Part 1 · Chapter 13
Victory Dance at the Elysium
You’re humanity. He’s just dogma. You must go on living, don’t give in to him!
Summary
At the Elysium dance hall, packed with Party uniforms, Trudel Baumann meets three men from her now-precarious resistance cell, the balding Grigoleit, a baby-faced enforcer, and Karl Hergesell, to confess she blabbed about the cell to her father-in-law. The Babyface coolly suggests she die that night to protect the others; horrified, Karl insists it isn't the answer and dances with Trudel to beg her not to comply, declaring that he loves her. Back at the table, Trudel tries to leave for good, but the Babyface detains her, threatening to shadow her against suicide or betrayal. When Karl vows to stay by her side and go to the police if necessary, the Babyface brands him a second blabber and dissolves the cell, fleeing with Grigoleit. A suspicious brownshirt official questions Trudel and Karl, but their story of a lovers' quarrel satisfies him. Alone at last, Trudel tells Karl she must live, kisses him, and runs for her tram.
Analysis
The chapter stages ideology as a kind of etiquette: the cell debates Trudel's suicide with the same brisk courtesy as a seating arrangement, which is exactly what makes the Babyface's proposal so chilling. Karl's declared love, dismissed by the others as sentiment, turns out to be what actually saves Trudel.
Translator's Note
SA is the ‘Sturmabteilung’ or ‘storm troopers’, a paramilitary group that helped bring Hitler to power and whose members were known because of their uniform colour as the ‘brown shirts’.
Organization Todt was a military construction and logistics unit run by Fritz Todt. The RAD, or Reichsarbeitsdienst (‘Empire work service’) was a six-month forced labour programme for all young Germans, with a component of military training. Sonderführer (‘Special leader’) was not a specific position in any hierarchy, but conferred as the need arose. […]
Michael Hofmann's note to this chapter, from the Penguin Classics edition of Alone in Berlin (2009).