After Dachau Read Free

when every adult seemed elderly, though in fact he wasn’t very old even now, being perhaps in his late thirties. I seemed always to have known the man’s legend better than the man himself. He’d studied at that frightfully ancient institution, Heidelberg University, and had a dueling scar on the left side of his face to prove it. He possessed several obscure academic degrees but said he favored the Ph.D. over the others because it didn’t need to be explained.
    For a decade after leaving school he’d been “something in the military” and wore his beautifully tailored suits as if they were uniforms. Everlastingly slim and fit, he always looked like he could rise from the dinner table and run a mile without getting winded or mussing the careful set of his fine blond hair. Now no longer in the military, he was “something in the government,” and I wasn’t in the least surprised to learn that recruitment was the object of our conversation.
    When we were settled with our brandies in the library after dinner, he said, “I think this venture with the Reincarnation Institute sounds like fun, and I’m sure you’ll learn a lot.”
    The family didn’t care for the name of the organization, and it was quite their usual practice to reshape reality to suit themselves. Thus We Live Again had almost immediately become the more dignified Reincarnation Institute.
    “But,” Uncle Harry went on, “you mustn’t get them too accustomed to leaning on you. In a year or two you’re going to want to move on to something else.”
    “Yes, that’s only good sense,” I agreed blandly.
    “I want you to be aware that anytime you want it, there’s a place for you in my outfit.”
    “Doing what?”
    “Doing what I do.”
    “And what’s that, if I may ask?”
    He shrugged. “I assumed you’d know by now that I’m in Intelligence. Or guess it.”
    I suppose I had guessed it, I told him, though I’m not sure I could have put the name
Intelligence
to it. “I know what you do is … mysterious, perhaps sinister.”
    “Neither one, most of the time. The government—every government everywhere and in every age—depends on men like me. On large numbers of men like me, in fact. When a leader stands in front of an audience or answers a question from the press, he almost never speaks from his own knowledge about the issues and problems of the world. For the most part, he’s merely voicing
our
knowledge of those issues and problems. This is no exaggeration, I assure you.”
    “I believe you, though in my innocence it never occurred to me until now that this might be the case. But why me? I’m no good at languages. I have no very useful specialties.”
    He shook his head impatiently. “Linguists and specialists we buy in packets of ten. It’s the talented generalists who are difficult to find, people with classical educations, people who are intelligent, well-bred, well-connected, and, above all,
known
.”
    “Known? My father is known. I hardly consider
myself
to be known.”
    “You’re known to
me
, and that’s all that matters. I can vouch for you absolutely, which is something I can never dofor anyone who just walks in off the street looking for a job. He may have degrees spilling out of his pockets from the world’s leading universities and letters of introduction from dozens of national heroes, but to me he’s an unknown, and I wouldn’t even trust him to empty the wastebaskets.”
    “I see. To be honest, I was expecting something like this but thought you’d just be doing it as a favor to Dad.”
    “Not at all. In fact, it’s the other way around. I’m the one who asked for the favor, and your father granted it.”
    I told him I was flattered (and I was) and that I’d certainly keep the offer in mind.
    “What you propose to be doing for the Institute,” he went on, “could actually turn out to be excellent training for Intelligence work, I think.” He paused to ponder that for a moment. “I suppose you