After the Train by Gloria Whelan Read Free Book Online

less than half an hour the acid would eat its way into the fuse and set off the bomb. Once Stauffenberg broke the capsule, there was no going back. In the meeting room he placed his briefcase under the table just where Hitler would be sitting, explaining that because of his injuries in Africa, hishearing was bad and he wanted to be close to Hitler so he could hear all the Führer had to say.
    Stauffenberg arranged for one of his coconspirators to summon him to the phone once the briefcase was in place. He left before Hitler entered the room. The plan was that as soon as he knew Hitler was dead, he would fly back to Berlin, take over the radio transmitters and police stations, and organize a coup against the Nazi government. He wanted to work out a conditional surrender with the Allies. He didn’t want just to get rid of Hitler, he wanted to destroy the whole Nazi regime. When he was a short distance from the meeting room, he heard a huge explosion. A dead man was carried out on a stretcher with Hitler’s coat over him. Stauffenberg was sure the dead man was Hitler.
    At once Stauffenberg flew to Berlin and announced, “The swine is dead.” He began to arrest the Nazi leadership, including his own superior, General Fromm.
    Hitler wasn’t dead. He had been protected from the blast by the heavy oak meeting table. Perhaps someone had also moved the briefcase. The man carried out under Hitler’s coat was not Hitler. Hitler’s uniform was in shreds and one eardrum had burst from the blast, but he was still very much alive and the war was still on. After surviving the explosion, Hitler bragged, “I am indestructible!”
    Hitler vowed a terrible vengeance. He ordered the Stauffenberg family exterminated down to the last member. Stauffenberg was executed that very day. After he was buried, Hitler had his body dug up and burned, and the ashes scattered to the winds. More than five thousand people thought by Hitler to have some connection with Stauffenberg were arrested and tortured. More than two hundred were executed. Hitler insisted on watching some of the executions himself. Both Stauffenberg’s wife and one of his brothers were sent to concentration camps. His other brother was strangled to death slowly. Almost all the Stauffenbergs’ close relatives were imprisoned. The Stauffenbergs’ five children were placed in foster homes and given new last names.
    I read and reread every word, but I can’t discover what happened to the children.
    Pencil in midair, I stop reading. Some of Stauffenberg’s children were just toddlers. Could I be one of those children? There is my nightmare and the picture of the mysterious woman. Hasn’t Father mentioned Stauffenberg himself? Is he trying to tell me something? When Father refuses to make me go to the Protestant church on Sunday, is that because I am Catholic, like the Stauffenbergs? I love Mother and Father, but how proud I would be to find that I belong to the aristocraticStauffenberg family! How honored I would be to be related to that hero.
    Hastily I finish my assignment and run into the library bathroom. For the second time I find myself staring into a mirror, wondering who I am. This time I’m trying to see if I resemble Stauffenberg. I am of medium height and Stauffenberg was six foot three; still, I am only thirteen and haven’t reached my full height. I have to know the truth. I decide I can’t wait another minute. I head for St. Mary’s, where Father went after supper to meet with Pastor Heuer over some construction problem that has come up.
    He looks pleased to see me. “One minute, Peter, and I’ll be right with you.” I shift from one foot to the other while Father and Pastor Heuer bend over the blueprints of the church and mumble about this and that. At last father follows me out of the church. It’s nearly nine o’clock, but in the long June evenings the sun is still above the top of the row of old merchant houses. I like walking down the main street with my