again
,
my stomach shrunk in pain
,
to bite
!
To tear
!
To stab
!
To destroy any threat on Joshua's life
.
But I was paralyzed
.
How could I bite the hand that feeds me? How could I pierce the arm that had been tattooed just for me? Could I really harm Ralph
,
my pride and joy? I was a coward
.
I knew that if I charged
,
I would be shot myself
.
I accepted the verdict with a stiff upper lip
.
My tongue cleaved to the roof of my mouth
,
preventing me from barking
.
Heavenly Dog
,
save us
!
A weak whimper escaped my mouth
,
quieter even than the faintest wail of the
shofar
.
Heavenly Dog
,
save us.

“I give you a cigarette,” Ralph said
,
and shifted his grip on the pistol
,
“and you spit at me
.
You should be ashamed of yourself
,
you dirty Jude.”