The Lion's Den: A Family Drama in Hitler's Berlin in the 1930's by Eoin Dempsey

Author:Eoin Dempsey [Dempsey, Eoin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-11-01T16:00:00+00:00

The taxi driver said the block Lisa lived on was dangerous, and he had trouble in Kreuzberg at night before. After some cajoling from the other ladies in the cab, he agreed to drop Lisa at her door. She wasn’t afraid. She knew the people there, and they knew her. The people the taxi driver was too scared to drive past were her neighbors.

She got out with a bright smile on her face, wishing her friends good night. There was no one out on her block except for Fritz Holder, a one-legged veteran of the Great War who seemed always to be awake when she came home from the club. He was sitting on the sidewalk with his dog, Harry.

“Don’t you sleep, Fritz?” Lisa said as he looked up at her.

“It’s hard to get any peace when you live on the street, Lisa. This is the only time I get to myself, when me and Harry here get some private time.” He petted the mangy brown terrier. “Isn’t that right, boy?” The dog wagged his tail in agreement.

“I’m glad you’re getting some quality time, but I need to get home to bed,” she said and bade him good night.

“Tell your mother I said hello,” he said.

She carried on without replying. Her mother despised living there—didn’t see anything good about an area she wouldn’t have walked through alone five years before. Now it was the only place they could afford. The heady days of living in the hotel seemed like 1,000 years ago. Her old room seemed an immeasurable luxury that she hadn’t appreciated at the time. What would her father think if he could see this place? Perhaps he wouldn’t have gambled his fortune away, and they’d still have something. He got away with it: Death deprived him of the pain they were forced to endure in the wake of his poor decisions.

Then her mother got sick. She blamed her cancer on this place, even though the doctors said that it was impossible. She didn’t believe them. It didn’t fit the story she was trying to peddle to the world. Her mother was embarrassed by what happened to them and stopped calling her friends and family.

Lisa never understood that. Her mother cut herself off from the world she knew because of her shame. Their old friends, and even the few distant family members they had left, soon forgot about them…and her mother’s wish came true.

Lisa came to the entrance to the apartment block and pushed through the rickety old door. It was always unlocked. Who would want to break in here, anyway? She shut it behind her, making sure to lock it before she made her way up the stairs. The paint was peeling off the gray walls. She wondered when the stairway had last been painted—perhaps when Julius Caesar was a boy. She chuckled to herself. It was five flights up to her apartment, but she took the stairs with ease, even after a night of dancing at the club, and wasn’t out of breath when she reached the door to their apartment.

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