Roots of Evil(80)

His eyes snapped with anger, but he mastered it almost at once – it was rather frightening to see the iron self-control clamping down. In a tight, clipped voice he said, ‘I am entirely within my rights to take you to a labour camp. Himmler has ordered that all Jews be segregated.’

‘I’m not a Jew,’ said Lucretia at once.

‘Among so many, that will never be noticed. And you have the colouring.’ Incredibly, one hand came out to touch her hair. As she flinched, he smiled. ‘And,’ said Leo Dreyer, ‘if you try to protest against wrongful incarceration, among so many that will not be noticed either. In any case you have consorted with a Jew all these years. You gave birth to his bastard.’

‘One day, you will pay for that remark,’ said Lucretia, sounding bored. She peered through the jeep’s sides again, and in a sharper voice, said, ‘Something’s happening out there, isn’t it? All those people shouting – the soldiers everywhere—Whatever it is, you’ve used it as your cover to get at me—’

‘Yes, something is happening,’ he said. ‘Last night the German government unleashed a pogrom against the Jews—’ He stopped, watching her reaction. ‘I see you know what the word means.’

‘Mass killing,’ said Lucretia, a completely new horror crawling over her skin. ‘Organized mass murder.’

‘Yes. An interesting derivation – Russian, originally. Used, of course, when the Jews in Russia were massacred in the early years of the century.’ For a moment he leaned forward, moving the jeep’s canvas covering to peer out at the streets.

‘We are burning the synagogues,’ he said. ‘Throughout the cities of Germany and Austria we are destroying everything Jewish – all the Jew-owned shops and businesses, all the Torah scrolls we can find, all the prayer-books. Can you see how the sky is lit up with the flames? Over there to the west?’ He was looking out into the streets, his attention momentarily away from his prisoner. Was this the moment to make a lunge forward and jump out? No. The helmeted and visored soldiers were still riding level with the jeep. She would not get five yards.

As Dreyer let fall the canvas flap, she said, ‘Where are you taking me?’ And please say Dachau, you evil bully, for at least that would mean Conrad and I would be together, and perhaps there would be a way to get out of Germany with him…

‘You are being taken to a place near to Weimar,’ said Dreyer. ‘It is a very charming part of Eastern Germany, fairly near to the Czechoslovakian border. Miniature castles overlooking the river, and pine forests and traces of the ancient Kingdom of Thuringia.’

‘Ah yes,’ said Lucretia, coldly polite. ‘Bavaria and Bohemia. Home of the cruellest of the fairytales. Woodcutters changing into prowling wolves when there’s a full moon, and princesses shut in doorless towers. Madmen slaughtering the innocents through an entire night and arrogantly attempting to destroy a religion.’

Dreyer smiled slightly. ‘You always had a romantic side,’ he said. ‘But also, you always had claws just beneath the surface.’

‘If I had claws I would use them to scratch out your eyes, believe me, Leo.’

‘Would you, Alraune?’ he said, very softly. ‘Don’t stare at me like that. You know quite well what I mean. The final scene. Alraune stalking the man who made her. Gouging out his eyes and then offering him up as a sacrifice. You would like to play Alraune to my Professor, wouldn’t you? You would like to sink your talons into my eyes. You won’t get the chance, of course.’

‘Don’t count on it,’ said Lucretia acidly. ‘What is this place you’re taking me to? Wherever it is, I shan’t be there for ever.’

‘No. But you’ll like Weimar. And it has a good many cultural associations. Goethe lived there for a time; also Franz Liszt and Bach. Unfortunately, however, you won’t see much of the town.’

‘Aren’t you forgetting that I’m very well known in Vienna? People will search for me—’ But even as she said it, Alice knew that she had already burnt her boats on that score. If people had been going to search for Lucretia von Wolff they would have done it weeks ago. Even so, she said, ‘Questions will be asked. You really can’t expect to get away with this.’

‘I can get away with it,’ he said. ‘Tonight we are the masters. Tonight, baroness, I can do anything I wish.’


They looked at one another, and as the silence stretched out between them, Alice was suddenly aware of a stir of emotion that no longer had anything to do with fear or hatred. It vanished almost as soon as it formed, but it left an indelible, shameful, print on her mind, and she knew she would not be able to forget it. This is the man who imprisoned Conrad and who threatened Deborah, and I felt that wrench of sexual attraction for him! Had he sensed it?

She said, ‘You’re taking me to a labour camp?’

‘Yes. What did you expect? You are going,’ said Dreyer, ‘to the place of the beechwood forest.’

And, as Alice stared at him, he said, ‘Konzentrationslager Buchenwald.’



The journey to Buchenwald was the most appalling experience Alice had ever known.

The SS truck drew up at a small station – Alice had long since lost all sense of direction, and she had no idea whether they were still in Vienna, or even whether they were still in Austria – and along with what seemed to be two or three hundred others, she was herded into a train.