Page 9 of The Little Liar
“Come here, boy. You want a better look?”
Nico smiles and the guard lifts him up.
“See what happens to the filthy Jews?”
Nico is confused. He knows he is Jewish. The guard, fooled by Nico’s blond hair and lack of fear, assumed otherwise.
“What are they doing?” Nico asks.
“Whatever we tell them to do.” The guard smiles. “Don’t worry. They will all be gone soon.”
Nico wants to ask where they are going, but the guard suddenly snaps to attention. A transport carrying a short officer in the passenger seat is approaching. It is Udo Graf. He is in charge of this operation.
The guard raises his arm in a salute. Udo nods. Then, in their first but hardly last encounter, Udo sees Nico. He winks. Nico tries to wink back.
The transport moves on, cruising past the rows of exhausted men, rising and dropping under the blazing sun.
How a Lie Grows
Sometimes, I watch people eat. I find it interesting. Food is the substance that keeps you alive, so I would think you would choose the kind that does you the most good. Instead, you choose what pleases the palate. I see you at buffet restaurants, slapping on some of this, some of that, ignoring the rest, even if you know it is more healthful.
I notice this, because it is what you do with me. You choose a sliver of Truth here, a sliver there. You disregard the parts that displease you, and soon your plate is full. But just as ignoring proper food will ultimately decay your body, so will handpicking the Truth eventually rot your soul.
Take a boy, born in 1889, to a large Austrian family. His father beats him constantly, his teachers berate him, his mother, the only person who seems to care for him, dies when he is eighteen. He becomes sullen, withdrawn. He drifts, thinking himself a painter, but finds no acceptance in the art world. Over time, he evolves into a loner. He refers to himself as “Wolf.” He develops a penchant for blame.It’s their fault, not mine.A pattern of self-deception begins.
When war calls, the Wolf volunteers. He likes the clarity ofcombat, and its chosen truths, for all truths in war are chosen. The only real truth of war is that no one should engage in it.
The conflict ends badly. As his country surrenders, the Wolf lays wounded in the hospital, burning with mustard gas and humiliation. He cannot accept this defeat. To him it means weakness, something he despises, mostly because he has so much weakness inside him. When his country’s leaders agree to a peace treaty, he vows to overthrow them one day.
That day arrives soon enough.
He joins a political party. He storms to the top of it. He fires a gun into a ceiling and declares, “The revolution has begun!”
He climbs to power on the back of lies. He starts by blaming his nation’s woes on its Jews, and the more he points at them, the higher he rises.They are the problem! They are the reason for our humiliation!He accuses Jews of wielding secret powers, hidden influence, of creating a lie so big that no one would question it, an accusation stunningly true of himself. Jews are “a disease,” he declares, that must be eradicated to restore German health.
Such falsehoods bring the Wolf power, great power, and crowds of people cheer his speeches. He elevates to chancellor then president then supreme leader. He executes his enemies. He feels his inferiority fading with each new rub of success. He stacks his plate high with lies sizzled in hate, then feeds them to his armies. The armies grow. They follow him over the border, hoping to squash their neighbors under the seductive banner ofDeutschland über alles, “Germany over all.”
Why do they do the Wolf’s bidding? Deep down, all humansknow that being cruel to others—torturing them, killing them—is neither good nor righteous. How can they permit it?
Because they tell themselves a story. They create an alternate version of who I am, and swing it like an axe. Why do you think I argued with those other angels? Righteousness? Mercy? I tried to warn them. Those who abuse me will run roughshod over all the other virtues—and convince themselves they are high-minded in the process.
The Wolf’s deceptions grow more powerful. He creates words to blanket his evil. This is an old trick. If you want to get away with lying, first change the language.
So he uses the phrase “The Law to Relieve the Distress of the People” to give himself legal authority. He uses the phrase “Living Space” to justify taking land. He uses phrases like “dispatched” or “removed” as kinder words for murder. And he uses the phrase “Final Solution” as a euphemism for his ultimate plan: to wipe Jews off the face of the continent.
He finds loyal followers among the resentful, the alienated, the angry, and the ambitious, in adults who happily turn on their neighbors and in youths who enjoy pushing others to the ground with impunity.
He finds them in bitter, lost souls like Udo Graf, whose mother left his father for a Jewish man, and whose father subsequently took his own life with a blade and a bathtub.
Udo, who studies science at a German university, becomes a loner like the Wolf, a miscreant with no friends. When he is twenty-four, he hears the Wolf speak in a public square. He hears him talk about a new Reich, an empire of German domination that will last a thousand years. He feels as if he’s beengiven a personal invitation: follow this man and salve the pain of his own miserable existence.
So Udo joins the Wolf’s forces. He marries the cause. He rises in the ranks and, in time, reaches the position ofHauptsturmführer, a midlevel commander in the Nazi SS.
Then, in the summer of 1942, the Wolf promotes Udo and sends him to Salonika to execute a horrifying plan, to rid the city of every Jewish citizen. Which brings us to Liberty Square that hot July morning. This is how Udo first encounters Nico Krispis and winks at him, as if all will be well.
It will not be, of course. The end of a lie is always darkness. But we are far from the end of this story.
A True and Loving Kindness
