âI am a Jew fighting for the glory of Germany,â Lieutenant Hugo Guttenberg murmured to himself with a bizarre fascination. Evil Begets is a historical fiction short novel set during the waning days of World War I. Evil Begets is composed as an excerpt of the fictional memoirs of German Private First Class Franz Grubner. With striking and sobering detail, he paints a sickening picture of what he and the rest of his fellow German army company endured. Evil Begets takes a fascinating revisionist look at a now mostly overlooked time in history. The story of the pitiful lives of these sad men will expose both the immediate and long-term impact of this level of war and devastation. As you read this fictional account, doubtless you will agree as the tag line states--war has consequences.
âI am a Jew fighting for the glory of Germany,â Lieutenant Hugo Guttenberg murmured to himself with a bizarre fascination. Evil Begets is a historical fiction short novel set during the waning days of World War I. Evil Begets is composed as an excerpt of the fictional memoirs of German Private First Class Franz Grubner. With striking and sobering detail, he paints a sickening picture of what he and the rest of his fellow German army company endured. Evil Begets takes a fascinating revisionist look at a now mostly overlooked time in history. The story of the pitiful lives of these sad men will expose both the immediate and long-term impact of this level of war and devastation. As you read this fictional account, doubtless you will agree as the tag line states--war has consequences.
This is the journal entry of Private First Class (Gefreiter) Franz Grubner:
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           âI am a Jew fighting for the glory of Germany,â Lieutenant (Oberleutnant) Hugo Guttenberg murmured to himself with a bizarre fascination. He was a smallish man with a slender build. His hair was shaved, masking the fact that he had significant hair loss. His face had a roundish frame. His eyes were slightly sunken with heavy bags under them, revealing the lack of sleep he had endured. This was a tired man; his body had the permanent stain of clay from dust and debris. That same debris was caked within his teeth, along with dried blood.
It was October 1918, and he finds himself in a foxhole once again with the rest of his company. He was in the place where in many respects the war started for him -- Ypres, Belgium. He remembers wearing his new and freshly pressed uniform. What he felt then was an appearance of power with our grey (feldgrau) colored garb and our spiked helmets (pickelhaube). He had come to abhor the grey of his uniform and any similar color. He had an equal dislike for his helmet. He found the spike to be rather cumbersome to wear while still feeling agile. Its design was meant to be imposing, but the Lieutenant felt it put himself and his comrades at a disadvantage. He was grateful that two years ago it was replaced with a more reasonable headpiece. The grey coloring sadly remains.
Four years earlier his regiment entered this place with 3,600 young men, many newly enlisted and naĂŻve to the horrors that would ensue. Within twenty days--before he would get his next letter from his beloved wife--that number would be 611. Hugoâs company went from 350 men to seventy-two. Lieutenant Hugo Guttenberg now knew what war could do. He entered this town four years ago as a newly converted soldier from the previous Bavarian Army Reserves, and now he was a Lieutenant. With the loss of untold lives came promotion. He loved his company. The Lieutenant would express that one of the few positives of this war-time experience was building rich friendships with us men. In a non-war setting, this was a company filled with men who would normally treat him with disdain. Without war, he was a Jew, hated by the German people and disliked by the men in his company. Now those men were tired and war had changed them. Lieutenant Guttenberg marveled on how the constant threat of death became the only equalizer. It was a situation so different from the men in his family before him.Â
If the movie 1917 met All Quiet on the Western Front and boomeranged into An Eagle in the Snow, the result might be this gripping historical fiction novella.
Set during World War I and before, the action largely takes place amid the trench warfare and horrific carnage of The Great War as seen from the German point of view. As it explores the concept of war as âThe Great Equalizerâ and the possible consequences of same, we also hear from the sad, doomed men who fight it. Â Â
The novella is written as an excerpt from the fictional memoirs of German Private First Class Franz Grubner. Grubnerâs company has been ordered to hold the line at all costs. Retreat is not an option. As the grim order is conveyed and the improbability of survival looms large, Grubner and the doomed German soldiers share their life stories on the eve of the suicide mission.
The narrative is delivered in three parts: Part I is October 13th and the eve of battle. Part II is October 14th and the day of the battle. Part III is November 10th and the âawakeningâ or aftermath of the battle.
In between, we are introduced to a richly textured and variegated tapestry of individual life stories. They include back stories from a sergeant whose Protestant brother refused to join the Kaiserâs army on conscientious objector grounds. We also hear how the dreams of Jewish lieutenant Hugo Guttenbergâs family have been squashed by social pressure and other factors, both internal and external. Â Thrown together from different backgrounds, education and economic levels and religions, all blend into one German company battling a losing war.
It is fascinating. Disturbing. Heart-rending.
Iâve read scores of titles related to World Wars I and II, including fiction, historical fiction, and non-fiction. Evil Begets in one of the most unique and compelling accounts Iâve ever read, with a surprise ending that falls from the sky like a thunder clap. Not for the faint-hearted. But it packs a wallop!