The Runaway Family

by Diney Costeloe

  Ruth watched from her perch on the statue, unable to get down, unable to escape and slip away to the safety of her home. Trapped in the middle of the mass rally, she had to remain where she was until the parades were over and the crowd began to disperse. The young man who had hauled her up now made a space beside him, so that although she still clung on to the statue she was able to lean against its base.

  “I think we’ll be here for some time,” he said, “so we may as well try and get more comfortable.”

  Ruth smiled and thanked him. He held out his hand and said, “My name is Peter Walder.”

  “Peter,” she repeated. “My son’s name.”

  Peter grinned at her. “Good choice!” he said. “And you are?”

  “Helga,” Ruth said after a moment’s hesitation, “Helga Heber.” In that split second of hesitation, she decided not to use her own, Jewish-sounding name. Her mother’s more Aryan name was safer. They shook hands, each of them hanging on to the statue with the other hand.

  “Isn’t he amazing?” Peter demanded, his eyes still glowing with the excitement of the past hour. “Isn’t he just amazing?”

  “Unbelievable,” Ruth agreed truthfully.

  “What a leader! What a man to follow! And an Austrian! Can you believe it? An Austrian is the most powerful man in Europe?”

  “Unbelievable,” Ruth murmured again.

  “With the Führer leading us, we Germans from all over Europe will be united!” Peter asserted. “Won’t that be wonderful? All Germans equal citizens!”

  “That would be a dream come true,” Ruth said carefully.

  “Your Peter will grow up in a brand-new world,” Peter enthused. “He will be able to take his rightful place in the world! And we were here to see the start of it, you and I! Imagine! If I’d gone to my lecture at the university today as I should have done, I’d have missed all this!”

  “What are you studying?” asked Ruth, anxious to turn the conversation away from the scene before her.

  “Law,” he replied. “I’m nearly qualified as a lawyer.”

  The parades continued around the square, the people continued to cheer, but gradually Ruth could make out a thinning in the ranks, and said, “I must try and get home. My… Peter will be wondering where I’ve got to.”

  “You should have brought him with you,” Peter said. “This is an historic day! What did the Führer say? ‘Before the face of history…’ Today is the day in Austrian history that will never be forgotten.”

  Ruth managed a smile. “I’m sure you’re right, Peter. Never forgotten.”

  He helped her to slip down from the statue, and she eased her way quickly into the crowds, anxious to get away from the Heldenplatz as fast as she possibly could. Once she glanced back. She could see Peter Walder still standing on the statue. He had climbed higher and now stood, one arm round the horse’s leg, the other waving, shouting in furious joy as the mob saluted their beloved Führer yet again.

  “Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!”

  God help us, Ruth thought as she threaded her way through the masses round her, God help us if all the young Austrians think as he does… and he’s going to be a lawyer!

  Once she was clear of the square and the surrounding streets, Ruth almost ran back to the apartment. What she had seen this day had made her realise just what she and all the other Jews in Vienna were up against, and it absolutely terrified her.

  She thought of Kurt. It had been so wonderful to hear his voice on the phone. New hope had surged through her. She’d walked back to the flat after his call, her feet scarcely touching the ground. He was coming to her, to be with her and the children again, a proper family. She didn’t tell the children, or even Helga, she simply hugged the secret of his return to herself. She could almost feel his body against hers. For that one night, Ruth had been overflowing with happiness, her eyes alight with the joy of her secret. The next evening all her hopes had been dashed. Germany had grabbed Austria, dragging it into the new and ever-expanding German Empire. The Nazis had arrived, joining with those already carefully placed in the Austrian government. The Nazis had swept into power, backed by the German army that had marched across the border. Ruth and her family were no safer now than they had been in Kirnheim or Munich.

  13

  The evening of the rally in the Heldenplatz, David went to see his father. His parents were surprised to see him, but when he had drunk a cup of coffee with his mother, he said that he needed a word with his father, if she would excuse them.

  Marta Bernstein, who was quite used to the men retiring to Friedrich’s study for a brandy, agreed readily enough and returned to her embroidery.

  “Well, David? What’s this all about?” Friedrich dropped into his favourite chair in front of the fire. His study was his refuge, the place where he was never allowed to be disturbed by the rest of the household, and the fire was always made up and the room warm.

  David poured them each a generous brandy and carried one of the glasses over to his father. Taking the other to a chair across the fire from him, he raised his glass, looking at the flames through the amber spirit.

  “I’ll tell you what it’s about,” he said. “After what has happened today…”

  “What has happened today?”

  “This welcoming rally for Hitler in the Heldenplatz… I think we should seriously consider leaving.”

  “Leaving?” Friedrich looked up in surprise. “Leaving Vienna?”

  “Not leaving Vienna,” David said patiently. “I mean leaving Austria. You said yourself that it was a good thing Berta wasn’t here, that she was safely in England. Perhaps we should be getting the other children out, too.” He took a sip of his brandy, and then went on, “Ruth came to see me earlier this evening.”

  “Ruth? And what has she to say to anything?”

  “She was in the Heldenplatz this morning and…”

  “More fool her!”

  “Father, will you listen, please! I know you don’t think much of Edith’s family, but over the last few weeks I’ve grown to have a great deal of respect for Ruth.”

  He thought again of the conversation he had had with his sister-in-law earlier in the evening. She had arrived at the house, and asked Anna if David was in. He had said he would call Edith, but Ruth had stopped him.

  “No, David, don’t call Edith yet. It’s you I need to talk to.”

  “I see. Well, I suppose you’d better come into my study then.” He had led her into the comfortable room off the hall where he, like his father, found refuge from his family. Despite the fact that spring was definitely in the air, there was a fire burning brightly in the grate, and Ruth went eagerly to warm her hands.

  David closed the door behind them. She’s going to ask me for another loan, he thought sourly. He gave her a tight smile and said, “Well now, Ruth, what can I do for you?”

  “Do for me?” Ruth echoed. “Nothing, David. I’ve not come to ask you for a favour, I’ve come to tell you what I saw today and to warn you…”

  “Warn me? Warn me about what?” David waved her to a chair. “You’d better sit down and tell me what this is all about.”

  Ruth sat, and still holding her hands out to the warmth of the fire, told him what had happened to her that morning.

  “What I’ve come to tell you, David, is that you and Edith and the children should get out while you can. Your parents, too. You’ve got enough money to go anywhere in the world. You should leave Austria while you still can.”

  “I see. Well, thank you for that bit of advice, Ruth,” David replied coolly. “I’ll bear it in mind.”

  “Look, David,” Ruth didn’t trouble to hide her irritation at his tone, “I know you aren’t particularly fond of any of Edith’s family, but like it or not we are here. We’ve escaped from the Nazis once, we’ve lived through what they do to Jews. What I saw today terrified me. All Austria was welcoming Hitler, and what the Nazis have been doing in Germany is going to happen here. I tell you this, David, if
I could afford to get my family away from Vienna, out of Austria, I would do it. I would do it tomorrow.” She got to her feet then, and walked to the door. “Life is going to change out of all recognition from now. You’re in a position to do something, if you act fast. That’s all I came to say. Good afternoon.”

  She had left the room closing the door softly behind her, leaving David staring after her. He heard voices in the hall, Edith greeting Ruth with surprise, not knowing she was in the house, and then there was the sound of the front door closing. David moved to the window and saw Ruth striding off down the street, her coat held closely about her against the chill in the wind. He had to admit she had earned his respect the way she had brought her children out of Germany to the safety of Vienna, and how she had set herself to provide for her family since they had arrived. She had hardly called on his generosity at all, and the loans Edith had made her were all being paid back. Partly that irritated him, women in his circles did not take jobs in a haberdashery, but loath as he was to admit it, even to himself, it impressed him. He wished Edith showed as much spirit sometimes.

  He sat down by the fire again and considered what she had told him. He realised things were not going to be easy from now, but as a well-established figure in Viennese society, he didn’t think he or his family were in danger… not in any real sense. And yet… Ruth had been serious about her warning, and she spoke from bitter experience.

  “She’s a strong and determined woman,” David said to his father now.

  “More than can be said for your wife,” Friedrich snorted.

  “Father! For God’s sake let’s not go into all that again. Listen to what I am telling you now. Let’s face it, Father, we’ve seen the way things have been going these last few weeks. We shouldn’t have been surprised by Friday’s announcement. Schuschnigg had been gradually giving in to Nazi demands for the past two months. He was never strong enough to take on Hitler… or our own Nazis, for that matter.” David shook his head. “No, Father, it could well be time to get the children out, and fast.”

  “You’d all have to go,” stated his father. “You could hardly send the children somewhere else on their own! Would you leave your home, your work, the rest of your family, just like that?”

  “You and Mother could come as well. We’d all go.”

  “Just desert Austria, you mean? I never took you for a coward before, David!”

  David sighed. “Father, I’m not a coward, I’m simply being realistic. Look at what happened to Ruth and her family. They were turned out of their home more than once, and they finally had to buy their way out of Germany. She’s now living in three rooms in a tenement block, hoping Kurt can escape and find her.”

  “She was married to a shopkeeper,” grumbled Friedrich, “a nobody. They aren’t going to do the same to the likes of you, a well-known orthopaedic surgeon.”

  “We don’t know that,” David replied. “Yes, Kurt was arrested, so what happens if they arrest me… or you? How would Mother, or Edith manage?”

  “Why would they arrest me?” demanded Friedrich.

  “Because, Father, you’re a Jew.” David looked across at his father. Sitting upright in his chair, he stared back at David out of deep-set dark eyes, his nose prominent above a mouth hidden by his luxuriant white beard. His hair was combed back from his high forehead, and he wore his koppel on the back of his head. He looked as he had always looked to David, but now viewing him through the eyes of an Austrian, rather than a son, David could see that he was the archetypal Jew, the Jew of the caricatures and cartoons that had been filling the German newspapers for four years or more.

  “It’s just something we ought to think about,” David said at last. “We have to try and protect our own. After all it’s quite possible that I won’t have my job at the hospital for very long.”

  “Why ever not? They’ll still need doctors.”

  “I know, but Jewish doctors in Germany are only allowed to treat Jewish patients now. The same thing could happen here.”

  “Well, we don’t have to rush into anything. We’ve plenty of time to think about it,” Friedrich announced, getting to his feet. “Now, I must have my quiet time.”

  David stood up, too. “I’ve got to get back,” he said. “But do think about what I’ve said, and we’ll discuss it again soon.” He left his father, already turning to his books, and quietly let himself out of the apartment. He didn’t go in to say goodnight to his mother, she would have quizzed him on the reason for his visit, and he wasn’t ready to discuss the idea with her yet. Friedrich, he knew, would spend the rest of the evening studying his books.

  David had long since given up study of the scriptures. He considered himself Austrian first and Jew second, only attending the synagogue near Liechtenstein Park with his family on special occasions, but he had seen what had been going on in Germany, and had heard firsthand from Ruth what was happening to the Jews there. What she had told him today simply reinforced what she had said before. He had no illusions, things were about to change, but how much and in what way he was far less certain, and taking the family out of Austria was a huge decision, not one to be taken lightly.

  It was two weeks later that he received a telephone call at the hospital. Edith was on the line, sobbing so hard as she spoke that he couldn’t make out what she was saying. All he could hear were the words “Come home! You must come home, now!”

  He went at once, for there was a note of hysteria in her voice that he’d never heard before. When he reached the house he found his mother there, looking extremely pale, her eyes wide with fear. She held a cup and saucer in her hands, but they were shaking so much that the cup rattled against the saucer and the tea slurped over the rim of the cup onto the front of her skirt. She appeared not to notice, simply sat, shaking, as David greeted Edith and asked what on earth was going on.

  “It’s the Nazis, they’ve taken your father and…”

  “Taken my father? Where? Where have they taken him?”

  Edith wrung her hands. “We don’t know! They simply took him away when he started to argue…”

  “Argue about what? Edith, for goodness’ sake pull yourself together and tell me exactly what has happened.”

  “The Nazis want Oma and Opa’s apartment.” David hadn’t realised that Paul was in the room, but he turned to him now. His son was standing in a corner by the window, watching the street below. His face was pale, but he seemed calm enough.

  “All right, Paul. You tell me.”

  “There are some top-brass Nazis who’ve arrived in Vienna and need places to live. They’re simply taking them. They’ve found out where rich Jews live and they are just turning them out and moving in. When Opa said they couldn’t have the apartment, they sent some soldiers. The soldiers pushed Oma out into the street and marched Opa away. Maria was still in the apartment, and she came out with Oma’s coat and bag. The soldiers told Maria that she could pack one suitcase for Oma, and then she was to go back into the apartment and get it ready for its new owners.” Paul fell silent as he came to the end of his story.

  “What are we going to do?” cried Edith. “What are we going to do?”

  “First you’re going take Mother upstairs to her room and make her comfortable. Then ask Cook to make her some nice hot soup.” He looked at his panic-stricken wife. “Come on, Edith, you’ve got to be strong. Dissolving into tears isn’t going to help anyone.” He turned to his son. “You stay here with your mother,” he said, then on a sudden thought asked, “Where’s Naomi?”

  “She’s having tea at Hilda’s.”

  “Right, well I want her home straightaway.” David went to the door to call Anna, and found her on the point of coming in. “Ah, Anna. I want you to go round to Frau Schweiz’s. Collect Miss Naomi and bring her home at once. If necessary you can say there is an illness in the family, but she must come home at once.”

  Anna glanced at the old lady sitting, still shaking in the chair, and gave a half-smile. “Yes, sir. Of course, sir,�
�� she said, and left the room.

  “What about your father?” Edith had slumped into an armchair beside her mother-in-law. She looked up at David now, her eyes huge and staring in the whiteness of her face.

  “I’ll try and find out where they’ve taken him and see if I can get him released. I’m sure they’ll let him go again now that they’ve made their point.” David sounded far more assured than he felt. He had no idea how to find his father, or whether they, whoever they were, might release him. All he could do was go first to the police and work from there.

  His car and driver, Jacob, were still waiting for him outside and he had himself driven straight to the local police station. Although it wasn’t in the same area as his parents’ apartment, he went there because he knew the local police chief.

  “Wait here,” he told Jacob, and went inside in search of Superintendent Müller.

  When he asked for the superintendent, the desk officer looked him up and down and said, “Who shall I say wants him?”

  “Dr David Bernstein.”

  “Wait here.”

  The officer disappeared and was gone some time. David waited in the front office. There was nowhere to sit down, so he stood, reading the posters up on the walls. One or two were quite old dealing with reported crime from several months ago; another explained how to register for the plebiscite that had been planned for Monday 13th March, but most of them were new, and mostly related to restrictions for Jews. Jews were not allowed to attend Austrian schools. Jews were to register as Jews on pain of deportation. Jews were not allowed to shop in Austrian shops. Jews were allowed to ride only in certain parts of public transport. David read them all and then read them again. He knew of many of the directives, but had not really understood the number of them, nor the heavy restrictions. Jews no longer had any rights as citizens, because they were no longer citizens.