The Traitor’s Emblem by Juan Gómez-Jurado
"The Traitor’s Emblem" by Juan Gómez-Jurado is a historical fiction novel set against the backdrop of World War II and the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany. The story follows Paul Reiner, a young German, whose life intertwines with themes of betrayal, identity, and the quest for justice. After witnessing the aftermath of his father's mysterious death, Paul embarks on a journey to uncover the truth, which leads him into a web of family secrets and political intrigue. Key characters include Alys Tannenbaum, a Jewish girl with whom Paul shares a complicated romantic relationship, and Jürgen von Schroeder, Paul's half-brother and a rising Nazi officer.
The narrative spans several decades, beginning in post-World War I Munich and exploring the impact of historical events on personal lives. As the characters grapple with their morals and relationships amidst a changing political landscape, the story delves into the consequences of their choices. Ultimately, Paul’s quest culminates in a dramatic confrontation with Jürgen, revealing deep familial ties and the struggle for redemption. The novel examines not only the horrors of war but also the enduring human spirit in the face of adversity.
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Subject Terms
The Traitor’s Emblem by Juan Gómez-Jurado
- Born: December 16, 1977
- Birthplace: Madrid, Spain
First published: El emblema del traidor, 2008 (English translation, 2011)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Historical
Time of plot: 1919–40; 2002
Locale: Straits of Gibraltar; Munich, Germany; Dachau, Germany; South West Africa (present-day Namibia)
Principal Characters
Paul Reiner, a young German, the protagonist
Ilse Reiner, his mother
Alys Tannenbaum, a young German Jew who loves him
Josef Tannenbaum, Alys’s dictatorial father
Jürgen von Schroeder, his younger half brother, a Nazi
Brunhilda von Schroeder, his aunt, Ilse’s sister
Otto von Schroeder, his uncle, Brunhilda’s husband
Sebastian Keller, Munich bookseller, a Mason
Clovis Nagel, a companion of Paul’s late father
The Story
On March 12, 1940, during World War II, Spanish captain Manuel González Pereira rescues four Germans from their raft in the storm-ridden Straits of Gibraltar. Before leaving for neutral Portugal, the one-eyed German leader gives Captain González a gold medal. He points at the medal, saying treachery, and at the captain, saying salvation.
González discovers this is a very valuable but fake Masonic emblem. In 2002, his son is visited by a writer who tells the emblem’s story.
In May 1919 in Munich, just after World War I, fifteen-year-old Paul Reiner witnesses the return of his war-disabled cousin Eduard von Schroeder. Since the death of his father, Captain Hans Reiner, whom Paul is told died at sea in 1904, Paul and his mother, Ilse, have been living as servants to Ilse’s sister Brunhilda, who is married to Baron Otto von Schroeder. Paul is bullied by Brunhilda’s vicious son, Jürgen.
Meanwhile, fifteen-year-old German Jew Alys Tannenbaum and her ten-year-old brother Manfred return to Munich from America to live with their father, industrialist Josef Tannenbaum. Josef plans to marry Alys to Jürgen, elevating her into the aristocracy. At Jürgen’s birthday party, Paul saves Alys from Jürgen’s advances.
Before committing suicide, Eduard tells Paul he heard the shot that killed Paul’s father at the Schroeder mansion in 1905 but does not know the killer. Paul and Ilse leave the mansion. Paul vows to find his father’s killer.
In December 1920, Manfred accidentally hits Paul in the face with his soccer ball, and the injured Paul is brought to the Tannenbaums’ house. Alys recognizes him and falls in love, but her father throws Paul out.
Jürgen and his thugs ambush Paul at work; during the fight, Paul accidentally destroys Jürgen’s right eye with a penknife, and Jürgen vows revenge. Alys runs away from home. Jürgen meets Adolf Hitler and becomes a Nazi.
In the spring of 1923, Paul turns the grocery store where he has been working into a bank selling stocks. Jürgen joins the Nazis’ SA, or storm detachment. Working as a photographer, Alys runs into drunken Paul at a nightclub and is disgusted by his behavior.
Bookseller Sebastian Keller approaches Paul, telling him he was friends with his father. Paul learns his father was a Mason like Keller and asks to be initiated into the Masons himself; Keller obliges. Paul and Alice reconcile and have sex. Paul receives a pawnshop receipt of his father’s from Keller and retrieves the item, a velvet-lined mahogany box containing a gun and ten bullets.
The pawnshop owner tells Otto von Schroeder that a young man has retrieved Hans Reiner’s box. Otto visits Ilse Reiner and tries to bully her into reining Paul in. Ilse refuses and mentions a letter to be given to Paul if she dies. Otto asks Jürgen to get this letter. Jürgen visits Ilse and tortures her, cutting off her right index finger, in order to get her to hand over the letter, which she eventually does. Jürgen is shocked by its content. He takes it, sets fire to the room, and stabs Ilse.
Paul returns and rescues his mother from the flames, but she is dying. She does not reveal her murderer but states that Jürgen is Paul’s half brother—Paul’s father had an affair with Ilse’s sister Brunhilda, Jürgen’s mother. Paul confronts the pawnshop broker and learns a Clovis Nagel pawned his father’s gun. Nagel said he was bound for South West Africa.
That evening, shadowed by her father’s detectives, Alys goes to a beer hall to photograph a political event. She is caught there when Hitler and his Nazis take the Bavarian commissioner hostage. Alys escapes and is saved by Paul coming to see her. Paul wants to go to South West Africa for Nagel and Alys is against this. They quarrel; Paul leaves. When the detectives catch Alys, she tells them she is pregnant.
By July 1934, under Nazi rule, Jürgen has become an SS officer. He is asked to infiltrate the Masons. Paul returns to Munich from South West Africa and catches Clovis Nagel. Clovis reveals that in 1904, he and Hans Reiner deserted in Africa, and Hans shot a German farmer there in order to steal his diamonds. Hans then hid the diamonds in secret before returning with Clovis to Germany, where he was shot after getting into an argument at Otto von Schroeder’s mansion. Suddenly, Clovis runs from Paul, falling to his death before revealing the murderer’s name.
Jürgen forces the mentally unstable Otto to commit suicide. Paul leaves the Masons for their appeasement of the Nazis. Josef Tannenbaum is murdered by the Gestapo. At his funeral, Paul meets Alys. Her father cast her out in 1923, after she became pregnant out of wedlock with Paul’s son, Julian, who is now ten years old.
Jürgen learns Paul has returned. He kidnaps Alys, and her brother Manfred and son Julian ask Paul for help. Jürgen calls Paul to tell him he has raped Alys and sent her to the Dachau concentration camp outside Munich. He challenges Paul to a duel at the stable where Jürgen lost his eye.
Paul accepts, wins, and kills Jürgen. He reads his mother’s letter, confirming Jürgen is the son of Hans and Brunhilda.
Manfred and Julian join Paul, and the three plot Alys’s rescue. Paul has Manfred take out Paul’s own right eye so he can impersonate Jürgen in his SS uniform. They drive to Dachau and drop off Julian nearby. The guards accept Paul for Jürgen and hand over Alys to him. For Jürgen’s infiltration and betrayal of the Masons, they give him the valuable but fake Mason emblem.
Leaving the camp, they find Julian has been kidnapped by Sebastian Keller, who followed them. Keller confirms that he is the murderer of Hans Reiner. He demands the treasure map, which is inside the lining of the mahogany box that Paul retrieved from the pawn shop. Paul tricks, overcomes, and kills Keller.
On his raft in the Straits of Gibraltar in 1940, Paul remembers how Alys, Manfred, Julian, and he went to South West Africa in 1935 and found the diamonds. In 1939, they decided to leave. They gave about three-quarters of their final profits to the suffering Herero tribe and tried to flee to neutral Portugal. They are saved at sea by Captain González.
Bibliography
Cifelli, Laura A.B. Rev. of The Traitor’s Emblem, by Juan Gómez-Jurado. Library Journal 15 June 2011: 75. Literary Reference Center. Web. 18 July 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=61428407&site=lrc-live>.
Moyer, Jessica. Rev. of The Traitor’s Emblem, by Juan Gómez-Jurado. Booklist 1 July 2011: 33. Literary Reference Center. Web. 18 July 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=63268653&site=lrc-live>.
Rev. of The Traitor’s Emblem, by Juan Gómez-Jurado. Kirkus Reviews June 2011: 899. Literary Reference Center. Web. 18 July 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=62641439&site=lrc-live>.
Rev. of The Traitor’s Emblem, by Juan Gómez-Jurado. Publishers Weekly 23 May 2011: 28–9. Literary Reference Center. Web. 18 July 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=61760161&site=lrc-live>.