One-minute review: Seeger, a Jewish-American soldier, and his buddies—WWII is over—waiting to be repatriated to the States. Letter from his father—fear of hatred of Jews in Ohio. He and his buddies need money to go to Paris on a pass. Seeger has a German Lugar worth $65. It’s a symbol of his revenge against the Germans for their treatment of the Jews. He had taken it from an SS soldier after he had killed him. He feels he might need it to fight the Jew-haters back in the States. He confronts his friends with his fear, but they are completely race-blind. He has to believe in them. He decides to sell the gun—an act of faith.
Comment: Study in the psychology of being Jewish. RayS.
Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Eds. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1989.
I found it in a collection of Shaw's tales called Act of Faith, and Other Stories. Used copies of this book are easy to find for sale online.
ReplyDeleteThe plot is exactly as you remembered it. "Unforgiven" isn't the title, but it is the key word in the final sentence of the story.