Mother Night Chapter 32 Summary

Rosenfeld…

  • The one thing Campbell needs—his lawyer, Alvin Dobrowitz, tells him—is the one thing he can't get: a witness to his meetings with Wirtanen.
  • Campbell's only met Wirtanen three times: before the war, after the war, and after Campbell delivered Krapptauer's eulogy.
  • This is the story of that second meeting. Are you excited? We're excited.
  • Post-war and post-Campbell's capture by O'Hare, Campbell and Wirtanen meet up at a school in Wiesbaden.
  • Campbell was spirited away from O'Hare's custody by a random soldier and brought to Wirtanen.
  • The dudes talk.
  • Wirtanen tells Campbell things.
  • Campbell was Wirtanen's best soldier-baby, as he likes to think of his worker bees. How so? Campbell was loyal and alive.
  • It turns out that Campbell unknowingly delivered a coded message saying Helga was captured.
  • This new info makes Campbell feel icky as all get-out.
  • We learn that there are only three people who knew Campbell was a spy. After Wirtanen, the second was General Donovan. (Who is the third? We are dying to know.)
  • This conversation is not all sunshine and roses, though.
  • At one point, Wirtanen Nazi-shames Campbell because, well, he was so creepily good at being one.
  • Campbell's response to being called a Nazi?
  • Campbell: That's not fair! How else was I supposed to survive? To stay on air?
  • Wirtanen: That's on you. You were very good, though. That's on you, too.
  • Okay, time to tie up loose ends: Wirtanen is getting Campbell out, and he suggests NYC.
  • One last thing.
  • Who was person-in-the-know number three?
  • The late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
  • That's who.