"Uris, Leon - QBVII" - читать интересную книгу автора (Uris Leon M)

'I have, yesterday afternoon.'
The magistrate turned to the reporter. 'For the sake of identification, Eli Janos is a Hungarian of Jewish ancestry now living in Denmark. At the instigation of the government of Poland, Mr. Janos volunteered to come to England. Now, Dr. Fletcher, would you be so kind as to inform us as to the findings of your examination in particular regard to Mr. Janos's testicles.'
'Poor devil is a eunuch,' Dr. Fletcher said.
'I should like that stricken,' Robert Highsmith said, unfolding himself quickly. 'I don't think it's proper to inject such personal observation and editorial comment as "poor devil".'
'He's damned well a poor devil, isn't he, Highsmith?' Bannister said.
'I should like the Learned Magistrate to inform my learned friend here .-..'
'All of this is rather unnecessary, gentlemen,' the magistrate said with a sudden show of the authority of British justice. 'Mr. Highsmith, Mr. Bannister, will you stop this immediately?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Sorry, sir.'
'Please continue, Dr. Fletcher.'
'There is no trace of testicles in the scrotal sac or the inguinal canal.'
'Are there scars of an operation?'
'Yes. On both sides, just a bit over the inguinal canal, which I would deem orthodox scars for the removal of testicles.'
'Can you tell the Learned Magistrate,' Bannister said, 'if you have an opinion as to whether or not the operation on Janos's testicles was performed in a normal, skilful way?'
'Yes, it appears to be proper surgery.'
'And,' Highsmith snapped, 'there is nothing to show abuse, bad surgery, complications, that sort of thing?'
'No ... I would say I saw nothing to indicate that.'
Highsmith, Bannister, and the magistrate asked a number of technical questions about the manner of the operation after which Dr. Fletcher was properly thanked and dismissed.
'Bring in Eli Janos,' the magistrate ordered.
Eli Janos had many of the manifestations of a eunuch. He was fat. When he spoke, his high pitched voice was broken. Magistrate Griffin personally escorted Janos to his seat. There was a beat of awkward silence.
'It is quite all right if you wish to smoke, gentlemen.'
There was fishing through pockets for the relief of tobacco. Pipe, cigar, and cigarette smoke bellowed out, then drifted to the high ceiling.
Magistrate Griffin glanced through Janos's statement. 'Mr. Janos, I take it you speak sufficient English so you will not need an interpreter.'
'I can pass.'
'If there is anything you don't understand, do ask us to repeat the question. Also, I realize that this is an ordeal for you. If, at any time, you become upset, please let me know.'
'I have no more tears left for myself,' he answered.
'Yes, thank you. I should first like to review some of the facts in your affidavit. You are Hungarian by birth in the year of 1920. The Gestapo found you in hiding in Budapest and transported you to the Jadwiga Concentration Camp. Before the war you were a furrier and at the concentration
camp you worked in a factory making German uniforms.'
'Yes, that is correct.'
'In the spring of 1943 you were caught smuggling and taken before an SS tribunal. They found you guilty and sentenced you to have your testicles removed. You were then removed to the medical compound and interned in a place known as Barrack III. Four days later the operation was performed in Barrack V. You were forced at gun point to undress and were prepared by prisoner/orderlies and thence castrated by a Polish prisoner/doctor whom you accuse of being Dr. Adam Kelno.'
'Yes.'
'Gentlemen, you may question Mr. Janos.'
'Mr. Janos,' Thomas Bannister said, 'I should like to establish a little more background. This charge of smuggling. What was this about?'
'We were always in company with the three angels of Jadwiga, death, hunger, and disease. You have read what has been written of these places. I do not have to elaborate. Smuggling was a normal way of life ... normal as the fog of London. We smuggled to stay alive. Although the SS runs the camp we are guarded by Kapos. Kapos are also prisoners who earn their favour with the Germans by collaboration. The Kapos can be as brutal as the SS. It was a simple matter. I did not pay off certain Kapos so they turned me in.'
'I should like to know if any of the Kapos were Jewish?' Bannister asked.
'Only a few from every hundred.'
'But most of the labour was Jewish?'
'Seventy-five per cent Jews. Twenty per cent Poles and other Slavs and the rest criminals or political prisoners.'
'And you were first taken to Barrack III.'
'Yes. I learned that in this barrack the Germans kept the raw material for medical experiments ... and then I was taken to Barrack V.'
'And forced to undress and shower?'
'Yes, then I was shaved by an orderly and made to sit naked in the anteroom.' Janos fished for a cigarette and his story slowed and his voice varied now with the pain of memory. 'They came in, the doctor with an SS colonel. Voss, Adolph Voss.'
'How do you know it was Voss ?' Highsmith asked.
'He told me, and he told me that as a Jew my testicles would do no good because he was going to sterilize all the Jews so I would be serving the cause of science.'
'In what language did he speak to you?'
'German.'
'Are you fluent in German?'
'In a concentration camp, you learn enough German.'
'And you claim,' Highsmith continued, 'that the doctor with him was Kelno.'
'Yes.'