©GeraldineBanksAugust2025
This is a fictional story not a commentary on what is actually happening at the BBC. A purely fictional story from my imagination, inspired by Primo Levi’s book The Periodic Table, which touches on how, he, as an Italian Chemist looking for work after the war had to deal with people who he had known while working at a big rubber plant next to Auschwitz. Although a well qualified chemist , he was in fact just another slave worker because of his Jewish religion. One of his bosses, “Mueller”, he came across years later while working as a free man in an Italian factory as an Industrial Chemist.
It fascinates me that the survivors were not only those who were prisoners in the death camps , but also those who played a role in managing businesses attached to the camp in an effort to support the Economy that the Nazi’s so heavily relied on. Where are those people today and have they forgotten what was taken away from them?
As Primo Levi outlined, his protagonist sought some sort of forgiveness which Levi felt he could not give. I on the other hand believe that there are some who think that their actions during the war were justified and those who would never see them as wrong or against humanity.
Well those people still exist and perhaps a great Institution like the BBC is one of their targets. After all the BBC did a lot of damage to the German War Effort , it’s independence and World Service were examples to everyone… and that is where my story begins.
Carbon survives and is part and parcel of our World. No matter what happens.
Maximillian pushed back in his office chai and stretched his long legs under his desk. He smiled as he remembered his Great Grandfather’s soliloquies on “George Orwell”, calling them soliloquies perhaps was too kind or perhaps a stylish remnant of Max’s penchant for flowery language which he had on what he regarded as false pretences(what nonsense English Poetry was) achieved his double first in English Literature at Cambridge.
English Literature indeed, once you knew German, proper German, every other language was der unsinn or garbage and easily mastered if you put your mind to it which of course Max had. His English accent was perfect and no one but his close circle ever heard him speak German.
His Great Grandfather’s speeches were indeed rants, just like his progenitor Adolf Hitler and in the care home that he eventually landed up in England, he would rant on endlessly about “George”, the Socialist, that Communist Bugger. All his Great Grandpa’s care staff were from the Phillipines and hadn’t got a clue what he was talking about. They saw him as an acerbic old grouchy man, harmless and quite lost in his own World, but Maximillian had known what his Great Grandpa was talking about and he totally agreed with him.
His Gramp Pa had gone into hiding after World War two, he had lost everything. He like thousands of others was a refugee, wandering the streets of Berlin, looking for his wife and children.
Unfortunately his house , his old life all gone Kapuut. After finding out his wife and children had died in one of the allied bombing raids , he managed to get to West Berlin before East Berlin was cut off. He was helped by some Nazi colleagues who were able to provide him with false papers, a false identity and a method of escape. He was indeed a wanted man as many who had anything to do with the “death camps” were.
With his new identity he blended into his new life.Working his way gradually across Europe as a travelling salesman.His penchant for languages stood him in good stead and he thought it genius that his false identity included a reference to Jewish ancestry.It had got him out of many a pickle as people looked at him in horror and if needed he would refer to a death camp and those he had lost in them .He was a good actor too.
Why he hated George Orwell so much, Max could never quite grasp, until when Max joined the BBC in the late 1990’s as fresh undergraduate, direct from University, full of ideas and on a fast track to be a producer , that perhaps he understood what had gone on as he had access to BBC archives .
Orwell worked for the BBC from 1941 to 1943, and during those years the Reich’s war had flourished, it certainly looked on the cards for a big change to happen to the World and for the Reich and it’s belief in it’s own destiny to be fulfilled. The German Army were largely in control of Europe, they were attacking the Russians and their allies. The Rest of the World too was beginning to see the benefits of authoritarian regimes , Japan was a strong ally and the Americans were keen to keep out of the War.
So what did Orwell do, living in drab London, under war conditions and doing a job as a journalist for the BBC which as an Institution he was largely unimpressed with. He stuck to the truth and he learned how to communicate succinctly and meaningfully with people who needed to hear the truth. He questioned authority and reported facts on the BBC’s World Broadcasting Stage which reached many that were living under authoritarian regimes or in conditions of extreme danger and at the same time gathered his ideas to write a book which would become “1984.”
This was why Max hated him and that was why Max had worked hard at the BBC to ruin it’s ethical stand and to ensure that the truth was a version of what Max and people like him wanted people to know. However, Max knew he had to be clever and he had helped with the process that lead to Orwell’s statue being placed outside the new building that became Broadcasting House. It appeased the BBC “socialists” and was part of his strategy in achieving Board Status at the BBC. Once on the Board of Governors , anything was possible.
(to be continued)
Thank you for reading and may your omnipotent being go with you. 🙏
thenotsomightyom 