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Article: Stalingrad.(Short Story)
- Article from:
- The Antioch Review
- Article date:
- June 22, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Antioch Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When I was a boy in Mississippi, I had a friend named Wolfram Varderman. His father had disappeared off the face of the earth during the battle of Stalingrad. He had not returned when the handful of Germans who had survived capture by the Soviets had been repatriated to Germany. He may have died in some labor camp in Siberia, or I suppose his bones may still lie there outside the city where the German 6th Army was encircled and destroyed.
Wolfram's mother, who was a Berliner, sometimes spoke of her former husband, Albert, as if he were still alive. Wolfram told me this. He told me too that his mother often dreamed of Albert. In her dream he was a lone figure ...