The story moves to 1949 with Bernie, now living in Dachau in his father-in-law’s shabby hotel. Visitors are rare to a town infamous as the location of a concentration camp. His father-in-law has committed suicide and Bernie’s wife, Kirsten, is in a psychiatric hospital. It was a surprise to see Bernie, a long time Berliner, in Dachau though Kirsten and Bernie had been struggling to get by in the devastation of post-war Berlin.
Kirsten dies and Bernie is alone. No spouse. No children. No colleagues. No friends. Having survived the Eastern Front and a prisoner of war camp he still says every day is a bonus.
Bernie returns to being a private detective. He quickly returns to searching for missing people. There are millions missing in Germany. He finds a niche in finding people connected to Nazis involved in the Holocaust.
He finds himself torn between wanting retribution for murdering Nazis and wanting no more involvement in killing. Asked if he has become squeamish he says:
“It could be,” I said. “If I am it’s because I’ve seen men hanged and I’ve seen them shot. I’ve seen them blown to pieces and starved to death, and toasted with a flamethrower, and crushed underneath the tracks of a Panzer tank. It’s a funny thing, but after awhile you realize you’ve seen too much. Things you can’t pretend you didn’t see because they’re always on the insides of your eyelids when you go to sleep at night. And you tell yourself that you’d rather not see any more. Not if you can help it. Which of course you can because none of the old excuses are worth a damn anymore. And it’s simply not good enough to say we can’t help and orders are orders and expect people to swallow that the way they used to. So yes, I suppose I am a little squeamish. After all, just look where ruthless has gotten us.”
I was reminded of the consequences of WW I affecting fictional sleuths such as Maisie Dobbs (Jacqueline Winspear), Ian Rutledge (Charles Todd), John Madden (Rennie Airth) and Bess Crawfored (Charles Todd). None of them can forget their war experiences.
Bernie's old comrades, whether regular SS or Waffen SS soldiers, maintain their bonds of loyalty. Bernie was sent East in 1941 as a member of an auxiliary police battalion. As set out in my posts on German Police and the Holocaust after reading A German Requiem (links are below), Bernie avoided joining “the special action” killing units of the SS and served in intelligence and investigations during the war. Yet there was an action on the Eastern Front which he led that haunted him.
With numerous SS members still seeking to escape Europe the “Comradeship” reacts viciously against those probing for information on old comrades.
The war made Bernie even more cynical than he was as a pre-war Berlin police officer and then a private detective. He has no faith, no confidence in government, no trust to go with the other “no’s” set out above.
Bernie is as tart tongued as ever whether emotionally up or down.
While battered in the war what has endured is his integrity. He will not compromise his principles. Integrity was little valued during Nazi times and is in short supply in post-war Europe.
Too often to his detriment, Bernie’s innate curiosity drives him to find out what happened, especially when an investigation has unanswered issues. He acknowledges he is a dedicated “sniffer” pursuing information.
He learns of SS experiments that sought to develop a vaccine for malaria. The Nazi methods were repulsive. American experiments were little better.
Deception is all around Bernie. I sensed some of the deceit but not the layers Kerr created. There is a brilliant scene where Bernie, in the guise of another man, is interviewed by police searching for Bernie.
As the truth is revealed Bernie is enraged. He seeks vengeance. I was dismayed expecting a Hollywood finale. Integrity be damned. To my surprise and appreciation it was a subtler, more effective, ending. The conclusion reflected Bernie’s distaste for ruthlessness. Kerr is a talented writer with a deep understanding of the complexities of German life during and after the Third Reich. The mysteries he creates are also brilliant.
****
Kerr, Philip – (2004) - Dark Matter; (2016) - March Violets; (2016) - The Pale Criminal; (2016) - A German Requiem; (2016) - Berlin Police and the Holocaust - Part I and Part II; (2016) - Comparing Serial Killers in Three Totalitarian States;
I've always liked Bernie Gunther's character, Bill. He's got layers and subtleties, and I thought Kerr did an outstanding job of showing how a person can have faults and scars and trauma and still function. Kerr did his research, too; the novels really do have a feel for the times and places in which they take place. It is a shame he's passed away...
ReplyDeleteMargot: Thanks for the comment. Bernie has shown great adaptability in living through the pre-war drams of Nazi Germany, the dangers physically and mentally of WW II and now the challenges of life post-war.
Delete