The Runaway Family (6 page)

“When the boys have had a nap, we’ll go to the park,” she said as she cleared the plates away. “You should rest, too, Inge. Lie on the bed for half an hour, and then we’ll go out.”

*

Frau Schultz and Frau Schneider watched through the shop window as Ruth gathered up her children and led them back along the street.

“What did you mean… Jewish orphanage?” asked Frau Schneider as the little family disappeared from view.

“Turned up on Herr Friedman’s doorstep yesterday afternoon, didn’t they!” replied Frau Schultz. “Demanding to come in. Said she was his sister-in-law. Said she had nowhere else to go.”

Frau Schneider’s eyes were wide. “Did you let them in?”

“Had to, didn’t I? She rang him at his office, and he said they could stay. Had to, didn’t want a rabble like that standing on his doorstep, did he?”

“You wouldn’t know they were Jews,” Frau Schneider remarked. “The little girl, anyway, lovely fair hair and blue eyes.”

“Yes, that’s what’s so awful,” agreed Frau Schultz. “You could be fooled into thinking they were true Germans!”

“But you work for Herr Friedman,” pointed out her friend, “and he’s a Jew.”

“Not anymore I don’t,” snapped Frau Schultz. “Went in this morning to see if I could be of help, and found that woman cleaning my kitchen. Told me it was dirty! Dirty! That’s the word I’d use for them. Dirty Jews. I told her, I said if that’s what she thought she could tell Herr Friedman that I wasn’t working there anymore and I’d collect my money on Saturday.”

“But I suppose Herr Friedman isn’t a proper Jew,” Frau Schneider said thoughtfully. “I mean, he doesn’t go to the synagogue on Saturdays or anything. If you hadn’t said, I wouldn’t have known he was a Jew either.”

“A Jew is a Jew is a Jew,” said Frau Schultz judiciously. “I’ll be more choosy who I work for in the future, I can tell you.”

“You might not be able to find another job that easy,” pointed out her friend.

Frau Schultz knew that there was a lot of truth in that, and it was not comforting. “That’s what I mean,” she snarled. “Them Jews are keeping good honest Germans out of work. Taking all the jobs.”

“Will they be staying with him long?” wondered Frau Schneider, ignoring this tirade. “There can’t be much room for them all in that apartment.”

“More room than we’ve got,” Frau Schultz snapped. “I live in one room and share a bathroom. You have only two rooms above your shop for you and Herr Schneider. What does a single man need with all the space he has?”

“Well, he hasn’t much space now,” Frau Schneider laughed. “Poor man can’t know what’s hit him with those four kids descending on him! Now,” she smiled, “what can I get you today?”

Frau Schultz made her purchases and then walked back to the tiny room she rented above the tobacconist shop in the next street. As she passed the gardens she glanced in, but there was no sign of the Jewish children playing there. She smiled grimly. That woman must have read the notice that had been placed there only last week.
Jüden Verboten! No Jews Allowed!
More and more, Jews were being made to understand their place. Herr Hitler was right, they were at the root of all Germany’s problems. Get rid of the Jews and there would be plenty of jobs, plenty of houses, plenty of money for ordinary Germans like herself. The German people could reclaim their own country and make it strong again. Widows, like herself, wouldn’t have to struggle to make a living.

When she had first gone to work for Herr Friedman, Eva Schultz had not known that he was a Jew. He was a man who kept himself to himself; a quiet man who went nowhere but his office and hardly knew his neighbours. She was well pleased with the work, it was in no way arduous. She went in three days a week, to clean, to do the laundry and to prepare Herr Friedman’s evening meals. One meal she would leave in the oven for that night, and another, cold, on a plate in his refrigerator for the next day. Frau Schultz envied him that refrigerator. Fancy a man on his own having such a luxury. However, he paid well, and left money for her to do the shopping. That was a bonus. It was easy enough to buy some extra slices of meat, a few more eggs, another small piece of cheese, charging it up to him. He had little idea of the price of food and simply left her some money for the housekeeping each week. She was careful to leave him the change each week, amounts that varied slightly, so that he didn’t ask any awkward questions. Then she had discovered that he was Jewish. Snooping among his papers one day, she read a letter he’d received from his brother about the family going to Vienna for a bar mitzvah. Bar mitzvah! Herr Friedman was a Jew! She was working for a Jew. After that she stole from him more regularly and without compunction. She didn’t like the idea of working for a Jew, but it was worth putting in the minimal amount of time she gave to cleaning his apartment, to enable her to help herself to the extras to which she felt she was entitled. The arrival of his sister-in-law with her hordes had now put paid to that. It was clear that woman had already realised what she was up to, and no doubt she would tell Herr Friedman when he got home this evening… and her job really would be gone. Another example of Jews taking the bread from the mouths of a good, honest German.

Back in her room, Eva dumped her shopping onto the table. She filled the kettle from the single, cold-water tap over the basin in the corner and set it to boil on the gas ring that stood beside it. Kicking off her shoes, she flopped into the one easy chair that stood in front of the gas fire. Behind her was an alcove, curtained to conceal her bed. She looked round her, taking in again the dreariness of her accommodation. She had lived here for five years now, ever since her husband, Ernst, had been killed in an accident on the building site where he had worked as a labourer. The chain of a hoist, lifting a pallet of bricks to the first-floor scaffolding, had snapped and the bricks had fallen on Ernst, killing him instantly. An accident, a dreadful accident, the building firm had said. Very sad… their condolences to the grieving widow. Ernst had had no pension, they had had no savings, and despite the whip-round organised by his mates, Eva Shultz had found herself almost destitute. She had to move out of the small apartment they rented, and had found this dismal room only through the good offices of one of Ernst’s workmates, whose sister was married to the tobacconist in the shop below. The whip-round had provided her with the first month’s rent and then she had had to find some work to support herself, and find it quickly. It was a card in the tobacconist’s window that caught her eye.
Housekeeper wanted for quiet, single gentleman
. Eva applied, got the job and began working for Herbert Friedman.

As she drank the weak coffee she had made, Eva thought now about the family who had arrived so unexpectedly. Clearly they were in some sort of trouble, or they wouldn’t have descended on Herbert so suddenly. Where was the husband, she wondered, the one who was Herbert’s brother? Little had been said during the phone conversation she had overheard, but it was clear that they had nowhere else to go. The idea that they, too, had been turned out of their home gave Eva a certain satisfaction, and it was that and the conversation she’d had with Frau Schneider in the shop that had given her the glimmerings of an idea. As she sipped her coffee, she wondered if it might work, and then shivered at her own temerity. She would ponder it, she decided, look into how it could be done. The seed was sown, and as she got to her feet to put away her meagre provisions, the last she would buy with Herbert Friedman’s money, she thought about his refrigerator, and smiled.

*

Ruth was as good as her word, and when the twins awoke from their nap, she took the children down the stairs and across the road to the gardens opposite. The wrought-iron gates stood wide and welcoming, but the newly painted sign mounted on a pole just inside made her pause.

No Jews allowed!

Of the children, only Laura could read the words, and she glanced anxiously at her mother. Ruth gave her a reassuring smile, marched determinedly through the gate and took the path that led to the children’s playground. This was surrounded by a low fence, with another, more succinct sign on its gate. No Jews.
Ignoring it, Ruth pushed open the gate and let the children run in. Inge headed straight for the slide, and the twins ran happily across to the sandpit where two small girls were digging a sand castle. Laura followed the boys, while Ruth called to Inge to hold tight as she climbed the steps to the top of the slide.

A nursemaid, with a pram beside her, was sitting on a bench, uninterestedly watching the little girls in the sandpit. She hardly noticed the twin boys and their elder sister who joined them. The boys had nothing to dig with except their hands, but they set to work piling sand into a heap for their castle, laughing and chatting to each other as they did so. Her charges watched for a moment, pausing in their own efforts.

“Would you like to help?” Laura asked the little girls. “Hansi and Peter would love you to help them.”

The elder of the two girls, aged about six, nodded shyly, and they both edged nearer to the twins.

“What’s your name?” Laura asked the older sister.

“Angela,” replied the girl. “Come on, Erna, come and help.”

The five children played together. The boys digging energetically with their hands, the girls filling their bucket, and Laura upending it carefully to make turrets for the castle.

Inge had moved from the slide to the swings, and Ruth, seeing that Laura was looking after the twins, went across and pushed Inge, so that she squealed with delight as she sailed up into the air. All the children were laughing and shouting with pleasure as they played together in the sunshine. The nursemaid was now dozing on her bench in the heat of the afternoon sun, and the baby lay waving its arms, batting the rattles that were strung across the pram. Having had her fill of swinging, Inge jumped off and ran across to the sandpit to see what the others were doing. Ruth followed her and together they admired the splendid castle that now stood in the middle, a turret on each corner and a feather as a flag.

“No Jews allowed!”

The harsh voice behind them made her jump and Ruth spun round to see a uniformed park keeper, accompanied by Frau Schultz.

“I beg your pardon?” Ruth replied.

“No Jews allowed. Can’t you read?”

“The notice is on both gates,” Frau Schultz put in sweetly. “I’d have thought you’d have seen it,” adding with venom, “or are you blind… as well?”

The nursemaid started up from the bench, one hand grasping the pram as if it might escape her, the other beckoning frantically to the two little girls in the sandpit.

“Angela, Erna, come away at once!” As the surprised girls moved towards her, she grabbed Erna by the hand, and called Angela again. “Come away, Angela. Come away from those dirty children. Whatever would your mother say?”

She pulled the children away, and, pushing the pram, hurried off down the path. As she went, Ruth heard the younger girl pipe, “Nanny, what’s a Jew?” If she gave one, the nursemaid’s answer was lost as she sped her charges away.

“Out!” The park keeper was pointing at the gate. “Out of here, out of the gardens, and don’t come back or I’ll call the law.”

“Come along, children,” Ruth said quietly. “We must go home now.” She took the twins by the hand, and, edging the girls in front of her, made her way to the gate.

“Trouble is,” she heard the park keeper saying, “you wouldn’t know they was Jews, would you? Not from the look of them.”

“That’s why you have to be so vigilant,” replied Frau Schultz. “But don’t worry, Herr Maus, I won’t report you… this time.”

“Vile woman,” murmured Ruth under her breath. “Vile and evil woman!”

“What did you say, Mutti?” asked Inge.

“Vile and evil woman! Vile and evil woman!” chanted the twins, delighted with the words.

Ruth jerked them to a halt, so roughly that they cried out. “Be quiet!” she admonished. “Be quiet and don’t speak again until we get home, or I’ll take a wooden spoon to you!”

As they crossed the road to the apartment block, Ruth risked a glance back over her shoulder. The park keeper had moved away, but Frau Schultz still stood by the sandpit, watching them leave. She was too far away to see the expression on her face, but the set of her head and shoulders shouted “triumph” as loudly as if she had actually called after them.

She must have heard me say that I’d take the children there, thought Ruth, as she hurried them up the stairs to Herbert’s apartment. She must have been watching, so that she could report us.

Herbert listened in horror to the events of the day when Ruth related them to him that evening.

“How could you have been so stupid?” he raged at her. “How could you have drawn such attention to yourselves? Can’t you read, you stupid woman? Didn’t you see the sign that says ‘No Jews’?”

“I saw it,” Ruth replied, trying to keep her own anger in check. “I saw it, but who was to know round here that we are Jews?”

“Frau Schultz!” Herbert almost shrieked. “As you discovered.”

“Well, we won’t go again,” sighed Ruth.

“You’d better not!” Herbert snapped. “You’ll be watched now,” he went on bitterly. “You’ll be watched, I’ll be watched, we’ll all be watched from now on. You should have gone to your mother, that’s where you should have gone. You should have gone to your mother, not come here with your brood.”

“I came here, because Kurt… your brother, Kurt… told me to,” hissed Ruth. “It is here he will come looking for us. Here he will come looking for his brood. They’re your brother’s children, Herbert. Your nieces and nephews. They’re family. I am his wife. We’re family.”

“Yes, yes,” Herbert replied testily, “but family is no protection these days.”

“You mean we’ve put you in danger, Herbert, by coming here. Is that what you mean?”

“No, no.” Herbert waved a placatory hand. “But all Jews are in some sort of danger these days, especially…” he paused, trying to choose the right words, “…especially practising Jews. They are noted. I haven’t been to the synagogue for years. I no longer follow the dietary requirements. I am not a Jew in any real sense. I’m German through and through, the fact that I had Jewish parents is beyond my control.”