Silbermann said nothing.

“Do you want to be sent to a concentration camp?”

Silbermann said nothing.

“You’ll be put on trial!”

Silbermann said nothing.

The inspector jumped up. “What on earth are you thinking?” he roared. “I advise you to open your mouth!”

“I filed a report,” Silbermann said, in a husky voice. “I was robbed of thirty thousand marks! They broke into my apartment!”

The inspector sat back down. “Why won’t you listen to reason?” he asked more quietly. “Surely you realize this stubbornness will get you nowhere.”

Silbermann looked past him out the window.

“If I want, I could have you sent immediately to a concentration camp. You’re practically forcing me to. There they’ll teach you some manners!”

“Did you follow up on my report?” asked Silbermann. “Have they recovered the money?”

“Are you starting again? Don’t speak unless you’re asked a question!”

He picked up Silbermann’s service record, which had been taken from him along with his other papers when he was put in the cell.

“So you were a soldier,” said the inspector, more mildly. “I’m guessing of course you were rear echelon, am I right?”

“Is that what it says in the papers?” asked Silbermann.

“Papers can be falsified.”

Without answering, Silbermann shrugged his shoulders.

“I didn’t say that they are falsified. I just said they can be falsified,” the inspector explained. “So, what should I do with you? What do you suggest?”

“I demand an investigation into the whereabouts of my briefcase.”

“Of all the nerve,” said the inspector, not without a note of respect. “So, I will have you sent to the concentration camp! There you’ll recover your senses and learn how a Jew is expected to behave these days! Don’t think for a minute they won’t have their own ways of dealing with you.”

“On the contrary,” Silbermann answered. “I’m quite convinced of that.”

“So why are you acting like this?”

“I lost a briefcase with thirty thousand marks. I came here to file a report.”

“You behaved outrageously and you … Now I really am going to place you under arrest!”

“That’s what I thought,” Silbermann said calmly. “I knew that before I came here.”

“So why did you come here?” the inspector asked, curious.

“Because I no longer care what happens to me. Because I have dutifully paid my taxes year after year and now I’m requesting that the police also fulfill their duty to me as a citizen.”

“The police aren’t here to serve you!” The inspector studied him thoughtfully. “Western front?” he then asked. “How long?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

The inspector laughed. “Go to the devil,” he said, in a strong voice. “But don’t ever show your face here again. Now move, get out of here!”

“They stole thirty thousand marks from me along with my briefcase.”

“So it’s no, then, is it!” said the inspector. “You simply can’t keep your trap shut. Meier, take him away. And here I wanted to put mercy before justice…”