The Hunt

“My customers were complaining.”

“About what?”

“They did not like her singing. Or more precisely, they did not like the songs she was singing.”

“You mean the brownshirt assholes with the crooked crosses on their sleeves?”

“Unfortunately, the SA thugs are my customers. We had a scene here last night. She was singing a song, an American Depression song, ‘Brother Can You Spare a Dime,’ I believe it is called. There was a lot of restlessness in the crowd, then they started yelling at her to sing a German song. She kept going. Then from the crowd someone yelled, Jude! And somebody else joined in. Then one of the brownshirts stood up and screamed Heil Hitler and another joined and another until the whole room was on its feet. I dimmed the lights and got her offstage. Then the mob began singing ‘Horst Wessel’ and suddenly my beer hail became a Nazi rally. The point is, my friend, Jenny Gould is not even Jewish.”

“And you fired her anyway, as good as she is?”

“Good has nothing to do with it. You think that bunch knows what good is?”

“Why the hell did you hire her in the first place?”

“An error in judgment. I thought she might give the place some class. But if she had continued here I would have had a riot on my hands every night. All someone in the crowd has to do is yell Jude’ to create a riot.”

“Whether it’s true or not?”

“Truth is immaterial, dear Francis. In Germany, it has become the ultimate insult. And before you get too hot under the collar, Ire, I found her another job making the same money.”

“Where?”

“A few blocks away, at the Kit Kat Club. It is more suited to her singing anyway. A very sophisticated audience goes there to hear American jazz. There are a lot of American tourists. At the Kit Kat there will be no trouble. Brownshirts do not frequent it.”

“It’s a dive!” Keegan said sourly.

‘Ja, but a very nice dive. You think the Stier is a symphony hall?”

“All this because they accuse her of being Jewish,” Keegan said, shaking his head.

“Come, come, Francis, you know it is a sin to be a Jew in Germany nowadays. Or a Communist, a Social Democrat, a Gypsy or an artist. Any minority, anyone who disagrees. There is no such thing as dissent. I could be arrested for even talking about this. How have you managed to ignore it?”

“I didn’t ignore it, it wasn’t any of my business before.”

“Ah, and now suddenly you make it your business, ja?”

“I’m only interested in the girl.”

Conrad shook his head. He sat beside Keegan on the sofa, legs crossed and his snifter poised on one knee. He leaned close to Keegan, speaking almost in a whisper.

“You are a charming rascal, Francis. Here suddenly you are having an attack of conscience over this young woman. Suddenly you are outraged, ja?

“That’s right, suddenly I’m outraged.”

“Don’t you understand, my friend, their outrage is far greater than yours. Theirs is inspired hate. Acceptable hate. Racism is the accepted order of things here. In Germany it is unpopular not to hate. Not to hate is nonconformity. We are a closed society and conformity is required. Our leaders repeat the same lies over and over and over until they become a kind of national truth.”

Conrad stood up, wandering around the room as he spoke.

“You know what I did before I became a he waved his hand around the room, “saloon keeper? Hmm? I was a schoolteacher., Ja, a teacher of history at the University in Heidelberg. I quit because a teacher by nature is a nonconformist, a rebellious creature, likely to disagree simply to stimulate an argument. The war made that impossible.”

“What did the war have to do with it?”

“‘I fear the real danger in war is that conformity becomes the only virtue and those who refuse to conform will pay the penalty.’ Do you know who said that?”

“Nope.”

“Your own Woodrow Wilson, on the same day he urged your Reichstag to declare war on Germany. He understood that conformity is essential during a war because patriotism demands conformity and since conservatives are usually conformists, it follows that you must be conservative to be patriotic. Say it enough, it becomes the truth.”

“I can’t believe the whole country buys that. Hitler won’t last.”

“You are wrong, Francis, Hitler will last because he is at war already.” Conrad tapped his head as he said it. “He burns books if the ideas do not conform to his, closes newspapers down if they disagree with him, attacks artists because they are unreliable, because they think. And the irony is t1at it is all done in the name of freedom and patriotism. Understand this, to be a German today, you must be a fascist, otherwise you are a traitor. To be a fascist you must hate Jews. What do you do when you hate something? Eh? You get rid of it.”

“And you support this?” Keegan said.

“Come, come, my friend, why so surprised?” Well held his hands out at his sides. “Have I ever in the year or so we have been friends, have I ever shown you any pretenses? I am not a hero or a revolutionary. I am a devout