The Serpent's Egg (20 page)

“I’ll give that some thought,” said Arvid.

Chapter 56

May 1939

Anna packed a basket of food and went back to visit the Rosens again early in May. Early summer. All over the city, window boxes overflowed with color. Citizens on bicycles filled the streets.

When she arrived at Alvensleberstrasss, she found the apartment door wide open, and no one inside. Fighting a growing panic, she searched the apartment for clues.

All the furniture was in place. There was no food in the larder. Matilde and David’s clothes had been removed, and Sophie’s books and toys were all gone. It was a puzzle, but Anna’s conclusion was that the family had moved out. She said a silent prayer that they were safe.

When Max got home from work she told him what she’d found.

He held her, trembling in his arms. “Perhaps they’ve left Germany, my love. Hopefully they are already beyond the reach of the Nazis.”

“I need to know where they are, Max. I feel guilty that I didn’t visit them more often. I haven’t brought them any food since last month.”

He held her tighter. “Frau Greta visits them twice every week. I’m sure they weren’t depending on you, Anna.”

“Talk to Frau Greta. Find out what happened to them. I need to know.”

Max rang Greta on the telephone and asked her to meet him. She agreed to a meeting in Max’s favorite Brauhaus in Paulusstrasss roughly halfway between the two apartments.

#

Max had started his second beer by the time Greta arrived. He offered to buy her a drink, but she declined. “I don’t have time for drink. What do you have for me?”

“Anna went around to the Rosens’ apartment today. They’ve gone. She wants to know where they are.”

Greta hesitated. “You can tell Anna the family is safe. The Gestapo has started transporting Jewish families to the camps. They were surrounded by hostile neighbors, so they moved.”

“Where are they? Anna would like to carry on visiting them, bringing them food.”

Greta made no reply.

Max asked another question. “I admire what you’re doing for the family, Frau Greta, but I wondered why?”

“What do you mean? They need help. I give it to them. Is that so difficult to understand?”

“I mean why this particular family? Berlin must be full of families like the Rosens.”

“I would help any family in difficulty if I could. But you’re right – I do have a special bond with the Rosens. They were early members of the Orchestra.”

“So, are you going to tell me where they are?”

“I can’t. Just tell Anna they are safe. And they don’t need food. If the situation changes, I’ll let you know.”

Chapter 57

May 1939

Greta received a telephone call from an excited Libertas. “Delma has been released.”

“How do you know?”

“She’s here with me, now.”

“How is she?”

“Her spirits are high, but her health has deteriorated. I’ve called my doctor. He’ll be here within the hour. Why don’t you come around tomorrow at lunch time. I’ve invited Mildred. We have a lot to talk about.”

#

Delma looked like death. She’d lost a lot of weight and she was coughing up blood.

Greta embraced her. “You saw Libertas’s doctor? What did he say?”

“He said I should travel to a warmer climate. He recommended the Alps where the air is pure. My lungs are infected. It’s pretty serious.”

Greta asked, “Do you know anyone in Switzerland?”

Delma shook her head and burst into a protracted coughing fit.

“Maybe I can arrange something,” said Libertas quietly when the coughing subsided.

Libertas took Delma up the stairs and found her a bed. When she returned to the study she said, “The poor girl. Doesn’t she look dreadful? I’ll look after her for a few days. Pauletta can keep an eye on her when I’m not here.”

When Mildred Harnack arrived the three women discussed the merging of the two operations.

Libertas was delighted. “It’s something I’ve been dreaming about for at least two years. It’s so obvious that we should be working as a single unit. It’ll make all our work more efficient, don’t you agree?” Mildred and Greta both murmured agreement. “I can’t understand why they couldn’t have done it ages ago. There’s just no accounting for the way men’s minds work.”

Mildred explained Arvid’s reluctance. His thinking had always been that smaller cells distanced from one another were more secure than a single large cell. “He got the idea from studying the organization of the Republican rebels in Ireland before they won their independence in 1920.”

They discussed combining the two distribution runs. Greta’s had 200 subscribers, Libertas’s close to 400. Combining the networks would require bigger print runs. They’d need more paper and more ink. Mildred agreed to organize that. She worked in the Department of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment. She also had an artist friend who had a legitimate reason for buying lots of stationery supplies.

#

Mildred left, and Greta and Libertas got down to the basics of how to combine their two distribution networks. Libertas spread a map of the city out on the dining room table, and they went over it, armed with a box of thumbtacks.

When Libertas was happy with that, she put the map away. She offered Greta a glass of white wine. It was her way of inviting Greta to leave.

Greta declined the offer. “Before I go, there’s one other matter I’d like to talk to you about.”

Libertas poured herself a glass of Liebfraumilch. “Go ahead. I’m listening.”

“I thought you should know that Max and Anna’s official Marriage Authorization was a forgery. The Gestapo took Vigo to task over it. I asked Max about it, and he admitted that he forged the signature.”

Libertas came close to spilling her wine. She put her glass down on the table. “I don’t understand. Emmy set that up for them. She assured me everything was arranged. She even gave me the name of the Gestapo man that was looking after the case.”

“Kurt Framzl.”

“Was that the name? I can’t remember. Anyway there should have been no problem. Why did he have to forge a signature?”

“According to Max, Framzl demanded a bribe that Max couldn’t afford to pay.”

“Do you believe that? There are severe penalties for bribery and corruption among SS men.”

“I don’t know, but clearly whatever Herr Göring did wasn’t enough.”

“I’ll talk to Emmy.”

#

When Arvid heard that Delma had been released and that Libertas was looking after her, he was livid. “That’s Libertas all over. I should have been informed immediately. Doesn’t she realize Delma will have to be debriefed very carefully? We need to know what questions she was asked and what answers she gave the Gestapo. I need to know if any of my team is compromised.”

Greta waved a finger at him. “Forget that, Arvid. She’s seriously unwell, and she assured Libertas that she told them nothing. You have nothing to fear from Delma.”

“And you believe every word she said? She could easily be a plant, primed to report our every move back to the Gestapo. We can’t use her ever again, and she needs to be put into immediate information quarantine.”

Mildred put her foot down. “That’s nonsense, Arvid. Delma’s too ill to work for us, and she’s certainly too ill to report anything to anyone. Believe me, I’ve seen her. Libertas thinks she won’t survive another seven days. She has sent for Father Vigo.”

Chapter 58

June 1939

Adam paid a visit to the dentist. When the last patient had gone, Dr. Himpel’s assistant made a fresh pot of coffee. She kissed the dentist and left for the night. Dr. Himpel locked the front door behind her. He invited Adam into his surgery, opened a hidden panel in one of his cabinets and pulled out a Hectograph.

It was bigger than the one the Gestapo had seized from Arvid and looked more modern. Adam measured the plate. If he was careful, he should be able to lay out the text so that each turn through the machine would print a sheet containing two copies of the leaflet.

Dr. Himpel put the Hectograph back in its secret compartment and Adam got to work preparing the text. He worked for an hour. Then he showed his editorial piece to the dentist. It was a warning to the people of Berlin that the Soviets may be planning an invasion.

Dr. Himpel scratched his head. “Isn’t that a little far-fetched?”

“Of course it is,” said Adam, “but the news needs a little spice to make it more interesting than the pap dished out by the Nazis in their newspapers.”

By 10:00 pm, the master was ready. Adam applied the gelatin and ink to the plate, Dr. Himpel provided a bundle of paper and Adam began to churn the leaflet out. Adam replenished the ink after each 40-50 turns of the handle, and Dr. Himpel separated the copies using a large scissors. After 150 turns of the handle – 300 copies, Adam had to rest. Dr. Himpel took over on the handle.

By 11:30 they had 750 copies of the leaflet, printed, dried and separated, ready for delivery. Adam thanked the dentist for his help and took a late tram home.

#

On Saturday, June 10, Max was sent to help Vigo with a delivery run. The priest was somber and distracted following his visit to Delma’s bedside.

Max asked about Delma’s health.

Vigo shook his head. “She’s been seen by Libertas’s doctor. He’s prescribed infusions, but I’m not convinced that they’ll make any difference. Her health has been declining
ever since I first met her and spending seven weeks in a Gestapo cell can’t have helped.” 

“That was my fault. I saw the danger that day in the fish market but I was too late to warn her.”

“That was not your fault, Max
.  You mustn’t blame yourself.”

Vigo gave Max an overcoat similar to his own so that they could make the deliveries together.

“Do I have to wear that, Vigo? It’s high summer.”

“Not if you can come up with a different way of carrying your bundle of leaflets.”

The new leaflet looked more professional than the previous ones, and it was smaller. Max read the headline:

‘Is Moscow Planning an Invasion of the Fatherland?’

“No one’s going to believe this headline.”

Vigo ran his eyes over it. “You’re probably right, but we still have to send them out. Come on, get your coat on.”

Vigo’s delivery run had been expanded. It was now three times what it had been with 100 drops. The run took the best part of the day, but when they’d finished, the two of them gasping for breath from the heat of the day, a bundle of leaflets remained.

“What are those for?” said an exhausted Max.

“Those are for delivery tomorrow.”

#

They started again after early Sunday mass. This time they spread out around the city dropping
leaflets in railway and bus stations, on U-Bahn platforms, in the Tempelhof air terminal as well as in autobuses, U-Bahn and mainline trains, on the S-Bahn and in trams and buses.

Vigo was back in the church in time to offer 10 o’clock mass. Max had completed his part of the delivery run by 11.30 am. He shed the overcoat, the clerical shirt and collar, the cassock and trousers, and sat in the vestry in his underwear, gasping like a fish out of water.

Vigo laughed at him. “Now you know a little about how it feels to be a priest.”

“The overcoat is a killer. Don’t you have a summer uniform, Vigo?”

“What, like a knee-length cassock and black shorts?”

“Why not?”

“I’ll write to Rome and suggest it.”

#

Max skipped his midday meal. Instead, he took the autobus to Lutherstadt Wittenberg for his scheduled visit to his mother. She took a few moments to answer the door, and when she did her hair was tied up in a headscarf.

She looked surprised to see him. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s time for my June visit.”

“Well, you’d better come in, so. I’m busy cleaning the house. Wait for me in the parlor. Try not to touch anything.”

Max took a seat in the parlor and waited. After 30 minutes, he went looking for her. He found her in the kitchen reading a newspaper and smoking a cigarette.  She was a voracious reader of novels, a member of the public library, but he’d never seen her reading any newspaper, and certainly not the Nazi paper, Völkischer Beobachter. He’d never seen her smoking.

He sat beside her at the kitchen table. “You’ve taken to reading the news, I see, Mother.”

“Why not? Don’t you read the news?”

“I do, but I thought you never bothered with it. That rag is nothing but Nazi propaganda. And when did you start smoking?”

“I used to smoke before you were born. I decided to take it up again a couple of weeks ago.” She handed him a pack. “Take one.”

“I don’t smoke, Mother. Don’t you remember how you always told me it was a filthy dirty habit?”