Lunch with Charlotte by Leon Berger

Author:Leon Berger [Berger, Leon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biographies
ISBN: 9781938821004
Publisher: Grey Gecko Press
Published: 2012-07-01T05:00:00+00:00

It was on one of these same days, while Franzi was so preoccupied at home, that Charlotte and the other Jews in her class were called out by name.

They were sent along to the large machine shop, which also doubled as an assembly hall, where they were lined up with the rest of Jewish student body, together representing approximately half the school’s enrollment. In front of them stood the deputy principal, the stern-faced Frau Krüger, who’d taken over from Herr Beck. She fiddled with her steel-framed glasses as she announced in a clear voice that, by government decree, she was obliged to expel everyone in front of her.

She was very sorry, she told them, but she had no choice in the matter. They must collect their belongings and vacate the premises immediately. When a loud hubbub ensued, Frau Krüger called for both silence and obedience. Like her peers, Charlotte was extremely upset, but no protestation was possible. She wasn’t even permitted to speak, so she sullenly gathered her things and packed them all into her bag: her boxes of needles, spools of thread, thimbles, and fabric samples, plus all her notebooks and pencils.

When she was done, she looked around at this place where she’d spent the past few years of her life. Despite all the recent difficulties, she was heartbroken to be leaving. She had no notion of what she would do from now on and her future seemed to open up before her like a wide, empty chasm.

Charlotte descended the school steps for the last time and began the walk home. Around her, there were still signs of the destruction caused by the Kristallnacht rampage, unrepaired doors and windows, the shell of the burned out synagogue, even some unwashed blood stains on the pavement.

Much of the debris was still lying in the streets, from splinters of glass and wood to smashed store merchandise and shattered household furniture. Brigittenau looked like a war zone but Charlotte had seen such things every day since it happened and was heedless to it all, full of her personal woes.

All she wanted was to hide herself, to be with her mother, to take comfort in those slender arms as she had as an infant. She had her own key to the apartment, and for a moment, she fiddled with it in the lock.

From inside she thought she heard voices but assumed it was the radio. It was only when she entered and looked across towards the open door of her parents’ room that she came to a standstill, her large bag still on her shoulder, unable to believe her eyes. She felt her lungs incapable of breathing, searching for oxygen. She was in a state of shock, her face expressionless as she gaped at them.

“Mutti? Karl?”

These were the only words that would emerge, a combination of question and exclamation, and they both turned towards her, looking like animals in the wild caught unawares.

It was her mother who attempted to speak first, her voice little more than a stutter.

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