The Toiletship Rucksichtslos

[jbor]

In terms of Allies harbouring Nazis, "ratlines" and so forth, the episode
aboard the *Toiletship* Rucksichtslos (pp 448-456, it's only brief) is
perhaps a more germane reference, or "comment". This submarine (?) vessel,
which is also described as a "wind tunnel" (451) and so moved even further
into the realm of metaphor than its outrageously implausible coprophiliac
history has already placed it, has been commandeered by a range of
ill-informed Allied troops. In it Horst Achtfaden, a Nazi scientist, has
been cornered by Enzian and members of the Schwarzkommando, and is pumped
for info about the design and designer of the 00000 and S-Gerat. When he
finally gives Narrisch's name ("a new parameter for his self-coefficient
now: betrayal") they realise he is no longer useful to them, and so he is
released, poignantly, onto the ruins of a canalside dock in the gathering
dusk, "waiting for a direction to go". (The Toiletship/wind tunnel drops him
off in Helgoland, I think, if its usual route has persisted, but perhaps
there's a bus to Buenos Aires from there ... Hope Horst has the fare.)

best