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PARTISAN REVIEW
ca ree r of thi s oddl y ina ppropri a te assassin who had los t not onl y an
eye, but a ha nd a nd two fin ge rs as well , in the Afri can campa ign . "A
husk of a ma n had come to blow a windba g to bits ," a nd th a t husk
lives for us, as a drama ti call y imagined cha rac te r hould , not onl y in
the fo rm o f his ac ti ons, but in the fi gures of hi s peech.
If
StauHe nbe rg's lear is tha t "he has nowhe re else to go , no one
else to be, no o the r cha nce to se t oH· a bomb ," so tha t "the outcome
was beginning to shri vel in to pe rma ne nt identit y," then Wes t's
triumph is to ope n up th a t compre sed wad of a man 's Iile tossed in a
single unsuccessful ges ture a nd to spread its wrinkl ed picture before
us. StauHe nbe rg's definiti on of himse lf has compac ted him in–
huma nl y; Wes t's nove l res tores him to full huma nity whil e it
condemns, once aga in , the mora l putridity of Naz ism .
Necessa ril y, the book has two rhythms, two rhe to rics. The first,
in orde r a nd importa nce, is Sta uHc nbe rg's "solo" na rra tive. C ivilized
a nd sensiti ve, the count sounds like both a noblema n a nd a noble
soul , a
mUliLe
de guerre.
The second na rra tive is sna rled a nd raged by
Rol a nd Freisle r, who mocks the justi ce he pres ides ove r as Hitl er's
a ppo inted judge at the conspira to rs' tri a l. The preo rda ined execu–
ti ons foll owing these so-called tri a ls we re filmed a nd shown to cadet
a udi ences in Be rlin , but as Sta uffenbe rg na rra tes:
T he effect on morale was so awful tha t a ll copi es we re eventu all y
des troyed on S'gruber's a nd Goebbel's express comma nd . An y–
one who wa tched such a n obsce nit y, fo r wha teve r reason , had
become a ha lf-accompli ce, a nd was a lready ha lfway to the fl a nk
o f S'gru be r himse lf, alone in hi s pri va te stench.
So savage is Wes t's picture in this sec ti on tha t some reade rs will find
it eclipsing ea rlie r visions; some will reco il like the cade ts. Such
pe rverted burlesqu e a lmost ma kes accomplices o f us too . West's
Black-Mass tri als me rit compa ri son with G oya's "black" pa intings.
Seen through the huma ne prose of Sta uffe nbe rg, we need tha t sight
in our lives, as Sta ulfe nbe rg needed the sight of the dead J ewesses,
framed in Be rthold's careful presenta ti on . We need , too, the ensuing
lull a nd eas ing as the fin a l page o f the book re turn Stauffenberg's
se nsibility to the fo reground , a nd we reali ze how those nearl y
unendura ble pages a re not onl y the justificati on fo r but the prelude
to "the riches t hour o f a ll .. . when Adolf Schi ckl grube r breathed his
las t. " West's book o f Sta utfenberg's hours is a book o f compassion; in
the prelimina ry he cites
King Rene's Book oj Love,
which a lso has its
rema rkable da rk ni ght illumina ti ons. Stauffe nbe rg's compassion
