Behind the Bedroom Wall

by Laura E. Williams

Her father pulled the wardrobe away from the wall. “Sophie,” he called into the dark hole. “Sophie, wake up.”

  “Bernd? What is it? What’s happened? Are the Gestapo here?” Her voice, even in a whisper, sounded shrill and full of fear.

  “No, Sophie. Don’t worry. I have a surprise for you. Look who’s here.”

  “Who? I can’t see. Who is it?” Her voice still sounded nervous.

  “Papa?” queried a small voice. “Papa!” Rachel exclaimed.

  “Shhhhh,” Korinna’s father warned.

  “Sol?” Sophie said, sounding incredulous. “Rachel get back here,” she said to her daughter, who had jumped out of the hole and was standing in Korinna’s room.

  “It’s alright,” Herr Rehme said. “She can come out. You can come out, too. Just be quiet.”

  Herr Krugmann picked up his daughter and hugged her tight. “My little Rachel, my little Rachel,” he said, emotion strangling his voice and making it sound gruff. Gently he set her back on the floor. By this time Frau Krugmann also stood in Korinna’s room, staring up at her husband. Herr Krugmann pulled his wife into his arms. “Oh, Sophie, how I have missed you.”

  Korinna looked down at her tightly clasped hands, embarrassed to be witnessing such a scene. She felt like an intruder in her own bedroom. But she couldn’t very well slip out of her small room unnoticed with all these people filling it.

  She peeked up to see Herr Krugmann pick up Rachel again. The three of them huddled together with their arms around each other.

  “Now you must all hide again,” Herr Rehme said. “It will be even more cramped for you, but we’ll try to move you on as soon as possible. Your next stop has opened up and is waiting for you. Now it’s just a matter of getting you there safely.”

  Herr Krugmann gripped Korinna’s father’s hand as Rachel and Frau Krugmann crawled through the wall, out of view. “Thank you for everything,” he said, his voice catching in his throat. “I am so thankful for you.”

  “We do what we can and wish it were more,” Korinna’s father said.

  They stood a moment in silence, each one thinking his own thoughts, then Herr Krugmann crouched and crawled behind the wall.

  Korinna’s father closed the wardrobe and turned to his daughter. “Go to sleep now.” He hugged Korinna, and she wanted to cling to him when he released her, but she didn’t. She withdrew into her pillows and watched the dark image of her father leave her room.

  She closed her eyes and heard the soft rustling and whispering coming from behind her wardrobe. She realized her father hadn’t closed the wardrobe completely against the wall. She waited for the noises to quiet down, but soon realized they wouldn’t. The Krugmanns hadn’t seen each other for weeks, and for who knows how long before they had come here.

  Korinna slipped out of bed and quietly tiptoed out of her room. She stood in the doorway of her parents’ bedroom and listened to their even breathing. The floor was cold on her feet. Silently she crawled onto her parents’ bed and nestled in the warm and secure valley between her mother and father. And there she finally fell asleep.

  The next morning Korinna walked to school alone. Rita hadn’t waited for her as she usually did, which was fine with Korinna. She wasn’t in the mood for Rita anyway.

  She got to school just before the first lesson started, so she slipped into her chair and looked over to Eva. Usually Eva would look back at her and they would smile good morning to each other if they hadn’t walked to school together. But this morning Eva didn’t even glance in her direction. Korinna shrugged and turned her attention to the teacher.

  When school was out at one, she found Eva and Rita and a few other girls huddled outside the big doors. They were all going straight to the meeting instead of home for dinner because they had much to prepare for the Führer’s visit. The group broke up as Korinna advanced.

  “Hello,” Korinna said.

  “Heil Hitler,” Rita said.

  Eva avoided her glance and kept her eyes on the cement sidewalk.

  “Are you going to the Jungmädel meeting?” Rita asked.

  “I’m wearing my uniform, aren’t I?”

  “I was just asking,” Rita said. “I thought you’d be too tired or too sick or something.”

  Korinna looked at Eva, but Eva was still examining the sidewalk. She held her growing anger in check. “I’m fine. I have been for days now.”

  “You’ve been acting strange, if you ask me,” Rita said.

  Korinna felt the blood drain out of her face. Why was Rita acting this way? Why wouldn’t Eva look at her? What was going on?

  “And you look terrible,” Rita continued. “You have big bags under your eyes. Don’t you sleep at night? Or is something keeping you awake?”

  “Let’s go to the meeting,” Eva said, interrupting. “We don’t want to be late.” She started walking away from the two best friends.

  Korinna turned from Rita and followed Eva.

  Rita quickly caught up and passed Korinna so that she could walk beside Eva. Korinna stared at their backs.

  A warm front had moved into the area the night before, and the piles of snow were turning to slush. People walked with their coats unbuttoned and a spring in their steps. Korinna watched Rita’s and Eva’s opened coats whip behind them in the wind as they walked. She walked stiffly, well aware of the surreptitious glances she was getting from the other girls on their way to the meeting.

  A memory came back to Korinna as she walked. She felt as if she were no longer in her body, but watching this scene from a different angle. That’s because she had viewed this scene from a different angle before, she realized. She remembered the day Anita Scheinmann had been ostracized from her friends for being a Jew. Korinna now remembered that she had been one of the ringleaders to plan Anita’s humiliation. And that’s how she knew, so positively, that the same thing was now happening to her.

  The Jungmädel meeting passed much the same way the walk from school had passed. No one talked directly to her, but everyone watched her.

  More than once she almost ran out of the room. But pressing her lips together to keep them from trembling, she had lifted her chin and stayed. Whatever was going on, she reassured herself, would be cleared up, and things would go back to the way they were.

  “Rita,” Korinna said, when she found her friend alone in the back of the room. “What’s going on? Why are you ignoring me?”

  Rita looked around. “Nothing’s going on.”

  Korinna placed a hand on her best friend’s arm. “What do you mean, nothing? No one will speak to me, even you, my best friend.” She hated the quaver she heard in her voice.

  “I’m not ignoring you, I’m just busy,” Rita said resentfully. “We have a lot to do before the parade, and if you don’t care, I do!”

  “Of course I ... I ...”

  “See? You can’t even say it, Korinna Rehme. You don’t even care that our beloved Führer is coming to this city!”

  “But I do!”

  “You don’t show it,” Rita said, practically spitting out the words, and she walked away.

  When the meeting ended, Korinna didn’t bother waiting to be humiliated further, she simply put on her coat and left.

  Outside, the air was cooling down, but Korinna didn’t button up her coat. She didn’t care if she caught pneumonia. She just didn’t care. Maybe she’d be better off like Ruth, she thought bitterly. Then all those awful girls, especially Rita, would be sorry for how they’d treated her!

  That was a stupid, childish way to think, thought Korinna quickly, and immediately she regretted it. She knew Ruth would rather be alive today, even if it meant hiding in a hole.

  “Korinna, don’t stop and don’t turn around.”

  Korinna recognized the voice. It was Eva. She started to turn around.

  “I said don’t turn around! Keep walking!” Eva’s voice sounded hoarse. But then Korinna realized it was because she was trying to whisper loud enough to be heard by Korinna, but not by anyone else.


  “What are you doing? What’s going on?” Korinna, too, kept her voice down.

  “I don’t have time to explain,” Eva whispered. “But I have to warn you. Your house is going to be searched tonight.”

  Korinna felt weak with fear. She hadn’t wanted to think that it could happen again. But she’d known there must have been some terrible reason for the way she’d been treated today. Now she knew. Somehow the Gestapo had found out about the Krugmanns.

  “How do you know?”

  “Just believe me,” Eva said urgently.

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because you’re my friend, Korinna. Bye.”

  “Eva, wait!” Korinna said frantically. She wanted to know more, but there was no reply. She turned around. Eva was gone.

  Korinna broke into a run, but just as quickly she stopped. If anyone saw her running home it would look suspicious. If her house were going to be searched tonight, that meant that the Gestapo weren’t sure the Rehmes were doing something wrong. If they knew about the Krugmanns definitely, Korinna didn’t think they’d wait until dark to search the house. They’d do it immediately to keep the Jews from escaping.

  She didn’t run, but she walked quickly. She saw no one except for a few soldiers, but they were so common it was as if they weren’t even there. And she also saw a small family of three, riding past her on their bikes. They all ignored her except the little girl, sitting behind the father, who stared and waved. Korinna absently waved back.

  Finally she was home. She burst through the front door calling, “Mother! Mother, are you home?”

  “Korinna!” Her mother came running to her from the kitchen. “How are you? I’ve been worried sick about you. I would have come out to get you, but Papa wouldn’t let me. He said—”

  “Calm down, Helga,” Korinna’s father said, interrupting his wife as he joined them in the front hall. He took his distraught wife into his arms and hugged her. “Korinna’s home now, everything is going to be fine.”

  Frau Rehme took a deep breath. “I’m better now. I was just so worried. But now we’re all home safe.”

  “Then you know?” Korinna said, looking at her parents.

  “Know what?” her father asked.

  “About the search. We’re going to be searched tonight. Eva told me.”

  “Are you sure?” her mother said sharply.

  Korinna nodded. “I have to go warn the Krugmanns. We have to hide them, Papa! What if the Gestapo finds them?”

  “It’s okay, Korinna—” began her father, but Korinna interrupted him.

  “I have to tell them!” she cried, moving toward the stairs. She knew she sounded panicky, but she couldn’t control herself. She had to tell them now, before it was too late!

  “Korinna, stop!” her father commanded firmly, holding her gently in his arms. “They’re gone,” he said, staring down into his daughter’s eyes.

  “Gone?” she repeated.

  “You may have even passed them on the street,” her mother said softly.

  Tears welled up in Korinna’s eyes. “You mean the Gestapo already found them? Are they going to shoot the Krugmanns? Are we going to go to jail?”

  “No, no,” said her father gently, still holding her. “No police have been here yet. The Krugmanns have escaped. They’re on their way to their next hiding place.”

  Korinna was confused. “But you said I may have passed them on the street. How could that be? It’s still a little light out.”

  “Let’s go sit down and I’ll make tea,” Korinna’s mother said, leading them into the kitchen.

  While her mother heated the water, her father explained what had happened.

  “When I got to school this morning, I was let go. I was told I was no longer wanted as a teacher, so I came home. I knew immediately it was because I was under suspicion for something, and that I was probably being watched.

  “On my way home, I stopped by the tailor’s to pick up a shirt he was mending, and then I came home. You see, the tailor is a friend, and he sent a message. This afternoon, three people came to visit. They came noisily and happily because we hadn’t seen each other for such a long time. They stayed for an hour, and then they left as they came, out the front door.”

  “But what does this have to do with the Krugmanns?” Korinna asked, trying to hold back her tears.

  “The three who came to visit were of the approximate age and size of the Krugmanns. When they were here they traded clothes with the Krugmanns, and it was the Krugmanns who left by the front door and pedaled away on their bicycles, not the others.”

  Stunned, Korinna realized it could have been Rachel waving to her from the back of the bicycle as her father pedaled past.

  “So those others are still here. Are they hiding upstairs?” she finally asked.

  “They went out the back way,” Frau Rehme said, bringing over hot cups of weak tea to the table where Korinna and her father were sitting.

  “If anyone was watching the front, the same people who came in left. Nothing suspicious there. And if anyone was watching the back alley, three people left, all of them staunch supporters of Hitler. Even if they are stopped and questioned, they will be safe.”

  No longer could she hold back her tears.

  “Korinna, everything has worked out. Everyone is safe,” her mother said, trying to console her daughter. “There’s no reason for tears.”

  “But they must think I hate them,” Korinna cried.

  “I’m sure they don’t think that,” her father soothed, stroking her back.

  “They saw how you cared for Rachel, Korinna. They knew how you felt,” her mother said.

  “But I never even hugged her. I—I never told her I cared.”

  “She knew, Liebling, she knew.”

  The family sat silent for a few minutes.

  “I fear it is not safe for us here,” her father said quietly.

  Korinna’s heart thudded painfully. “But the Krugmanns are gone.”

  Herr Rehme shook his head. “If the Gestapo finds the hidden room, they’ll know what we did to help Jews, even though the Krugmanns are safely away.”

  “What will we do?”

  Her mother covered her hand with one of hers. “We will have to leave as soon as possible.” She glanced at her husband. “Tonight?”

  He nodded slowly. “As soon as it is dark ... if the Gestapo doesn’t come first.” He turned to his daughter. “Go upstairs and rest now, Liebling.”

  Korinna rose on trembling legs. It was hard to believe that little Rachel wasn’t waiting for her behind her bedroom wall. And that Sophie, with her suspicious eyes, and Herr Krugmann weren’t there, ... and that Ruth was gone.

  Her room didn’t look any different, but it felt empty, silent, lonely.

  She would never forget them, she vowed fiercely as she retrieved Rachel’s drawings from under her mattress. She would not forget what they looked like, the way Rachel had forgotten what her sister looked like. She would never forget. Roughly, she wiped the tears from her eyes. If the Gestapo were coming tonight, perhaps any minute, she had a lot of work to do. She could rest later.

  Holding the packet of Rachel’s drawings, she looked around the room for a suitable hiding place. She didn’t want anyone to find them.

  After she’d hidden the drawings, she picked up the packet of Jungmädel pamphlets she had received last week. She opened one and looked through it. She felt as if she had aged years since she had first held these pamphlets in her hands. Then the shiny paper and the photograph of Adolf Hitler on the front had so impressed her. Now they just made her palms sweat. But they would do, she thought, standing up. For what she wanted, they would do perfectly.

  Chapter Fourteen

  As soon as the sky turned dark, the Gestapo came. This time they didn’t bother knocking on the door, they just broke the lock and stomped right in.

  Korinna tried to swallow past the lump of fear that closed her throat, but it was impossible. She
saw that one of the officers was Hans Damerau. Oh, how she despised him for hitting her father. She couldn’t believe she had ever looked up to him.

  This time there were four men. They started in the front room and destroyed it. They knocked holes in the walls, and ripped open the sofas, and pulled up floor boards. The only thing they didn’t touch was the framed picture of Adolf Hitler, hanging above the ruined couch.

  Turning on every light, they worked their way through the kitchen. Again, they destroyed everything. Korinna’s father had warned her and her mother not to say anything when the Gestapo was here, no matter what they did. And Korinna could see her mother biting her lip until she drew blood. Korinna could taste the metallic tang of fear in her own mouth.

  The Rehmes followed the officers upstairs. There was barely enough room for the three of them with the four men tossing things about. They started in Korinna’s parents’ bedroom. First the bed was ripped open, and the feathers danced merrily around the room, oblivious to the seriousness of the situation. Then their wardrobe was dismantled with an ax, as were the chair and Herr Rehme’s desk, which had been in the family for three generations. It was priceless. Now it was worthless.

  Korinna watched everything as if she were watching a play. She felt involved, yet somehow removed. She felt angry, yet on the verge of hysterical laughter. This was not happening to her or to her family. How could it be? They were good, loyal Germans. They loved their Fatherland, didn’t they? They wanted Germany to prosper and succeed, didn’t they? What more was needed? Only that they had to hate Jews, love their Führer, and obey the party at all costs. Not too much. Maybe she could convince her parents before it was too late, she thought frantically. She could convince Hans it had all been a mistake. Her parents weren’t traitors, they were just ignorant. They didn’t know better. She knew she could explain everything. Hans would understand. After all, he was her best friend’s brother.

  “Hans!” she cried.

  “Korinna, silence!” her father commanded.

  Her mother put a firm arm around her and said quietly, “Hush, Liebling. It’ll be over soon. Hush.”