Nobody, but nobody, is going to talk wrong to the Colonel, even in his imitation form, around Udo.  I think we’ve made this pretty clear by now.

I’ve never found out why Udo respects the man so much.  He says it’s manners, but he’s never shown any sign of respecting anybody else’s manners.  Maybe it’s because the Colonel is like the German officer Udo’s own father held up as a role model yet so much failed ot be.  I’m not making up Jews — even Jews who were in the camps — being sooo proud their sons ended up as Bundeswehr officers.  Not that they were stupid enough to want their kids to be like the officers in the camps; those weren’t real German officers.  “Real German officers would never have done that to me, a German citizen.  Now my son is a real German officer.”  The delusions and the things your society admires tend to stick.  Nobody wants to let go of any illusions, even when slapped in the face with the alternatives.