The Twins by Tessa de Loo

Author:Tessa de Loo [Tessa de Loo]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781908129253
Publisher: Arcadia Books
Published: 2011-09-16T04:00:00+00:00

‘I still well remember how afraid we were,’ said Lotte, ‘that autumn, that the Russians would lose.’

‘I only thought about the life of that one …’ Anna stared at her nails, ‘that was the only thing that interested me. Beyond that I didn’t see, didn’t hear. I hoped and prayed that he would come back. People totally forget that now, the continuous anxiety within which every one of us, at home, had to live – there were millions of boys like Martin there.’

Lotte felt compelled to help her recall that millions of Russians had been slaughtered by those same boys.

Anna sprang up. ‘We simply didn’t think about that. With us all you heard was: Advance, advance, Bialystok, Leningrad, Ukraine. Hermann Goering delivered a major speech: “We have conquered the most fertile country in the world …” He promised: “We will do some fine things there. From now on we will have enough butter, enough flour.” Germany was getting thinner: anyone who had skills to contribute was sent there to give advice about farming, health services. Even the greatest fool was somebody there and could do something. The prisoners of war were brought back here to work in the factories. It became a crazy organizational machine, a huge achievement in a certain sense. People at home became ingenious too – you made a jacket out of an old table-cloth, you made your own shoes …’

‘The Dutch did that too,’ Lotte snapped.

‘Naturally … an emergency mobilizes all the forces that normally lie fallow. That’s why people are so bored now. They have to go on creativity courses. That is the malaise of this age.’

Lotte cut Anna off vindictively, sensing that her defence was increasingly acquiring the character of a hymn of praise: ‘… And then the winter set in.’

‘Yes, General Mud. Then the swift advance was over.’

‘Napoleon had already got stuck in the mud and cold – we fervently hoped history would repeat itself and it did. Now Hitler has lost the war, we said straight away.’

‘We thought: we must help the boys get through the winter. They wrote home that they were cold and everyone got going – even the children and the patients in hospital. Everyone got on with knitting. Sheets and table-cloths were sewn together, fur coats sent, all via the Red Cross, behind the party leaders’ backs. Everyone took care that their husband, their son, their father wouldn’t be cold. Ach ja …’ She stared outside; colour of the slate roofs. ‘I still have his Gefrierfleisch-Abzeichen at home – the decoration for that dreadful winter in Russia when there were so many frozen toes, fingers, noses. The order of the deep freeze, the people dubbed it cynically.’

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