Tomáš Zmeškal - A Love Letter in Cuneiform

“‘Go fuck yourself,’ I said. ‘Either that or just sit down and leave me alone.’ The doctor walked back to his table and, addressing himself to the director, Martha, and the other committee members, loudly declared:

“‘You may begin,’ then took a seat. He rotated his chair so he could continue to observe me, which made me uncomfortable. On the other side of the room, the director rose to his feet.

“‘Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for having to call you together today so hastily, but as it happened, Mr. Albert Hegel here paid us a visit today. He came in his car, which he parked not far from our institute. He climbed the fence and intruded into Block F, where he discovered and most likely read a variety of materials. Under Directive Fourteen, in this situation the experiment concludes and we are required to explain it to Mr. Hegel in its entirety, as the directive states, with respect to his civil rights. As you recall, last week we heard a summary of the situation from Dr. Wagner and Martha here.’ When he said her name, I winced. ‘We did of course anticipate some activity on the part of Mr. Hegel, but it came sooner than we were able to foresee. Even in science one can’t think of everything,’ the director said, pausing for an apologetic grin. This guy really knows what he’s doing. Guess he’s done his share of speeches, I thought. ‘I’d like to ask Dr. Wagner to begin,’ the director said, bowing to a woman of about forty-five seated to his left, directly next to Martha. She rose from her chair to speak.

“‘Mr. Hegel, what you are about to hear may surprise you. But understand that this experiment and its purpose are perfectly legitimate from a legal point of view, as the research it relates to is considered so important that we were granted an exemption to your civil rights and liberties. Our study concerns the identification and detection of evil. As you no doubt know, since we insisted on unprecedentedly high standards for your education, World War II ended in Europe some time ago. I won’t waste time on the details. Suffice it to say that, since then, many scientists, historians, and politicians, as well as the general public, have been interested in the question of to what extent the origin, development, and conclusion of this terrible chapter in history was influenced by the central figure of the German Third Reich, namely, Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Concentration camps, eugenics, untold suffering, et cetera. In short, this lies at the core of a question to which no one has ever been able to find an answer, since Hitler committed suicide in the closing days of World War II. No one had a chance to confront him with the horrors he inflicted, as they did the other members of his monstrous regime in the trials at Nuremberg. Today we have the luxury of being further removed in time, so we can see that the trials were not perfect and left some questions unanswered. Hitler’s absence dealt a heavy blow to the investigation of evil. Then, more than fifty years ago, his remains were rediscovered and secretly deposited for safekeeping at our institute, devoted to the research of evil in all its forms. The project’s mastermind was Professor Robert Fischer, who, regrettably, did not live to see its inauguration. His chief contribution consisted of the idea that individuals who wreak evil should be re-created and placed in other historical and family conditions from the ones in which they were raised, so that we can evaluate their development, behavior, and actions at close hand, which would allow us to reach a conclusion as to whether evil is hereditary, or whether all of society contributes to its existence. Scientific debate thus far has been divided between those who claim the entire Second World War was caused by a lunatic, versus those who maintain it was the result of a long-term process, dating as far back as ancient Sparta. On one side of the debate are those who argue that the decisive factor is education, while others insist on the primacy of inheritance, with Fischer’s principle of testability held as absolutely fundamental to both camps. The problem is, no one succeeded in carrying out the so-called Fischer experiment during Fischer’s lifetime. More than thirty years ago, however, we were finally able to develop a technology sufficiently reliable for the production of one hundred percent, shall we say, doubles using the remainders of tissue from the deceased. The words original and copy truly cease to make sense at this point. In short, as by now you have probably guessed, you are identical with the individual named Adolf Hitler. In honor of Professor Fischer’s idea, you were even given a name whose initials are the same as your predecessor’s. The surname Hegel was proposed by a group of scholars who upheld the view that the roots of Nazism could already be clearly detected in the philosophical writings of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Their methods were somewhat unseemly, but nonetheless they succeeded. Your name therefore does not, as you have assumed up to now, come from your ancestors, or your forefathers from Europe. Dr. Réti and Dr. Duchamp are in charge of the philosophical aspect of the matter.’

“Panic attack, pounding in my temples, heart in my throat. I looked at Martha, who they wouldn’t let me near, but her gaze was fixed about ten feet in front of the table where she sat, her eyes resting firmly on the carpet. She didn’t look at me once the entire time. Suddenly the doctor was standing at my side, syringe in hand. I shook my head. He remained there a moment, then sat back down. I tried to snap out of it, but no luck. From what they said, my whole life had been run by somebody else. I asked them. One of them said yes.

“‘All right,’ I said, ‘then how come I have blond hair and I’m six feet, one and a half inches tall? That’s not what Hitler looked like, if I remember correctly from the pictures in our textbooks.’ The director chuckled unpleasantly:

“‘Mr. Hegel … Albert … there were some genetic variations that we didn’t want to influence, so we left them alone. The fact that you look physically — and I emphasize, only physically — different from Adolf Hitler, doesn’t mean that you aren’t him. It’s a common question from laypeople.’

“‘So I am him, even if I don’t look like him?’

“‘Yes, exactly,’ said Dr. Wagner.

“‘May I speak with Martha?’ I asked.

“‘Of course,’ said someone I didn’t know.

“‘And who are you?’ I asked.

“‘Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Dr. Réti.’

“‘All right,’ I said. ‘Can I talk to her then?’

“‘Please, be my guest,’ Réti replied.

“‘Actually I wanted to speak with her in private.’

“‘Oh, I see. I’m afraid you aren’t allowed to speak with her in private.’

“‘Why not?’ I asked.

“‘Because the experiment is over now.’

“‘But I want to talk to her,’ I said. ‘I want to talk to her right now.’

“‘I’m afraid that isn’t possible,’ Réti said.

There was a moment of silence. Then a man in a wrinkled jacket with no tie stood up. ‘My name is Sommer, Dr. Sommer. This international project consisted of controlling all the factors that could be controlled once you were cloned. We recorded everything, and all or most of the things and people you have come into contact with have been involved in some way in our project. As you might suspect, the members of our committee, and the experiment as a whole, have relatively close ties with the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Freedom, and Democracy. Which means we also often benefit from their expertise.’

“‘What does that mean?’ I asked.

“‘That means that within the framework of the experiment we had to find a way to keep you in partial isolation, which is why you inherited land out here on the edge of the desert. Had you lived in a city, the urban influences, in addition to the impossibility of controlling your encounters with individuals, would have made evaluation of the project unfeasible. For our purposes, it was absolutely essential that you be in at least partial isolation.’