Days of Atonement by Michael Gregorio

Author:Michael Gregorio [Gregorio, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: mystery, Historical
ISBN: 9780312376444
Google: zpIRsVmz4RAC
Amazon: 0312545177
Barnesnoble: 0312545177
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2007-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

25

LAVEDRINE WAS THE first to break the stunned silence.

‘You know why they were murdered?’

The man answered as if a simple statement of the obvious were a sufficient explanation of the massacre. ‘Those children were victims, sir,’ he replied. ‘That is one of my classifications.’

I glanced towards Lavedrine. He stared back, and held my gaze.

‘You doubt my sanity?’ Aaron Jacob observed with dignity. ‘I can explain to you how I reached this conclusion. I have no doubt that you are interested.’

‘More than interested,’ Lavedrine replied. ‘But I asked you a question earlier, and you did not answer it. Are you a qualified physician, sir?’

Aaron Jacob seemed to shrink inside his voluminous robes. He stared at Lavedrine with what might have been distaste.

‘Put yourself in my place for a moment, monsieur. Do you believe that I could ever qualify as a doctor? In Prussia? I am a Jew. An outcast. I make no secret of my creed, or my origins. I can never be anything outside my own community.’

I knew what he was speaking of. In many of our cities, Jews were allowed to enter the town by one gate only—the gate reserved for cattle and other beasts, and they were taxed at the same rate. Jews were not permitted to own a book published in the German language, and they could be expelled from the country for possession alone. Unless they were prepared to forswear their religion, they were banned from our schools and universities. In my own class at the Institute of Halle, a student known as Franz Schmidt had been unmasked as a secret Jew. The university authorities had whipped him through the town for trying to pass himself off as a Prussian in order to study Jurisprudence.

‘Even so, you work “miracles”,’ Lavedrine contended.

‘Inside these walls, I do what I can,’ the man replied. ‘I know more than common ignorance will allow, but everything that I know, I have learnt by private study.’

‘Forgive me if I ask, but which German books have you, a Jew, been able to consult?’ I queried.

Aaron Jacob smiled at me. He pulled the coverlet from his head and let it fall on his shoulders. His hair was greasy black with tallow wax, parted in the centre, pulled tight behind his ears in a pigtail. On the crown of his head he wore a small white skullcap.

‘I was born in Lithuania,’ he said, ‘but I am not Lithuanian. I live in Prussia, but I am not Prussian. I am a Jew. We have no nation—no home—except for the one that we have lost. I have made my way among fellow travellers. I speak German, but I also know Latin and Italian. French is no mystery to me. I read and understand the language. Russian is my second tongue. I admit to owning no German books,’ he paused. ‘But not all books are German, Herr Procurator. Many of the best come from Scotland in the north, Italy in the south, and other places, too. I have read everything that is relevant to my studies.

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