The Legacy of Leopold

"The Legacy of Leopold"

"The native SS guards felt something was different as they walked into the village, part of their latest "partisan sweep." Most of the villagers scurried and hid as always, but one old man stood still in front of his ramshackle house. As the soldiers strolled by, he stood at attention, saluted, and shouted "Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté!"\n\n"Dumb old man," one of them chuckled, "he must think we're still part of Belgium."\n\n"I know just who you are, boys! All you Force Publique dogs are the same!" the old man called back, defiance in his voice.\n\nHaving been provoked, the SS stormed over to the old man until they were inches from his wizened face. "And what makes you think you know us, old man? You don't even know what year it is!"\n\n"Oh, I know all right," he replied. "When I was a boy and my father tapped rubber vines for Leopold, the Force Publique came to the village and gave me this." He held out his left arm and rolled down the sleeve, revealing a gnarled nub of flesh were a hand should be. "A reminder for my father to work harder, they said. The man who took my hand was black, but he did it because a white man paid him to. Just like you."\n\nThe squad leader was beginning to grow irate. "We're nothing like those dogs! The Germans put them in their place!"\n\n"Oh did they?" the old man asked. "So do they treat the Belgians more like us, or more like their own? I still see Belgian judges, Belgian tax men, Belgian foremen, Belgian officers. The only change is that Germans pay their salaries now! And you're the same, too! Different faces, yes, but always the same type, always willing to be the white man's macaque-"\n\nThe squad leader could take it no more. He swung his rifle around and drove the stock into the old man's stomach, causing him to double over in pain. The rest of the men joined in with their fists and boots, not stopping until he was a wheezing, bloody wreck on the ground. Sated, the guards turns around and stormed out of the village."

"On to the next one."