The Novelist from Berlin by V.S. Alexander

Author:V.S. Alexander [Alexander, V.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2023-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

For more than three years we lived in relative peace, avoiding the horrors of Germany, until the war began on September 1, 1939.

Emil found a job in a printing shop in the Jodenbuurt, and I as a clerk in the diamond-polishing factory where Levi was employed. Our days were happy, filled with work and even fun as the city became our home. I learned Dutch. We walked Amsterdam, learned the history of Waterlooplein and shopped at the market there, and wandered the tree-lined squares and boulevards of De Plantage.

But a dark current swirled beneath the ordinary lives that we tried to live. We learned through Levi and others that laws had been passed in Germany in October of 1938 invalidating all Jewish passports. After surrender to the government, a large letter “J” was stamped on the passport of German Jews. This was in addition to identity cards separating the Jewish population from the “true” German. In November of the same year, an organized rampage against German Jews was fomented by the Nazis. It became known as Kristallnacht. Many Jews were arrested while shops and synagogues were destroyed.

The meetings that Levi had mentioned when we arrived in Amsterdam occurred monthly and were more like socials until the bad news of 1938. Then the gatherings occurred weekly, every Wednesday night, with about ten men and women attending—all planning what the Jews of Amsterdam would do if the country was invaded. The conversation and interactions were formal and conducted like a business meeting, with each person assigned a different task related to the possible invasion, including reconnaissance, arms, and hiding places.

I struggled a bit with my Dutch, but I got by. If there was any translating to be done, Emil would tell me in German.

Four people stood out at these meetings—two women and two men. The women were Toos and Karin. Both were beautiful in their own ways. Toos had long brunette hair that fell to her shoulders. Her body was shapely and slender, and she carried herself in a regal manner, head held high on a thin neck, her shoulders relaxed, yet imposing, in her perfect posture. She was proud of the way she looked. She wore red dresses of varying shades that accented her body and matched the lipstick she was wearing. Usually, she sat at one end of Levi’s couch, legs crossed, enjoying a cigarette, letting the smoke curl out of her mouth. She also had a fondness for whiskey, which she drank by the quarter tumbler during the meeting.

Karin, on the other hand, had hair a shade lighter than Toos and was fuller of figure. She neither smoke nor drank, but the fire beneath her eyes belied that she was no saint. One could almost hear her mind whirring as she and Toos occupied opposite ends of the couch. Karin was pretty with a pert nose and ruddy cheeks. Of all the men and women who attended the gatherings, I felt she was the smartest, as well as the most calculating and dangerous—not a woman to be trifled with.

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