“Lothar, first things first. You’ll get the wood ’cause I told you to,” Witt said. “If I wanted Adi to fetch it, I would have sent him. Hear me?”
“Yes, Sergeant,” Eckhardt said, his voice uncommonly solemn.
Witt nodded, recognizing that. “ Wunderbar. Now, about the other thing… If people do call Adi that, tell ’em for Christ’s sake to cut it out. We need the SS sniffing around us like we need an asshole where our mouth ought to be. You hear me there?”
“Yes, Sergeant,” the gunner repeated, more formally yet.
“All right. Now get the hell out of here and bring back that wood before we freeze to death. Go on-scram!”
Eckhardt went. “You didn’t need to make a big deal out of it, Sergeant,” Adi said after a moment. “I shouldn’t’ve got pissed off.”
“People talk too goddamn much,” Witt said, a sentiment Theo heartily agreed with. The panzer commander went on, “That’s a dangerous nickname to have. It’d be dangerous for a fat blond Bavarian.”
He left it there. He didn’t say It’s really dangerous for somebody who kind of looks like a Jew, and who just happens to be missing his foreskin. Adi was no dummy. He could work that out for himself. After another pause, he said, “A while ago, Theo told me the guys knew. I’d kind of got used to that.”
“Knowing is one thing. Blabbing’s something else,” Witt said. “If things were different, you’d probably be a major by now, and ordering all of us around.”
“I don’t want to tell anybody what to do,” Adi said. “I just want people to leave me the fuck alone.”
Words burst from Theo: “No wonder I like you!”
The other crewmen laughed like loons. “No wonder at all,” Adi agreed.
“Enough, you lovebirds,” Witt said, and the panzer men laughed some more. “Getting through the war in one piece-like you said before, Adi, that’s the only thing that counts. The rest is just bullshit. So let’s get through, and if the other stuff needs sorting out we can always do it later.”
Lothar came back with an armload of wood to build up the fire. Theo fed in a few little skinny chunks. When they were burning well, he added some bigger ones. After a while, they caught, too. Like wall lizards basking in the sun, all five panzer men leaned toward the flames, soaking up the wonderful warmth.