Blowing Up Hitler

by Gerald Williams

From start toward finish
It propels his quiet shell:
To farm, to tend
Younger, natural siblings
In Königsbronn;
To watch, be cautious,
To keep himself
To himself.

Sometimes it snags:
He fails a course,
Falls from a tree,
Loses a finger
To his father's saw,
Gets in "trouble"...
But it always (his reasoning)
Regains intended meter...
Ticks on metronomically.

He jobs wherever -
From Aalen to Constance:
Metal worker, furniture maker;
Quits or gets laid off.

He's mum
At union meetings;
Quits the Roter
Frontkämpferbund
At 18
But still votes KPD.

Sex willnilly -
Mathilde, Brunhilde, Anna...;
He plays the squeezebox
At local festivities.

Landlord divorces landlady
When he learns
That she and Elser
Had more than music
In common. Oom pa pa.

From Mathilde comes Manfred;
From Elser: 24 marks
Monthly for support.

Elser pals
But keeps a distance.
Jobs often come
From some
Who think they know
Who he is,
What he is.
He never remembers
Their names.

One such contact
Gets him in munitions:
A Heidenheim plant.
In Maintenance
He quickly learns
The works; gets
Upped to Dispatch.

Moscow broadcasts:
...Matters for
German workers worsening...
Taxes higher, wages less
Than in '29...
Munich Agreement
Will lead to war...
Germany will march
On other countries...

Sinking in,
This mingles with
RFB beliefs;
It feeds the inner clock -
Gives purpose: pendulum.

Hitler and his pack
Must be replaced
By a nonwarring State
(Elser resolves);
One that honors
Hard work
With a decent wage.

Hitler the huckster
Must charm the Old Guard
At the Bürgerbräukeller,
A beer hall in Munich.
Elser goes before
This yearly rendezvous
Takes place;
He photographs the stage.

Back in Königsbronn,
Elser ponders
And reflects.
Hitler comes,
Hitler goes,
Billowed by
Euphoric farts
From ancient warriors.

Elser plans
To plant a bomb
In the pillar
Near the podium
Same time, next year.
From work he swipes
Pressed gunpowder packets;
He stashes them
In his room closet.

Elser changes jobs:
A quarry this time
For detonators plus
More explosives.
He builds a false bottom
In a traveler's trunk
To hoard hot supplies.
He bikes for more
Bomb hardware
To Heidenheim
(Off Hitlerstrasse!);
He masks a smirk
With a twitching thumb:
"A can of nines, bitte."

With tools and materials
He goes back to Munich
In August 1939.
He dines on beer-hall fare,
Pays his check at 10,
Hides in the auditorium
Until closing.

From the gallery
Above the podium,
He works on his knees
On the pillar...
Seeing by a
Dimmed flashlight.
Neatly he pries
A pillar panel loose;
He bores through
Metal, brick, mortar
To make the nest.

Nightly he bores;
daily he carts
A night's work
Waste away
In an apron pocket;
Afternoons he builds
His timeclock bomb
In his rented room
On Türkenstrasse.

On dance nights
At the keller,
Proudly near
His handiwork,
He watches couples
Bob and twirl;
They think he's
Admiring them.

After the dance
He hides on the gallery,
Then reappears
When all's locked up
To pick up
Where he left off.

Hard on his knees,
This nightly work
Takes 35 sessions
Snagged by
A long spell in bed
When his knees
Go bad.

Finished on November 6,
He visits his sister
In Stuttgart.
Fretting there
Over his device
(Is it a proper fit?
Have the clocks stopped?),
He wants to make sure.

Back to Munich,
He trams to the keller
After 10 p.m.;
He slips into the hall
And up the stairs
To the gallery.
Ear to column,
Heart in throat,
He listens...
And hears with
Satisfaction
That it's still
Ticking.
He snoozes
Until 6
The next morning.

He buys a ticket
3rd class to Constance
Via Friedrichshafen
Where he gets shaved
Prior to boarding
The steamboat.

At Constance
Elser ambles
Toward the Swiss border:
Market square, trinity church,
Hüetlinstrasse,
Kreuzlingerstrasse,
Schwedenschanze, and
The Wessenberg schoolyard.

Border guards
In the boarding school
At an open window
Can clearly see
The frontier and Elser
Indolently making his way
Across the schoolyard
As they listen to
A news flash:

An explosion
In the Bürgerbräukeller
In Munich
Caused beams to snap
Like stringbeans...
The roof caved in...
Six of the Old Guard
And a waitress
Were killed...
63 were wounded...
Hitler left
10 minutes earlier
Than planned...
Pressing matters
In Berlin...

Elser's pockets bulge
With bomb leftovers
(Nuts and bolts);
Under his lapel:
An RFB insignia
(For sentiment's sake) ;
In his hanky pocket:
A Bürgerbräukeller
Picture postcard.

The guards nab him
For attempting
An illegal crossing
Over the frontier.
They don't put
2 and 2 together;
Others do that
Later.

Hitler cannot believe
A German of his own will
Would attempt such a crime;
He contrives that
Elser was in league
With British spies.
After the war
There'll be a trial
Which will bring
This to light.

When it's clear
That the war
Will be won
By forces not their own,
Elser is murdered
At Dachau -
20 days before
That camp's liberation.

AFTERWORD

Elser's now a small park
With a small plaque in it,
Much smaller than that
For Rommel high
On a hill
In Heidenheim.

Quelle: Gerald Williams, Blowing Up Hitler, U.S.A. 1986

Deutsche Übersetzung