See Under by David Grossman (famous ebook reader TXT) 📕

shortly thereafter change into a terrified wreck. The sequence of events that led to Staukeh’s promotion to the position of commander of the extermination camp was as follows: For ten months he was Neigel’s adjutant, and from the very first moment, he directed all his efforts at replacing the “dumb Bavarian,” to use his words. Only, it seemed that his intrigues were unsuccessful: Neigel performed his job to perfection, and it is well known that Reichsführer Himmler himself strongly favored him. This was the situation untilSeptember of 1943, when Neigel set Wasserman up in his barracks as House Jew. Staukeh saw this amiss, and even told Neigel that “House Jews” don’t live in their master’s quarters,” but Neigel dismissed him in a rage. Later, a little here, a little there, the signs increased: at first Staukeh was surprised (he was considered well educated because he was a doctor) to hear certain peculiar questions from his commander. This began with a strange interrogation about diseases. Neigel said something about a sick old aunt of his, but Staukeh knew at once that Neigel was lying. (”People like him don’t lie very well. You can spot the arteries swelling on their foreheads right away. They know only the truth. That’s why they’re so boring“—Staukeh in a newspaper interview in 1946.) Later Neigel’s driver told him about the mysterious trip to the Borislav region, a trip Neigel had kept secret. Staukeh made some phone calls, located the officer who accompanied Neigel around Borislav, and heard some astounding things from him about his commander. It seems Neigel had become a collector of an archaic product known as lepek and was spreading strange rumors about opening an oil well in the vicinity of his camp, as an additional hard-labor installation for the prisoners. Staukeh raised an eyebrow and whistled a tune from The Gypsy Baron. That same day Neigel summoned him to his barracks and asked him, by the by, several questions about migratory foxes and hibernating rabbits, laughing awkwardly. “It’s for my little one, for Karl. Suddenly he’s interested in these things.” And finally, there was that humiliating episode with the dreck Jude who grabbed a rifle and started shooting the guards on the Heavenly Way. Everyone saw it, Neigel’s soft, hesitating manner of responding [see under: REBELLION]. Staukeh began to listen more attentively to strange rumors among the Ukrainian sentinels about Neigel’s unusual relations with his House Jew after working hours. Dagusa, the Ukrainian guard posted outside the commander’s barracks, revealed—under the influence of a single bottle of schnapps—that he heard laughter and other sounds “like a bedtime story, you understand, Commander,” coming out of the barracks. And around this time everyone began to notice Neigel’s deterioration. His appearance became more and more unkempt, he was prone to stormy moods, had furious bouts with his officers, and severely punished German enlisted men over trifles; in short, Staukeh kept his eyes open. On the day Neigel departed on LEAVE [q.v.] to Munich, a special emissary arrived at the camp, asking to speak with the “utmost discretion” toStaukeh. The emissary was an elderly Standartenführer from Censorship, who spread out photographs of seven letters in the unmistakable handwriting of the commander of the camp. Staukeh read and almost burst out laughing: who would have believed a poet lurked in that thick block of meat, Neigel? Staukeh read about the band of old lunatics, about hearts drawn on trees, about a man who tried to cross the frontiers between people and translate their love, and about another one, who tried to breed new feelings. All this was ridiculous, so silly and absurd that Staukeh was able to convince the censor that it was not the secret writing of a spy but the childish scribblings of an officer “whose nerves are a little strained.” Staukeh asked the man not to take measures, because it might damage camp morale, which had been low in any case since “the commander began having his attacks.” When the censor left, Staukeh hurried to Neigel’s barracks, and met the little drek Jude, as anticipated, working in the garden. (Staukeh: “Working? It was more like sabotage, what he was doing to the merciful Polish soil!”) He tried to interrogate him slyly about his relationship with Neigel, but the no-less-sly Jew evaded his questions. This convinced Staukeh that some “very unholy alliance” had been formed between the two [see under: SUSPICION]. Staukeh was finally rewarded the night he burst into the barracks in the middle of Neigel’s description of Kazik’s imaginary paintings [see under: PAINTER]. Staukeh unloaded Neigel’s gun (he offered no resistance) and left him two bullets: one for himself and one for the Jew. Then he went to wait outside. He had to wait a long time, too long for his taste—almost a whole hour—before he heard the shot. And only one shot. That was strange. He took out his gun and went into the barracks. Neigel lay dead on the floor. Staukeh began to search feverishly for the Jew. He was afraid Wasserman had shot Neigel and was now armed and hiding in the other room. Wasserman entered from the kitchen and looked at Neigel lying there. Staukeh approached Wasserman and shot him in the head. (Wasserman: “Nu, well, I hoped that now at least I would die. Because what did I have left to live for now? Staukeh, ringworm on his bald head, held his pearl-handled gun … A dandy is our Staukeh. And he did not shut his eyes when he fired the bullet at my head as poor Neigel had always done. Into me he looked. I felt the buzzing in my head and suddenly remembered that Staukeh likes music. There was even a gramophone in his room, and he could whistle entire operas from memory. Feh! Why should I rememberthat? But because I remembered, I kept the matter in my heart.”) On the military map, behind Wasserman’s head, there was a big ugly hole. Staukeh stared at it in