[lit-ideas] Teutonia
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:08:57 EDT
In a letter that the German nobleman writes to Sally Bowles in "Goodbye to
Berlin" by Isherwood -- the story of a menage a trois between Sally, the German
nobleman and Issyvud -- the German nobleman writes (circa 1931)
Dear Sally,
I'm finding our affair with Issyvud a bit on
the boring side. Berlin is becoming to be
a bit on the boring side to. So, I'm moving
to Argentina. My family owns land there
and they say it's pretty exciting.
Love,
Helmut
"Teutonia" is the name of the nautical club in San Fernando where most
German expatriates would practice rowing and sailing -- and, some of them, bred
rabbits.
-----
The Rabbit Breeder of San Fernando, Buenos Aires (Was: Gen. Eichmann, SS)
I read more about Eichmann from Wikipedia:
Helm reports that, on the scaffold, Eichmann (who for some 30 years, had
adopted the name of Robert Klement and bred rabbits in Buenos Aires) said, as
the rope tightened his neck,
"Long live Argentina.
I shall always remember you.!"
This Arendt interprets as a self-contradictory slogan confusing things --
"Countries don't live, only people do. And in any case what is the meaning of
'always' in a man who's _dying_?" (p. 456n7)
More from the Wikipedia
"For the next 10 years after the end of the Second
World War, Eichman (who had assumed the innocent
alias of Robert Klement), worked in several 'odd jobs' in
the Buenos Aires metropolitan area (from factory foreman, to
junior water engineer and professional rabbit farmer)."
And then you'll remember Sir Laurence Olivier in his film -- I forget who
played Eichmann -- Michael Caine?
"Among [the people interested in Eichmann's capture] was
Simon _Wiesenthal_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Wiesenthal)
. In 1954, Wiesenthal's suspicions that
Eichmann was in Buenos Aires were sparked upon receiving
a postcard from an associate who had moved to Buenos Aires.
"Ich sah jenes schmutzige Schwein Eichmann,
-- translated, by J. M. Geary, "The Garibaldi Street" as,
"I saw that dirty pig Eichmann"
The "Note from the Translator' touched my heart: "I chose to render
'Schwein' by 'pig' rather than the Anglo-Saxon 'swine'. I felt it carried more
force
to it. Similarly, the Yddish 'schmutzig', which borders the insult in the
vernacular, I translated as 'dirty', and I made a point of using the
demonstrative 'jenes' translated as 'that'. Most of my German comes from Father
Kempis".
Tthe letter read in part,
"Er wohnt beinahe in Buenos Aires
und arbeitet für ein Wassergeschäft.
(Geary continues: "He lives near Buenos Aires and works for a water
company". I first thought of translating 'wassergeschaft' as 'water society',
but I
thought this would give the readers the impression that Eichmann was the
leader of the Kingsley "Water Babies", so I used company instead."
"Another German, Ludwig Hermann had settled into life in Buenos Aires with
his family. Now, his daughter Sylvia, became acquainted with the Eichmann's
family and sexually involved with Klaus, the oldest Eichmann son. Due to
Klaus' boastful remarks about his father's life as a Nazi and direct
responsibility for the Holocaust, Hermann knew he had struck gold in 1957 after
reading a
newspaper report about German war criminals"
"Eichmann was captured outside his own house, in 33 Garibaldi Street, San
Fernando, a riverside suburb of northern Buenos Aires on May 11 1960." "As a
heavily-sedated Eichmann as part of a delegation of Jewish union members,
Eichmann was smuggled out of Argentina on board an El Al Bristol Britannia
commercial air flight from Argentina to Israel on May 21."
There is an online map of the San Fernando area at
_http://nona.net/features/map/placedetail.1549557/San%20Fernando/_
(http://nona.net/features/map/placedetail.1549557/San%20Fernando/)
Oddly this site is called 'nona', which is Spanish for 'nonnie'.
Cheers,
JL
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