Chapter 24 of 30 · 3'19"
An immigration officer questions a German refugee about his past — when he arrived, why he left Germany, whether he has family. He answers honestly, and the officer answers with the state's caution: "one enemy in our midst can do more harm than ten across the Channel."
Why He Left Germany
One Enemy in Our Midst
❝ Monologue · 7 lines The refugee's closing words
He revises his own honesty step by step and lands on plain homesickness as the real reason.
Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff is interviewed by a British immigration officer. The questions run through his history: his arrival, his reasons for leaving Germany, his family, his record in the German Army. The officer does not accuse him directly; he explains the logic of suspicion, and asks how he would answer if he really were working for the enemy.
The scene is a conversation about trust that keeps circling the impossibility of proving it. The officer is scrupulously fair — he says he does not doubt the refugee's good faith — and still explains exactly why fairness cannot settle the case: "one enemy in our midst can do more harm than ten across the Channel." His hypothetical is the sharpest part: if you were working for the enemy, what would you tell me? The answer, "Exactly the same," admits the futility of the whole exercise, and the officer accepts it without blinking. What finally breaks through is not evidence but weariness. The refugee tells the truth precisely because he has stopped performing: he is just a tired old man who came here because he is homesick.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“In times like these, one enemy in our midst can do more harm than ten across the Channel.”
The one-against-ten arithmetic turns a vague fear into a sharp, almost military argument.
Formal
“The truth about me is that I'm a tired old man who came to this country because he is homesick.”
After all the politics, he reduces himself to one plain feeling, homesickness.
literary
“My outlook of life is against the Nazis.”
It frames resistance as a view of life rather than a slogan, which makes the refusal personal.
Formal
“A refugee soon learns that there's a big difference between the two.”
It draws the line between a lie and a silence, the exact space where a refugee survives.
Neutral
In earlier years, the most important principle of my life used to be "never lie, - always tell the truth." - A very good principle. I hope you stick to it. Oh, I have not told a lie, but I... I also have not told the truth. A refugee soon learns that there's a big difference between the two. The truth about me is that I'm a tired old man who came to this country because he is homesick.
Up next · 25come over someoneThe scene: Theo Tells Candy the TruthHe is a German refugee applying to stay in Britain. The officer is checking his history, his politics, and his family to judge whether he can be trusted.
To explain why suspicion is necessary even of honest people. A spy inside the country, he argues, is more dangerous than enemies across the Channel.
He asks how Theo would answer if he really were a spy. Theo says he would answer exactly the same way, which shows that no interrogation can prove innocence by words alone.
He has learned to survive by leaving things out. A refugee may say nothing false and still conceal what matters, and he knows the difference well.
Because he is tired of performing. After the questions about loyalty, he gives the plain truth about himself: an old man who came home to the country he loves.
