Scars Run Deep

June 13, 2004

Context # 1 (Tragic) - In World War II the Nazi army laid siege to to St. Petersburg (then known as Leningrad) and tried to bomb/starve the city into submission for 900 days. The city never surrendered despite over 1.6 million casualties.

Context # 2 (Comic) - In the 1980's John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) produced a wonderful little comedy by the name of Fawlty Towers in which he played Basil Fawlty, an inept, bumbling hotel owner in rural England. The absolute best episode of this short-lived series was entitled "The Germans". If you have not seen this series or this episode read no further and go rent the DVD and view it. You'll thank me for the hilarity of this series and you won't get the punch line of this journal until you see it.

Context #3 (You decide whether it's comic or tragic) - After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991, many former officials of the East German government had no where to go to escape possible retribution and fled to the former Soviet Union.

Setting - Catherine and I enjoying our 22nd anniversary dinner in a pleasant Russian restaurant in St. Petersburg. Sitting immediately to my left was a table comprised of two German couples in their late 50's/early 60's. Immediately next to them was a table of three men. Two were Russian but the third (we'll call him German #1) spoke Russian with a German accent.

During our dinner I overhead German #1 starting to speak loudly in German and extolling the virtues of the Deutsches Democratische Republic (the formal name of East Germany) over the Budesrepublic Deutschland (West Germany). All the while, he is staring at one of the German men at the table next to us (call this man German #2). The volume on his diatribe continues to increase as he switches to English and starts berating German #2, saying Hitler was an a@@hole and continuing to stare directly at German #2. Through all of this, the two German couples blissfully ignore German #1. The two Russians with German #1 were initially egging him on but after he started going too far (complete with extended middle fingers) they tried to calm him down. I may be totally wrong but I could only conclude that German #1 was a former DDR (East German) official of some type that was now exiled in Russia. He must recognize German #2 from some previous capacity.

This may sound like a serious situation but the absurdity of it all had me and Catherine laughing. The situation transitioned from the sublime to the ridiculous as German #1 started to deride German #2 by singing "Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles", the former Nazi anthem. I am not making this up! Eventually the Russians convinced German #1 to leave and as he left he shook hands with people on the way out explaining that "I am a real German".

Catherine and I enjoyed the rest of our anniversary dinner in peace and quiet. As we departed, I could not resist saying to Catherine as we passed the two German couples at their table, "Whatever you do, don't mention the war."