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When is a Nazi not a Nazi?
Dec. 22nd, 2022 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigidMcEldowney had a WWII story line (the first of his WWII story lines) that involved the exciting, sexy, and tragic story of how Gran and her husband got together. It more or less starts here.
Edna, aka Edie, aka Eva, is voluntold to entertain German POWs: to sing to them, and then chat gently with them and thus pump them for information. They're young and lonely and horny and she's a lovely young woman who literally speaks their language. It's not a bad plan. She's first generation Austrian-American and speaks German fluently. She meets a hot wehrmacht officer named Lt. Peter Kiesel. He claims he isn't wearing his uniform by choice. He states that a bunch of his musician pals were "able to escape" to Zurich but he was conscripted. He entertains his fellow German PoWs because they are countrymen, he claims, not because he's loyal to any Nazi cause.
He winds up offering bits of intelligence to her, declaring himself "a traitor" while also stating the information is nothing vitally important. Is he downplaying the information she receives, or is it actually... just enough information to string her superior officers along and keep her in that camp? Just how much of a traitor is he?
He gives her a song to sing, "C," by Francis Poulenc, at a CSO show. A song in French will obviously spur English and American grunts on to victory.
He states here that rumors he's passing "actual intelligence" to Allies is unfounded. In other words, the stuff he and the other PoWs is giving her is useless. He's not ACTUALLY a traitor, even though he has every reason to work for Hitler's downfall as an artist who's seen his compatriots imprisoned and killed.
(I want to note that in addition to being an extremely popular singer Edie was a broadcaster, she had a career, and as far as I know never had a job after getting married.)(Also her short hair is super cute.)
Edie and Kiesel reunite ten years later, Bill still MIA, Edie still virginal and waiting. Kiesel has a thriving opera career, by the way.
You don't want a memorial, you don't want a marker, and you don't want to move on is a heartbreaking parallel to Bill's experience with Martine, the French Resistance spy and assassin (who is killed for being a collaborator). (I just want to point out here that McEldowney has written two women who EXISTED to kill Nazis, and killed Nazis better than anyone else around them, and were killed and it made their male lovers sad. Meanwhile the male Nazi here not only survived, he thrived and wound up spending his twilight years with his One True Love.)
This is a good punchline, though.
It would not have been hard to make Kiesel profoundly anti-Nazi. To have him whole-heartedly renounce Hitler and Nazi-ism. To "turn traitor" and pass on intelligence, or facilitate passing it on. He could have spoken more about WHY his fellow artists fled the country, what they were escaping. It wasn't just censorship, you know? At least I hope that McEldowney is aware enough to realize that artists were targeted for a reason that went beyond simple messaging (and yes, the messaging of art isn't that simple).
Instead we have a guy who was conscripted against his will... and is an officer. We have a guy who insists he isn't a Nazi yet remained with his unit instead of running or refusing to join (which, yes, would get him killed or sent to the Eastern Front, which was also a death sentence just a slower one). He offers to "be a traitor" but then apparently doesn't actually pass on information that substantially affected Hitler's army.
Q: What do you get when you have four people sitting at a table with a Nazi?
A: Five Nazis.
He might deny it to himself, but Peter Kiesel is a Nazi. He was a Nazi officer who survived the war because he agreed to be a Nazi officer. He shuffled from PoW camp to PoW camp, was released, and embarked upon a thriving and fulfilling career throughout his long life.
McEldowney denies that Kiesel is a Nazi, and he's the one who WROTE Kiesel without stopping to think how, exactly, you make it clear that someone's not actually a Nazi and that being a Nazi isn't acceptable.
Note: a chorus of ballet artists oooohing over a hot wehrmarcht lieutenant? Not saying "oh gross, that's a Nazi"? That isn't a rousing condemnation of Nazis. That's accepting the "good Nazi" narrative.
There's a lot in this story that's emotional and touching, a lot that's well crafted. It really needed an editor, though, and someone willing to point out that hey, there's a Nazi love interest here, and if you want him to not be a Nazi then you have to make that explicit.
Edna, aka Edie, aka Eva, is voluntold to entertain German POWs: to sing to them, and then chat gently with them and thus pump them for information. They're young and lonely and horny and she's a lovely young woman who literally speaks their language. It's not a bad plan. She's first generation Austrian-American and speaks German fluently. She meets a hot wehrmacht officer named Lt. Peter Kiesel. He claims he isn't wearing his uniform by choice. He states that a bunch of his musician pals were "able to escape" to Zurich but he was conscripted. He entertains his fellow German PoWs because they are countrymen, he claims, not because he's loyal to any Nazi cause.
He winds up offering bits of intelligence to her, declaring himself "a traitor" while also stating the information is nothing vitally important. Is he downplaying the information she receives, or is it actually... just enough information to string her superior officers along and keep her in that camp? Just how much of a traitor is he?
He gives her a song to sing, "C," by Francis Poulenc, at a CSO show. A song in French will obviously spur English and American grunts on to victory.
He states here that rumors he's passing "actual intelligence" to Allies is unfounded. In other words, the stuff he and the other PoWs is giving her is useless. He's not ACTUALLY a traitor, even though he has every reason to work for Hitler's downfall as an artist who's seen his compatriots imprisoned and killed.
(I want to note that in addition to being an extremely popular singer Edie was a broadcaster, she had a career, and as far as I know never had a job after getting married.)(Also her short hair is super cute.)
Edie and Kiesel reunite ten years later, Bill still MIA, Edie still virginal and waiting. Kiesel has a thriving opera career, by the way.
You don't want a memorial, you don't want a marker, and you don't want to move on is a heartbreaking parallel to Bill's experience with Martine, the French Resistance spy and assassin (who is killed for being a collaborator). (I just want to point out here that McEldowney has written two women who EXISTED to kill Nazis, and killed Nazis better than anyone else around them, and were killed and it made their male lovers sad. Meanwhile the male Nazi here not only survived, he thrived and wound up spending his twilight years with his One True Love.)
This is a good punchline, though.
It would not have been hard to make Kiesel profoundly anti-Nazi. To have him whole-heartedly renounce Hitler and Nazi-ism. To "turn traitor" and pass on intelligence, or facilitate passing it on. He could have spoken more about WHY his fellow artists fled the country, what they were escaping. It wasn't just censorship, you know? At least I hope that McEldowney is aware enough to realize that artists were targeted for a reason that went beyond simple messaging (and yes, the messaging of art isn't that simple).
Instead we have a guy who was conscripted against his will... and is an officer. We have a guy who insists he isn't a Nazi yet remained with his unit instead of running or refusing to join (which, yes, would get him killed or sent to the Eastern Front, which was also a death sentence just a slower one). He offers to "be a traitor" but then apparently doesn't actually pass on information that substantially affected Hitler's army.
Q: What do you get when you have four people sitting at a table with a Nazi?
A: Five Nazis.
He might deny it to himself, but Peter Kiesel is a Nazi. He was a Nazi officer who survived the war because he agreed to be a Nazi officer. He shuffled from PoW camp to PoW camp, was released, and embarked upon a thriving and fulfilling career throughout his long life.
McEldowney denies that Kiesel is a Nazi, and he's the one who WROTE Kiesel without stopping to think how, exactly, you make it clear that someone's not actually a Nazi and that being a Nazi isn't acceptable.
Note: a chorus of ballet artists oooohing over a hot wehrmarcht lieutenant? Not saying "oh gross, that's a Nazi"? That isn't a rousing condemnation of Nazis. That's accepting the "good Nazi" narrative.
There's a lot in this story that's emotional and touching, a lot that's well crafted. It really needed an editor, though, and someone willing to point out that hey, there's a Nazi love interest here, and if you want him to not be a Nazi then you have to make that explicit.
