Walther Funk Interviewed at Nuremberg
Walther Funk Interviewed at Nuremberg
My own psychology is complicated—
I was somnambulant when young, and now,
When the moon is full, I’m easily upset.
He often interrupted conversations
To ask if I would play some music.
Piano—he had a great ear for it, it seemed.
The fundamental differences in talent
Between one human being and another
Must be acknowledged: this was Hitler’s view
As well, and its denial was the root,
The evil root of communism.
Is all this boring you? I’m sure it sounds
Extremely dull. It does to me as well.
I’ve never been ambitious. I was not
A big man, and did not aspire to be
Among the inner circle.
In war a man should not desert his post.
“My country, right or wrong”: a virtue, yes?
Invented, I should say, by the British.
I favored carrying out that program slowly.
I had no idea where that gold
Was coming from—
No, no, I’m glad to have your company.
The pacing helps to ease my bladder pain.
It clarifies my thoughts as well. To sit,
To be required to sit at trial was hard;
The urge to urinate distracted me.
Donations? Of course not. But people die
Of natural causes, and if some of them
Had gold teeth, or expensive glasses, then
That might have been the source of those deposits.
I liked good food, good wine; appreciated
A good cigar. My cellar was distinguished.
The judges, I could tell, were very interested
In what I had to say. They let me speak
More than others; they rarely interrupted.
Continue down a road for long enough:
Eventually, to turn aside requires
An act of will beyond your reach.
Some power must remove the rotten things
And all the dirt that’s settled on this world;
And some new instrument must be created.Walther Funk was Minister of Economics for the Third Reich, and President of the Reichsbank. At Nuremberg he was convicted of crimes against humanity, and sentenced to life in prison.
This poem is part of the series Interviews With Vampires. For more on the Nuremberg Trials, see Controlled Experiments on Social Pathology
If you like this poem, you might enjoy American Independence in Verse, now available for purchase.