Night Angels(61)
The wind barreled down the track from the opposite direction and swept over me. Never had I felt this cold. Would I see her again? Would Lola see her again?
The train wavered, plunging into the distant horizon; the tracks shuddered. Before me, a gibbous moon, ragged with streaks of red, floated in the distance, so close, yet so far away, and the heart of winter was black, full of ice.
CHAPTER 40
FENGSHAN
Near Christmas, all consulates in Vienna and embassies in Berlin were closed for the holidays and would remain closed for three weeks until after the new year. What did 1939 have in store for China? Fengshan refrained from speculation and held on to some hope that the ambassador would not take notice of the additional visas he issued.
It was indeed the holiday season, as Captain Heine had said. The streets of Vienna, where many Gestapo and Brownshirts and Hitler Youths roamed, sparkled with strings of blue, red, purple, and white lights. People flocked to the opera houses, concert halls, theaters, and movie theaters. The opera of Empress Sisi, the perennially popular Hapsburg empress, was in demand daily, lighthearted comedies featuring a duo of controlling mother and innocent daughter were popular in movie theaters, and the music of Strauss and Mozart waltzed in ballrooms and concerts. Children frolicked on the snowy slopes with their toboggans and skis; families packed the giant Ferris wheel cars in the Prater. Hausfrauen strolled the Christmas markets selling many household items, crystal candle holders, fur coats, woolen jackets, and even extravagant Gobelins tapestries. Many had been used in and likely removed from opulent mansions to be sold at jaw-dropping prices.
Sadly, for the Jews waiting in Fengshan’s consulate, the concerts, markets, theaters, ballrooms, and hotels were prohibited. They had no entertainment, no joy, no dancing, no shopping; their only dream was a safe existence or an exit from Vienna.
As part of his duty as consul general, Fengshan attended several balls and parties organized by the government. It was awkward—the grandiose Hofburg palace that had been decorated with the coat of arms now fluttered with swastika flags. In the ballrooms, the Hapsburg royalty wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, the officials clad in their full Tyrolean uniforms who had stood arm in arm with their wives in pillbox hats, and the aristocrats in suits with gold-trimmed waistcoats and gleaming cuff links were gone. They were replaced by flamboyant arms dealers, whose factories were rumored to be building a thousand bombs a day, accompanied by opera actresses clad in the latest clothes, and high-ranking Gestapo in their black uniforms.
Eichmann, Captain Heine had said, had attended the balls hosted by the film industry in Vienna. Fengshan was glad he had not come across him again. Overall, the Germans at the parties were friendly enough, but when he danced with several fashionable women, he was warned not to partner with them again because it was suspected they had Jewish blood. He smiled politely, though disgusted, commenting that he was a gentleman of etiquette, and it was not his intention to ignore anyone, a Jewess or not.
He was still mistaken for the Japanese consul occasionally, and once an obtuse officer included him in the gang of the Aryans. He discovered with dismay that Hitler, who had showered lavish praise on the Japanese’s superb military power, had granted them the status of Honorary Aryans. Fengshan nearly choked on his champagne. The sincerity of the Third Reich’s commitment to his country had long remained in question, but to hear that Hitler had taken drastic measures to please his country’s enemy by elevating them to the race they approved was most disturbing. He had a sense of foreboding that the upcoming weapons purchase his superior had scheduled would not go well.
Grace came to the balls with him as he requested. Grace, who had been petrified of social situations, was still uneasy among the Viennese, though she no longer had to hold back her tears or spend long hours hiding in the bathroom. Since her return from the train station, she had appeared sad and talked about Eva and Lola often. She was still soft-spoken, but more assured, with a glow of confidence. Sometimes she talked about Emily Dickinson and mused aloud whether the poet’s seclusion had been a nurturing shelter or the inevitable dissolution of her creativity, which he thought was an insightful topic yet to be discussed.
A few times, he came across Mr. Lord, the consul from the American consulate, who always donned a Foreign Service Officer’s white suit at parties. They had become friends since the departure of Mr. Wiley. Mr. Lord introduced him to his new consul general, Mr. Morris, and mentioned that the consulate’s activities had been greatly reduced since the American ambassador in Berlin was recalled. Fengshan also conversed with Mr. Beran, the consul of Czechoslovakia, who looked visibly shaken since the Sudetenland, the area that he’d boasted was the keystone of his country, had been ceded to Germany at the Munich Conference. Fengshan had also heard a rumor that Hitler had demanded that Czechoslovakia disband the Communist Party in their country and dismiss all Jewish teachers in ethnic German schools in Prague.
“Is this true?” Fengshan asked.
The Czech laughed hollowly. “We have already given in and banned the Jews from holding government jobs in the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, effectively excluding them from our economic circle. And their jobs went to the ethnic Germans in those provinces. If we can starve the Jews, we already did that! But our demanding neighbor continues to allege that the Germans in my country are facing racial discrimination and death threats. I’m not sure what more Czechoslovakia can do!”