for how much longer, who can say, if they determine Germany must take on the burden as punishment for deporting men. And as to improving the economy and addressing idleness, once the men may work for Belgium rather than Germany, you will find them eager to expend the last ounce of their energy.”
“I understand your reluctance toward change. It will take longer than just a few short years for General von Bissing to be appreciated for the leader he is, at least by Belgians. Perhaps not until well after the war.”
“I’m sure we all long for the end of the war,” Isa said.
“Perhaps we should generalize our topic so as not to offend our hostesses.” The Hauptmann glanced Isa’s way first, then settled his gaze on Edward. “Tell me, Father Antoine, what inspired you to take up the priesthood? I myself have always thought of God as nothing more than an illusion.”
“An illusion suggests one has seen something, Hauptmann. And as I’ve never seen God, I’m afraid I devote my life to Him based upon something even less than that: pure faith.”
“Life itself points to an evolutionary process,” Herr Lutz said, “one in which there is no need for faith, for man-made religions. Survival of the fittest is a cruel truth, as this war will prove.”
“Do you mean to say war is some kind of biological experiment?” Edward asked.
“It can be broken down to that, of course. For the sake of the species, the less advanced must step aside for the superior. For example, if an engineer develops a machine that is more productive than the one it replaces, he naturally stops using the less-effective machine. So it is with man. The best should be preserved and allowed to impose its orders and social organizations upon the less advanced—to replace or, if need be, destroy them.”
He spoke so matter-of-factly he could have been discussing anything. Anything, that is, except the societies of man—of people, of families, of men and women and children.
“Well,” Edward replied, “you’ve certainly fit man into a machine, haven’t you?”
“What more is he than that?”
“It’s a rather lonely viewpoint,” Isa said, “don’t you think, Herr Lutz? If man is nothing more than a machine, then what is it all for?”
“For the propagation of the race, of course.”
“With or without love,” Genny said. “With or without God.”
“Let me understand correctly.” Edward leaned back in his chair. “Whichever army wins this war will prove that army is on the right evolutionary track? And the army that loses, being unfit, will be destroyed for the good of the rest of us?”
“This is only natural, Father Antoine. Biological factors control our destinies, not some distant god who tampers now and then with the little toys he’s made. It is, of course, biologically certain that Germany will win.”
“And if not? If the Allies win?”
The Hauptmann lifted his wineglass. “Then I, for one, would rather die in the melee than live in a world so resistant to natural law.”
“Your views leave little room for human virtue,” Genny said. “If it is only the fit who are destined to survive, then what good is virtue?” She looked at Herr Lutz. “Yet I know you are not without mercy. You were quick to see the injustice regarding my son.”
“Freeing your son was a military decision. I believe the way to win this war is on the battlefield alone. Imprisoning children, deporting women to work camps, sinking ships with civilians aboard—these are not sound military decisions. We might as well do the recruiting for the Allies ourselves with such deeds.”
“And deporting men, tearing them from their families?” Edward asked. “Using them in the war effort against their own countrymen?”
“As I explained already, inviting men to work is a sound economic decision. Men are needed for a variety of work in Germany. We Germans are not the first, nor I’m sure the last, to employ such methods.”
“Have you heard of the painter Paul Gauguin, Herr Lutz?” Edward asked.
Herr Lutz nodded.
“This house once boasted a painting by him.” Edward looked at the blank wall at the end of the room even as Isa glanced his way. All these years he’d been more observant of her home than she’d thought. “It used to hang there, but it’s gone now.”
“Are you suggesting someone stole it?”
“I mention him because I have read a little of his life. He left his family to search for what was called the ‘noble savage.’ The natural man, like the one to whom you refer with