Saul Goldman (The War That Came Early)

Saul Goldman
Fictional Character
The War That Came Early POD: July 20, 1936; Relevant POD: September 29, 1938
Appearance(s):	Hitler's War through Last Orders
Type of Appearance:	Direct, POV in Last Orders
Nationality:	Germany
Date of Birth:	c.a 1917
Religion:	Judaism
Occupation:	Soccer player, day laborer, soldier
Relatives:	Samuel Goldman (father), Hannah Goldman (mother), Sarah Goldman (sister)

Saul Goldman was a young adult German Jew that lived in Münster along with his father Samuel, mother Hannah and younger sister Sarah at the outbreak of the Second World War in October, 1938.

Civilian life (1938 - 1939)

Since the Goldmans were assimilated Jews, Saul did not receive a very religious education.

Saul was tall and athletic, with a great talent for playing football. Nazi racial laws, however, forced his exit from the team in which he had been a star, the Foresters, and left him wasting his talent in a teenage Jewish league too far beneath it. This embittered Saul towards the Nazis and their policies. Despite this, when the war broke out he and his father tried to enlist in the Wehrmacht, but were turned down because of their ethnicity.

After the Royal Air Force bombed Münster in January 1939, Saul volunteered to serve in a gang of workers repairing street damage. The gang's overseer (a small, plump individual that had lost an arm during the Great War) was ruthless and prone to hit the men with a stick without provocation. One day, a sorely provoked Saul hit back without thinking, killing the oversee with a shovel strike to the face just as his mother and sister happened to be watching. Horrified with what he'd done, he fled Münster.

Several days later, the Goldmans received a letter from Saul informing them that he had managed to join the Wehrmacht under a false identity. They promptly burned it so the Gestapo would not find Saul.

At War (1939 -)

Posing as "Adalbert Stoss" from Greven, a small town near Münster, Saul passed training as a panzer driver and was assigned to a Panzer II in northern France. He did not see action there, however, since the unit was immediately redeployed to eastern Poland to take part in a German-Polish counterattack against Soviet troops near Wilno.

Saul's first panzer commander, Heinz Naumann, was an unpleasant individual who teased Saul mercilessly, especially once he discovered that 'Stoss' was circumcised. Saul would retort angrily to Naumann's jibes about him being a Jew, and the other crewmember,radio operator Theo Hossbach, often feared that the two men would come to blows. Fortunately for Saul and Theo, Naumann was killed in action before Naumann could pose a real threat to Saul.

Their new commander, Hermann Witt, proved to be much easier to get along with, and throughout 1940 Saul participated in the German drive into Byelorussia and toward Smolensk. He and his two crewmates survived having first their Panzer II and later Panzer III destroyed by the Red Army.

Throughout the war in Russia, only Theo Hossbach told Saul outright that he knew of his identity, though Hossbach promised never to reveal his secret. Hossbach also hinted that the rest of the crew had deduced Saul's Jewishness as well, yet had kept silent as they were more concerned with their crewmate's demonstrated competence. Saul was pleasantly surprised to be learn this, yet continued to make every effort to avoid being discovered.

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