The Honest Spy

by Andreas Kollender

“Why go to war, Papa?” “A hunger for power, fanaticism, megalomania. Endless stupidity. I don’t know what to tell you.”

Herr Kolbe, when books are being burned and people are hated on command just because of their religion, when decent behavior disappears, then all the rest will be gone soon too.”

Fritz had learned a great deal about the history of diplomacy: that language was precise work, that certain treaties should be memorized, and that one always treated the opposing party nobly. Diplomacy was not the kettledrum but rather the oboe.

But hindsight—that’s just armchair nostalgia.”

Fritz thought about how these fellows were always saying the same thing, again and again and again, each one just like the next. They repeated whatever Hitler told them to repeat. The very thing that made a human being human—individual thought—was dead and cremated.

“You simply can’t let things get you down,” he says. “Now that would be betrayal—a betrayal of life itself. I don’t care how pathetic that sounds. I mean exactly what I said.”

something that interests me too. And that’s how did Hitler carry out domestic surveillance of the Germans? According to our assessments, the Gestapo and other agencies ran a cleverly thought-out, highly efficient system of total surveillance. We disapprove of such a thing, naturally. But it interests us just the same.”

“I’m a very German sort. Glad to be, at that. German literature, German music, German philosophy. The Nazis aren’t Germans at all. They have no culture. They burn people; they burn books. All they have is their miserable screaming. If I hear one more time about how Hitler is supposed to be this great orator—what a load of shit. That’s absurd, just garbage. Churchill is an orator. Hitler’s just dull, a bawling baby. No substance at all. He’s always hiding away somewhere.”

The OSS keeps growing. Our people are getting special training, really good stuff. The OSS is going to become a pillar of America. The country can’t stay secure without us. It’s all very exciting and pretty incredible.

“Perhaps I’ll go back to Africa.” “Where the black race is being exploited by Western imperialism? What did you fight for anyway?”

“Why do people barely notice those brief moments of happiness?” he asks. “If we hadn’t remembered happiness existed, we would’ve perished in that war. Marlene was always thinking of happiness somehow. It was the framework for her life. I love that so much about her.”