Focus Question: How does Georg’s experiences during the war change him as a person?
The first change I noticed throughout the book was how Rauch’s bravery changed. In the beginning of Unlikely Warrior Georg Rauch’s personality was very timid. In the beginning of the book before Georg had begun fighting on the front line he was very nervous about the whole situation he had been forced into, being a quarter Jew. He planned to meet with the Poppinger to try to convince him that he shouldn’t be drafted since he has Jewish blood. “I shined my boots to a mirror finish and polished my belt buckle. Then I rubbed gasoline on a tiny grease spot I had noticed on my uniform jacket. I was nervous. … My heart thumping faster than usual, I left the barracks at five minutes before nine and marched across enormous exercise grounds toward one of the administration buildings.” (Rauch, 3) At this point Georg is cautious about sharing how he shares with Poppinger that he is a Quarter-Jew. Georg has had a mostly good life with a caring and protective mother, a good school to go to, and general safety. Compared to the events that had happened previously in his life this is one thing that seems like it would be scary.
In the middle of Unlikely Warrior George’s personality became brave instead of his old timid self. The pressure to survive the war brought out a new bravery in Georg. George began to use his fear to figure out what to do in stressful situations. George was with his friend Konrad after being told to “dig themselves in” by their sergeant. They were digging a hole for both of them to hide in when the text says, “ … ‘Is this the area where the large tank concentration was reported?’ He [Konrad] nodded apathetically. … I hated tanks! They made me feel so utterly powerless… I remembered something that we had been told back in officers’ training regarding tank strategy and defense. ‘Dig a hole as narrow, short, and deep as possible. Make it large enough to contain one man, so that the tanks can roll over it if necessary.’ … I picked up the spade and began.” (Rauch, 194) Georg barely hesitates when he needs to do something important like he did in the beginning of the book. In the beginning of the book Georg wasn’t the bravest of the soldiers and he thought of going to speak to the Poppinger as a hard task. But once Georg had experienced the Russian winter, the sickness, the stress of fighting and sending out secret messages he became brave and almost immune to fear. Georg was now able to cope with his stress and jump up to his duty as a soldier and face life head first.
At the end of Unlikely Warrior Georg seems to have reversed his bravery and become fearful again. Georg had finally snuck his way onto a train taking him home after the war was over. Even through all the brave moments he had he was still scared, though. As the text says, “ My heart hammered even more rapidly than usual in the recent… A whistle blew; the train gave a jerk. That was the only thing that counted, the moment the train actually began to move in the direction of home. No one could now come and say, ‘You’re on this train by mistake. Get down.’”(Rauch, 289) Rauch had been becoming more and more anxious hence his heart pounding. He was starting to make himself believe that this all couldn’t be happening and someone would come yell at him. Georg has different reasons to be nervous now after all the yelling and shooting of the war. He was used to strict commanders and enemies so he was now nervous that his previous terrors weren’t yet over.
Another change I noticed in George was his morals. In the beginning of the book his morals included no killing people. At the start of the war Rauch and the other soldiers were sent to look for partisans who were hiding in an evacuated village. Searching the houses Rauch found a young man hiding in the attic and turned him into the officers. As the text says, “I brought the man to Hauptmann Winter… then I received the order I shall never forget. ‘Go with the man over there and shoot him. He is a partisan.’ I stood paralyzed. ‘Well, what are you waiting for?’ … I marched away with him, not knowing where I was going or what I should do. I knew I couldn’t shoot him.”( Rauch, 70-71) At this point Rauch still thinks of everyone as their own person who has their own life. He can still put himself in their shoes and feel their fear. Even though he is sent there to kill people he can’t yet bring himself to take the life of one person.
By the middle of the book Rauch develops a sort of immunity to seeing the value of 8ndividual life, allowing him to kill people easier. This change was bound to happen to Rauch since all of the soldiers were forced to kill or be killed. Once Georg’s time in the war had been going on for many months he thinks, “If I am still in piece by then … all of us shoot fast enough and aim well enough… if there are too many throw hand grenades, and whoever yet comes closer can still be stabbed with our bayonets… we can split the Russian’s skulls with our spades. Jewish blood in my veins or not, that’s exactly what I’ll do, because I want to live.” This passage and the earlier passage would seem to be written by two different people. Yet they were written by the same person who had gone through the terrors of the war. The part where he says “We can split the Russian’s skulls with our spades” is part of a saying by an officer that he never believed and never lived by until now. The war has caused Rauch to care of only protecting himself due to the fear that is taking over him. I also notice that in this later passage Rauch calls the Russians “they” like him and the Russians have nothing in common unlike in the beginning when he couldn’t bring himself to take the life of just one person.
At the end of the book Georg has come again to having empathy on others and not wanting them to be killed or tortured. When Georg was in the hospital recovering from his diseases he began to work on his secret mission as a Russian spy. His mission was to find any Nazi patients amongst him. While evaluating the different possibilities he left out the very sick or old because he didn’t want them to suffer. Then when he realized that his friend there was likely a Nazi he decided he shouldn’t turn him in even though it could get Georg in trouble. This analysis that Georg is doing for people he hardly knows and putting himself in their shoes reminds me of Georg in the beginning of the book. He cares what happens to people and risks himself for them.
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