I rapped on Herr Keller’s door until footsteps stomped down the hall. He flung open the door. “What is it that cannot wait until a decent hour?”
“Opa!” Ruth wriggled out of my arms and ran to him. He swept her into a hug and turned to me, disbelieving.
“Take good care of her,” I said.
Tears spilled down his cheeks. “You are an angel.”
“Leave Germany as soon as you can,” I said. “Promise?”
“I promise,” he said. “Of course, I promise.”
I lifted Miriam’s locket’s delicate chain over my head. “Ruth?”
She stared at me, arms still locked tight around Herr Keller’s neck. “Yes?”
I draped the chain over her head. She gripped the locket with tiny fingers.
“It is from your mother,” I said. “She wanted me to give it to you.”
I kissed her once on the top of her head. She smelled like smoke, blood, and horses. The smells of war.
“Good-bye,” she said.
I turned and hurried back to the lorry.
The drive ahead promised to be long.
Glossary
Alexanderplatz. Central police station for Berlin through World War II. Also called “the Alex.”
Bella Fromm. A German Jewish aristocrat who worked as a reporter in Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s. Her fascinating diaries have been published as Blood and Banquets: A Berlin Social Diary.
Bernhard Lichtenberg. Rector of Saint Hedwig’s Church who spoke out against the treatment of the Jews during the Nazi regime. He was arrested for “abuse of the pulpit and insidious activity” for praying for the Jews. He died while waiting to be sent to Dachau concentration camp.
Blood libel. A false accusation that Jews use the blood of Christian children in religious rituals. There have been more than 150 recorded cases of blood libel accusations, which have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Jews. These accusations continue today.
Ernst Röhm. Early member of the National Socialist party and close friend to Adolf Hitler, often credited with being the man most responsible for bringing Hitler to power. Openly gay.
Ernst vom Rath. German diplomat in Paris shot on November 7, 1938, by Herschel Grynszpan. Grynszpan was protesting the deportation of his parents and sister to Zbąszyń. Vom Rath died on November 9, 1938. News of his death led to Kristallnacht.
Évian Conference. Conference held in July 1938 to determine how to respond to the burgeoning number of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria. Although much sympathy was expressed, most countries refused to accept more refugees.
Gestapo. Abbreviation for Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police). The official secret Nazi police force. It was formed in 1933, and investigated treason, espionage, and criminal attacks on the Nazi party and Germany. In July 1936, the Gestapo and the regular police force were merged. The Gestapo had various departments, including one dedicated to “the Jewish question.”
Hauptsturmführer. Rank in the German Schutzstaffel (SS) equivalent to captain.
Herschel Grynszpan. Polish refugee in Paris, France, who, at age seventeen, shot German diplomat Ernst vom Rath to protest the deportation of his family from Germany and their treatment in Zbąszyń. He was held until the Nazis occupied Paris; then he was transferred to Germany. He allegedly died sometime in 1945, although the manner and date of his death are unknown.
“Horst Wessel Song.” Anthem of the Nazi party. The lyrics were written by Horst Wessel, a Sturmabteilung (SA) commander in Berlin. He was killed by Communists in 1930, and the song later became the official anthem. Since the end of World War II, the music and lyrics have been illegal in Germany and Austria.
Hotel Adlon. Expensive hotel in Berlin, built in 1907. It quickly became known for its vast wine cellars and well-heeled clientele. On May 2, 1945, the main building was burned to the ground, either accidentally or deliberately, by Russian soldiers. The East German government opened a surviving wing as a hotel, but demolished it in 1961 to create the no-man’s-land around the Berlin Wall. A new Hotel Adlon was rebuilt on the original location and opened on August 23, 1997.
Kommissar. Rank in the police department similar to a lieutenant.
Korn schnapps. Strong German alcoholic drink.
Kristallnacht. “Night of Crystal” or “Night of Broken Glass” refers to a series of state-sanctioned attacks on Jews in Germany and Austria on November 9, 1938, and November 10, 1938. According to the Holocaust Museum, 267 synagogues were destroyed, 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, and at least 91 Jewish people were killed. An increased number of rapes and suicides were also recorded. Many view these actions as the beginning of the Holocaust.
League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel). The female branch of the Nazi youth movement. The male branch was called the Hitler Youth (Hitler-Jugend).
Mischling. A term created in the Nuremberg Laws to define which German citizens would be considered Jewish. If a Jewish person was not practicing Judaism and was not married to another Jewish citizen, he or she would be considered Jewish if they had at least three Jewish grandparents. A person with two Jewish grandparents (like Ruth in this novel) was considered Mischling of the first degree. A single Jewish grandparent made one Mischling of the second degree. These legal distinctions could, and often did, mean the difference between living through the war and being deported to a concentration camp.
National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party). Party led by Adolf Hitler that assumed control of Germany in 1933.
Nuremberg Laws. Anti-Semitic laws announced at the Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg in 1935. These laws defined who was considered a Jew (someone with three or four Jewish grandparents). The laws then prohibited Jews from marrying or having sexual relations with “Germans of non-Jewish blood,” forbade Jews to hire German domestic workers under the age of forty-five, forbade them to display the German or Reich flag or the national colors, and stripped German Jews of their citizenship. More anti-Semitic laws soon followed.
Obersturmbannführer. Rank in the SS equivalent to lieutenant colonel.
Paragraph 175. Paragraph of the German penal code that made homosexuality a crime. Paragraph 175 was in place from 1871 to 1994. Under the Nazis, people convicted of Paragraph 175 offenses, which did not need to include physical contact, were sent to concentration camps, where many died.
Pfennigs. Similar to pennies. There were one hundred pfennigs in a Reichsmark.
Reichsmark. Currency used by Germany from 1924 to 1948. The previous currency, the Papiermark, became worthless in 1923 due to hyperinflation. On January 1, 1923, one American dollar was worth nine thousand Papiermarks. By November 1923, one American dollar was worth 4.2 trillion Papiermarks. Fortunes were wiped out overnight. In 1924, the currency was revalued and remained fairly stable until the Wall Street crash in the United States in 1929. When the novel takes place, one American dollar was worth approximately 2.49 Reichsmarks.
Schutzstaffel (SS or Blackshirts). Nazi paramilitary organization founded as an elite force to be used as Hitler’s personal bodyguards. Led by Heinrich Himmler.
Spatz. Sparrow. A German term of endearment.
Sturmabteilung (SA, Brownshirts, or storm troopers). Nazi paramilitary organization that helped intimidate Hitler’s opponents. Led by Ernst Röhm.
Sturmbannführer. Rank in the SS equivalent to major.
Treaty of Versailles. A peace treaty that negotiated the end of World War I between Germany and the Allied powers.
UFA (Universum Film AG). Principal film studio in Germany during the Weimar Republic and World War II. UFA went out of business after World War II, but now produces movies and TV shows.
Winnetou. The Apache brave hero in a series of bestselling books written by German author Karl May. Originally published in the late 1800s, the novels are still very popular today.
Zbąszyń, Poland. Town on the border with Nazi Germany where Polish Jewish refugees were deported between October 27 and October 28, 1938. As in th
e novel, refugees were housed in stables, the flour mill, and other locations.
Author’s Note
My books are often inspired by major historical events, so I feel an obligation to get the history right or to explain why I deviated from it. A City of Broken Glass sprang from the real-life events of the deportation of the Polish Jews from Germany and the ensuing Kristallnacht Pogrom of 1938. I stayed true to historical events whenever possible, but sometimes the emotional truth of the story required small changes.
The deportations of the Polish Jews from Germany to Zbąszyń, Poland, took place on October 27–28, 1938. To meet the refugees the morning after they arrived, Hannah would have had to have been there on October 29, 1938. Because I wanted her to bear witness to both the immediate aftereffects of the deportation and Kristallnacht on November 9–10, I changed the historical timeline in the story. I carefully avoided giving specific dates in the novel until she wakes up on the fifth of November so that my readers would not put wrong dates to the earlier events.
Just as Hannah reports, the refugees in Zbąszyń were housed in stables and a flour mill, among other places. The stories she hears of people walking back and forth across the border in the rain while being beaten and shot at are taken from actual survivor accounts.
I don’t know how the Polish government numbered the refugees, or even if they did, but I wrote a prisoner number on Miriam’s arm as a foreshadowing of what would come when such numbers would be tattooed into the arms of prisoners in concentration camps.
The Neuen Synagogue on Oranienburgerstrasse was not destroyed on Kristallnacht but, as Hannah witnesses, it was set afire and desecrated. A German police lieutenant named Wilhelm Krützfeld intervened after the synagogue was set alight, drawing his pistol and placing himself between the mob and the building. He also ordered the fire department to extinguish the fire, which they did, in spite of standing orders not to put out any burning synagogues. That’s why Hannah sees them working to control the fire—because, in spite of the danger, one man stood up and made a difference.
ALSO BY REBECCA CANTRELL
A Trace of Smoke
A Night of Long Knives
A Game of Lies
About the Author
Award-winning author Rebecca Cantrell majored in German, creative writing, and history at the Freie Universität of Berlin and Carnegie Mellon University. She currently lives in Hawaii with her husband and son. Visit her on the Web at www.rebeccacantrell.com.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
A CITY OF BROKEN GLASS
Copyright © 2012 by Rebecca Cantrell
All rights reserved.
Cover photographs by Faruk Ullay / Vetta / Getty Images and Hugo Jaeger / Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
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Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Cantrell, Rebecca.
A city of broken glass / Rebecca Cantrell.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 978-0-7653-2734-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4299-4643-8 (e-book)
1. Women journalists—Fiction. 2. World War, 1939–1945—Refugees—Fiction. 3. Jewish refugees—Fiction. 4. Kristallnacht, 1938—Fiction. 5. Germany—History—1933–1945—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3603.A599C58 2012
813'.6—dc23
2012011652
e-ISBN 9781429946438
First Edition: July 2012
A City of Broken Glass (Hannah Vogel) Page 30