Times Eagle Books Publishes Split Creek: A War Novel of the Deep West
By Jay Evans
Friedrich Dassen, the narrator of the new novel, Split Creek, reflects back upon an adolescence torn between the allegiances, ideologies and politics of a war he wished would just simply end. Raised by a communist mother after his father died in the first world war, Dassen finds his emerging identity obscured by a new and mandatory allegiance to a party that represents everything his mother and family have fought so diligently to prevent.
When the Gestapo finally comes for his mother, along with a few hundred other dissidents, Dassen is on his way to become a German officer in the Wehrmacht. With little choice in the matter, Dassen studies for an assignment in the Abwehrschule, a military intelligence agency much like the CIA in the states.
Dassen takes courses on philosophy, a subject that always interested him, but the focus of his studies is a training for espionage. While the Nazi Army takes Paris, Dassen is learning the fundamentals of energy systems and fuel distribution. He is dispatched to Tripoli as 1st Lieutenant in the Afrika Korps, but before he can aid in the sabotage of Allied energy resources, he is captured along with his platoon.
It is 1942, and becoming a POW is where the story truly begins. Dassen, now in his 70s, looks back on the choices he made that eventually led him to American citizenship. His personal maxim becomes I came Nazi, I left free.
What is most striking about Friedrich Dassens life as a German POW in America is the general tone of the camps atmosphere. In a contemporary environment of Abu Graib and Guantanamo, descriptions of this Camp Roberts in the 40s present quite a compelling contrast. The narrator describes a scene of great leisure among the plains and mountains of the deep west. There are libraries, gymnasiums, a tennis court, a chapel, a wood chop, a post office, a clinic, a theater, musical instruments, art supplies, games, and a vegetable garden when in season. They were even allowed to leave the camp premises at times, waving to the tower guards on their way.
Enter the Fritz Ritz, as they came to know it. These were the days when American liberalism promoted itself in all sectors; when we not only took the Geneva Conventions seriously, but also utilized such camp conditions as a word of mouth strategy to loosen resistance.
Not every POW camp was a Fritz Ritz of course, but from Dassens experiences thus far, the Teton frontier and the Yankee kindness of the rural American west is much more than a welcoming surprise. It forces him to re-evaluate his beliefs, his identity, and eventually, his faith.
Just as Dassen grows comfortable with this new community, life proves once again to be a restless and complicated challenge. It becomes progressively clear that Dassens new American friends, including a girlfriend who is pregnant with his child, are not only Nazi sympathizers, but they want his help in an act of sabotage against the American government.
It is at this point that Friedrich Dassen must make a decision of loyalty. All around him the question of loyalty, of nationalism, continues to create chaos even within the camp. Fellow officers are murdered for rumors of treason. The FBI is pursuing fascist organizations in and out of the camps. And the communist party continues to poke itself back into Dassens life with messages about his mother.
This novel wraps its characters in so many layers of conflict that it becomes difficult to see a way out. But there he sits, Friedrich Dassen in his 70s, a survivor reflecting on past decisions with an air of dignity. At the heart of his beliefs exists a fundamental law of political identity that transcends national boundaries: To preserve a world in which a curious mind may articulate truths that threaten power. Such a rule means that Dassens son may follow and advertise a neo-fascist opposition to the values his father so eminently embraces, but such is freedom. And it is freedom that Split Creek celebrates. This novel is a detailed exploration of private conflict in public war, and it couldnt have come at a better time.