Safe Haven

by Anna Schmidt

  “Yes. Do you know her?”

  “Yes. She was instrumental in getting our friend Anja and the American airman she had rescued to safety. Anja speaks of her often.” She turned to Suzanne. “Anja and Josef and I escaped from a Nazi camp together and then helped Allied airmen get back to England on one of the escape routes that ran across Europe through France and Spain and on to Gibraltar. She and Peter—the American—were married and have been our neighbors the entire time we’ve been in England.”

  “Small world,” Theo’s father murmured, shaking his head as if he could not quite believe what Beth was saying.

  “The children are cold,” Ellie reminded them. “We should get going.”

  On the taxi ride to the train station, Suzanne rode with Ellie and Paul and the children, insisting that Theo needed to ride with Beth and Josef so sister and brother could catch up.

  The overnight train ride took on the trappings of a party as they shared stories, enjoyed their first dinner together in years, and took turns entertaining the children. They slept sitting up, and Suzanne woke the following morning thinking that in many ways this must have been how Ilse and Franz had felt on that train so many months earlier. For like them, she and Theo were on the verge of a new life—one that hopefully they would find a way to share.

  For this stay in Oswego, they had rooms at the hotel. Selma’s boardinghouse was once again full, and she and her son were leaving on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas with family in Buffalo. As the train pulled into the station, Beth let out a gasp. “It’s Aunt Ilse and Liesl,” she said, grasping Josef’s arm and pointing out the window.

  Sure enough, Ilse and Liesl were scanning the windows of the train, looking for them. The reunion was noisy, with shouts and tears and laughter and hugs. “Oh, this is just the best Christmas ever,” Liesl cried as she hugged Beth as if she might never again let her cousin go.

  Suzanne felt her eyes well with tears as she stood to one side, witnessing the happy reunion. But then she saw Gordon Langford striding toward her.

  “We got him,” he announced, ignoring Theo and the rest of the Bridgewater family. “He’s in custody here, and the local police chief called me right away. This is it, dollface. This is the break we’ve been waiting for.” He picked her up and swung her around and then planted a kiss on her lips.

  In the seconds it took for this to all transpire, Suzanne saw her world crumbling before her eyes. Ellie was looking at her with an expression akin to horror. Paul was making a detailed study of his feet. Ilse had her fist shoved against her lips while Liesl peppered her with questions. But the worst of all was the expression on Theo’s face. He stared at her as if she were someone he did not know—had never known—and then he steered his family away.

  “Put me down,” she ordered Gordon. “Do you have any idea what you have just done? Do you ever have a single thought in your head for anyone except yourself?”

  She was furious and embarrassed and scared.

  Gordon released her and shoved his fists into the pockets of his overcoat. “Maybe you didn’t understand what I just said.”

  “Detlef Buch has been captured. I got it, Gordon. Those people walking away from us are his family—his son, his daughter-in-law, her parents and brother, and—”

  His eyes widened. “And you and the brother …” He was clearly beginning to put two and two together. “No wonder you knew so much about the Nazi.”

  She saw Josef coming their way. “Just please for once in your life shut up, Gordon, and let me try to explain.”

  But Josef confronted Gordon. “Where is my father being held?”

  “He is in custody with the local police, Josef,” Suzanne said. “I’m certain that—”

  Josef ignored her and took a step closer to Gordon. “You will take me to him immediately.”

  “No can do. He’s being transferred to the nearest military installation tonight.”

  “I’ll take you to police headquarters,” Theo said as he joined them and gently took hold of Josef’s arm.

  “I’ll go with you,” Suzanne said.

  “That won’t be necessary,” Theo said and walked away, gathering the members of his family and signaling for taxis.

  “Do you have any idea what you have done?” Suzanne muttered as she brushed past Gordon to try and catch up with them.

  Theo and his family had taken the last two cabs, so Suzanne picked up her suitcase, walked to the hotel, and checked in. But once she had tipped the porter and hung up her coat, she returned to the lobby. She was going to make sure that she knew the moment Theo returned. She only hoped that he would give her a chance to explain.

  Ilse stayed with Beth and Ellie and the children while the men were led through a locked door to the cell where Detlef was being held until it was time for him to be transferred. She was astonished at the change in Beth. Gone was the headstrong and sometimes flighty girl she had known in Munich, and in her place stood this composed and serene young woman. She had blossomed into a person of substance and was clearly as devoted to Josef as he was to her. Ilse could not help thinking how that would surely please Detlef.

  She realized that she must seem just as changed to Beth. The woman she had been during the time Beth lived with them in Munich was long gone. Once Franz had been arrested and sentenced to prison, she had had to do everything including realizing that Beth would not be with her to watch over Liesl. In those dark days she had had no one but herself.

  “Who are you?” Beth’s daughter, Gabrielle, asked. The toddler spoke with an English accent.

  “I am your mother’s aunt and that would make me your great-aunt.”

  The child broke into a huge grin. “This is excellent,” she announced.

  Ilse smiled. “I agree.”

  “What shall I call you?”

  Ilse was taken by this pint-sized child’s curiosity. “Perhaps Auntie?”

  “Auntie,” she declared. “That is excellent.”

  “It’s her favorite word these days,” Beth said as she pulled the child onto her lap and glanced anxiously toward the closed door. “Aunt Ilse?”

  “They will be all right, Beth. This is not the same as in Germany.”

  “I know. Still, one worries,” Beth said with a wry smile. “Josef and I had hoped for another venue for sharing this, but we have learned to give and receive news as it comes.”

  Ilse felt her heart begin to race. “You have news of Marta?”

  Beth pulled an envelope from her purse and handed it to Ilse. “We have this letter—addressed to you.”

  Ilse’s hands shook as she accepted the envelope and opened it. Inside was a single sheet of letterhead from a branch of the Religious Order of Friends in France. She scanned the typed message, looking for words that would deliver the news she wanted—needed to know.

  “They are safe,” she whispered. Her heart pounded. “Marta and the children are living in a small village in France. Marta is helping a group of nuns run an orphanage.” She referred back to the letter, reading it more carefully now. “The person who has signed this letter is sending a letter to Marta with your address but has also given me the address for the orphanage so that I can write Marta.” She clutched the letter to her chest and gazed at Beth. “My sister,” she whispered, her heart so full that there seemed to be no place she could put one more ounce of joy.

  “We can send a telegram, Ilse,” Beth said. “Just to let her know you have received this news and that a letter will follow. I’m sure the hotel’s concierge can help us with that.”

  “Yes, this is good.” Ilse smiled. “Thank you.” She took hold of Beth’s hand. “I have missed you so much, and when we heard of how brave you were and how you helped others, your uncle Franz was so very proud.”

  Beth’s eyes glistened with tears. “I just wish he were here.”

  The locked door opened, and all three women stood up. Josef was speaking to a man in military uniform. Paul went immediately to Ellie. “Theo?” Ilse asked.


  “He is in custody and will be transferred.”

  “We knew that,” Beth said impatiently. “Is he to be sent back to stand trial?”

  “He is a war criminal, Beth, but there is some possibility that our government may intervene.”

  “That man at the train station?”

  Theo shrugged. “No one is saying for sure. What we do know is that he will be transferred later tonight, and after that …”

  “I wish to speak with him,” Ilse said quietly.

  “I’m not sure that’s wise, Ilse.”

  But her mind was made up. She stepped up to the officer speaking with Josef. “The man you have in custody saved my family’s lives,” she announced. “I should like to thank him.”

  “Ma’am, we really cannot—”

  “Yes, you can,” Ilse insisted. “It is a simple matter of escorting me to the cell where you are holding him. This may be my only opportunity. It is important for him to know that with all the evil he may have been party to, at least in our case—and in the case of my niece there—he did the right thing.”

  Two soldiers stood guard on either side of the locked door. The officer glanced at them and then back at Ilse. “Two minutes,” he said and nodded to the guards.

  The corridor beyond the locked door was narrow and dimly lit. The guards led her past a couple of empty cells to one at the very rear of the hall. They positioned themselves to either side of the locked door. She stepped between them and touched the cold metal of the bars. “Detlef?”

  He was sitting on a narrow cot, his face buried in his hands. He looked up and then stood and came to meet her. “This is a pleasant surprise,” he said.

  “You look terrible. Are you unwell?”

  He smiled and ran one shaky hand through his thinning hair. “It is the fate of one who spends several weeks living by his wits with winter coming on. You, on the other hand, look quite well.”

  “What is to become of you?”

  He shrugged. “There is perhaps a possibility that I may redeem myself enough to avoid a death sentence. These Americans seem inordinately interested in learning whatever it is I may know about the Reich.”

  Ilse thought of the man at the station and suddenly had a thought—one she did not wish to entertain. “Did Suzanne—”

  “Turn me in? No, Ilse. We were working together to try and gather the information you needed to find your sister. She knew this congressman who approached her about gathering information from me for his own career advancement, I believe. Suzanne decided to make a trade—information from me for information about your sister. Overall, it worked out quite well, it seems. Josef tells me that Marta and the children are safe in France.”

  “Suzanne did that? For me?”

  “And for your nephew. She is quite in love with him, although she seems incapable of understanding how fragile love can be.”

  He had rested his fingers lightly on the bars. Ilse wrapped hers around his. “You did agree to her plan? For me? You were always doing things for us—Beth, Franz, me—why?”

  Detlef released a long breath. “Perhaps it was because in your niece and my son I saw the possibility of a love story like my own with Josef’s mother—one that had a happier ending. Perhaps in Franz I saw the remnants of the man I once thought I was—courageous in the face of unspeakable wrong. Perhaps once Franz died and I realized you faced such uncertainty for your future I wanted to find a way to give you something.”

  She realized that he was weeping. His voice was strong, but there was no denying the tears that leaked down the lines etched in his face.

  “Ma’am …” One of the young soldiers glanced at the clock over the door.

  “I have to go,” Ilse said. “But I wanted you to know that I am so very grateful to have known you.”

  Detlef laced her fingers with his. “It is I who am in your debt, Frau Schneider. Take care of my son—and my grandchildren—” His voice broke. He released her fingers and turned away.

  “Ma’am.”

  “Yes, all right.” The soldiers waited for her to precede them down the hall. “I will write to you, Herr Buch,” she called over her shoulder.

  “Yes, please,” he called back.

  To Theo’s relief Liesl insisted they go to the fort so she could show Josef and Beth everything and introduce them to Gisele. He really did not want to think about Suzanne or why she had chosen not to mention her renewed connection to Gordon Langford. He fought hard to suppress the myriad negative feelings he was experiencing—feelings of jealousy and betrayal and anger.

  But Beth’s children were tired after their long journey and needed to be put to bed for the night. For that matter, it had been an emotionally exhausting day for everyone. His mother had been sending concerned glances his way ever since they’d left the station.

  “I’m fine, Mom,” he assured her.

  “I know. It’s just that Oswego is a small town, and the hotel is—”

  “Maybe Suzanne decided to return to Washington,” Paul suggested.

  “One can only hope.” Ellie sighed.

  But when they got back to the hotel, Suzanne was waiting. She fixed her gaze on Theo, ignoring the others. To his relief his dad steered his mom straight to the elevator, and Beth and her family followed.

  At the fort, Ilse had taken him aside and told him what Detlef had said. But what Theo could not erase from his mind was the way Gordon Langford had kissed Suzanne—there had been a familiarity and possessiveness in that kiss.

  “Will you give me a chance to explain?” Suzanne asked.

  Theo stared at her for a long moment—this woman he cared for more deeply than he had ever cared for anyone. “All right.” He led the way to a couple of wing back chairs nears the windows that faced the street. Holiday lights blinked in shop windows that had closed for the night.

  She began by telling him about the first dinner with Gordon in this very hotel. “He wanted me to—”

  “I know all that. Detlef explained it all to Ilse. The question is, why didn’t you tell me? Why get involved again with someone who had hurt you so badly before?”

  “I didn’t get involved with him—not in the way you’re implying.”

  He thought about the kiss on the platform. “Coulda fooled me.”

  “I seem to remember a similar ambush at Selma’s—one where you kissed me without my permission.”

  “And as I recall you kissed me back. How about today, Suzanne, did you kiss Langford back?”

  She slumped back in the chair and stared out the window as he did the same.

  The hotel lobby featured a fireplace and a large console radio. At the fort they had heard that President Truman planned to address the nation later that evening, and it was rumored that his topic would be immigration.

  “Do you folks mind?” the desk clerk asked as he approached the radio and turned it on.

  The president began speaking generally about the numbers of men, women, and children displaced and left homeless by the war. He spoke of the responsibility of all nations to care for and support such individuals. He focused on orphaned children and also on how America needed to set an example. And then he said, “There is one particular matter involving a relatively small number of aliens. President Roosevelt, in an endeavor to assist in handling displaced persons and refugees during the war and upon the recommendation of the War Refugee Board, directed that a group of about one thousand displaced persons be removed from refugee camps in Italy and settled temporarily in a War Relocation Camp near Oswego, New York. Shortly thereafter, President Roosevelt informed the Congress that these persons would be returned to their homelands after the war.

  “Upon the basis of a careful survey by the Department of State and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, it has been determined that if these persons were now applying for admission to the United States, most of them would be admissible under the immigration laws. In the circumstances, it would be inhumane and wasteful to require these people to go all the way
back to Europe merely for the purpose of applying there for immigration visas and returning to the United States. Many of them have close relatives, including sons and daughters, who are citizens of the United States and who have served and are serving honorably in the armed forces of our country. I am therefore directing the secretary of state and the attorney general to adjust the immigration status of the members of this group who may wish to remain here, in strict accordance with existing laws and regulations.”

  Theo was not sure he had heard the president correctly, but Suzanne had no doubt.

  “They get to stay,” she said. “Oh, Theo, they can stay or go or—”

  It was over.

  “I’m going to the fort,” Suzanne announced. She took the elevator up and retrieved her boots, coat, hat, and gloves. When she returned to the lobby Theo was waiting for her.

  “Can I come with you?”

  They could hear the celebration from a block away. Apparently everyone had decided to gather on the parade ground in spite of the snow. Someone had built a bonfire, and people were laughing and dancing and hugging one another.

  Theo and Suzanne stood off to one side, observing the celebration for several minutes. Then Theo took her hand. “Come with me,” he said and led her to a spot behind the barracks that overlooked the lake and the lighthouse that was situated several hundred yards offshore. Between the illumination of the full moon and the glow of the bonfire, they were bathed in light.

  “Look, I love you,” Theo said.” And if you love me as well, then we can work through this.” He reached in his coat pocket and took out a long and slender jeweler’s box. “I had planned to offer this as an engagement present, but under the circumstances I think perhaps we each need to follow the paths before us—you off to write stories for the Times and me off to help refugees in Europe with the AFSC. But while we’re finding out whether or not our paths were meant to simply cross or run side by side, I’d like you to have this.”

  He pulled off his glove with his teeth and opened the hinged velvet box, removed a heart-shaped crystal pendant on a thin silver chain, and offered it to her.