Page 24 of The Berlin Sisters
Hanna climbed up, the box under her arm, and as her mother closed the door she blinked a few times for her eyes to adjust. Thesmell was unusual, a combination of body odour and perfume – of too many people and belongings in the same space – but she refused to wrinkle her nose.
All four of the Goldmans stayed where they were, used to being silent and moving as little as possible during the day, and so Hanna walked carefully over to Eliana and David, whispering hellos as she went. They’d already been informed about the party taking place downstairs, so Hanna didn’t mention it again, but she did field some whispered questions from David the moment she sat down.
‘We heard bombing last night,’ David said. ‘What’s happening? Where are they targeting?’
‘The Luftwaffe have been bombing southern England and this is the retaliation for it,’ she said. ‘Ava tells me that less than half of the planes made it, though, although I’m sure it will be reported as a great victory for us.’
David and Eliana leaned forward, clearly eager to hear about all the events that had been taking place.
‘But it seems that the English have been more successful,’ she continued. ‘The RAF bombed Magdeburg again overnight, that’s what you would have heard, and they were relentless, so it’s no wonder you heard it from here.’
‘What do we do, if they hit here?’ David asked. ‘We’re like sitting ducks up here in an air raid!’
Hanna waited for a moment as Eliana calmed him, listening while she reminded him to keep his voice low.
‘I’m tired of keeping my voice down,’ he muttered. ‘I want to be out there, I want to be fighting instead of hiding away.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Hanna said, because there was nothing else she could say. ‘I wish I could find a way to get you out of here, but moving Jews anywhere now is almost impossible, you know that. Father is working on false papers for you, but these things take time, not to mention the risk involved.’
‘But I could help you, Hanna. I had already begun my medical training, I could help to save the children in your care.’ He looked away, and she could hear the emotion clogging his voice. ‘Perhaps I would be better off in a camp. At least there I could try to help, I could be useful to someone.’
‘I understand, David. At least, I understand as much as anyone can,’ she said. ‘But if you were caught and taken to a camp? There is every chance you wouldn’t even make it past the first night, that you wouldn’t get the chance to help anyone. At least this way...’
He nodded, and she saw the man he was before, the young man who’d been full of dreams of becoming a doctor, who’d always been the first to open the door to their apartment block if the Goldmans were coming down the stairs at the same time as her and Ava or her mother, always sporting a smile. A man whose dreams were still alive, but hanging on by a thread.
They all fell silent then, and Hanna took the chance to open her shoebox, knowing she only had a few minutes before her mother returned for her.
‘Eliana, I’d like to ask you to do something for me,’ Hanna said. ‘These are the records of all the children I’ve managed to smuggle out of Berlin, and I would like you to seal each record in a glass jar for me.’
Eliana took the box from her, taking out the papers one by one and passing them to David to look at. Frau and Herr Goldman edged closer too, their eyes on Hanna.
‘All these children? They are all safe because of you?’ Herr Goldman asked.
‘I can only hope they’re safe, and no, not because of me. I am only one small part in a much bigger network of people through Berlin, France and Portugal. We have done our best to smuggle them out of Germany.’
‘Where will you hide the jars?’ Eliana asked. ‘Do you want us to keep them up here?’
‘I intend on burying them all in the garden this weekend, where no one will ever think to look, then we’ll plant vegetables over the top of them so it doesn’t appear obvious that we’ve been digging.’
Eliana smiled. ‘That’s ingenious. Of course we’ll help. It’s a beautiful thing you’re doing, Hanna.’
Hanna heard a tap from below and she quickly leaned forward to give Eliana a hug. ‘You’ll find the jars stored somewhere over there, in one of those large boxes,’ she said. ‘I have to go, but stay quiet as a mouse tonight, won’t you?’
‘We will,’ David said.
Hanna looked at them one last time, as Eliana cleared her throat before speaking.
‘Would you allow me to do a jar for my family? To record our names and our family tree?’
Hanna’s heart ached for the Goldmans every day, but to hear Eliana say those words, to know that there was a chance they wouldn’t make it to the end of the war, if there ever was an end, was like a knife being pressed into her. Seeing Eliana and David up here broke her heart every single time.
‘Of course.’
Within seconds the stairs had been lowered, and Hanna hurried down, helping her mother to secure them quickly behind her.
‘You reminded them about tonight?’
‘Mama, I did, but I don’t think it’s something they’re likely to forget, given who our guests are.’
