Page 11 of The Berlin Sisters
Her mother’s eyes lit up. ‘Herr Müller won’t let anyone into our apartment block. He wouldn’t want his girls to see or hear such a commotion, of that I’m almost certain.’
‘I don’t think anyone can stop these mobs,’ David said. ‘You heard the policeman, there’s nothing they can do. Not even a man like Herr Müller could put an end to it.’
‘They can’t tell them to stop what they’re doing to us, but Karl Müller likes order, he’s very high up in the SS, and he wouldn’tallow any type of rioting or troublesome behaviour at his place of residence,’ her father said, his shoulders straighter than they had been only moments earlier, his eyes brighter. ‘We are the only Jewish family there. If they haven’t come for us yet, we might well be safest at home, so long as we’re not seen. I think your mother is right.’
‘But what if Herr Müller comes for us himself?’ Eliana asked. ‘What if we can’t trust him to protect us? What if he is the one to drag us down the stairs to the mobs to be rid of us?’
‘She’s right,’ David said. ‘They are treating us like vermin that needs to be exterminated. Why would Herr Müller not come for us himself when his family are out?’
Her father frowned. ‘We’ve known the Müller family our entire lives. We’ve lived the floor above them for two decades, before you children were even born. I have to believe that he wouldn’t do such a thing, that he’s not as depraved as the others.’
Eliana didn’t say what she was thinking – that their years of knowing the family might not mean anything now. She’d once been friends with Herr Müller’s daughter, Ava. They’d been in the same year at school and they’d often spent time together, especially when they were younger. But she doubted Ava would even notice her if she walked past now, and she certainly wouldn’t trust her not to report them. Wasn’t that what they trained for at their Bund Deutscher Mädel meetings? To help make Germany pure again by ridding the country of anyone and anything that didn’t conform to their ideals of purity?
‘It is decided, we shall go home,’ her father said, in a voice that told her there was to be no further discussion. ‘We will gather everything here, we will try to find some food, and then we shall lock the doors and stay inside until the unrest is over.’
‘But what if this is just the beginning, Papa?’ David asked. ‘What if it doesn’t end?’
‘It will end, son. It has to end. Eventually everyone will come to their senses. This madness cannot go on forever.’
‘But if they don’t?’ Eliana pressed. ‘If they don’t come to their senses and we have to live in fear like this? If we are persecuted against forever?’
‘Then we shall leave Germany,’ her father said, with tears in his eyes. ‘We shall find somewhere new to start again, to prosper. We will not live like this.’
She couldn’t imagine leaving Berlin, let alone Germany, and starting a new life elsewhere. But deep inside, she didn’t believe this was ever going to end, not now.
‘Bastards!’ A yell from outside, followed by another rock thrown, this one larger and landing squarely inside the store.
‘Hurry,’ her father said. ‘We must gather what we need as quickly as possible. The longer we’re here, the more danger we’re in.’
Eliana wanted to move, but her feet were stuck as she peered out at what was happening, imagining what it would be like once night fell again, wondering what these mobs of angry men might do to her if they found her alone, if they snatched her away from her family. Her stomach burned, as if something were going around and around deep inside of her, the pain impossible to ignore.
They were chanting now as they marched past, throwing whatever they could get their hands on. Eliana clamped her hand to her mouth to stifle her scream when she saw one man, a Jewish shopkeeper, being dragged from his store by his ankles, beaten with lengths of timber, the men like a crazed mob set on violence.
‘Jews! The destroyers of German culture!’ they all screamed, over and over again, until his body became lifeless.
‘Come away from the window,’ David said, his hand on her back as he guided her away, seeming so much older than his years, always so quick to protect her. ‘Don’t look at them, and block your ears.’
‘Filthy pigs!’ someone else screamed. ‘Pimps and whores!’
She looked into David’s eyes and saw his fear reflected back at her. ‘How can they do this? Why do they hate us so much? Do they truly believe we’re so evil?’
He held her as she cried, her face pressed against his shoulder.
‘I don’t know,’ he whispered in reply. ‘All I know is that I want to leave here and never return.’
That afternoon, as they tentatively walked up the stairs to their apartment, Eliana froze when she heard the front door to their building open. She looked to her family, and they all looked back, as terrified as her – they’d been avoiding violence all day, had believed that once they reached their apartment block they might be safe.
But it wasn’t the shouts of looters or troopers that reached Eliana’s ears, but the chatter and laughter of girls. She knew immediately who it would be – Ava and Hanna Müller were the only schoolgirls in the building besides her, and they soon came running up the stairs. They were wearing their smart uniforms, their blonde hair beautifully braided, their blue eyes bright as they paused a few steps below the Goldman family.I wore that uniform once. I laughed and giggled with not a care in the world, just like them. But now she was acutely conscious of her tangled hair, messy from searching through the ruins of their store, her clothes most likely filthy from the dust. They’d had rotten fruit thrown at them as they’d scurried down the street, too, and she hated to think how much of it had stained her coat.
‘Herr Goldman,’ the oldest of the two girls said. ‘Frau Goldman. Good afternoon.’
The younger one, Ava, kept her eyes downcast, as if she shouldn’t be looking at them, let alone talking to them. Elianastayed quiet, as did David, but her parents replied and said good afternoon in reply. She knew David was watching them and she wondered how he felt, seeing them live so normally while their own lives were being stripped away from them. He’d been such a fun-loving brother when they were younger, but over the past years she’d noticed him becoming quieter, no longer as quick to smile as he’d once been.
The girls hurried past, and Eliana knew her face had flushed a deep red with anger. Only months ago, she’d sat beside Ava in class. They hadn’t been close friends, but they’d always gotten along well, and they’d often walked home together. But Ava had been one of the girls who’d stayed quiet when her teacher had refused to let Eliana swim in the school pool, lest she contaminate the German water, whispering about Eliana and the other Jews as they passed by. When Eliana had been the last Jewish pupil in their class, Ava had shyly glanced at her when she’d been alone without her friends, but otherwise ignored her along with the rest of the children, and she certainly hadn’t spoken up for her when the boys had taunted her and called her a dirty Jew as she’d tried to sit quietly and eat her lunch, tipping her food so that it spilled all over her lap. The silence from her former friend had hurt even more than the taunts, when all she’d needed was one girl, one other human, to stand up for her.
But the worst day of all had been when they were walking home from school, and she’d seen Ava pasting posters on all the lamp posts of happy, smiling little girls, to encourage schoolchildren to join the youth groups. Ava hadn’t done anything directly cruel to her, hadn’t called her names or pulled her hair like some of the others had, but it was the fact she hadn’t spoken up for her or continued to be her friend that hurt the most.
Which was why she very much doubted that Herr Müller would be any different. Why would he risk anything to be kind to them? Her own father might be right that he wouldn’t allow anyviolence or disruption in their apartment block, for the sake of his family living there, but he could easily have them thrown from their apartment entirely. And then what would they do? Or what about when his family went to their beautiful country house? Perhaps he would wait to come for them until then?
