The Plot Against America

by Philip Roth

My father explained that what made the prospect of a Russian collapse so awful was that it would represent to the world the invincibility of the German war machine. The vast natural resources of the Soviet Union would fall into German hands and the Russian people would be forced to serve the Third Reich. Worst of all “for us” was that with Germany’s eastward advance millions and millions of Russian Jews would come under the control of an occupying army equipped in every way to implement Hitler’s messianic program to deliver humanity from the clutches of the Jews. According to my father, the brutal triumph of antidemocratic militarism was imminent just about everywhere, the massacre of Russian Jewry, including members of my mother’s extended family, was all but at hand, and Alvin didn’t care one bit. No longer was he burdened by concern for anyone’s suffering other than his own.