Unsinkable (19 page)

“Max, what are they burning?”

 “I don’t know,” Max admitted. “But I am sure there is a good reason.”

They were pushed into the throng and Ava had to keep her hold on Max’s arm or they might have been separated. Adults and children, male and female. The crowd began to chant Hitler’s name. When the Chancellor entered the amphitheater, the crowd began to yell “Heil!” and give the one armed salute. Ava had never seen so many people in such a frenzy, never heard so many voices shouting in unison in such a heated, fevered pitch. The feeling of dread that had been building all evening turned to actual fear and she wasn’t even certain why.

Hitler stepped on a stage in front of them and began to speak. “The Jew is our enemy! The Jew is the reason why we struggle today! We have closed their degenerate art schools and taken their filthy work out of our museums! And tonight, we take away their filthy words! Tonight, my people, we burn the writings of these degenerate
Jewish
writers and those who write in the same degenerate way. Books that teach the reader to believe and think and act in a way that is unbecoming to the goals of the Third Reich! Bring them forward! Burn the filth! Rid the world of their words! Let their writings be as they will be- a distant memory in the world’s past. Join me! Burn! Burn!”

A parade of men in uniform came forward with books in hand, tossing them into the bonfire. Ava wondered what books they were burning, wondered how anyone could take
books
and throw them into flames. She looked on in horror as others in the crowd brought forth books they had brought. While little children, many in their Hitler Youth uniforms also brought forth their books to add to the roaring bonfire. She watched, terrified, as the crowd echoed Hitler’s cry, “Burn! Burn! Burn!” Bits of paper and leather rose up in ashes from the fire and scattered over the ground, falling like a miniature snow storm, covering the shoulders of those who fed it. The smell of burning books permeated the air. And still the crowd continued to chant. Why, Ava wondered, did this man hate Jews so much? What had she missed, what had happened to Germany while she went about her daily routine, never paying attention? The chant of “Burn!” turned to “Sieg Heil!” All around her, people of all ages, even the children were saluting Hitler. Over and over again. Ava wanted nothing so much as to leave. Yet she was afraid to ask Max to take her home.

 Suddenly Ava was desperately afraid because she was Jewish.