Deadlight Hall (Nell West/Michael Flint #5)(9)
*
The Village School House, Nr Warsaw
Autumn, 1942
My dear M.B.
We agreed that, in the British expression, there would be ‘no names, no pack drill’ in these messages, so I address you by your initials only, and sign in the same way. Forgive the discourtesy, my good friend.
With great reluctance, we have agreed that despite the emotional cost to their families, the children in our village may need to be removed to safety. You mentioned a possible escape plan from the man we both know as Sch?nbrunn. Does such a plan actually exist? Can you give me information about it? And can it – and Sch?nbrunn himself – be trusted?
Affectionately,
J.W.
Prague, 1942
Dear J.W.
I have spoken with Sch?nbrunn (through the usual sources) and he has given me details of his plan. I do not dare commit those details to paper, but I can assure you the plan is a simple one and should work. It will be an enormous wrench for the families, but in the end we will have saved the children, and we can only hope they will be reunited with their parents before too long.
Sch?nbrunn can be trusted completely. Remember how many of our people he has smuggled to safe countries already. I suppose someone somewhere knows his real name, but I certainly do not and I don’t suppose you do, either, which probably is safer for both of us. I shall never forget the first time I met him – just outside Buchenwald, it was. He has the eyes of a poet and a dreamer, but in his hands is a machine gun.
Your friend and one-time colleague,
M.B.
School House, 1942
My dear M.B.
If Sch?nbrunn can save our children, we do not care if he is one of the seven princes of hell.
J.W.
School House
Winter 1942
Dear M.B.
It is being whispered that the march towards our village will soon begin, and a terrible dread is pervading every house.
We hear that Dr Josef Mengele is being called the Todesengel – the Angel of Death – and that he is particularly focusing on experiments on twins. We therefore have great concern for the Reiss girls – you will remember them, I dare say, from your time here teaching at the school. If so, you will certainly recall that very unusual gift they seemed to have. I think special arrangements may need to be made for those two.
If our village is invaded, we plan to hide in the crypt of an old Christian church on the village outskirts – the last place we will be sought, we hope!
J.W.
Prague,
January, 1943
Dear J.W.
Sch?nbrunn’s agents have told us that an order has gone out from the High Command that 7,000 of our people per day are to be ‘resettled in the East’. Once, we would have accepted this at face value; now we know that these deportations end in mass extermination.
Exact details of the plan for the children should by now have reached you. Sch?nbrunn has contacts in the country to which the children will be taken – safe homes can be provided for all, and I believe there is some kind of secret list of people who have indicated they are prepared to give shelter. I do not enquire, but I think it is information that can be trusted and all the parents can feel reassured. Siblings will be kept together if at all possible.
I do indeed remember the Reiss twins who undoubtedly possessed that extraordinary gift – it was occasionally somewhat disconcerting in the schoolroom! I have told Sch?nbrunn about them, and he agrees that we must have particular concern for them. Josef Mengele’s spies are in the most unexpected places.
Sch?nbrunn advises most strongly that you do not alert any of the children until the very last minute. You must not risk them inadvertently letting something slip, or being too afraid to obey the requirements of the plan when the time comes. They should take only the minimum of possessions, and the journey itself will cost nothing, but I think none of their families will want to be dependent on charity of any kind. So it is my suggestion that each child is given several small but valuable items. Actual money might pose problems, but jewellery is always sellable.
M.B.
School House, 1943
My dear M.B.
Even amidst the fear and desperation, I smiled at your suggestion to provide the children with sellable valuables. It is so like you to have an eye to the practicalities and the finances.
J.W.
Prague, 1943
Dear J.W.
We think your situation has suddenly worsened. Late last night one of our people sent word that residents in a village thirty kilometres from yours were taken away. This happened just two days ago, and we believe your village will be next.
Sch?nbrunn is putting the plan into action at once. Tonight, as soon as it is dark, you must take the children, and hide out in the old church you mentioned. There is an irony, isn’t there, in making use of a Christian sanctuary to shelter Jews? But if you can be safe there, it does not matter what it is.
Most worrying of all is that we believe within the detachment of soldiers are two of Mengele’s agents. As you know, we always feared this particular menace – there is a general order that any twins, boys or girls, are taken to him. But we now have information that one of his spies has heard about the Reiss girls and their exceptional telepathic gift (we do not yet know how such information could have got out), and we fear that the march to your village is not a general one as the others have been. We are afraid that Mengele’s orders are to take Sophie and Susannah Reiss to Auschwitz. You must make it very clear to those two – to all the children, of course – that during the days ahead, they must never trust strangers.