Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini

Author:Jennifer Chiaverini
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-05-14T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-seven

December 1936–January 1937

Sara

Dieter had played such a small role in what had emerged as the most important aspects of Sara’s life that when he was finally, truly gone, her days passed almost as they always had, unchanged but for the small knot of pain and anger that tightened in her chest whenever a stray thought drifted his way.

It was a small mercy that this happened less often as time went by.

She knew she was better off without someone so ethically malleable. She also knew that she was fortunate to have discovered Dieter’s fatal flaw before they married rather than afterward. The truth was she grieved the loss of her doctorate more.

Sara had taken Mildred’s advice and had assembled the necessary documents so she could transfer to a university abroad, eventually, someday. She continued to study and work on her dissertation, which was nearly complete, and she also began a new research project, an analysis of female archetypes in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Increasingly, however, she filled her hours assisting Natan with his investigative journalism, meeting with the study group, and surreptitiously distributing Greta’s leaflets on campus and in nearby cafés and bookshops frequented by students, where thanks to her age she could easily blend in, not only as a student but as an Aryan. No actual living person resembled the caricatures of Jews in Nazi posters, and Sara’s light brown hair and hazel eyes had thus far rendered her immune to the hostile, suspicious, lingering looks her brother often drew with his dark hair and eyes and olive complexion.

Often she felt an ache of loss when she strolled through the University of Berlin campus, the venerated ground that had once felt like home to her but had cast her out. The administrators could prevent her from sitting for her exams and defending her dissertation, but as long as she could pass for a student, she would keep coming back.

She was absolutely certain that the group’s illicit flyers and pamphlets were essential to bringing down the Reich. The uninformed and uncertain people of Germany must be made aware of the horrors of fascism. The ambivalent and reluctant had to be warned that the same tactics used to persecute the Jews, Communists, and Roma could be turned upon them next. The antifascists who felt increasingly isolated and powerless needed to know that they were not alone. And the oppressed must be reassured that they had allies even within the country that had disowned them.

Her parents had no idea how she spent her days. They knew she kept up with her studies and helped Natan, but otherwise they did not ask her to account for her time. Perhaps they respected that she was a grown woman, capable of making her own decisions. Perhaps they figured whatever she did was fine, as long as she wasn’t moping around the house weeping over Dieter’s old letters.

Once her mother asked if she had considered finding a job. “I’d take one if I could find anything suitable,” Sara replied truthfully.

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