65 Years Later

Lt. Gen. Helmuth "Bony Karl" Weidling

Commander, 56th Panzer Corps

W.D. Snodgrass

-15 April 1945.

(At his improvised HQ on the eastern front,

Weidling cursed and threatened the head of 

the Hitler Youth who'd brought him some of

these boys as a replacement corps.)

What do they want? - to make me out a Frenchman

Spouting: honor, honor? A preacher? Philosopher?

That's someone else's job; I specialize. Morality

Isn't in my line. When the time came, I sold

My honor; I took the oath to Hitler and I fought

His wars, just or unjust, fair means or foul.

I'm here to fight, not save our culture, not make peace,

Not any of those lies we throw around. And I don't

Mind fighting over things that we can't win -

What's lost already, like Berlin; I fight.

I trained for war, get paid, gained my rank

In battle. Damned little else ignites my wires.

I don't screw my friends' wives. I don't rob

Cripples or lead 14-year old soldiers. Not much

Of a decalogue, but that's the best I've got.

Dear God, when my voice is the loudest voice

For decency, I say we're in trouble.




I read this when I worked for the school newspaper and you could pretty much get whatever book you wanted for free so long as an article got written about it. I saw it as more or less getting paid for a book report and then keeping the source material. Not bad.


The poem comes from "The Fuehrer Bunker," a book-length series of poems in various voices of National Socialist historical figures. It's actually far less expolitative and vulgar than it sounds. In fact, there's a certain amount of humanity in it. It reminds me of the fantastic German film "Downfall" that gets so parodied in Internet memes. Here's my favorite takeoff.









But it's easy to just brand them inhuman demonic monsters and that's that. It's much more difficult to comprehend that these were real people with motivations that didn't come out of comic books. (Although that particular Nazi misreading of Schopenhauer, Nietzche and the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" does have all the primary colors and ridiculous posturing of a really bad comic. Like Batman in the late '60s.)


So I highly recommend it - tough going but rewarding. And all without posturing and chest-beating, not bad.