Winter of the World

by Ken Follett

  He said: "But these people torture and kill everyone who disagrees with them!" He thought of Jorg. "I've seen it for myself, in Berlin. I was in one of their camps, briefly. I was forced to watch while a naked man was savaged to death by starving dogs. That's the kind of thing your Fascist friends do."

  She was unintimidated. "And who, exactly, has been killed by Fascists here in England recently?"

  "The British Fascists haven't got the power yet--but your Mosley admires Hitler. If they ever get the chance they'll do exactly the same as the Nazis."

  "You mean they will eliminate unemployment and give the people pride and hope."

  Lloyd was drawn to her so powerfully that it broke his heart to hear her spouting this rubbish. "You know what the Nazis have done to the family of your friend Eva."

  "Eva got married, did you know?" Daisy said, in the determinedly cheerful tone of one who tries to switch a dinner-table conversation to a more agreeable topic. "To nice Jimmy Murray. She's an English wife now."

  "And her parents?"

  Daisy looked away. "I don't know them."

  "But you know what the Nazis have done to them." Eva had told Lloyd all about it at the Trinity Ball. "Her father is no longer allowed to practise medicine--he's working as an assistant in a pharmacy. He can't enter a park or a public library. His father's name has been scraped off the war memorial in his home village!" Lloyd realized he had raised his voice. More quietly he said: "How can you possibly stand side by side with people who do such things?"

  She looked troubled, but she did not answer his question. Instead she said: "I'm late already. Please excuse me."

  "What you're doing can't be excused."

  The chauffeur said: "All right, sonny, that's enough."

  He was a heavy middle-aged man who evidently took little exercise, and Lloyd was not in the least intimidated, but he did not want to start a fight. "I'm leaving," he said in a mild tone. "But don't call me sonny."

  The chauffeur took his arm.

  Lloyd said: "You'd better take your hand off me, or I'll knock you down before I go." He looked into the chauffeur's face.

  The chauffeur hesitated. Lloyd tensed, preparing to react, watching for warning signs, as he would in the boxing ring. If the chauffeur tried to hit him, it would be a great swinging haymaker of a blow, easily dodged.

  But the man either sensed Lloyd's readiness or felt the well-developed muscle in the arm he was holding; for one reason or the other he backed off and released his grip, saying: "No need for threats."

  Daisy walked away.

  Lloyd looked at her back in the perfectly fitting uniform as she hurried toward the ranks of the Fascists. With a deep sigh of frustration he turned and went in the other direction.

  He tried to concentrate on the job at hand. What a fool he had been to threaten the chauffeur. If he had got into a fight he would probably have been arrested, then he would have spent the day in a police cell--and how would that have helped defeat Fascism?

  It was now half past twelve. He left Tower Hill, found a telephone box, called the Jewish People's Council, and spoke to Bernie. After he reported what he had seen, Bernie told him to make an estimate of the number of policemen in the streets between the Tower and Gardiner's Corner.

  He crossed to the east side of the park and explored the radiating side streets. What he saw astonished him.

  He had expected a hundred or so police. In fact there were thousands.

  They stood lining the pavements, waited in dozens of parked buses, and sat astride huge horses in remarkably neat rows. Only a narrow gap was left for people who wanted to walk along the streets. There were more police than Fascists.

  From inside one of the buses, a uniformed constable gave him the Hitler salute.

  Lloyd was dismayed. If all these policemen sided with the Fascists, how could the counterdemonstrators resist them?

  This was worse than a Fascist march: it was a Fascist march with police authority. What kind of message did that send to the Jews of the East End?

  In Mansell Street he saw a beat policeman he knew, Henry Clarke. "Hello, Nobby," he said. For some reason all Clarkes were called Nobby. "A copper just gave me the Hitler salute."

  "They're not from round here," Nobby said quietly, as if revealing a confidence. "They don't live with Jews like I do. I tell them Jews are the same as everyone else, mostly decent law-abiding people, a few villains and troublemakers. But they don't believe me."

  "All the same . . . the Hitler salute?"

  "Might have been a joke."

  Lloyd did not think so.

  He left Nobby and moved on. The police were forming cordons where the side streets entered the area around Gardiner's Corner, he saw.

  He went into a pub with a phone--he had scouted all the available telephones the day before--and told Bernie there were at least five thousand policemen in the neighborhood. "We can't resist that many coppers," he said gloomily.

  "Don't be so sure," Bernie said. "Have a look at Gardiner's Corner."

  Lloyd found a way around the police cordon and joined the counterdemonstration. It was not until he got into the middle of the street outside Gardiner's that he could appreciate the full extent of the crowd.

  It was the largest gathering of people he had ever seen.

  The five-way junction was jammed, but that was the least of it. The crowd stretched east along Whitechapel High Street as far as the eye could see. Commercial Road, which ran southeast, was also crammed. Leman Street, where the police station stood, was impenetrable.

  There must be a hundred thousand people here, Lloyd thought. He wanted to throw his hat in the air and cheer. East Enders had come out in force to repel the Fascists. There could be no doubt about their feelings now.

  In the middle of the junction stood a stationary tram, abandoned by its driver and passengers.

  Nothing could pass through this crowd, Lloyd realized with mounting optimism.

  He saw his neighbor Sean Dolan climb a lamppost and fix a red flag to its top. The Jewish Lads' Brigade brass band was playing--probably without the knowledge of the respectable conservative organizers of the club. A police aircraft flew overhead, an autogyro of some kind, Lloyd thought.

  Near the windows of Gardiner's he ran into his sister, Millie, and her friend Naomi Avery. He did not want Millie to become involved in any rough stuff; the thought chilled his heart. "Does Dad know you've come?" he said in a tone of reproof.

  She was insouciant. "Don't be daft," she replied.

  He was surprised she was there at all. "You're not usually very political," he said. "I thought you were more interested in making money."

  "I am," she said. "But this is special."

  Lloyd could imagine how upset Bernie would be if Millie got hurt. "I think you should go home."

  "Why?"

  He looked around. The crowd was amiable and peaceful. The police were some distance away, the Fascists nowhere to be seen. There would be no march today, that was clear. Mosley's people could not force their way through a crowd of a hundred thousand people determined to stop them, and the police would be insane to let them try. Millie was probably quite safe.

  Just as he was thinking this, everything changed.

  Several whistles shrilled. Looking in the direction of the sound, Lloyd saw the mounted police drawn up in an ominous line. The horses were stamping and blowing in agitation. The police had drawn long clubs shaped like swords.

  They seemed to be getting ready to attack--but surely that could not be so.

  Next moment, they charged.

  There were angry shouts and terrified screams from the people. Everyone scrambled to get out of the way of the giant horses. The crowd made a path, but those at the edge fell under the pounding hooves. The police lashed out left and right with their long clubs. Lloyd was pushed helplessly backward.

  He felt furious: What did the police think they were doing? Were they stupid enough to believe they could clear a path for Mosley to march a
long? Did they really imagine that two or three thousand Fascists chanting insults could pass through a crowd of a hundred thousand of their victims without starting a riot? Were the police led by idiots, or out of control? He was not sure which would be worse.

  They backed away, wheeling their panting horses, and regrouped, forming a ragged line; then a whistle blew and they heeled the flanks of their mounts, urging them into another reckless charge.

  Millie was scared now. She was only sixteen, and her bravado had gone. She screamed with fear as the crowd squeezed her up against the plate-glass window of Gardiner and Company. Tailor's dummies in cheap suits and winter coats stared out at the horrified crowd and the warlike riders. Lloyd was deafened by the roar of thousands of voices yelling in fearful protest. He got in front of Millie and pushed against the press with all his might, trying to protect her, but it was in vain. Despite his efforts he was crushed against her. Forty or fifty screaming people had their backs to the window, and the pressure was building dangerously.

  Lloyd realized with rage that the police were determined to make a pathway through the crowd regardless of the cost.

  A moment later there was a terrific crash of breaking glass and the window gave way. Lloyd fell on top of Millie, and Naomi fell on him. Dozens of people cried out in pain and panic.

  Lloyd struggled to his feet. Miraculously, he was unhurt. He looked around frantically for his sister. It was maddeningly difficult to distinguish the people from the tailor's dummies. Then he spotted Millie lying in a mess of broken glass. He grasped her arms and pulled her to her feet. She was crying. "My back!" she said.

  He turned her around. Her coat was cut to ribbons and there was blood all over her. He felt sick with anguish. He put his arm around her shoulders protectively. "There's an ambulance just around the corner," he said. "Can you walk?"

  They had gone only a few yards when the police whistles blew again. Lloyd was terrified that he and Millie would be shoved back into Gardiner's window. Then he remembered what Bernie had given him. He took the paper bag of marbles from his pocket.

  The police charged.

  Drawing back his arm, Lloyd threw the paper bag over the heads of the crowd to land in front of the horses. He was not the only one so equipped, and several other people threw marbles. As the horses came at them there was the sound of firecrackers. A police horse slipped on marbles and went down. Others stopped and reared at the banging of the fireworks. The police charge turned into chaos. Naomi Avery had somehow pushed to the front of the crowd, and he saw her burst a bag of pepper under the nose of a horse, causing it to veer away, shaking its head frantically.

  The crush eased, and Lloyd led Millie around the corner. She was still in pain, but she had stopped crying.

  A line of people were waiting for attention from the St. John Ambulance volunteers: a weeping girl whose hand appeared to have been crushed; several young men with bleeding heads and faces; a middle-aged woman sitting on the ground nursing a swollen knee. As Lloyd and Millie arrived, Sean Dolan walked away with a bandage around his head and went straight back into the crowd.

  A nurse looked at Millie's back. "This is bad," she said. "You need to go to the London Hospital. We'll take you in an ambulance." She looked at Lloyd. "Do you want to go with her?"

  Lloyd did, but he was supposed to be phoning in reports, and he hesitated.

  Millie solved the dilemma for him with characteristic spunk. "Don't you dare come," she said. "You can't do anything for me, and you've got important work to do here."

  She was right. He helped her into a parked ambulance. "Are you sure--?"

  "Yes, I'm sure. Try not to end up in hospital yourself."

  He was leaving her in the best hands, he decided. He kissed her cheek and returned to the fray.

  The police had changed their tactics. The people had repelled the horse charges, but the police were still determined to make a path through the crowd. As Lloyd pushed his way to the front they charged on foot, attacking with their batons. The unarmed demonstrators cowered back from them, like piled leaves in a wind, then surged forward in a different part of the line.

  The police started to arrest people, perhaps hoping to weaken the crowd's determination by taking ringleaders away. In the East End, being arrested was no legal formality. Few people came back without a black eye or a few gaps in their teeth. Leman Street police station had a particularly bad reputation.

  Lloyd found himself behind a vociferous young woman carrying a red flag. He recognized Olive Bishop, a neighbor in Nutley Street. A policeman hit her over the head with his truncheon, screaming: "Jewish whore!" She was not Jewish, and she certainly was not a whore; in fact she played the piano at the Calvary Gospel Hall. But she had forgotten the admonition of Jesus to turn the other cheek, and she scratched the cop's face, drawing parallel red lines on his skin. Two more officers grabbed her arms and held her while the scratched man hit her on the head again.

  The sight of three strong men attacking one girl maddened Lloyd. He stepped forward and hit the woman's assailant with a right hook that had all of his rage behind it. The blow landed on the policeman's temple. Dazed, the man stumbled and fell.

  More officers converged on the scene, lashing out randomly with their clubs, hitting arms and legs and heads and hands. Four of them picked up Olive, each taking an arm or a leg. She screamed and wriggled desperately but she could not get free.

  But the bystanders were not passive. They attacked the police carrying the girl off, trying to pull the uniformed men away from her. The police turned on their attackers, yelling: "Jew bastards!" even though not all their assailants were Jews and one was a black-skinned Somali sailor.

  The police let go of Olive, dropping her to the road, and began to defend themselves. Olive pushed through the crowd and vanished. The cops retreated, hitting out at anyone within reach as they backed away.

  Lloyd saw with a thrill of triumph that the police strategy was not working. For all their brutality, the attacks had completely failed to make a way through the crowd. Another baton charge began, but the angry crowd surged forward to meet it, eager now for combat.

  Lloyd decided it was time for another report. He worked his way backward through the crush and found a phone box. "I don't think they're going to succeed, Dad," he told Bernie excitedly. "They're trying to beat a path through us but they're making no progress. We're too many."

  "We're redirecting people to Cable Street," Bernie said. "The police may be about to switch their thrust, thinking they have more chance there, so we're sending reinforcements. Go along there, see what's happening, and let me know."

  "Right," said Lloyd, and he hung up before realizing he had not told his stepfather that Millie had been taken to hospital. But perhaps it was better not to worry him right now.

  Getting to Cable Street was not going to be easy. From Gardiner's Corner, Leman Street led directly south to the near end of Cable Street, a distance of less than half a mile, but the road was jammed by demonstrators fighting with police. Lloyd had to take a less direct route. He struggled eastward through the crowd into Commercial Road. Once there, further progress was not much easier. There were no police, therefore there was no violence, but the crowd was almost as dense. It was frustrating, but Lloyd was consoled for his difficulties by the reflection that the police would never force a way through so many.

  He wondered what Daisy Peshkov was doing. Probably she was sitting in the car, waiting for the march to begin, tapping the toe of her expensive shoe impatiently on the Rolls-Royce's carpet. The thought that he was helping to frustrate her purpose gave him an oddly spiteful sense of satisfaction.

  With persistence and a slightly ruthless attitude to those in his way, Lloyd pushed through the throng. The railway that ran along the north side of Cable Street obstructed his route, and he had to walk some distance before reaching a side road that tunneled beneath the line. He passed under the tracks and entered Cable Street.

  The crowd here was not so close pa
cked, but the street was narrow, and passage was still difficult. That was a good thing: it would be even more difficult for the police to get through. But there was another obstruction, he saw. A lorry had been parked across the road and turned on its side. At either end of the vehicle, the barricade had been extended the full width of the street with old tables and chairs, odd lengths of timber, and other assorted rubbish piled high.

  A barricade! It made Lloyd think of the French Revolution. But this was no revolution. The people of the East End did not want to overthrow the British government. On the contrary, they were deeply attached to their elections and their borough councils and their Houses of Parliament. They liked their system of government so much that they were determined to defend it against Fascism even if it would not defend itself.

  He had emerged behind the barrier, and now he moved toward it to see what was happening. He stood on a wall to get a better view. He saw a lively scene. On the far side, police were trying to dismantle the blockage, picking up broken furniture and dragging old mattresses away. But they were not having an easy time of it. A hail of missiles fell on their helmets, some hurled from behind the barricade, some thrown from the upstairs windows of the houses packed closely on either side of the street: stones, milk bottles, broken pots, and bricks that came, Lloyd saw, from a nearby builder's yard. A few daring young men stood on top of the barricade, lashing out at the police with sticks, and occasionally a fight would break out as the police tried to pull one down and give him a kicking. With a start Lloyd recognized two of the figures standing on the barricade as Dave Williams, his cousin, and Lenny Griffiths, from Aberowen. Side by side they were fighting policemen off with shovels.

  But as the minutes passed, Lloyd saw that the police were winning. They were working systematically, picking up the components of the barricade and taking them away. On this side a few people reinforced the wall, replacing what the police removed, but they were less organized and did not have an infinite supply of materials. It looked to Lloyd as if the police would soon prevail. And if they could clear Cable Street, they would let the Fascists march down here, past one Jewish shop after another.

  Then, looking behind him, he saw that whoever was organizing the defense of Cable Street was thinking ahead. Even while the police dismantled the barricade, another was going up a few hundred yards farther along the street.