All God's Children (28 page)

“It’s my fault,” Liesl wailed.

“No.”

“It is. My teacher said that the professors at the university sometimes did not teach what they should, and I told her that Papa was not like that. But then she asked me all sorts of questions about what he taught and what he said about Herr Hitler and whether or not at home we…”

Again she dissolved into tears, and she clung to Beth so tightly that Beth lifted her into her arms and carried her down the street. “Shhh,” she whispered soothingly, even as her heart raced with this new evidence that Liesl’s teacher had possibly—probably—reported her uncle to the authorities.

“I hate my teacher—and Herr Hitler,” Liesl said, her voice rising in tandem with her fury.

Beth glanced quickly around. They had turned onto the block of shops where the bakery was. They were almost home. She set Liesl down as she rummaged through her purse for the key to the entrance leading to the apartments. “You must not say such things,” she told Liesl. “You are a Friend and as such have no room in your heart for such feelings.”

“I wish we could just go away from here and never come back. I wish we could go live in America with you. I wish—”

“Be still now,” Beth instructed as she followed Liesl up the stairs. “It is not the time to speak. It is the time to listen.”
And to pray
.

    CHAPTER 15    

T
he following morning while Aunt Ilse packed and Uncle Franz spent time in his study going through his papers—burning some in the kitchen stove and ripping others to shreds—Beth tried to concentrate on Liesl’s incessant chatter. Having apparently decided overnight that a move to the country was a good idea, she talked without ceasing about what they might expect.

“I suppose I will share a room,” she said with a sigh.

“You share one now—with me,” Beth reminded her. She stood at the window, watching for any sign of Josef. He had not come home all night, and the last any of them had seen or heard of him had been the previous morning when they had all naively believed they were safe.

What if he had been detained for questioning? Arrested? Or worse?

As Liesl’s high voice pierced the air, Beth forced herself to make what she hoped were the appropriate sounds of agreement or listening, but her mind was on Josef. Where was he?

“Beth?” Her uncle had come into the small bedroom without her realizing it. “Could you do something for me?”

“Of course. Anything.”

“I need you to go to the university—to my office. I believe that I may have left something there—some important papers.”

Her eyes widened in fear. Josef had told her of her uncle’s determination to author the next leaflet. Now she saw how his hand shook as he handed her a key. “Do you know where they might be?” she asked.

“Under the blotter on my desk.”

Beth nodded and hurried to put on her coat and hat.

“If someone stops you or interrupts you or if they have changed the lock or already—”

“I understand,” Beth assured him. “Don’t worry.”

“You must hurry,” he reminded her. “Our train leaves….”

“I know.” She was halfway down the first flight of stairs when she turned and saw her uncle standing in the open doorway of the apartment watching her. “If I am not back in time, go without me,” she instructed. “Josef and I will get a later train.” They were scheduled to leave just after two, and it was already approaching ten o’clock. By the time she got to the university and reached her uncle’s office without attracting attention and then made it all the way to the train station, it would be nearly time for the train to leave.

“I—”

“Promise,” she whispered, coming back to stand near him in case any neighbors might be listening. “Because once I am done with your errand, I am going to find Josef.”

He touched her cheek and grasped her hand in his. “I don’t know how we would have survived without you, Beth,” he said, his voice breaking. “They may come for me yet, and if they do…”

“I will make sure that Aunt Ilse and Liesl are safe,” she promised. “But you must get on that train if you can. It’s your only chance.” She did not wait for his answer but pulled her hand free of his grip and ran down the four flights of stairs to the street.

She wanted to run the distance to the university, but she also did not wish to draw attention to herself. Instead she walked as quickly as possible down the narrow cobblestone streets, across busy squares, slowing to a normal pace every time she saw soldiers or Gestapo agents so as to not draw attention to her haste. When the university was in sight, she broke into a run, keeping her eyes fixed on the massive building with its high arched windows and stone statue sentries that lined the rooftop as if looking down on her with disapproval.

It was already after ten o’clock. There was no time to waste.

In the lobby she saw Willi Graf on his way to class. Traute LaFrenz was with him, and Beth waved to them both. She remembered then that he and Josef both attended Professor Huber’s lecture at that hour, so she stopped in the atrium of the building, hoping to see Josef hurrying to class as well.

When there was no sign of him, Beth started up the wide stairway past a pair of life-sized white marble figures to the floor above. She stopped long enough to peer into the lecture hall where Professor Huber was about to begin his class to make sure that Josef was not there. She saw lots of men in uniform but no Josef. As she made her way along the corridor, one by one doors closed as classes began. Beth was relieved to realize that she was alone except for the custodian sweeping the stairs. With a nod to him she hurried past, hoping that he would assume she was simply late for class. Her uncle’s office was down a narrow side corridor.

Reaching her uncle’s office, she fumbled in her pocket for the key before realizing that the door stood slightly open. She stood frozen outside the door, listening for sounds of movement inside. After a long moment she cautiously pushed the door all the way back and stepped inside.

The room was a chaotic mess. Drawers open, files scattered, and the blotter stained with a spilt bottle of black ink lay on the floor along with a broken desk lamp, the plaster cup that Liesl had made in school and given to him to hold his pencils, and the nameplate that identified him as professor of natural sciences.

It took time to sift through all the papers and file folders scattered around the room, but she was fairly certain that whoever had searched the office had already taken any incriminating documents. She glanced at a wall clock and saw that it was nearly eleven. Classes would be letting out soon, and the halls would be filled with students. She picked up the heavy black receiver of the telephone that sat precariously on a corner of the desk and dialed the apartment.

As soon as her uncle answered, she uttered two words and quickly hung up the phone. “Go now,” she whispered, and she knew that he would understand.

Knowing she needed to get away from his office without being noticed, she stepped into the hallway and looked both ways before setting the door open to the degree it had been when she arrived. She could go down a back stairway, but she still hoped that perhaps Josef had arrived late for Professor Huber’s lecture and she could warn him so that he could get to safety.

On tiptoe to keep her leather heels from echoing on the tile floor, she ran to the end of the hallway and edged close enough to the balustrade that she could see the floors below her and the main lobby. A few students were leaving their classroom as others began drifting in for their eleven o’clock lectures. Willi and Traute were just leaving the building. Beth called out to them and again they waved but left the building without stopping to visit.

A moment later she saw Hans and Sophie enter the large reception area below her. One was carrying a suitcase she recognized as one they used to store leaflets and the other carried a briefcase. They started up the stairs and headed along a corridor, leaving leaflets outside classroom doors. Then together they ran to the very top floor of the building.

Beth had little time for worrying about Hans and Sophie. She had her own problems. She hurried across the lobby, intent on catching up with Willi and Traute. Josef and Willi had the same class schedule, and she knew that their next class was in a building closer to the hospital. If she could just catch the same streetcar that Willi and Traute were no doubt catching, she could find Josef and go with him straight to the train station. There was still time to meet up with her aunt and uncle and Liesl. There was still time to escape Munich.

There was still time.

But just as she reached the main floor, a shower of white papers rained down around her and the other students. She caught one and glanced up in time to see Hans and Sophie shaking the last of the latest White Rose leaflets from the suitcase. Immediately the custodian that she’d seen sweeping when she arrived raced up the stairway toward them, shouting for them to stay where they were. At the same time, uniformed students automatically took up positions blocking the exits. There was nothing she could do for Hans and Sophie, so she ran for the one exit that was still unguarded.

As other students crowded into the hallways on all floors, straining to see what the commotion might be about, Beth glanced back once at Sophie and Hans. Amazingly they had made no attempt to flee but rather stood patiently waiting for the custodian to reach them. When Beth looked back, the exit was blocked.

An eerie silence punctuated only by the shrill whine of arriving police and Gestapo vehicles settled over the crowd. No one spoke except in whispers as everyone watched the brother and sister being marched into a nearby office. Police began pouring into the building, followed by a phalanx of storm troopers. Near her, Beth saw some students pick up a copy of the leaflet and then drop it instantly as if it might scald them. A few others took the leaflet, scanned it, and then quickly hid it inside a book or pocket before heading for the exit. Next to her the policeman stationed at the exit pushed forward to collar one such student, and Beth saw her chance to slip away from the building. But before she could, a storm trooper stepped in front of the door.

Outside the whine of arriving Gestapo and more police vehicles drowned out any attempt at conversation. Those students and faculty who had been intent on getting away as quickly as possible could now only wait and watch as Gestapo agents strode into the building followed by an entourage of SS officers. In the hushed silence that followed the agents’ entrance, somewhere outside a clock chimed the half hour.

Beth scanned the crowd. She had to believe that Josef had not attended the lecture, for surely he would have left earlier with his friends. On the other hand he could still be here. Above her she saw Professor Huber. She moved slowly through the crowd but saw no sign of Josef.
Where are you? Why weren’t you with Willi and Traute?

Careful not to draw attention to herself, she worked her way back up the stairs to the top floor, deserted except for a lone police officer who did not see her. He moved from room to room—trying doors that were locked, opening those that were not, and rounding up any students inside. Still no sign of Josef.

She hid behind a column until the policeman passed and then edged her way back to the main floor so that she could disappear into the crowd. She had just spotted another member of the White Rose— Gisela Schertling, Hans’s current girlfriend—when the tenor of the whispered conversations around her shifted into silence.

Beth edged around a gathering of students and saw Hans and Sophie being led away. As they passed, Hans called out to Gisela, “Tell him I won’t be coming this evening.”

Beth recalled that this was the day Hans was supposed to meet with Falk Harnack to discuss the two resistance groups joining forces. As Hans and Sophie were led away, several students made a show of taunting them while others cheered the arrests. Beth could not help thinking how foolish they had all been to think that these students—some of them no doubt the very ones who had protested against the government only weeks earlier—would stand with them now.

And still they were held captive inside the building. Beth realized it could be hours before they were allowed to leave. She saw her former neighbor Werner guarding a side door and edged her way toward him. She gave him a weak smile and then sat down on the floor nearby, holding her head as if in pain.