I was a private, a battalion scout, and, under the terms of the Geneva Convention, I had to work for my keep, which was good, not bad I didn't have to stay in prison all the time, somewhere out in the countryside. After a while the war came, and I was in it, and I was captured, so I got to see a little of Germany from the inside while the war was still going on. The Indianapolis mayor knew her from high school and dancing school, so he had fun putting ribbons and official seals all over the documents the Germans required, which made them look like eighteenth-century peace treaties. And I remember some laughs about my aunt, too, who married a German German, and who had to write to Indianapolis for proofs that she had no Jewish blood. There were some vile and lively native American Fascists in my home town of Indianapolis during the thirties, and somebody slipped me a copy of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, I remember, which was supposed to be the Jews' secret plan for taking over the world. My personal experience with Nazi monkey business was limited. I don't think it's a marvellous moral, I simply happen to know what it is: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. This book is published at a net price and is supplied subject to the Publishers Association Standard Conditions of Sale registered under the Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1956 To Mata Hari Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, 'This is my own, my native land!' Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd As home his footsteps he hath turn'd From wandering on a foreign strand? - SIR WALTER SCOTT Introduction This is the only story of mine whose moral I know. Nicholls & Company Ltd The Philips Park Press, Manchester Set in Intertype Plantin This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the Publisher's prior consent in any form or binding or cover other than that in which it is published and with a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. 1961, 1966 Made and printed in Great Britain by C. Mother Night Panther Granada Publishing Limited Published in 1973 by Panther Books Ltd Frogmore, St Albans, Herts AL2 2NF Reprinted 1975, 1976 First published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape Ltd 1968 Copyright © Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
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