'Yes, that will be interesting,' Willi Dorsch agreed. 'If they're going to fall short of their assessment, that will putour budget in the red.'
'Further in the red,' Heinrich said.
Willi nodded. 'Further in the red, true. The powers that be won't like it.'
'The Americans will scream that we're trying to get blood from a turnip,' Heinrich predicted.
'They've been screaming that ever since we beat them,' Willi said. 'So far, blood's come out every time we've squeezed.'
'True, but I don't suppose it can go on forever,' Heinrich said. 'Look at France. Look at Denmark. They don't pay their way any more-we spend more both places than we take out. We would in Britain and Norway, too, if they hadn't struck oil in the North Sea.' He waited to see if Willi would argue with him. He could call up the budget numbers with a couple of keystrokes and use them as a club to beat his friend over the head.
But Willi didn't argue. He knew Heinrich always had facts and figures at his fingertips. Instead, Willi poked through a different part of the Wehrmacht network. He cherished oddities the way Heinrich cherished precision. He got more attention-and certainly more laughs-with them than Heinrich did with tribute assessments, too. That was fine with Heinrich, who didn't want attention anyhow.
Willi scrolled down, scrolled down, then all at once stopped short. 'Well, I'll be damned,' he said, and let out a low whistle of astonishment.
'Was ist los?' Heinrich asked, as he was surely supposed to.
'They just found three families of Jews in some backwoods village in the Serbian mountains,' Willi answered. 'Probably hadn't seen German soldiers more than three or four times since the war ended. Can you believe it? Real live Jews, in this day and age? Men had their cocks clipped and everything. The damned Serb headman says he didn't know he was doing anything wrong harboring them. Likely story, eh? You can't trust Serbs, either-look at those bandits in the news today-and that's the God's truth.'
His rant let Heinrich pull his face straight. 'What happened to them?' he asked, his voice steady, mildly curious, as if it had nothing to do with him. Willi drew a thumb across his throat. Heinrich nodded. 'Just what they deserved,' he said.Yisgadal v'yiskadash sh'may rabo: the opening words of the Mourner's Kaddish, lovingly taught him by his father, echoed in his mind. So did another thought.If I show my grief, I am dead. My family is dead. My friends are dead. He showed not a thing.
Herr Kessler leaned forward. To Alicia, as to every other student in the class, he seemed to be leaning straight toward her. He took a deep breath. His usually sallow cheeks turned red. He let out the breath in a great shout: 'Jews!'
Everybody jumped. Half a dozen girls squealed. Alicia's own start, her own squeal-nearly a shriek-hadn't betrayed her after all. In fact, no one paid any attention to her. All eyes were riveted on the teacher.
And Herr Kessler was wrapped up in his own performance.'Jews!' he roared again, even louder than the first time. 'Our brave Wehrmacht soldiers caught up with more than a dozen filthy, stinking Jews in the mountains of Serbia. Otto Schachtman!' His forefinger stabbed out at a boy.
Otto sprang to his feet. 'Jawohl, Herr Kessler!'
'Show me immediately the location of Serbia on the map. Immediately!'
Otto couldn't do it, though the occupied country was plainly labeled. The teacher paddled his backside. He took the swat in stoic silence. Showing pain would have earned him another one. He didn't get in trouble for sitting down with great care, though. Alicia had only so much sympathy for him. She could have found Serbia without the label; she'd always been good at geography. But why couldn't poor Otto justread?
Herr Kessler pointed out Serbia himself. Then he went back to his tirade: 'You see now, dear children, why we must stay ever on our guard. The hateful enemy still lurks within the borders of the Germanic Empire. Like a serpent, the Jew waits until our attention is turned elsewhere. He waits, and then hestrikes! We must track him down and hunt him out wherever he may hide. Do you understand?'
'Ja, Herr Kessler,' the children chorused. Alicia made sure her voice rang as loud as any of the others. She was still frightened at the idea of being a Jew, but it didn't throw her into blind panic any more. She'd had a little while to get used to it, a little while even to develop an odd sort of pride in it.
But then the teacher pointed at her. 'Alicia Gimpel!'
She was out of her chair and at attention behind it in a heartbeat. 'Jawohl, Herr Kessler!'
'What is a Jew?'
All she had to do was point at her own chest and say,I am a Jew, to ruin herself and everyone she loved. She knew that. Knowing it came close to bringing the blind panic back. It came close, but didn't quite manage-not least because the familiar fear at being unexpectedly called on left little room for the other.
She knew her lessons well. No one in the class knew them better. 'The Jew is the opposite of the Aryan,Herr Kessler,' she recited. 'He is and remains the typical parasite, a sponger who like a noxious bacillus keeps spreading as soon as a favorable medium invites him. Wherever he appears, the host people dies out after a shorter or longer period. Existence impels the Jew to lie, and to lie perpetually. He lacks idealism in any form. His development has always and at all times been the same, just as that of the peoples corroded by him has also been the same.'
She stopped. She knew she had the textbook definition straight. Up until a little while before, she'd believed every word of it. Part of her still did. The rest…The rest seemed to stand outside of the self she'd had before the night that turned out to be Purim. She felt somehow bigger than she had before that night. Her new self enclosed the old-and who could say how much else besides?
Herr Kessler drummed the fingers of his right hand against the side of his thigh. 'This is correct,' he said, as if he didn't care to admit it. 'Now-you will tell me the meaning of the wordnoxious.' He spoke with a certain gloating anticipation. If she were parroting the definition without grasping what went into it, he would make her pay for that.
But she wasn't.'Jawohl,' she said again, still at attention. 'Noxiousmeans disgusting or nasty or poisonous.'
Kessler's fingers drummed on his thigh for another few seconds. Then he gestured peremptorily. Alicia sat down. From the desk beside hers, Emma whispered, 'Smarty-pants.'
That whisper wasn't quite quiet enough. 'Emma Handrick!' the teacher thundered.
Emma almost knocked over her chair jumping out of it. 'Jawohl, Herr Kessler!'
'Since you enjoy talking so much, you will now tell the class from what source we have the proper definition of the Jew.'
Alicia could have answered. Emma stuttered and stammered and looked up at the ceiling. Paddle in hand, the teacher bore down on her.'Mein Kampf!' she blurted in desperation. 'It must be Mein Kampf! '
Kessler had already begun to swing back the paddle. Ever so slowly, he lowered it. Emma might have made a lucky guess, but she hadn't been wrong.'Ja,' the teacher said. 'Be seated, and do not speak out of turn any more.'
'Jawohl, Herr Kessler.Danke schon, Herr Kessler.' Emma sat down in a hurry, as if glad to put the nice, solid chair seat between her bottom and the paddle.
Balked of his prey, Kessler lobbed an easy question to the whole class: 'And who wrote Mein Kampf, children?'
'Our beloved first Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler!' everyone said together.
'That's right. Very good.' The teacher nodded. 'If it weren't for Adolf Hitler, the Jews would still be running the world and exploiting the Aryans.' His finger shot out. 'Hans Natzmer!' The boy leaped to his feet. Kessler said, 'Tell me whatexploiting means.'
Hans had red hair and freckles that showed ever more plainly as he went pale. Licking his lips, he said, 'I am very sorry,Herr Kessler, but I do not know.'
Whap!The paddle struck home, and Hans was sorrier yet. Kessler said, 'Exploitingmeanstaking advantage of. Remember it. You must not merely bleat out your lessons like so many sheep. You must understand them, must understand the fundamental truth in them, down to the depths of your souls.'
Fundamental truth? Alicia wondered about that. Till she'd learned what she really was, she'd accepted everything her teachers taught her. They all said the same things. Her books all said the same things. Didn't that mean they were all true? She'd thought so.
Where she'd believed everything, now suddenly she doubted everything. If what her teachers and the books said about Jews was a lie (and it had to be, because they said Jews were evil, and she refused to believe that
