Anton (The War That Came Early)

Anton was a German soldier in World War II. He served in the same squad as Arno Baatz and Willi Dernen but was not in Baatz's section.

In the late winter of 1940, Anton and a number of comrades were sitting in an abandoned house in an occupied village in northeastern France. They were listening to the radio. An official newsreader announced the Soviet surrender to Japan and made the logically suspect statement that the Soviets would soon surrender in the west as well. Anton pointed out the illogic of this editorial comment. Dernen attempted to warn him that it was not safe to say such things publicly, and Baatz impugned Anton's patriotism.

It was apparent that Anton truly did not understand the political considerations at work and became very defensive about his right to express so self-evident a feeling. This drew him into a vicious argument with Baatz. Most of the soldiers in the house sided with Anton because of Baatz's unpopularity, but Baatz left the house. Dernen said he was likely going to denounce Anton to the authorities. Anton still could not understand what he'd done wrong and proceeded to bicker with Dernen, pointing out that Dernen had been close to the defector Wolfgang Storch. (The German authorities did not know that Storch had defected, but they did know that his disappearance during a French bombardment had conveniently come right before the SS had the opportunity to arrest him, and suspected--correctly--that Dernen had been involved in the disappearance.) Anton eventually stormed out of the house himself when other soldiers told him to shut up so they could listen to the music.