H. Adler - Panorama

In addition to the intellectuals in Wirschenowitz there are also rougher characters, many of them quite splendid in their own right, bowing to a kind of optimism that unfortunately knows no half measures, it involving much more an urge for dignity that will not give in, and that is fine, as long as one doesn’t become unthinking and suffer from illusions, for the war will certainly not be over soon, as all the laborers and many inhabitants believe here, Germany having invaded too many countries for there to be a quick end, which for the laborer will most certainly lead to dire consequences, though hardly any of them are aware of this. Notwithstanding his skepticism, Josef doesn’t believe that Germany can win, because “The more enemies the greater the honor” may sound good, but not when it involves too many enemies, for the entire world cannot be conquered, not even with modern weapons, though how things will unfold is unclear to Josef, but he knows eventually this monstrosity will collapse. Josef, therefore, is not that different from the optimists, these children only hoping for the next day to pass, believing in miracles as they conjure their possibility inside themselves. But it will take more patience than that.

Josef takes a breath, feeling more free here than in the city, everything easier in Wirschenowitz, no matter how hard it may indeed be, but in the city it’s murky, every step contains potential danger, fear, and mistrust, people afraid of their neighbors and their neighbors afraid of them, while men in strange uniforms stomp heavily through the streets and bellow repulsive songs, Josef trembling when this wretched singing marches around the corner and pierces the walls like a machine, some fleeing ahead of them, while in addition to this bellowing there is the Pied Piper music of the pipes and drums, Prussian soldiers arriving to fight in the fields of Silesia in Bohemia, this clanging and strife mixing hideously with the noise in the streets, while even from a distance one hears the painful warbling of unmelodic tunes from the fifes and the dry rustle of drums. Across from the building where Josef had last lived in the city is the shop and apartment of a short tailor by the name of Jaroslav Kverka, whose four-year-old boy marched along the street in military step, mimicking with his innocent child’s voice that awful music, though the child’s bawling was continually droned out by the loudspeaker whipping the march into a frenzy with beastly distorted sounds, in between which could be heard the buffeting of crackling announcements telling those aghast at hearing it of the victory of indomitable weapons over a subjugated people, the thumping little phrases hardly comprehensible, Josef at least unable to understand them as meaningful examples of human speech.

Wirschenowitz is free of such pain. Though indeed things here are tough, and though Čiperný is mean and the work hard, the chaos of the city is distant, as well as the innumerable pressing prohibitions that transform every act and allowance into a conscious undertaking. Here each breath is not stripped of its freedom, dense woods rise nearby and are enticing, Josef wanting to flee to them on Sundays, where he will worship each moment and let himself get lost where no path leads, and where for hours there is not a human sound, the power of the Creator all around him. These are imaginings that Josef still conjures as he lays out his blankets for the night, after which he tells his roommates good night and promises not to let them oversleep, he able to make himself get up at whatever hour he wants to. And then the first morning light breaks across Wirschenowitz, everything beginning to stir, the brown water prepared that is supposed to be coffee, bitter stuff that is never quite warm. Afterward the new arrivals begin to gather, the two young men from the employment office offering up to each a somewhat dumb little talk that doesn’t say anything that Otto hasn’t told them in much more clever and sympathetic fashion. At the close of their lecture they accompany the new arrivals to the builders’ hut in order to hand them over to the bookkeeper, after which the procedure takes some time, which the new arrivals are overjoyed at, because it means that their actual work will begin much later. Gradually things get under way, Herr Podlaha and his secretary asking each laborer patronizing questions, as if they concerned matters of the alphabet, though what they want to know is the boys’ natural talents and special expertise, at which each must be satisfied to learn that there really is not that much interesting work available. Salesmen, clerks, tailors, musicians, lawyers, teachers, and students would seem ready for quite capable work, but luckily you don’t need special training to build a railroad, as every man can be taught how to handle a pick and a shovel correctly. At last the long questionnaire is filled out, behind the counter eyes read through it all again, after which hands shove it once more across the counter so that it is signed, no, on the right line, even if you cannot see it, aren’t you supposed to be an educated man, a doctor, indeed here in the little box, but legibly please. Josef writes his name somewhat obscurely, at which the bookkeeper hands the new arrival a little card with his name and birth date, and Rybák written in the corner, Josef looking questioningly at Herr Podlaha once he has it in his hand, whereby the former explains that there’s no need to keep looking at it, for it says Rybák, and that means the workstation that he is supposed to report to.

Many new arrivals have gone off in the meantime, an older worker or guard standing by to help anyone who has a question, Josef going up to one and learning, “Rybák? For that you take a right outside and head straight on, the people on the road will show you where to go.” So Josef heads along the new stretch that passes by the builders’ hut to cross over the highway. Here there is work going on at the moment, the building having moved on, the earth stamped down firmly, the rails of a light railway traveling over it, it being easy to walk along, mountains rising to the right, while to the left the landscape descends steeply to the river. Soon you reach the forest, with only the passageway for the train roughly cut through it as Josef nears an odd-looking wooden structure and hears a low rumbling in the distance, more heaps of gravel resting here in various heights, a couple of men walking around or standing, a couple of laborers nearby, one of whom speaks to Josef and asks him what he wants, to which Josef says that he’s new and is looking for the way to Rybák. “My friend, how unlucky! It’s bad at Rybák’s. If you just keep along this stretch, the first master you come to will be him. At least you don’t have far to get back home.” Josef, though, wants to know what is the structure from which all the noise is coming, and he’s told that it’s a gravel mill, there being only a few who work there, though the work isn’t bad, especially when it’s outdoors, for inside it’s pretty dusty, but at least when it rains you can keep dry.

Josef then walks on farther and after a while reaches a deep cliff cut, everything looking smooth and almost done, just a few men working here and there, as Josef asks for Master Rybák. Yes, he’s here, he’s told, the question being whether the new arrival is supposed to work for him. Yes, he’s supposed to work here, could they please point out the master. Josef is told to just go on straight ahead, he’ll find the master either out back in his shack or somewhere along that stretch. Indeed, Rybák is in his shack and comes straight out as Josef greets him, which the master does not respond to in any kind of unfriendly manner but instead takes the card and looks at his new worker, after which Rybák gives Josef back the card and says that it seems that Josef has hardly ever worked in building. No, he had not. To this the overseer responds that it doesn’t matter, for as long as his intentions are good it will work out, he having received five new arrivals of late, no doubt more will come, these being the gentlemen sent to build the railroad, hardly any of them having worked before as an unskilled laborer, though if they are willing and able, then none of them will have any trouble with Rybák, each only needing, of course, to do his work, no question about that, though at this site he needs no more new people, for everything will be done in four weeks, in fact just today they are starting a new section way at the end of the cliff cut, which is a good place to start in with easier work, Foreman Sláma ready to show them what to do, meaning that Josef should go to Sláma with his card, for he’ll find him if he just continues along straight ahead.