Saul Goldman
From Turtledove
| Saul Goldman | |
| Fictional Character | |
| Southern Victory | |
| Appearance(s): | The Center Cannot Hold
through |
| Nationality: | Confederate States |
| Religion: | Judaism |
| Date of Death: | 1945 |
| Cause of Death: | Execution by hanging |
| Occupation: | Radio station manager, Politician |
| Affiliations: | Freedom Party |
Saul Goldman (d. 1945) was the Director of Communications for the Confederate States during the Second Great War, answerable only to Jake Featherston.
In the early 1920s Goldman, a Jew, owned and operated a radio station. He allowed the Freedom Party to use his facilities for speechmaking, thus allowing Jake Featherston's message to reach every corner of the country. A grateful Featherston made Goldman chief of the party's propaganda (a position Jake himself had held very early on) and then, after his election to the Presidency, of the entire country. Goldman's duties included writing radio news reports and compiling newsreel clips. These reports and clips were the only reports and clips that could be played in their respective media anywhere in the CS.
Goldman's news reports were highly favorable to Jake Feathertston and the Freedom Party as well as the CS and its Entente allies. Goldman's office also demonized the United States and its Central Powers allies, blacks, aristocrats (excluding, of course, Nathan Bedford Forrest III), and, before the death of Huey Long, the state of Louisiana. During the Second Great War, Goldman grossly exaggerated Confederate military successes and played down setbacks to an equal extent.
In 1942, when US divebombers raided Richmond and destroyed the Gray House, Goldman may well have saved Featherston's life by convincing him to get to a bomb shelter. After Richmond fell, Goldman followed Featherston to Portsmouth and then into Georgia, where Featherston was killed and Goldman was captured by U.S. forces. Unlike Featherston, Goldman directly witnessed the explosion of the U.S. superbomb in Newport News. Temporarily blinded, Goldman began praying, horrified by the immense power he'd witnessed.
Initially, Goldman was supportive on Featherston's stance on Negroes, even thanking Featherston early in their relationship for not scapegoating the Jews for the country's problems, as other countries had. However, as the war progressed, Goldman found Featherston's anti-black rhetoric interchangeable with anti-Semetic rhetoric he'd heard. This re-evaluation came much too late, however - and in any case, Goldman expressed his rerservations only in very cautious private remarks to Featherston, while continuing to maintain the propganda machine spreading the racist messages messages throughout the Confederacy. In 1945, along with Ferdinand Koenig and Jefferson Pinkard, Saul Goldman was executed by the United States government for crimes against humanity for his part in the Population Reduction; even though killing no one with his own hands, he had a major role in creating the mindset where white Confederates were willing to hunt Blacks down and kill them.
