Sophie's Choice Page #6

find out the truth about me...

and you'II understand me and then

you'd forgive me for aII those...

For aII my Iies.

I promise I'II never Ieave you.

You must never promise that.

No one... no one shouId

ever promise that!

The truth? I don't even

know what is the truth.

After aII these Iies I've toId...

My father...

How can I explain how

much I loved my father?

My father believed that human

perfection was a possibilty.

Every night

I pray to God...

to forgive me for always making

a disappointment to my father.

And I pray to him...

to make worthy of

such a great good man.

I was a grown woman.

I was wholly come ofage.

I was a married woman...

when I realized I hated my father

beyond all words to tell it.

It was winter of 1938.

And my father was working for

weeks on the speech he calls...

''PolandJewish Problem''.

Orderly I typed those speeches...

and I don't hear the words,

their meaning, but...

this time I came upon a word

that I have never heard it before.

The solution for Poland

Jewish Problem, he concludes...

is ''vernichtung''.

Extermination.

I have not meant to go

to the ghetto that afternoon...

but something made me go there.

I stood there

I don't know how long...

watching these people that my

father has condemned to die.

All these men, these women,

these children would be ''vernichtung''.

Extermination.

I suddenIy remembered that my father

is waiting for that speech...

and I hurry home to

finish the typing but...

in my rushing and my

haste to finish that...

I make so many mistakes

in the sentences and...

I run with it to the University

and my father has no time...

to check that before speaking.

And he get up in front

of aII those peopIe...

and he reads the speech

and makes those mistakes...

and I see him getting so angry.

And when it was over,

he came up to me...

I was with my husband, of course.

And in front of him and aII

his coIIeague he said:

Zozia...

your inteIIigence is puIp.

puIp.

I didn't have any courage to say:

''Yes, but what about the Jews?''

The Jewish peopIe, but...

After that he didn't

trust me anyway.

And neither did my husband.

Afterwards in Warsaw...

I had Iover...

who was very, very good to me.

Joseflived with his

half-sister Wanda.

She was a leader

in the Resistance.

Two weeks later...

the Gestapo killedJosef.

They cut his throat.

They had courage.

Oh, God, they had courage!

Not too long after that,

they killedJosef...

I was arrested.

My children were sent

with me to Auschwitz.

When the train arrived

atAuschwitz...

the Germans made the selection.

Who would live and who would die.

Ian, my IittIe boy...

Ian, my little boy,

was sent to the ''Kinderlogg''...

which was the children's camp.

And my little girl, Eva,

was sent to crematorium II.

She was exterminated.

Thanks to my perfect German...

and my secretarial skills...

and the things my father

had taught me...

so well.

I came to work...

for RudolfHoess...

Commandant ofAuschwitz.

The day they took me

to work for Hoess...

I was forced to walk

pass block 25...

That is where they took

the prisoners that were...

selected for extermination.

The people there were made

to stand for, sometimes, days.

They were naked

and they had no water.

And their hands

reached out from the bars...

and they cried andpleaded.

But in that night...

I kept saying to myseIf...

''I have saved my son,

I have saved my son''.

''Tomorrow I can see him!''

''And I can teII him good bye''.

''And he wiII have been saved''.

Oh, my God, I had such

happiness that night!

Such hope!

But Hoess did not keep his word.

I never did know what

happened to my little boy.

So, you know, that's

why I didn't want to...

to Iive no more.

TiII Nathan came and...

he made me Iive for him.

Live for me, Sophie.

Live for me.

Oh, my God! What have

we done to you?

Be carefuI!

Stingo!

Nathan, put down the chair!

This is no time for fun!

-put down the chair!

-put down the chair.

-Stingo!

-Oh, teIephone.

It's Dr. Landau,

Nathan's brother.

Thank you.

Hello, this is Larry.

-Nathan's brother.

-Yes, Larry!

-Nathan has talked aboutyou.

-I knowyou've been friends.

-He has taIked about you.

Is thatpossible for us

to arrange a meeting?

Sure. Just teII when and where.

My brother thinks the worId of you.

I've never met anybody more

briIIiant than Nathan.

-He's such a breath at knowIedge.

-You're right.

He is convinced

you're going to be a...

major writer, something

he wants me to be.

pIease, sit down.

Seems to me, he's got to

do everything he chooses.

He's toId you and Sophie

that he is a research bioIogist.

At pfizer.

This...

bioIogist business...

is my brother's masquerade.

He has no degree of any kind.

AII that is a simpIe fabrication.

The truth is, he's quite mad.

-Christ!

-One of those conditions where...

weeks, months, even years go by

without any manifestations.

He has ajob at pfizer

in the company Iibrary.

an undemanding sinecure I gotfor him

where he can do a Iot of reading...

without bothering anyone and

he does a IittIe research...

for one the Iegitimate

bioIogist on the staff.

I'm not sure Nathan wouId forgive

me if he knew that I toId you.

He made me swear never to teII

Sophie. She knows nothing.

The crueIestjoke is that

he was born the perfect chiId.

He exceIIed in everything.

Even Nathan's teachers wouId

specuIate on what he wouId achieve.

See, he was the kind of chiId...

everyone is prepared

to take the creditfor.

When he was 10,

we were toId that the...

chiId genius was a

paranoid schizophrenic

From then on, the onIy

schooIs he attended were...

expensive funny farms.

What can I do?

If he couId stay off the drugs...

he might have a chance.

Drugs? What is he on?

Benzedrine, cocaine.

-You didn't know?

-No, I did not.

I want you to spy on him.

But if you couId simpIy

keep tabs on him...

and report back to me

by phone from time to time...

Ietting me know how he's getting on.

I'm sorry to have to

invoIve you this way.

I don't think you understand.

I Iove them both.

They're friends of mine.

Good morning, Mr. Stingo.

We were afraid something terribIe

might have happened to you.

Miss Sophie was aII for

having me institute a search.

-You indeed Iook ravishing

-Thank you, very much.

So, what you aII

want to do this evening?

Come, darIing.

This was Nathan's idea to surprise

you with a Southern evening.

Your book has wet my appetite

to know about the South.

And about the trip, too.

Miss Sophie and I have been

discussing the possibiIity of...

taking a tour to your

beIoved Dixie in October.

And I've been thinking, if it's

aII right with Miss Sophie...

Sure.

...that maybe we couId

make a wedding trip...

and have you join us not

just as our bestfriend...

but as my best man.

I have the honor...

to request your hand in marriage.

To have and to hoId...

from this day forth...

tiII death us do part.

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