Legacy of Sorrows by Roberto Buonaccorsi

of purity of race, obedience and honour. It is our sacred duty to re-educate the German people in this and to remain faithful to our oath.’
    The room erupted with wild cheering and hand-clapping. Former SS soldiers thumped the tables and impromptu singing broke out. Kuller felt elated as the words of the Horst-Wessel-Lied rose up all around him. As he gave the Nazi salute, tears filled his eyes as his comrades followed his example.
    Sometime later in 1984, as he was driving in Munich with Gertrude sitting beside him, he was involved in an accident when another car came speeding out of a side street and crashed into the side of his vehicle. Thankfully, no one was injured. Kuller got out of his car and approached the other driver, who by this time was inspecting the damage to the vehicles. The driver was very apologetic to Kuller, ‘I am so sorry, sir. It is my fault entirely, please accept my apology.’ This seemed to pacify Kuller until it came to exchanging insurance details. Kuller looked at the man’s name in amazement, ‘Your name is Goldman. Are you Jewish?’
    Herr Goldman, not knowing the fury that was about to fall on him answered, ‘Yes I am. Is that a problem?’
    â€˜Problem, problem,’ roared Kuller, as he stepped forward and punched Herr Goldman in the face with such ferocity that he was knocked to the ground. As Goldman tried to get up Kuller kicked him repeatedly in the face, on his body, anywhere he could. Gertrude tried to stop him but Kuller slapped her round the face a few times, knocking her to the ground as well.
    He began shouting out as the blows rained down on Goldman, ‘There was a time when we could treat Jewish scum like you anyway we wanted.’
    Eventually he stopped. A crowd had gathered on the pavement watching with amazement what had happened. Kuller helped his wife to her feet and they walked away towards their car. They drove off without another word. When the police arrived, Mr Goldman couldn’t tell them who his assailant was, as he had no idea of his name. In the small crowd that had gathered, apparently, no one had thought to take down Kuller’s licence number. Even though Kuller had lived in the area with his wife for many years, no one admitted to recognising him. The description given of a tall blonde man could have fitted a high percentage of the German male population in the town, so Kuller was not traced. He realised that the damage to his car was a giveaway, so he visited an auto-body shop belonging to a former comrade and the car was repaired with no record of the work being done and no questions asked.
    When the police, on a routine enquiry, asked the owner of the auto-body shop if he knew anything about a damaged black Volkswagen Beetle, he just shrugged his shoulders and said no.
    Herr Goldman was in hospital for some time with a fractured jaw, broken limbs and ribs. However, the greatest damage done to him was that once again he had become frightened to walk German streets as a Jew.
    Kuller first heard the news that Walter Reder could possibly be released from his Italian prison from someone at the Old Comrades meeting. Apparently, Reder had apologised to the Italian Government through an open letter. Kuller laughed at this and called it nonsense, a mere ruse by Reder to help him in his campaign for release.
    He wrote to Reder congratulating him on his expected release and to ask him if he would when freed be the guest speaker at a reunion dinner of the 16th Waffen SS Old Comrades Association, which would be held in his honour in his home city of Vienna. Reder answered that he would be delighted to, and also that he was pleased to hear from others that sergeant Hans Kuller was still being faithful to his SS oath. Kuller laughed. I knew that Walter Reder could not change. Even after all these years of imprisonment, this man of steel is still the same. His beliefs have not diminished and the flame of National Socialism still