One day a rumour spread that five men\u2014from one of the groups in our platoon\u2014had paid a visit to the widow and, in an orgy of spirits, celebrated Eros.
The rumour reached the company commander, who immediately ordered the platoon leader to carry out an investigation and, if necessary, punish the offenders as a warning and deterrent to others\u2014\u201cthe honour of the Wehrmacht must be upheld\u201d\u2014the widow had no honour! <\/p>\n
The eleven-man-strong sinful group stood formed up in front of the platoon headquarters\u2014ready to receive their sentence\u2014but somewhat downcast and embarrassed.
Lieutenant B\u2026 struck his stick hard against the ground and stepped forward in front of the line. He had brought out his \u201cGermanic gaze,\u201d which rested sharply and disapprovingly on the transgressors.
\u201cFive men against a widow\u2014that is against the regulations, gentlemen!\u201d he began. \u201cWould the five noble knights be so kind as to step forward in front of the line?\u201d <\/p>\n
Silence for a moment. Then the group leader remarked timidly: \u201cWe didn\u2019t do it\u2014Untersturmf\u00fchrer!\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I\u2019ll be damned if I believe that\u2014it must have been the widow who did it all? Marius! Run over and fetch the lady\u2014then she can be allowed to identify the culprits!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n It worked! The five guilty men chose to step forward voluntarily. <\/p>\n The whole embarrassing affair was concluded with a stern reprimand. \u201cIt\u2019s really a job for a priest and not for an honourable soldier,\u201d B\u2026 remarked. \u201cYou could always try to get a bit of absolution from the Catholic padre, since you so bravely supported him in the act\u2014don\u2019t you think that\u2019s an idea?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI rather think they\u2019ll damn me down to the blackest hell\u2014priests are a bad lot, Marius\u2014especially the Catholic ones. I don\u2019t intend to have any sins absolved either; I\u2019ll take them with me to the grave.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t you believe in a God?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBelieve or believe\u2014well, we all believe in something, whether we call ourselves free thinkers or whatever else. It is simply in human nature to lean on some kind of faith. Perhaps it is a sign of weakness, but that is how it is.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cDo you then believe in the Nazi theory that the only form of life that exists after death is the life that continues through our children and grandchildren?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cUndoubtedly our qualities, and in some cases also our thoughts and ideals, live on through our descendants\u2014but to build one\u2019s entire worldview on that line of thinking seems to me too naive and too unsatisfying. What do you yourself believe in?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI have often thought about these problems without getting any closer to solving them. There are three main actors in the great drama\u2014the Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church, and then the devil himself. They all call each other heretics and interpret the Bible in their own ways, in the way that best suits their own demands\u2014isn\u2019t that right? \u201cFor God\u2019s sake\u2014don\u2019t think about things like that! There\u2019s a shortage of space in the mental hospitals!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThat is quite true\u2014the way the devil interprets the Bible is shamelessly taken up by those gentlemen priests and defenders of Christianity, as long as it suits their purpose. \u201cThus people have always been like this\u2014it must lie in our nature. Everything we imagine ourselves to be\u2014what we call culture and Christianity\u2014is only a thin layer of polish, and beneath it lurk the animal instincts whose foremost characteristic is selfishness\u2014look around you in the world!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cA meagre result for Christianity after several thousand years of activity. Well, the Church does indeed count among its leading men some of the most terrible criminals history can show\u2014and yet\u2014how strange\u2014kings, emperors, kingdoms and peoples have perished, but the Church still stands\u2014it has survived all the storms of time!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWell\u2014now we\u2019ve had enough of your philosophy, Marius. There have also been priests who were in line with what has happened today\u2014have you read Troels Lund: Daily Life in the North, where he describes the priests and their way of life in old times?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYes\u2014I have read it quite carefully.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cCan you remember where he mentions the priest, Mr. Hans from Holmens Church\u2014he gave a sermon based on the text of the day, a text he had made himself, and it went: Love makes strong\u2014it lifts both shirt and undershirt!\u201d<\/em> And then the conversation drifted onto other subjects.<\/p>\n
That evening B\u2026 took a couple of extra schnapps, in the awareness of having made a significant contribution to raising morale in Rastovichza. <\/p>\n
Just look at the church at home in Denmark\u2014there we have a score of different sects that wage a knife fight against each other over how a sincere Christian ought to believe, and each sect loudly proclaims, quite tastelessly, that they alone are saved.
But what, then, is the right thing? How can anyone expect us to take a position on all these theories when even the world\u2019s scholars are at each other\u2019s throats over the questions!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n
How else would you explain that all the priests in England proclaim every Sunday across the country that God is fighting for their cause\u2014and that Germany\u2019s priests pray from the pulpit for God to bless Germany\u2019s weapons, while on the soldiers\u2019 belt buckles you can read: \u2018Gott mit uns\u2019\u2014which is in such glaring contradiction to the entire spirit of the Bible as anything could be.
Do you remember how the English archbishop denounced the Bolsheviks when they attacked Finland in 1939, calling them barbarians of humanity and enemies of Christianity\u2014and today the Bolsheviks are England\u2019s good allies, all the country\u2019s priests swinging their censers and praying to God for communism?
Don\u2019t you see the parody? Swindlers and hypocrites all of them!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u201cThat was a gentleman with a sense of realism\u2014he could have preached to the soldiers today!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n