346
PARTISAN REVIEW
"He said this is a rotten day for
him."
"Maybe he don't yet realize." Smitty poked the kraut with the
muzzle of his rifle, forcing him to stumble. The kraut glared.
"Willst
sterben?"
I asked
him.
"Er ist ernst."
"Bist Jude?"
he asked, sneering.
"What did he say? What's he got that krauty grin on for?
Tell him I'm going to kill him, Medic.
Tod!"
He snarled at the
German. "I'll make you
tod,
you sonofabitch."
At the moment I wanted Smitty to kill
him.
He begged to
die. And being SS, he'd earned his death. And remaining arrogant,
he deserved a hard death. And I could have been his executioner
myself. Yes, I'd club him with a rifle butt and when he tried to
fend me off, Smitty would club
him
from in back. And when he
fell I'd stamp the butt in his face and grind away that smile and
see terror and respect for death replace it. But my anger fails when
I let my imagination carry it to its fruition. And imagining that
terror and the crushed face I was no longer troubled by the insolent
smile.
I whispered to him to be careful or Smitty would kill him. I
told him that Smitty was a madman.
"Hunde,"
he snarled.
«Schwein."
He spat at my feet. Well, he
was a dead man. When he saw Smitty come after him, crouched
over his rifle, his eyes lighted, moving
him
past the platoon, toward
the forest, he knew that he was dead.
"Alright, you dead kraut," Smitty said, sweat rolling from under
his spectacles. "Move, move. You're dead, fellow." The German was
almost twice the size of Smitty and a hard, powerful man. But he
was suddenly alarmed, glanced at me, stumbled, had to hurry to
keep ahead of Smitty's rifle. He went backwards into the forest. He
stumbled as they entered and Smitty leaped after him. There was no
shot. But Smitty came out alone.
"I hope he learned you, Doc. I hope you get the idea now.
You want guys like us to get knocked off and him to stay alive?"
The plate of his rifle butt was clotted with hair and skin and blood.
We came to a pretty little town, tucked in a crease in a forest.
A cobbled street wandered between farmyards that were encom–
passed by dwellings and stables. There were little stores behind thick
plaster fronts with narrow windows. The inhabitants were old folks
and women and children. There was a small clothing factory in the
