Over a year ago a reader recommended that I read Stefan Zweig’s Schachnovelle (available in English as Chess Story or The Royal Game). I don’t know why it took me so long to pick up, but when I finally did, I read the entire novella (barely 100 pages) in one sitting. It is so gripping.
This was Zweig’s last work, written shortly before his suicide in Brazil in 1942. The novella can be enjoyed on many levels, as a psychological thriller, an allegory of the Third Reich, or as a masterpiece of chess strategy. I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone who hasn’t read it, but key scene involves a chess match between the world champion chess master Centovicz – sort of a peasant idiot savant master of the game – and a highly cultured Viennese lawyer – Dr. B. It is the subplot (Rahmengeschichte) involving Dr. B.’s personal history that concerns me here. You see, Dr. B. was tortured at the hands of the Nazis in Vienna. It was a horrifying torture, but not one involving the infliction of pain, or "waterboarding". Dr. B. was held in Isolationshaft – isolation detention – in a hotel room. His form of torture was sensory deprivation. Dr. B. describes in a first-person narrative how the total monotony of the room – where there was no noise, no change of light, no change whatsoever – drove him mad after just a few weeks. Finally, the experience was unbearable, and he was ready to confess everything to the Nazis when he chanced upon a book of chess moves. This book was initially his salvation; he memorized each move and began to play chess matches against himself in his mind. At first these chess matches stimulate his mind, and provide a welcome relief from the monotony of the Isolationshaft, but slowly his psyche is split in two and dissociates.
Zweig is great writer and master storyteller. Dr. B.’s experience in isolation detention, then his collapse into Schachfieber (chess posioning) is quite harrowing indeed. But the story brought to mind a sickening recent chapter in our endless War on Terror. Here is a passage from a New York Times article dated December 4, 2006:
In the brig, Mr. Padilla was denied access to counsel for 21 months. Andrew Patel, one of his lawyers, said his isolation was not only severe but compounded by material and sensory deprivations. In an affidavit filed Friday, he alleged that Mr. Padilla was held alone in a 10-cell wing of the brig; that he had little human contact other than with his interrogators; that his cell was electronically monitored and his meals were passed to him through a slot in the door; that windows were blackened, and there was no clock or calendar; and that he slept on a steel platform after a foam mattress was taken from him, along with his copy of the Koran, “as part of an interrogation plan.”
In the novella, Dr. B. experiences severe trauma after just a few weeks; Padilla underwent sensory deprivation torture for 21 months.
The deprivations, physical abuse, and other forms of inhumane treatment visited upon Mr. Padilla caused serious medical problems that were not adequately addressed. Apart from the psychological damage done to Mr. Padilla, there were numerous health problems brought on by the conditions of his captivity. Mr. Padilla frequently experienced cardiothoracic difficulties while sleeping, or attempting to fall asleep, including a heavy pressure on his chest and an inability to breath or move his body.
Like the fictional Dr. B, Mr. Padilla is a broken man, permanently traumatized by what he was
forced to endure. Jose Padilla is an American citizen. During the period of his torture, Mr. Padilla was never charged with any crime. Schachnovelle is a powerful work of fiction, but it offers insight into the living hell that real human beings are subjected to – courtesy of the US government and inside our own country.
