Crossing the Borders of Time by Leslie Maitland Read Free Book Online Page B

rebelling.
    “What would you have had me do? I was a child. What could any of us do?” she would stammer, her eyes brimming, on the many occasions this issue arose. She never cried out of sadness, but only to drain unvented anger, accumulated over a lifetime and squelched into silence. It was one of the common disputes that sparked my increasingly protective feelings for her, as my father persisted in maintaining that Jews themselves handed power to Hitler through docile acceptance of their own annihilation. He would raise his fist, slide his jaw forward, narrow his eyes, and snarl through clenched teeth, “I might have gone down, but I would have taken a bunch of Krauts with me.”
    That summer, as usual, the children left to spend their vacation with their grandmother Johanna in Eppingen, a trip always made special by Alice’s having friends and relations greet their train at numerous stops on the way, bringing them treats. “ I can’t believe how many people we have met, and everybody gives us something ,” Hanna enthused in a letter home, describing their journey. “ We couldn’t close the suitcase anymore, we had so many chocolates and goodies! ” A day or so later, they reported their shock to discover a new sign on the gate of the Eppingen pool, which led Alice to threaten to summon them back: JUDEN UND HUNDE VERBOTEN , Jews and Dogs Not Permitted. Undeterred, Hanna wrote Alice, begging to stay:
Even though we can’t go swimming anymore, there is still more to do here on vacation than in Freiburg. We tease the geese and play with the horses and chickens. Today we spent in the garden watering the plants. We wore nothing but our undershirts, panties, and aprons. We were barefoot. That’s how we hopped around the whole day. We plucked all the plums from the tree and stuffed them into our underpants. Don’t worry, Trudi has no freckles yet, but you have to send us a new tube of bleaching cream because she will soon run out.…
Listen to this, Mother. Yesterday, a man was here who told us that you, Mother, were a terrible flirt! Don’t you say anything more to us ! (Excuse the grease spot on this letter. It came from a pickle sandwich I am eating just now.) You, dear Mother, are a world-known lady here. Everybody one meets knows the Lisel.
     

    Hanna (L) and Trudi picking daisies on summer holidays in Eppingen
    When the children returned to Freiburg in September, Sigmar and Alice had not forgotten the notice posted at the Eppingen pool. Channeling their need to belong—if not in the larger community of the town, then with their peers—Sigmar enrolled all three in the Bund Deutschjüdischer Jugend (League of German Jewish Youth), one of two Jewish recreational clubs. The other youth group had a Zionist outlook and a more daring agenda, but still adamant in his sense of himself as a true German, Sigmar ruled out his children’s joining a movement whose stated goal involved emigration.
    Meanwhile, Hitler Youth membership soared to nearly six million. Widening economic restrictions seriously threatened the livelihood of Jews now forced out of civil service positions and jobs in education, law, culture, and science. Hitler had won dictatorial powers, the ranks of storm troopers had swelled to over two million, and beginning with Dachau near Munich, four concentration camps ostensibly for political prisoners had already been opened. Even though 90 percent of German voters approved Hitler’s powers, Sigmar still harbored hope that the situation would change and that leaving their homeland would prove unnecessary.
    Increasingly grim circumstances led to changes at home as well. Alice spent much of her time closeted with her friend Meta Ellenbogen, who for many years had rented a top-floor room in the house, supporting herself by selling coffee. A timid and lonely woman with hair dyed jet-black and the fine bones and nervous demeanor of a small, flitting bird, she sat talking in Alice’s bedroom late into the