Trans. Phyllis Rauch
iUniverse, Inc., 2006
268 pages
Delving into long-buried memories, Georg Rauch has penned a gripping true-life tale. He weaves together a rare inside view of a soldier's life on the German-Russian front in the final months of World War II and a memoir of his personal transformation from carefree youth to battle-worn budding artist.
Despite Jewish blood in his family, the Austrian-born Rauch was reluctantly drafted into Hitler's Nazi Army at age 19, barely a year and a half before Germany's surrender. "The Jew with the Iron Cross" traces his experiences fighting in the trenches, falling prisoner to Russian soldiers, surviving a close brush with death and struggling to find the way back to his native home to start a new life.
Readers will find themselves captivated by a well crafted-story, with horrific war episodes deftly balanced by uplifting moments of camaraderie, ingenuity, determination and tenderness.
Interspersed with Rauch's account of his wartime journey is a collection of letters he wrote to his mother during the ordeal. They show a devoted son determined to relieve maternal anxieties in desperate times. The book includes both drawings and descriptive passages that demonstrate Rauch's eye for detail and his evolution as an accomplished artist.
The first chapters outline his family background and personal views on the war that nearly cost him his life. In recalling his arrival to the battlefront he writes:
"Here I was, in the foremost line of a front in a war I never wanted, understood or was able to justify. From now on I was expected to shoot at people I didn't know and for whom I hadn't the slightest feeling of enmity. The black of the night sky and the yet deeper black of the earth beneath, together with the faint sound of the ever-continuing rain and the hopelessness of my situation, brought me close to tears, but I hadn't even a clean finger for wiping my eyes."
He shows himself a quick study on tricks of the soldier's trade that more than once saved his skin. His knack for handling radio equipment helps keep him out of the line of fire and eventually leads to the award of the iron cross mentioned in the book's title. He also proves to be an able cook, scavenger and deal maker, attributes that help him stay reasonably well fed, warm and breathing as the war grinds on.
A passage detailing a fleeting moment before he and a fellow warrior were taken as prisoners of war gives a clue to Rauch's artistic sensitivity:
"Slowly Konrad raised himself up, an ancient, dirt-encrusted tool, like a piece of earth itself. He shook himself a few times and reeled away in the direction of the grapevines, dragging his rifle behind him by the sling. I followed, and we sat for a long time under a grapevine, eating with dirty, trembling fingers those wonderful, dark blue grapes, the ones with the whitish shimmer that taste a little like wild strawberries."
A discarded working title, The Wooden Spoon, ties in with the story's turning point. Still in Russian custody, Rauch lies wasting away in hospital bed, his body weakened by pleurisy and dysentery. After the head physician leaves for a weekend holiday, taking along the sole key for the medicine cabinet, his frail health plummets so dramatically that a chaplain is called in to administer the last rites. Falling into unconsciousness, Rauch is given up for dead and transferred to the morgue. With the fortuitous arrival of a friendly civilian doctor, he is rescued from the brink of oblivion. In his first waking reencounter with life he is drawn to a revival tool a hand carved wooden spoon that represents the moment of inner transformation:
"In examining every detail, everything around me appeared in a vastly different light than before ... It seemed to me as though part of my personality had been left behind somewhere and replaced by something new an exciting ... I determined that I would enjoy to the fullest, using all my senses, this indefinite but additional span of time that had been granted me."
Rauch, who settled in Jocotepec three decades ago, has lived up to those words. Known for his zest for life, he is widely recognized as one of Mexico's most distinguished resident artists. His distinctive paintings and silk screens grace the walls of countless homes here and far beyond this country's borders. Many contain symbols and images that take on new significance to those familiar with his life history. This new venture as an author shows another facet of Georg Rauch's vast and irrepressible creative talent.
A word of praise is also due to his wife Phyllis. The skills of a talented wordsmith, as well as the sensitivities of a fellow artist and devoted soul mate, shine through every page of her English translation of the original German manuscript.
"The Jew with the Iron Cross" will be unveiled at a book signing party with the author to be held Friday, August 25, 2 to 5 p.m., at Ajijic's La Nueva Posada, Donato Guerra 9. The public is welcome to attend.