The Eyes of Reason: A Novel by Stefan Heym

Author:Stefan Heym [Heym, Stefan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Communism; Post-Communism & Socialism, Russia & the Former Soviet Union, Fascism & Totalitarianism, Political Ideologies, Political Science, World, History, Russian & Former Soviet Union
ISBN: 9781787209756
Google: NTxODwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 39988447
Publisher: Muriwai Books
Published: 1951-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

THERE was something odd, something almost unprofessional in Karel’s reaction to the patient. He tried to figure it out as he watched the man slip on his gray woolen shirt and knitted vest. They were the ordinary man’s pieces of clothing, yet to Karel they spelled out Wehrmacht supplies. With sharp suddenness, he recognized his feeling: for so many years he had been in the power of men like the Sudeten German silently busy with his buttons, that the reversal still seemed improbable and daring.

Karel observed the give of the vest over the paunchy stomach. “You’re the last patient today, Ebbing?” he asked.

The man held rigidly to his half-military, half-servile stance. “The last one, yes, sir.” His eyes slid toward the form Karel was filling out. “I beg pardon,” he went on, “but I couldn’t help it if I was late. Mr. Joseph Benda gave orders that this shipment had to go out, and I must check it, every single crate. If I’ve held up the doctor—I mean, it wasn’t my fault—and I hope it won’t make any difference in—” He looked at the form sheet .again, squinting with the effort to read Karel’s notations.

“You may go, Ebbing,” said Karel.

The man’s eyes jumped away from the sheet. “Then, with your kind permission,” he said hastily, “I wish you a Merry Christmas, Dr. Benda.”

“Thank you.”

Karel stared at the back of Ebbing’s neck as the man made for the door. It was a red, sturdy neck, bullish and straight, and it bulged a little over the tight collar. At the door, knob in hand, Ebbing turned. His light-blue pupils trembled in his pink-veined eyes as he said, “If you send me away, Dr. Benda, I’m going to die—” his excitement gave his Czech a German inflection—“die in the gutter somewhere like a mangy dog. And I have family. I’ve lived here in Martinice all my life....”

“With the exception of the time you served in the German Army.”

“Yes, sir,” said Ebbing. “But they discharged me and let me go home, with my ulcers and my bad heart.”

“You gave me your medical history. I’ve examined you.”

“What are you going to report, Dr. Benda?”

“You will be notified.”

The blue eyes hardened in a quick gleam of hate. Then the man was gone. Merry Christmas, indeed. Karel wrote at the bottom of the sheet: O.K. for transfer. He screwed on the top of his fountain pen, clipped it into the breast pocket of his jacket, and began to pack up his instruments.

He disliked his semi-weekly visits to the Hammer Works, and he had come to dislike the last few especially. The SS medics in Buchenwald had restricted themselves to a glance at their victims and a flick of the thumb; he gave a thorough examination to each man on the deportation list, and to every member of the prospective deportee’s family. The SS medics had weeded out the weak and helpless and sent them to their deaths; he made sure that the Germans picked to be shipped to Germany were strong and healthy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.