The College of Secrets - Novel by Paolo
Arigotti
Review
by Maria Teresa De Donato
Nazi
Germany is once again the real protagonist of this new novel by Paolo Arigotti
entitled The college of secrets.
In Sorelle molto speciali (Very special sisters) the author dealt with the theme of racial laws and physical and mental disability, which led to the massacre of millions of people whose lives were considered 'useless' and 'not worth living', including homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma and other ethnic groups and culminated in the 'final solution' in the death camps where six million Jews and others lost their lives. In The College of Secrets Paolo Arigotti addresses and focuses on an equally important and interesting aspect: that is, Conscience which leads to the consequent civil and/or military disobedience and resistance.
In the Nuremberg Trials, a term used to indicate two different types of trials conducted against the Nazis at the end of World War Two and which were also held in Berlin and Munich from November 20th 1945 to October 1st 1946, Hermann Göring, German politician and military man, one of the leading exponents of the National Socialist Party, accused of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging (sentence that was not carried out because Göring committed suicide the day before his execution) stated:
“I
have no conscience! My conscience is Adolf Hitler. "
The same attitude and attempt to exonerate
any personal, civil and criminal liability, emerges in this novel during the
final verbal confrontation between two characters, Volker, a former Gestapo
inspector, and Mark, Greta's brother and son of an old aristocrat, when Volker,
in an attempt to defend himself from the accusations of having committed
crimes, replies "... I was just following orders." The question,
therefore, implicit in this literary work and linked to a moral question, is:
"Should orders always be carried out or not?"
We leave the answer to our free will and
above all to the human greatness of each of us. The question, however, forces
us to self-examine, to inner research, to the analysis of who we really
are, of what are – or could be in similar circumstances – the reasons to push
us to behave in a certain way. Whatever the case, there are only two options:
that is, either by taking the most comfortable path, the one generally chosen
by the majority of human beings and which consists in giving up and complying with
whatever order we might receive, only because they come from above 'or the'
narrow 'road, the one that few, only the most courageous and intrepid, worthy
of being called true men and true women dare to take. The latter are those who,
no matter the cost and even when running the risk of jeopardizing their very
survival, act 'according to their conscience' and refuse to do what they know is
wrong, or even a crime.
Age, ethnicity, social class, level of
education and nationality are all factors that vanish in the face of issues of
conscience, of the choice between saving the life of another individual or
turning away and continuing as if nothing happened and letting the other be led
to the slaughter just because it concerns neither us personally nor a member of
our family.
These are most likely the thoughts that crossed the minds of the real protagonists of the historical events that occurred before and during the World War Two in Hitler's Germany and in Nazi-occupied Europe and that Paolo Arigotti revives through the characters of his novel, reenacting on stage, so to speak, through their participation and with all the means at their disposal, the German resistance and that of others, paradoxically also present in the ranks of the SS and the Gestapo, and which allowed to save many human lives.
In a Europe devastated by both the German occupation and the subsequent aerial bombing of the Anglo-American allied powers that intervened to free it and which also left cities like Berlin and Munich half-destroyed, not only did millions of brave people contribute to the defeat of Hitler’s Germany, but also entire countries welcomed thousands of fugitives and/or refused to 'label' and, consequently, to hand over to the Nazis, and therefore to certain death in the extermination camps, citizens such as Jews, Roma, disabled and all the others categories and ethnic groups condemned by racial laws. Among these nations Sweden and Denmark distinguished themselves and certainly deserve to be mentioned among the greatest examples of civilization and human solidarity of that particular period, as this literary work clearly highlights.
The college of secrets is, therefore, a fictional novel but with a significant historical component written in a simple and equally inviting language that captures the reader's attention from beginning to end. It is a hymn to Life; a cry of the Conscience trained to do Good and which opposes Evil with all its strength, endangering the very existence of the individual. It is an examination of the role that civil and military disobedience and resistance play when they are generated by a Consciousness that knows that obeying certain orders and ignoring the ongoing horrors, which neither the mind nor the heart can define, understands and accepts the fact that defying death is preferable to hang the head and slowly die while knowing that one has had the opportunity to do good but, on the contrary, has not been up to the situation.
This is a book I recommend to readers of all ages and which should/could be used as a narrative text in schools of all levels and in the conviction, to use the words of Ariel, character of the novel, that "... forming young people is the best way to prevent similar horrors from happening again." (Arigotti, 2020, p. 198)
