Paving the New Road (51 page)

“Enjoy your journey, Herr Sinclair.” The man’s eyes were watchful and did not leave Rowland’s face. By sheer force of will, Rowland maintained his grip and the Brownshirt released first.

“Again, my apologies,” he said as he left.

Rowland waited until Edna had locked the door before he collapsed into his seat, clutching his arm and cursing quietly.

Rowland stepped from the carriage onto the platform. Paris. He wanted to laugh. It seemed absurd that they had managed to escape. That they had managed any of it.

Edna grabbed his left hand as she, too, stepped down. Clyde and Milton were close behind her.

For a while they stood, enjoying the background cacophony of spoken French, taking in the posters which advertised shows banned in Germany in styles that would have been considered degenerate. There was an uninhibited life to Paris that seemed a world removed
from the darkening order of Germany under Nazi rule. They relished it. Eventually, they found their way to a motor cab and Rowland instructed the driver to take them to the Hôtel de Crillon on Place de la Concorde.

In the extravagant gilded grandeur of the Louis XV foyer, Rowland organised to send three telegrams. The first two were addressed to Albert Göring and Nancy Wake. They advised simply, “ARRIVED SAFELY STOP THANK YOU STOP R”. The third he despatched to Wilfred. It read, “COMING HOME”.

They barely said a word to each other until they were alone in the suite, and even then there seemed little to say.

“Bloody hell, Rowly!” Clyde muttered finally, unable to put into words the realisation of what they had witnessed, what they had escaped. “What in God’s name is happening to the world?”

Milton braced Clyde’s shoulder reassuringly. “Once meek, and in a perilous path, the just man kept his course …”

“’ …along the Vale of Death’.” Rowland smiled. “If you must steal something can’t you find a cheerier victim than Blake?”

“Well, it didn’t sound so bad until you added that last bit,” Milton grumbled.

Edna pulled off her long scarf, slipping it around Rowland’s neck and securing it as a sling for his arm. And then she curled up on the settee beside him, unsure of whether to laugh or cry.

Rowland loosened his tie as Milton poured and distributed drinks.

The poet raised his glass. “In the hope that we have done enough.”

Rowland drank. “For the moment at least, we’ve done what we can. It’s nowhere near enough.”

Epilogue

FASCISM

Mr. Eric Campbell Supports

BUT IS NOT ANTI-SEMITIC

SYDNEY, Tuesday

“There is nothing incompatible in treating the Jewish section of the community justly, fairly and honourably and being wholeheartedly behind the principle of Fascism reform,” said Mr. Eric Campbell today.

Mr. Campbell will tell young men of the Jewish Association in Sydney tomorrow that he believes in Fascism but that he is not anti-Semitic.

He stated today that when he talked of Fascism he did not believe in the revolutionary side of it, which was purely incidental.

Expressing the utmost contempt for democracy, Mr. Campbell said that Australians had fought during the war for an ideal, but democracy had given them a raw deal.

The Canberra Times, 1939

R
owland Sinclair, Clyde Watson Jones, Milton Isaacs and Edna Higgins returned to Sydney by ocean liner arriving sometime after Colonel and Mrs. Eric Campbell made port on the
Oronsay
.

Although he was never found and tried for the crime, it was widely accepted that Robert Negus murdered Alois Richter. The Lyons UAP–UCP Government strenuously denied any knowledge of the supposedly Australian art dealer.
Der Stürmer
printed an article claiming a Zionist conspiracy to dominate the fashion industry by assassinating the competition.

Rowland Sinclair maintained a correspondence with both Albert Göring and Egon Kisch. The arm broken by Ernst Röhm healed surprisingly well, though he bore the Nazi symbol burned into his chest for the rest of his life. For the first time, the determinedly disinterested Rowland Sinclair began to take an active interest in international politics.

In 1934, Egon Kisch boarded the
Strathaird
to visit Australia as a delegate to an anti-fascist conference. Refused entry by the Lyons Government, he jumped from the ship onto the quayside at Melbourne, breaking his leg in the process. On 17th February 1935, Egon Kisch addressed a crowd of 18,000 in Sydney’s Domain, where he spoke passionately about the evils of the Nazi regime, the danger of another war and of concentration camps. He was welcomed warmly at
Woodlands House
.

After escaping Dachau and Germany, Hans Beimler joined the first contingent of International Brigades volunteers as a commissar, defending Madrid from the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. He was killed in battle in 1936 and was buried in Barcelona.

Albert Göring continued to oppose the Nazi Government, using his brother’s position to help many dissidents escape Germany. During the war he only increased his anti-Nazi activity, encouraging minor acts of sabotage, and forging his brother’s signature on documents when necessary. By 1944 a death warrant demanding execution on sight was issued for Albert. Hermann, as always, dropped everything to save him, asking Himmler personally to smooth over the matter. The Göring brothers met for the last time in 1945. Hermann was the Allies’ most prized Nazi prisoner, while it seemed Albert was detained simply for being Hermann Göring’s brother. In 1946, Hermann committed suicide shortly before he was due to be hanged, and Albert was freed.

Nancy Wake interviewed Adolf Hitler in 1933. Having witnessed the ruthless treatment of the Jews in Germany, she returned to Paris adamant that she would do whatever she could to fight the Nazis.