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005 - Subpoena (In the Air Tonight, part 1) [WWII thriller]

"Name?”

"Hans Grübber," the man replied, taking his seat.

"Rank?"

The man scoffed at the question, obviously annoyed that his interviewer was ignoring the uniform he kept in immaculate condition despite his imprisonment.

"Major!"

"Service number?"

Grübber's patience was beginning to fray, "it's on my ID card which I am sure you have there in my file!"

The young man at the other side of the table, no more than 18, looked up from the file.
"Sir, it is not my intention to annoy you; I am merely confirming the information we have on record."

Grübber crossed his arms and sat back, "My fate in the hands of a boy," he muttered.  Sighing, he added "L463-764."

"Thank you, sir," the young man replied, head back down in the file, concealing a grin.  "Now let's move on to your service history, shall we?"

* * *

Captain Reynolds clapped the young man on the back, "Great work today, Joseph," he said, grinning broadly.  "I wish we had a dozen more guys like you."

"Thank you, sir... but I think you are probably the only person who would say that."

The Captain, who was now behind his desk, scowled.  "Don't worry about what any idiots say to you now, in America we don't care about your creed, just the work you can do.  And you are doing some fine work."

"Thank you, sir," Joseph replied, with a smile.  He hoped the Captain was right, but so far most American soldiers he had met were barely nicer than the German's he had dealt with.

"You're on your own, right?"

Joseph nodded.

"Here," Reynolds said, thrusting a voucher on the boy, "bring that to the mess after the troops have eaten; it's good for one hot meal.  I'll try to get you paid as soon as possible."

"Thank you, sir," Joseph replied, taking the voucher and standing up.  He was heading out of the makeshift office when Captain stopped him.

"Really, your work is fantastic.  Please, come back tomorrow."

* * *

Joseph Goldberg did come back.  He worked six days a week for several months.  He and Captain Reynolds got on quite well with the Captain offering to sponsor him to the US, "when all this war business wraps up," to come and work at his law firm in Upstate New York.  Joseph had some relatives in Montreal, so he could not be happier.

They were an odd couple, a 43 year old lawyer commissioned just at the conclusion of the war ("I would'a stormed the beaches with the boys but the doctors wouldn't let me on account of my trick ear") for the business of processing prisoners, and a 17 year old Jewish boy with no family to speak of, fluent in English ("Dad was a salesman and traveled back and forth from England and the US").

Reynolds had found that the German soldiers they interviewed were A: desperate to get out of the prison camps, B: trusted his friendly demeanor, and C: were not intimidated by Joseph.  Whether they realized he was Jewish or they dismissed him due to his age, the two found that the soldiers would mostly cooperate and tell them what they needed to know to process them, either for immediate release, dismissal with a subpoena, or to be held for trial.  Even the American soldiers began to warm up to him as time went on and word of his good work spread.

And then things changed.