The Honest Spy

by Andreas Kollender

“In 1935,” Fritz says, “the order came to raise the swastika flag in the courtyard of the Cape Town consulate. This was one part of a Nazi decree demanding that all German foreign missions start dealing with the Jewish Question. Such madness hadn’t begun gradually. It had hit like a bombshell with the Enabling Act in 1933. Once that law passed there was no holding back. That was when the delusions of grandeur started. The hysterics. The idiocy.”

bougainvillea

cabriolet

“When there’s no respect left, 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.” Biermann balled his hand into a thick and wrinkled fist. “Perhaps the Foreign Office is one of our last refuges. We are simply too cosmopolitan, by the way we exchange ideas, by our very language.”

“It’s about greatness, Kolbe. We live in horrible times, but horror produces greatness. There are awful deeds that must be carried out, just awful—yet great they are too. The Führer is the only one who’s been able to create a practical plan inspired by the abstract notion of greatness. That’s what we must grasp now. It is complicated. It is dreadful, yet intoxicating.” Von Günther pressed the tips of his thumb and index finger together and moved his hand through the air as if sewing with a needle. “The end result will be stunning. All the sacrifices will have been worth it.” He spread his fingers as if tossing something into the air. “And we? We are doing our part.”

We aren’t diplomats anymore. Everything international has gone national. It’s absurd.”

“Horrible as ever. Hitler keeps an iron grip on everything and everyone. Do you know how he does it? Give the petty dumbshits some power, just a little, then let them go order the others around. They’ll all crawl so far up your ass, they’ll never get out again.”