since had thronged with shoppers, but which were empty now.
Empty but running.
Making their rumbling, vacant progress, up and down, up and down from 8.30 till 6.00, with only ghosts to ride them.
Finally Herr and Frau Fischer arrived at the elevators in the far wall of the building.
Herr Fischer turned to his wife, addressing her for the first time since they had been assaulted. ‘We must go to the office and begin telephoning, my dear. We must find Dagmar.’
‘Begging your pardon, Herr Fischer,’ the under-manager interjected softly, ‘but Fraulein Fischer was seen by the staff members who were assembled at the south doors. She’d been running from the disgraceful scene at the main entrance when she once more found herself in the grip of those villains. However, it seems that two boys got her away. Only young lads but somehow they were able to extricate the Fraulein from the
‘Ah,’ Herr Fischer nodded and it seemed as if the ghost of a smile might be playing on his scabbed and bloodied lips, ‘then, my dear, I think we may know where she is gone.’
That night, alone in their bedroom, Paulus and Otto made a pact.
They swore to themselves and to each other that no matter what happened, no matter what Hitler tried to do to them, they would protect Dagmar.
It would be their mission in life.
They would be her brave knights in shining armour, she their damsel in distress.
Their own lives meant nothing, their only value was that they be placed in the service of the girl they loved. Somehow or other the Stengel boys would protect their princess and see that she survived this fire-breathing dragon which threatened to devour them all.
Hitler wouldn’t get her.
They would be her shield.
Law Student
STONE TURNED OFF the gas beneath the kettle and made a pot of tea.
He lit the grill for toast and went into the living room to gather up his law books.
The following summer he would be taking his Bar exams via correspondence course. It would be his third attempt to pass but recently he had been ignoring his studies. The letter which purported to have come from Dagmar had chased such things from his mind. Taking his tea and toast, Stone spread the books across the kitchen table and tried to focus.
The words swam before his eyes:
Amazing how much law it took to run a civilized country.
Hitler had always despised the law. And lawyers too.
Stone swore he would be a lawyer yet.
A Party Is Announced
MIDWAY THROUGH THE first of the thousand summers that Adolf Hitler had planned for his Reich, the Stengel family were breathing a sigh of relief. Tentative and highly qualified, but relief nonetheless.
‘Basically we’re still alive,’ Wolfgang said, spreading sardines in the boys’ sandwiches for their lunch. ‘I wouldn’t have put money on that two months ago.’
‘I would, Dad,’ Otto said. He had finished his breakfast oats and was lifting dumbbells in the corner of the room as was now his regular habit, both morning and evening. ‘I’d like to see them try and kill me.’
‘They
‘Like a bloody snitch.’
‘Saving your life, mate,’ Paulus said, through a mouthful of porridge.
Otto did not reply, concentrating instead on curling the weights up his body, his biceps bulging under the strain.
Frieda sank down on the couch.
‘It still makes me weak to think about it.’
‘Yeah, well, I’m sorry, Mum,’ Otto snapped, ‘but I just reckon it’s time somebody let these pigs know they can’t push us Jews around. We’re strong. We’re proud. We’ll settle them in the end.’
‘Us Jews?’ Paulus laughed. ‘Suddenly you’re such a Jew! You never gave a damn about being a Jew before.’
‘Yeah, well, I do now and if it hadn’t been for you being a snitch, I’d be Jew with a gun!’
‘Otto be quiet!’ Wolfgang hissed. ‘And please let’s not go over it again, eh? The thing’s at the bottom of the Spree now. Which by the look of it was where the guy you bought it from got it in the first place. But just be damned certain, Otts, that a Jew found with a gun, even a rusty old relic which probably hadn’t been fired since the Franco-Prussian war, would without doubt be hung on the spot, child or not. Do you hear me? They’d execute you on the spot.’
Otto just rolled his eyes and continued lifting his weights.
‘Listen to your father, Otto!’ Frieda demanded, fear making her voice harsh. ‘You know what these people are capable of.’
Only the week before a well-known local family of Social Democrats had been lynched in their own back garden for brandishing a hunting rifle when their house was attacked by drunken SA. A father and two sons, all hanged from the same tree in five minutes for defending their home.
‘I just wanted to
‘Getting killed isn’t doing something,’ Paulus said. ‘It’s doing nothing.’
‘Hitler says we’re cowards,’ Otto insisted. ‘One day I’ll show him just how brave a Jew can be. What are you going to do, smart arse?’
‘I don’t know what I’ll do, but, believe me, Otts, when I do do whatever it is I’m going to do, I’ll be ready to do it.’
‘Pardon?’ Otto asked, somewhat confused.
‘I’ll be prepared.’
‘Prepared? How? By
‘Who knows? We might have law again one day. And if we do we’ll need lawyers.’
‘That’s right, Pauly,’ Frieda agreed. ‘You should listen to your brother, Ottsy.’
‘Mummy’s boy!’ Otto sneered.
‘What’s more,’ Pauly went on, ignoring the insult, ‘if we have to leave Germany and I’m qualified, then perhaps I’ll be able to support us. What will
‘And plenty of trumpeters,’ Wolfgang said ruefully.
‘Who knows?’ Frieda said, putting on a brave face. ‘It might not come to any of that. As Papa says, we’re all still alive, aren’t we? Now go and have a flannel, Otto. You can’t go to school all hot and sweaty like that.’
There was no doubt that from the Stengels’ point of view August 1933 was a distinct improvement on the previous spring and the legally sanctioned orgy of brutality that had culminated in the first Jewish boycott.
