Werner Noth's Beautiful Blue Vase…
- Finally, the happy couple has some privacy.
- Campbell and Helga are shy around each other now, though.
- Helga asks about Campbell's political leanings, and he tells her to ask about his taste in music instead.
- Helga and Campbell are still new to each other, but both are committed to becoming each other's squeeze again.
- Helga asks if Campbell knows what happened to her family. She knows her father has passed away, but she's unsure about her mom and baby sis.
- Campbell's got no news, but he thinks back to a couple days before Valentine's Day in 1945. That was the last time he saw Helga's family.
- Flashback time.
- It's a frigid day, and Campbell steals a motorcycle to ride to his father-in-law's place near Berlin.
- Campbell's wearing a uniform he designed for a troop he invented called The Free American Corps. It's for any POWs who want to defect from the Allied cause and join Germany to fight Russia.
- When Campbell gets to the house, there are moving wagons, and a group of Polish and Russian slave women being shepherded by a man from Holland are carrying belongings out of the house and loading them onto the wagons.
- A tired, zoned-out woman almost drops a blue vase.
- Werner Noth (Campbell's pops-in-law) throws a major fit after taking the vase from this woman. He calls her lazy and stupid.
- The Dutch guy and his muscle (that's a dude with a gun) come by. They don't attack the woman physically, but they punish her by having her stand aside and watch the other women carry things.
- Translation: she's being excluded from civilization. She's an outsider. She's alone.
- Oof.
- Campbell tells Noth he came to say goodbye.
- Crickets.
- Because he's going to go to the front lines.
- Crickets.
- And after this goodbye, they may never see each other again.
- Crick—
- Man, that's cold.
- So, what's up with the move in the first place? Well, we don't get specifics as to why, but we're told Noth is hanging back at the ranch, while his wife and youngest daughter, Resi, retreat to stay with his brother living near Cologne. We're guessing this is because there are Russian troops 20 miles from Berlin.
- Oh, wait. We almost forgot that this chapter is also the story of that one time that Noth asked Campbell for a personal favor.
- Noth: Be a dear, Campbell, and shoot Resi's dog for me? It can't go on the trip. She loves the thing too much, and I could never make it happy. She knows its fate is the gun, so no need to fret about her reaction.
- Campbell: Sure thing.
- Noth tops this request off by telling Campbell he's always hated him. Gee, thanks.
- Because of his hatred, Noth listened to all of Campbell's broadcasts. Hatred breeds obsession, apparently.
- What Noth has learned is that even if it suddenly, somehow, super randomly were to turn out that Campbell is a spy, Noth wouldn't give a hoot.
- Ummmm, why?
- Because, Noth explains, Campbell couldn't have served the Allied forces better than he served the Axis powers.
- How does he figure?
- Well, here's the thing: Campbell's propaganda was so over the top that even if Noth were to start to feel guilty for being a Nazi sympathizer, Campbell's words eased his conscience and allowed him to persevere.
- Oh, that's just ugly, right there.
- Anyway, back to that woman who dropped stuff. Noth goes to talk to the dazed woman standing to the side and tries to get her to understand that the other women are carrying things properly. Can't she see that? No? Fine. Be a numb, useless person.
- Yeah, Noth's a swell guy. #sarcasm