PHILIP ASHTON
It made me sick when the Russians carved up Poland with Hitler.

STASHEK ZHELINOVSKY
And yet you fought for the Bolsheviks in Spain.

PHILIP
I fought for the Spanish Republic, so that Spain could be a democracy like England. The Communists stabbed us in the back.

STASHEK
Democrats... Democrats! I've seen you in England. You detest the Reds, and yet you always flirt with them.

PHILIP
Hitler is the main enemy.

STASHEK
Now, Philip, don't lecture me about Nazis. It is my country they occupy. My home was in a little village near Krasnik in eastern Poland. My father was a poor country doctor.

PHILIP
He's dead?

STASHEK
Yes, he's dead.

PHILIP
Nazis...

STASHEK
No, no, no, no, no. I said eastern Poland, the half the Bolshevik jackals grabbed. They killed him, a poor man... not an aristocrat, you understand, not a "wicked Capitalist," but a modest, devoted country doctor. They hanged him in our garden.

PHILIP
God! Why?

STASHEK
Ah, they killed doctors, teachers, simple peasants. They deported thousands, like cattle, into Russia. My mother was one of them. My sister told me this. She escaped. The Germans are inhuman, but the others are barbarians...bestial! Okay, we'll kill Germans, but the next war will be for survival against Communism.

PHILIP
No! There mustn't be any more wars.

STASHEK
(laughing)
Oh, your English illusions. After Hitler, there will still be the last enemy.

PHILIP
You've had terrible experiences, and I know you're bitter, but surely...

STASHEK
(suddenly infuriated)
"But"... I am sick of your English "buts." You live on your pleasant, little island. We are on the front here. We know!

PHILIP
Communism has gone wrong, but you surely can't believe it's as bad as the Nazis.

STASHEK
English complacency! Weakness! People like you betray civilisation!

PHILIP
(smiling nervously)
Steady on. We're only having a discussion.

STASHEK
(angrily)
Ah, that's all it is to you. The... The tea spoons tinkle in the tea cups. "Have some of these nice biscuits, Mr. Zhelinovsky. Be reasonable, Mr. Zhelinovsky. We are only having a nice talk." Nice talk! Ask my father, my mother, my sister...my country!

PHILIP
(speaking quietly while looking down)
I... I'm sorry, Stashek. Let's stop...

STASHEK
You know what the Communists say: "Who is not with us is against us." They are right!

PHILIP
(shocked)
Stashek!

STASHEK
You're soft, you English.

PHILIP
Well, we're not soft to Hitler.

STASHEK
Tiny, little Finland...the Russians invaded, just like the Nazis. Why didn't you defend them?

PHILIP
Thank God we didn't. We've got enough on our plate with the Germans.

STASHEK
Spoken like a coward!

PHILIP
Everybody else has pulled out but us. It doesn't suit you to call us cowards.

STASHEK
Do you mean we are?

PHILIP
(forcing a smile)
Hey, now, come on. What's happening? We're friends, aren't we?

STASHEK
Like your country was friends with mine. You guaranteed our frontier, and you let us down.

PHILIP
Well, we're fighting for your country now.

STASHEK
(climbing to his knees in anger)
For yourselves! You were so nice to Hitler until it was too late. You are so nice to Communists...to Jews.

(He rises to his feet.)

PHILIP
Ah, you're no better than a Fascist yourself.

STASHEK
Fascist?!!
(kneeling again)
Because I love my country? This war is not for your liberal ideas. It is for self-preservation. Kill your enemies...all of them!

PHILIP
The law of the jungle...

STASHEK
Yes, the jungle...always.

(Stashek walks away and sits at the far side of the tent.)

STASHEK
Don't worry. I'll kill Germans. But I won't forget you called me a Fascist.

 

(from "A Lesson in War" by Alexander Baron)