Zoo Station (32 page)

Oh shit, Russell thought, glancing left and right in search of approaching traffic and barking Put it away! The road was blissfully empty. Thats. . . . he started to say, and stopped himself. What right did he have to give the boy advice? Albert had been in Sachsenhausen once, and his father had died there. It wasnt hard to see why going out in a blaze of gunfire seemed preferable to going back.

He breathed out slowly. You have to leave the coat with me, he said. Wont the gun be obvious in your jacket pocket?

Ill put it in my belt, Albert said, and did so. He then took the coat off and offered Russell a 360-degree turn, like a model at a fashion show. The gun didnt show.

Back in the car, Albert pulled a workingmens cap from a pocket of the discarded coat, and Russell reached into the KaDeWe bag for the blue scarf. The recognition signal, he explained, and Albert wrapped it around his neck, reminding Russell of Paul on a skating trip.

They drove on, the sky a deepening blue as dusk approached, the mountains slowly creeping above the southern horizon. As they reached the outskirts of Gorlitz it occurred to Russell that anyone with a brain would have studied a plan of the townthe last thing he wanted to do was ask directions to the station. Go to the town center and look for signs, he told himself. The Germans were good at signs.

He picked up some tram tracks and followed them in what seemed the obvious direction. After passing several large industrial concerns, the road narrowed through a handsome arch and arrived at a wide street full of old buildings. There were theaters, statues, a large water fountainin any other circumstances, Gorlitz would be worth an afternoon stroll.

There! Albert said, indicating a sign to the station.

They drove down a long straight street, toward what looked like a station. It was. The station building was about a hundred meters long, the entrance to the booking hall right in the center. There were lighted windows to the left of this entrance, and steam billowing out of two large vents.

Russell pulled the car to a halt behind a Reichsbahn parcels truck. The buffet, he said, pointing it out. Therell be an entrance from the booking hall.

It was ten to five.

Albert just sat there for a few seconds, then turned to shake Russells hand.

The boy looked nervous now, Russell thought. Safe journey, he said.

Albert climbed out and, without a backward look, headed toward the entrance. There was nothing furtive about his strideif anything it was too upright. He leapt up the two steps and in through the doorway.

Start driving, Russell told himself, but he didnt. He sat there watching as the minutes passed. Two men in SA uniform emerged, laughing at something. A man ran in, presumably late for a train. Only seconds later a spasm of chuffs settled into the accelerating rhythm of a departing engine.

He imagined Albert sitting there, and wondered whether hed tried to buy a coffee. If he had, he might have been refused; if he hadnt, some power-mad waiter might have tried to move him on. He imagined a challenge, the gun pulled out, the sound of shots and a frantic Albert flying out through the doorway. Russell wondered what he would do. Pick him up? Race out of Gorlitz with the police in hot pursuit? What else could he do? His mouth was suddenly dry.

And then Albert did come out. There was another man with him, a shortish man in his forties with graying hair and a very red nose, who shifted his head from side to side like an animal sniffing for danger. The two of them walked across to the small open truck with a timber load which Russell had already noticed, and swung themselves up into their respective cab seats. The engine burst into life and the truck set off down the street, leaving a bright tail of exhaust hanging in the cold evening air.

Left Luggage

AFTER LEAVING GORLITZ,
Russell took the next available chance to telephone Effi. A brass band was practicing in the first bar he tried, but with receiver and hand clamped tight against his ears he could just about hear the relief in her voice. Ill be waiting, she said.

He chose the autobahn north from Kottbus, hoping to speed the journey, but an overturned vehicle in a military convoy had the opposite effect. By the time he reached Friedrichshain it was almost nine oclock. Frau Wiesner could hardly have opened the door any faster if shed been waiting with her hand on the knob.

He was collected, Russell said, and her lips formed a defiant little smile.

Sit down, sit down, she said, eyes shining. I must just tell the girls.

Russell did as he was told, noticing the bags of clothing piled against one wall. To be given away, he supposedthere was no way they would be allowed to take that much with them. He wondered if the Wiesners had any more valuables to take out, or whether the bulk of the family assets had been concealed behind the stickers in
Achievements of the Third Reich
. It occurred to him that Germanys Jews had several years experience in the art of slipping things across the German border.

And my visa has arrived, Frau Wiesner said, coming back into the room. By special courier from the British Embassy this afternoon. You must have some influential friends.

I think you do, Russell told her. Im sure Doug Conway had a hand in it, he explained, somewhat untruthfully. There seemed no reason for her to know about his deals with Irina Borskaya and Trelawney-Smythe. But there is something you might be able to do for me, he added, and told her what he wanted. She said she would ask around.

He left her with a promise to drive over the moment Albert phoned, and a plea not to worry if the wait lasted more than a day. If they still hadnt heard anything by Thursday he knew shed be reluctant to leave, even though they both knew that in this context no news was almost certain to be bad news.

On the other side of the city, Effi welcomed him with an intense embrace, and insisted on hearing every detail. Later, as they were going to bed, Russell noticed a new film script on the dressing table and asked her about it. It was a comedy, she told him. Twenty-three lines, four come-on smiles, and no jokes. The men got those. But at least it was pointless, a quality which
Mother
had taught her to admire.

The next morning, Russell left her propped up in bed happily declaiming her lines to an empty room, and drove home to Neuenburgerstrasse. There was no sign of Frau Heidegger, and no messages on the board, from either Albert or the Gestapo. He went up to his room and read the newspaper, his door propped open in case the phone rang. Jews had been forbidden from using either sleeping or restaurant cars on the Reichsbahn, on the grounds, no doubt, that they would appreciate their hunger more if they were kept awake.

He heard Frau Heidegger come in, the clink of the bottles as she set them beside her door. It was Tuesday, Russell realizedskat night. With Effi not working, and his own weekends given over to espionage, he was beginning to lose track of the days. He went down to warn her about his expected call, and paid the price in coffee.

Back upstairs, the hours ticked by with agonizing slowness, and the only calls were for Dagmar, the plump little waitress from Pomerania who had taken McKinleys room. She, not unusually, was out. According to Frau Heidegger she sometimes came in at 3:00 in the morning with beer on her breath.

Russell nipped out to buy some eggs while Frau Heidegger kept guard, and cooked himself an omelette for dinner. Most of the other tenants returned home from work, and the concierges arrived, one by one, bottles in hand, to play skat. The waves of merriment reached higher up the stairs as the evening went on, but the telephone refused to ring, and Russell felt his anxiety grow. Where was Albert? Sitting in some border lockup waiting to be picked by the Gestapo? Or lying dead in some frozen mountain meadow? If so, he hoped the boy had managed to take some of the bastards with him.

The skat party broke up soon after 10:30, and once the other concierges had passed noisily into the street Frau Heidegger took the phone off the hook. Russell went to bed and started reading the John Kling novel which Paul had loaned him. The next thing he knew, it was morning. He walked briskly down to Hallesches Tor for a paper, skipping through it on the way back for news of spies or criminals apprehended on the border. As he replaced the phone a red-eyed Frau Heidegger emerged with an invitation to coffee, and they both listened to the morning news on her peoples radio. The Fuhrer had recovered from the slight illness which had caused the cancellation of several school visits on the previous day, but no young Jews named Albert had been picked up trying to cross into Czechoslovakia.

The morning passed at a snails pace, bringing two more calls for Dagmar and one from Effi, wanting to know what was happening. Russell had no sooner put the phone down after her call than it rang again. Forgot something? he asked, but it was Alberts voice, indistinct but unmistakably triumphant, which came over the line.

Im in Prague, it said, as if the Czech capital was as close to heaven as its owner had ever been.

Thank God, Russell shouted back. What took you so long?

We only came across last night. Youll tell my mother?

Im on my way. And theyll be on the train tomorrow.

Thank you.

Youre welcome. And good luck.

Russell hung up the phone and stood beside it, blissfully conscious of the relief spreading out through his limbs. One down, three to go. He called Effi back with the good news and then set off for the Wiesners.

Frau Wiesner looked as if she hadnt slept since he had left her on Monday, and when Russell told her Albert was in Prague she burst into tears. The two girls rushed to embrace her and started crying too.

After a minute or so she wiped her eyes and embraced Russell. A last coffee in Berlin, she said, and sent the two girls out to buy cakes at a small shop on a nearby street which still sold to Jews. Once they were out of the door, she told Russell she had one last favor to ask. Disappearing into the other room, she reemerged with a large framed photograph of her husband and a small suitcase. Would you keep this for me? she asked, handing him the photograph. It is the best one I have, and Im afraid they will take it away from me at the border. Next time you come to England. . . .

Of course. Where is he, your husband? Did they bury him at Sachsenhausen?

I dont know, she said. I did not tell you this, but on Monday, after the visa came, I gathered my courage, and I went to the Gestapo building on Prinz Albrechtstrasse. I asked if his body could be returned to me, or if they could just tell me where he is buried. A man was called for, and he came down to see me. He said that my son could claim my husbands body, but I could not. He said that was the legal position, but I knew he was lying. They were using my husbands body as bait to catch my son.

Sometimes the Nazis could still take your breath away.

And this, she continued, picking up the suitcase, is what you asked for on Monday. She put it on the table, clicked it open, and clicked again, revealing the false bottom. The man who made this was a famous leather craftsman in Wilmersdorf before the Nazis, and he has made over a hundred of these since coming to Friedrichshain.

And none have been detected?

He doesnt know. Once Jews have left they dont come back. A few have written to say that everything went well, but if it hadnt. . . .

They would be in no position to write.

Exactly.

Russell sighed. Well, thank you anyway, he said, just as the girls came back with a box of assorted cream cakes. They insisted on Russell having the first pick, then sat round the table happily licking the excess cream from their lips. When he suggested driving them to the station the next day, he could see how relieved Frau Wiesner was, and cursed himself for not putting her mind at rest at sooner. How else could they have gotten there? Jews were not allowed to drive, and most cabdrivers wouldnt carry them. Which left public transport, and a fair likelihood of public abuse from their fellow passengers. Not the nicest way to say goodbye.

The train, she said, was at 11:00, and he was back the next morning at 9:30. The girls squeezed into the back with their small bags, Frau Wiesner in the front with a suitcase on her lap, and as they drove down Neue Konigstrasse toward the city center Russell could feel all three of them craning their necks and filling their memories with the sights of their disappearing home.

Effi was waiting at the Zoo Station entrance, and all five of them walked up to the westbound express platform. A pale sun was shining, and they stood in a little knot waiting for the train to arrive.

You didnt tell me Albert was going to Palestine, Russell said to Eva Wiesner.

I should have, she admitted. Distrust becomes a habit, Im afraid.

And you? he asked.

I dont know. The girls prefer England. The clothes are better. And the movie stars.

Youll come see us in England? Marthe asked him in English.

I certainly will.

And you as well, Marthe told Effi in German.

Id love to.

The Hook of Holland train steamed in, hissing and squealing its way to a stop on the crowded platform. Russell carried Eva Wiesners suitcase onto the train, and found their assigned seats. Much to his relief, there were no Stars of David scrawled on the girls seatbacks. Once the three of them were settled he went in search of the car attendant, and found him in the vestibule. Look after those three, he said, pointing them out and wedging a five hundred Reichsmark note in the mans outside pocket.

The attendant looked at the Wiesners again, probably to reassure himself that they werent Jews. Fortunately, Eva Wiesner looked as Aryan as anyone on the train.

Russell rejoined Effi on the platform. The signals were off, the train almost ready to go. A piercing shriek from the locomotives whistle brought an answering scream from an animal in the adjoining zoo, and the train jerked into motion. The girls waved, Eva Wiesner smiled, and they were gone. Russell and Effi stood arm in arm, watching the long train as it rumbled across the iron bridge and leaned into the long curve beyond. Remember this moment, Russell told himself. This was what it was for.