The Keeper of Secrets A Novel by Julie Thomas

Author:Julie Thomas
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-05-28T00:00:00+00:00

Kurt walked a very dangerous line. He had to pretend to be brutal toward his friend when other guards were around. If just one senior officer suspected that he actually liked the young Jewish violinist, he’d be transferred to another camp or, worse, to the Russian front. He took Simon on a work detail to the farthest corner of the camp and they swapped stories of their childhoods and families. He was the son of a prominent doctor from Düsseldorf and had an older brother in the Luftwaffe Ministry in Berlin. They’d both played piano as children and Kurt had learned the cello, so they argued good-naturedly about which instrument was harder to learn. Kurt admitted that he missed his dog, an Alsatian called Meister, more than his family and talked of his passion for football, ice-skating, and fencing.

Simon told him about Levi, who’d set out so bravely for London but had never been in touch after that night in 1938. And about his mother and sister, left behind outside their house in Berlin in 1939, four years ago.

Despite their envied position as musicians to the officers, Simon and Benjamin still had to work in the armaments section. The extra food gave them strength, and the music gave them something to think about while they completed the repetitive tasks. Simon had considered suggesting that they find some more musicians among the prisoners, audition them, and request instruments for a special string quartet or even larger. Then he realized that the amount of food wouldn’t multiply in proportion and they’d end up getting less to eat. And he doubted the officers would be prepared to go to all that trouble. The violin, and the reward and respect it helped them to gain, had become the whole point to their existence, and they weren’t prepared to share.

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