Page 37 of The Berlin Sisters
‘Bring them here!’ she called.
It only took minutes for Hanna to play along and have the children put in the back, where she placed them on stretchers andcovered them with blankets, smiling in the hope that she was able to reassure them they were safe.
But just as she was about to step out, a shadow fell across the back door and she saw that two SS men were standing there, watching her. The couple who’d brought the children out stood, looking at her, as if hoping she could make them go away. Hanna smiled, looking from one man to the other, refusing to cower. They didn’t intimidate her in the way they did others, not when her father and many of his colleagues wore the same uniform.
‘The papers,’ one of the men said. ‘For both children.’
‘I have them right here,’ Hanna said, producing two sets of identification papers from inside her jacket. ‘I’d already asked to check them before I put them in the ambulance.’
She handed them over and stood as the two men looked over both sets of papers.
‘You are the parents?’ the SS officer asked, turning to the couple. ‘We need to see your papers, too.’
‘I’m sorry, but one of the children appears to have a knock to the head, and the other child isn’t breathing well. It’s imperative that I get them to the hospital as quickly as possible,’ said Hanna.
They both seemed to consider her as she held out her hand to retrieve the papers, tugging them free.
‘Since you’re SS men, you’ll both know my father, Oberst-Gruppenführer Karl Müller? He is the one who asked me to work as a nurse, specifically to ensure the medical care of children. They are our future, after all.’
That seemed to work immediately, and the papers were passed back to her without any fuss. She closed the back door of the ambulance and promised the parents that she’d ensure the pair received the very best of care, before settling herself behind the wheel again and driving away from the SS men who were still standing on the road.
It was the very first time she’d ever used her father’s rank in that way, but it had worked, and she’d do it again if she had to. Now she just needed to get the children to the drop-off point and hope that her contact was waiting for her, because if they weren’t, she had no idea what she’d do with the two frightened little children in her care.
Hanna jumped sideways when a man bumped into her as she walked back to her apartment after work, her mind still full of thoughts of the children she’d delivered earlier. She’d been so lost in her own thoughts that when the man fell into step beside her, she realised he wasn’t a stranger at all. This man had bumped into her on purpose to get her attention.
‘Sorry, Fräulein,’ he said.
‘Noah?’ she whispered, recognising him when she glanced sideways. ‘You’re lucky I didn’t hit you with my bag!’
To anyone watching it would appear they didn’t know one another, the way he fell back a few feet from her as they both continued to walk in the same direction. She hadn’t seen him for months now, had wondered if he was even in Berlin any more, and now here he was in the flesh and clearly seeking her out.
Noah was a rare sight in the city – a young man as handsome as could be, with the type of features so loved by the Nazis – when most of the eligible young men were either away or parading around in uniform. But Noah walked with a limp, which had made him unsuitable for service. Sometimes she wondered if it was even real, because in every other respect he appeared fit and strong, but he had the papers to prove it and it had so far prevented him from being asked to report for duty. It certainly didn’t detract from his magnetismthough, in the same way she supposed that Joseph Goebbels could capture a crowd despite his deformed foot.
‘You’re here because of today?’ she asked, wondering how he knew what she’d done. Had something happened to the children?
‘You breached protocol today, Hanna, going alone and driving the ambulance, but I have to say that I admire your dedication to the cause,’ he said. ‘But no more transfers until you’re told otherwise. It’s becoming too dangerous for us to operate near Berlin. There are snitches everywhere, so we need to wait until we know who they are.’
She swallowed. What would happen then to the children who were still waiting for them to help? The families who’d heard the whispers about the network that could help them, the paperwork that was already being falsified for them? Germany had largely already been purged of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and anyone else the Nazi Party had decided to take offence to, but there were still pockets of families and children hidden in attics and basements all over the country.
‘A family was found last night in the city,’ he said. ‘Someone knew they were being hidden, someone reported it, which confirmed that we have a traitor in our midst. Or perhaps traitors.’
Hanna shivered, clenching her fists. ‘They were taken? Last night?’
‘My guess is that they’re already on their way to Auschwitz, along with the family that was hiding them in their basement.’ He was silent for a moment, and she knew he was about to tell her something she didn’t want to hear, because his face softened in a way she’d never seen before. ‘The family was that of your ambulance driver, Dieter. I’m sorry to inform you that’s why he didn’t come to work today, why you were forced to work alone.’
‘Dieter was taken?’ She gasped. ‘And his parents, too?’ Her heart was heavy as she imagined the terror of what they’d beenthrough, where he might be now. He’d been as determined as her to help, but the difference between them was that he’d still been holding out hope, however small it might be, that his wife would survive the camps, that they could be reunited if the war ever ended.
He’d never confided in her that they were hiding anyone.
‘Does that mean that I’m in danger? That my family is in danger, too?’ She dug her nails into her fisted palm, turning her attention to what his being taken into custody might mean for her. ‘Does it mean that our entire network could collapse?’
‘We’re all in danger, Hanna, we always have been. But if someone has turned on us, someone close to what we’re doing? They’ll begin to pick us off, one by one.’ He gave her a sharp stare when he finally came to walk beside her. ‘Or they could come for us all in the night and take us all out at once.’
Hanna focused on her breathing, trying to calm her racing heart. ‘What do you need me to do? How can I help you?’ She wanted to ask if there was anything she could do to help Dieter, but she knew that wasn’t a question worth asking. Once someone was in one of the camps, there was nothing anyone could do.
‘You can introduce me to your sister,’ Noah said, as they passed the door to her apartment block and kept walking, not wanting anyone who might be watching them to see where she lived. ‘I know your father recruited her, and I need her to do something for me. We have to move our timeline up, in case we need to move faster to avoid being caught.’
Hanna tucked her chin down into her scarf and drew her coat tighter around her body. ‘No,’ she said. ‘My sister can’t be any help to you. Let me do it. Whatever you need, I can do it for you.’
