Once the Deed Is Done
The Nazi Reich ran on slave labour. We now have considerable literature about the concentration camps and the POWs, but relatively little attention has been given to the millions of other workers, men and women, who were conscripted from all the occupied territories to work in German factories, workshops and farms. It is estimated that there were at least six million such ‘displaced persons’ (DPs) in Germany at the end of the war, some eager to be repatriated and others fearful of returning to homelands now under Soviet rule.
Seiffert dedicates her book to ‘displaced persons everywhere’ but focusses her novel on a small town on the edge of Lüneburg Heath in North Germany. The action spans the year 1945, the last months of the war and the first months of the British occupation. The story is narrated from multiple viewpoints, local people, DPs and a British Red Cross officer named Ruth. This is a challenging structure to handle, as it precludes the classic story arc and makes it much slower to get to know the main characters.
This is a beautifully written book with an intense sense of place, but very little happens while everybody wonders what is going to happen. Several story lines peter out without resolution, and the most vivid action is told only in flashback near the end of the book. It is largely a psychological study, not so much of the DPs themselves but of the townsfolk and the rural population and their attitude to the DPs: a mix of fear, hostility, guilt and denial. The Displaced Persons were very much Unwanted Persons.
