The Scent of Secrets by Jane Thynne

Author:Jane Thynne
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2015-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

In a corner of the park, a cluster of Labor Service lads armed with spades were attacking a roped-off area, hacking deep into the turf. They were constructing a bunker in case enemy bombers should fly over Berlin and demolish the houses. If that happened, a siren would sound and everyone would have to go to their nearest shelter or risk certain death as the bombs rained down and fires started. At the same time antiaircraft guns on all the buildings would shoot into the sky, hitting the bombers and bringing them crashing down. The whole city would be lit up by livid flames and the sound of machine guns. It sounded pretty exciting. Like most boys at school, Erich was looking forward to it. He hoped it would happen before he was due to start his own labor service. It would be far more exciting to enroll directly in the air force than to spend six months digging trenches and latrines and draining marshes for the Arbeitsdienst.

Even though his godmother, Clara, was half English, it was plain that Britain needed to be taught a lesson. They had studied it in geography.

“Schmidt, name the chief enemy of the Fatherland!”

“Great Britain, sir.”

“Who are the villains of the Versailles Treaty?”

“Britain, France, and America, Herr Kinkel.”

“What is the greatest enemy of the civilized world?”

That one was easy. Bolshevism.

Herr Kinkel had told his pupils to draw a large swastika in pencil on the cover of each of their exercise books and write the list of Germany’s enemies on the first page. When he discovered that Erich had met Ernst Udet, the air ace, he had been visibly impressed.

Erich rolled over in the warm grass and inhaled the deep green scent. No matter how exciting war was going to be, he didn’t mind waiting a bit longer. He loved the Friedrichshain Volkspark. He used to come here a long time ago with his mother when she was alive; on fine days they had sunbathed, and there was a pond with swans and a skating rink and a café. It was a popular place for parents to take children, partly on account of its famous fountain, the Märchenbrunnen, surrounded by stone sculptures representing characters from traditional German fairy tales—Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and the rest. The best stories, though, were the ones his mother told him about her film career. Mutti knew all the movie stars, and she’d met a lot of important Party people too. If she’d lived she would have been as famous as Marlene Dietrich. She used to tell him all about the parties and the stars she met—Emil Jannings, Hans Albers, Gustav Fröhlich—with gossipy details of who was in love with whom, though most of them seemed to have been in love with her. Sometimes, if Mutti had been to a party, she would keep a few of the chocolates they served with the coffee for him, and smuggle them back in her handbag. He swiped away a tear. Now all he had was Oma.

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