He tapped the man’s face. “Max, wake up.”
He tapped again, harder this time. “Max, open your eyes!”
Jungblutt was unresponsive. Hans went to find help.
Part IV
28
February 4, 1945
Gretchen tidied the whole apartment and had only just put her husband to bed when there was a knock on the door. She opened it, and Dora stepped inside. She was not alone. “This is Inge,” she said.
A wave of panic swept through Gretchen’s body. “Why have you brought her here? If anyone sees her…”
“It’s all right, we were very careful. And I’m sorry to burden you with our problems, Gretchen, but my neighbor, Professor Hepple, saw me with Inge in the street. I can’t keep her in my attic any longer.”
“You want to leave her here?” Gretchen was wide-eyed at the thought of what Dora was asking her to do.
“I’m right here,” said Inge. “You’re talking about me like I’m a sack of potatoes.”
Gretchen bit her tongue. She wasn’t just being asked to take a teenager into her home, this was a teenager with a mind of her own.
Dora took the youngster to the sofa and sat her down. “Give us a few moments, Inge.”
“Why bring her here?” said Gretchen. “What about all your other friends, couldn’t one of them take her?”
Dora said quietly, “They are good friends, they give me money – and food sometimes – but they would all have too much to lose if they were caught.”
“And I have nothing to lose?”
“I’m sorry, Gretchen, I didn’t mean that.” She placed a hand on Gretchen’s shoulder. “You have a generous heart. You are the only one of my friends that I know I can rely on.”
Gretchen gave that some thought. The risk of discovery by the Gestapo was like a giant boulder on a hill. The compliment was like a pebble holding it in place. The smallest mistake would cause the boulder to roll right over the pebble and come barreling down the hill to crush her.
She shook her head violently. “I can’t do it, I’m sorry. Take her somewhere else.”
“I’ve told you, there is nowhere else.”
“It’s impossible, Dora. There must be somewhere else.”
“There isn’t, Gretchen. I’m asking you to keep her here for just a few days, until I can find someone else to take her.”
Inge jumped up from the sofa, her eyes blazing. “It’s obvious she doesn’t want me here. Let’s go, Dora.”
Dora put a finger to her lips. “Remember what I told you. You have to keep your voice down, and stay away from the windows.”
Gretchen looked at Inge. She was such a skinny child, innocent of any crime. She tried not to think about what the Gestapo would do with her if they found her.
“All right,” she said. “But promise me you’ll move her somewhere else quickly.”
“I promise,” said Dora.
Inge scoffed. “I’ll be leaving for Dresden soon anyway.”
Gretchen made up a bed on the sofa. Inge got under the blanket and fell asleep almost immediately.
“What was that about Dresden?” said Gretchen.
Dora sighed. “She has friends in Dresden. She dearly wants to go there, but I haven’t been able to tell her how impossible that would be.”
“Do we know if her friends are still there?”
“There’s no reason to think otherwise. They’re both Christians.”
Gretchen said, “We might be able to get her to Dresden. There’s still an open corridor south. Does she have papers?”
“Only Jewish papers.”
“How far is Dresden?”
“About two hundred kilometers. How could we get her there? There are no trains.”
Gretchen gave the problem some thought.
“Hans Klein might be able to help. You have money?”
Dora’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure we can trust him?”
“I’m sure. Let me have some cash.”
29
Gretchen called to Hans’s apartment the following morning. Fires were burning all over Berlin, the flames reflecting off the giant smoke cloud that still blanketed the entire city. The air was thick with ash, making it difficult to breathe. Firefighting teams had worked all night and continued in desperate attempts to bring the conflagration under control.
Hans told Gretchen how he’d found Max Jungblutt at the allotment.
“I’m surprised you made it that far,” she said.
“I had to go the long way around, through the golf course.”
“He was injured?”
“He had no obvious injuries, but I couldn’t get him to open his eyes. I had to stay with him for a couple of hours, but they came eventually and took him to hospital in an ambulance.”
“Perhaps he took a bang on the head,” she said.
“Maybe he did. The allotment’s been wiped out, anyway. There’s no way Max is going to be able to meet his own targets now.”
“Don’t look so pleased.” Gretchen suppressed a giggle.
Hans spoke with animation about some of the shocking scenes he’d witnessed on his way back to the apartment block from the U-Bahn station.
“I noticed that Oskar seemed unaffected by it all,” he said.
“It’s true, he’s lost in his own world,” she replied. “I’m not sure he knows where he is most of the time.”
“But he knows who you are?”
“Most of the time.”
Gretchen waited until the moment was right before raising the reason for her visit.
“You remember Dora, my friend, who had a guest staying with her?” she said.
“A young woman who likes to read. I remember.”
Gretchen took a deep breath. “She needs to get out of Berlin.”
Hans laughed. “We all need to get out of Berlin. What
