No clue
One of the guards who watches over Campbell tells him that the most terrible things to do in the concentration camp is to join the Sonderkommando. Their task is “to shepherd condemned persons into gas chambers, and then to lug their bodies out”. Not to mention that when the job is done, the members of the Sonderkommando are supposed to be killed. Andor Gutman, the guard, says that he would pay a lot to get an answer, why people used to agree to join the Sonderkommando. The frightening irony of it is that he himself used to be a member of it. He was “one of the ones who volunteered”.
A bad worker
Arpad Kovacs, Campbell’s guard, has a lot in common with Campbell, for he too had to pretend to be a Nazi to survive the war and save others. When Campbell asks him to read the copies of his speeches, Kovacs refuses. Later on, he does it and Campbell can watch how his facial expression becomes more and more somber. When he finishes reading, he says that “Goebbels should have fired you and hired me”, for he “would have raised blisters around the world!” The irony is that Campbell gets used to an idea that he is a vicious Nazi, whose propagandistic speeches cost many people lives and here is the Jew, who says that he would do better. He couldn’t expect such an unusual reaction.
Anyone but a Jew?
When Campbell showed Goebbels the speeches written by Lincoln, Goebbels found them extremely interesting and inspiriting. The only thing he was worried about was Lincoln’s nationality. “Lincoln wasn’t a Jew, was he?” The irony of this question showed, how twisted minds of convinced Nazis were. Were those speeches written by a Jew, he would call them horrible and unworthy.
