A Man Lies Dreaming (39 page)

1.
‘He had a long mournful lawyer’s face and a lawyer’s fidgety manners …’

Roland Freisler (1893–1945) Nazi lawyer and judge. An officer in the First World War, he joined the Nazi party in 1925 and indeed, as Wolf notes, served as defence counsel for Nazi party members.

2.
‘Murder is a frustration not just of the individual: it is a frustration of the race …’

Wolf is, perhaps unconsciously, echoing Raymond Chandler again here, in an essay (‘The Simple Art of Murder’) written some time after the events depicted here.

3.
‘I am working on a case that may be related. I need access to … a part of the Jewish community …’

It is not clear, in view of later events, what Wolf was planning. Perhaps he was hoping to use Isabella Rubinstein’s wealth and social influence, such as they were, to try to gain access again to the Palestinian networks, thus working the Mosley case. But he does not, unfortunately, record here the details of his plan.

4.
‘You want me to work with you? Solving … crime? Like Nick and Nora Charles!’

Nick and Nora Charles were a mystery-solving husband and wife team in Dashiell Hammett’s 1934 novel
The Thin Man
, and in a subsequent series of films.

5.
‘Albert Curtis Brown was my literary agent …’

Albert Curtis Brown (1866–1945) was indeed Wolf’s literary agent in the UK, having taken on representation of
My Struggle
from Wolf’s German publishers, for the English-language market. He founded Curtis Brown Ltd in 1899, representing Steinbeck, Faulkner and Mailer, amongst others, and growing the agency into one of the largest in the UK.

1.
‘Leni? Leni Riefenstahl? My God!’ Wolf said …’

Leni Riefenstahl (1902–2003), German actress and film director. She was a committed National Socialist; Wolf had always been an ardent fan of hers, and the attraction was mutual.

2.
‘It wasn’t even a
personal
rejection!’

Stanley Unwin indeed received a copy of Wolf’s book – but turned it down – around 1926. Wolf obviously bore a grudge.

3.
‘The foul man had tricked me!’

Professor Edmund Robert Forster (1878–1933) was much as Wolf describes him here. A Berlin neurologist and decorated war medic, Forster was put in command of the Pasewalk hospital, in charge of treating soldiers from the front diagnosed with being hysterics – what we would probably now call post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He had little patience for the soldiers in general, seeing them as ‘shirkers’ from their duty. Treatment for such ‘hysterics’ sometimes included electric shocks and total isolation. Forster confined himself to a harsh, almost bullying attitude to his patients – an attitude which often worked. He treated Wolf during October–November 1918, successfully restoring the young soldier’s vision with the method Wolf indeed mentions above – as unorthodox as it may seem.

1.
‘It was in the plain yellow dustjacket, like the books published by that Jew, Victor Gollancz …’

Victor Gollancz (1893–1967) was a British publisher and well-known socialist. He was born to an orthodox Jewish family in North London. In 1927, he founded Victor Gollancz Ltd, publishing works by George Orwell amongst many others. The yellow jackets were a distinctive brand choice for the imprint, which had existed for many years. It is quite possible Wolf’s publishers had simply copied the design. The imprint continues to this day, though mostly publishing popular fiction, primarily science fiction and fantasy.

2.
‘On her sickbed in Urfahr my mother lay dying …’

A small village near to – and now a suburb of – the Austrian city of Linz.

3.
‘I had been residing in Vienna at that time, attempting to enrol in the Academy of Fine Arts …’

As noted previously, Wolf was not accepted into the academy.

4.
‘“The Grosvenor Hotel, Victoria. And step on it!” The driver chuckled as though Wolf had said something funny …’

It seems probable Wolf’s English tended to incorporate elements of slang borrowed, sometimes inappropriately, from the kind of books he was reading. ‘Step on it’ – referring to a driver pressing down on the gas pedal of an automobile – dates some twenty years back and is probably of American origin.

1.
‘I was dressed in my beat-up old raincoat, a suit that’s seen better days, scuffed shoes and a fedora that didn’t quite fit me … I don’t know how much Rubenstein’s house was worth but my guess was plenty. I was calling on Jewish money …’

Wolf is again, here, and perhaps unconsciously, echoing the words of the writer Raymond Chandler, specifically the opening scene of Chandler’s debut,
The Big Sleep
. It is possible Wolf read the novel on publication – it had come out in the UK, published by Hamish Hamilton, in March of 1939.

2.
‘The kind of boiseries to give Syrie Maugham heart palpitations …’

Syrie Maugham (1879–1955) was a leading British interior designer; with her penchant for white, airy rooms, she probably would not have approved of the boiseries (ornately carved wainscoting) Wolf mentions.

1.
‘Who the fuck is Adolf Eichmann!’

Adolf Eichmann joined the Nazi Party in 1932 as a member of the General SS. As such, he would have been unknown to Wolf at the time.

1.
‘Auschwitz was not created by the devil,’ he wrote, ‘but by men, like you, or me.’

See Ka-Tzetnik,
The Code
(1987).

To my editor, Anne Perry, for turning this manuscript from an impossibility into a reality, my endless thanks.

To Oliver Johnson, Ellie Cheele, Fleur Clarke, Sharan Matharu, Naomi Berwin and everyone at Hodder for all your help and support.

To friends who at various times read the manuscript, offered suggestions, or just listened to my complaints: in no particular order my thanks to Shimon Adaf, Nir Yaniv, Rebecca Levene, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, Konrad Walewski, Tade Thompson and Nicola Sinclair. This book is better for your being there.

To my friend and agent, John Berlyne, who got it.

And to my wife, for putting up with me.