The Song of Henry: the Chest of "Nazi" Papers

Although the ongoing legal dispute prevented Roger McAllister from discussing
his unfortunate relationship with "the American Josephsons," McAllister
would tell his audience, whether that audience was in a college auditorium,
or on folding chairs arrayed around an impromptu podium at an independent bookstore,
or a single interviewer in a tiny TV studio in a windswept Canadian town, that
he could say, and he must say, and he would say, because the world needed to
know, that he had been given, by three of Jakob Josephson’s four daughters,
the chest of Konrad Joseph’s "Nazi" papers.

The three daughters had insisted on two conditions: first, that he destroy
the contents, and second–

McAllister had stopped the daughters right there: "You do not hire an
appraiser to be a garbageman," he had said. "You know that I will
read and study everything in that chest. I will take detailed notes."

The daughters had nodded their heads. "You may keep your notes," they
said. "But eventually," they insisted, "you must destroy everything
that is in this chest."

McAllister had reluctantly agreed, and asked about the second condition.

"That if you discover anything that shows our grandfather to be a Nazi
collaborator, you will never mention it to a living soul."

Then McAllister would proudly tell his audience that he had kept both promises.
On the day before the first review copies of "The Song of Henry" were
sent, by overnight courier, to the critics, he had shredded, and then burned,
in an industrial furnace, every last paper from the chest. And as for the second
condition, that was easy: there were no secrets to keep, for the papers had
showed that Joseph Konrad Josephson had hated the Nazis as much as he loved
Germany.

At this point an astute reporter, or a dyspeptic member of the audience, might
ask McAllister how the public could know if he were not keeping his second
promise right now: by lying to protect the name of Konrad Joseph, or Joseph
Konrad Josephson, or whatever his name was.

McAllister would respond with broad smile: "Well it seems that one way
or another, I must be honest man!"