The Rothchild's were originally from Berlin and they were wealthy jewelry dealers. Edward had always been a friend to the Jews and he had done brisk business with them before the war. Many of his best diamonds came from Jewish dealers and they were always willing to negotiate and barter, making them excellent business partners. Back at the end of the 1930s, before the invasion of Poland marked the outbreak of World War II, Edward had noticed that a lot of his good friends were going out of business. They were packing up and taking leave to other European countries: Sweden or Denmark or Norway. Others simply just didn't seem to be getting any good product anymore. They whined about discrimination, and Edward understood, but only on the surface. After all, it was the commies and the outspoken social democrats that were getting sent to Dachau, not the Jews.
It wasn't until the 1940s that Edward began to see the light. The concentration camps were rapidly expanding and there were whispered rumors about mass executions. It was not just the politickers, now it was Jews and Gypsies that were being rounded up and sent off. Edward was a good man and a man who had always valued his employees and business partners. For those working under him, he had always assured that they had reasonable working hours and that their children had access to good education. But suddenly a number of his Jewish employees were no longer showing up for work or going to school. When he decided to pay a surprise visit to one of his best workers who had been absent for a week, he found the family living in fear in their home, the windows all boarded up and a large padlock on the door. The worker told Edward that they were scared of being sent to a camp. The kids had been picked on at school and were being educated increasingly about the dangers of Jews to society. A number of German boys that were members of the Hitler Youth had been trying to target the children for some small crime in order to have them sent away. He had told the school they were moving out of the country and now they idled away their time in a home that looked from the outside to be abandoned.
Edward was distressed by this news and by the rotten things going on in his city. He decided to help. He provided the family with the money they needed to get safe passage to Switzerland, where they could work for an antique dealer he knew. As he heard more and more stories like this, he began to spend more and more money helping out the needy Jewish citizens in his community. It was risky, but Edward really was not afraid. He had too much money for anyone to touch him. As the war plugged along and the country became increasingly poor, his shop turned from a jewelry seller into a pawn shop. He collected all sorts of valuable jewels and gold pieces, some of the age old antiques that had been in families for generations. No one was buying jewelry anymore, but Edward knew once the war was over and things got back on track economically speaking, that everyone would pay double to get their things back.
Of course, things did not work out quite as Edward had planned. One freezing cold night in January of 1945, when things were very bleak and the war torn city was covered in a grimy snow, almost black from ashes and debris, there was a loud pounding on the door of Edward's home. It was past midnight and Edward was upset that someone was at his door at this hour, but he knew it was surely an emergency considering the state of the nation. Still, he regretted disturbing his heavily pregnant wife Bernidette while she was getting some much needed sleep. It was so hard for her to fall asleep these days as it was. Between the political turmoil she had to worry about and the heavy weight of twins. She spent the better half of the night tossing and turning on their feather down bed trying to get into a comfortable position, cramming pillows this way and that so that she could relieve some of the tension on her back.
When Edward went to the door, after telling Bernidette not to worry and to go back to sleep, he spied through the peep hole a wide eyed man in a traditional Jewish hat called a kippah to shield his hair from the light drizzle of rain that was coming down sporadically on this gloomy night. Even through the distortion of the peep hole's lens, where everything looked like it was coming through a fish eye, Edward recognized the man. It was one of his wealthiest Jewish business partners. Or at least he had been the wealthiest before prejudice and government initiatives robbed him of his income and the war turned the whole economy down into a negative spiral. The man's name was Levi, although recently he had come to calling himself Lewy, a short form of the traditional German 'Ludwig.' It was never good to draw attention to one's self as a Jew and the name Levi just gave it away. So did the kippah, but Lewy only wore this during rainstorms in the dead of night because his family had become so poor they had been forced to sell their good muskrat fur jackets and the old beaver cap he used to wear, imported from Canada and given to him as a gift by a wealthy patron, for petty cash.
Edward immediately opened the door once he recognized his friend, worried and feeling a chill go through his blood. "Come, come, Lewy, come inside and warm yourself my friend. We keep the fire going all night now. Bernidette has not been feeling well in her condition, the doctor's say she has high blood pressure and should stay in bed. The fire keeps her comfortable through the night and less prone to getting up and making herself a cup of tea or the like.
"The doctor said no tea, too much caffeine for her blood, he told us, but she still loves a good, stiff cup every now and then when I'm not looking," Edward chuckled, belying his very real, deep concern for his wife's condition.
Edward knew that the doctor's were playing coy with him; he suspected Bernidette was much sicker than they let on.
It had been a difficult pregnancy for her, even from the beginning. Before she even showed she was violently ill with morning sickness that lasted all day. She kept a spittoon nearby for the purpose of collecting all her vomit. When she was six months pregnant and really showing she experienced violent contractions and blood in her urine. They were worried they would lose the children and they had rushed to the doctor's house in the middle of the night to get help, pounding on his door much as Levi had been pounding although there had been no rain that night. The doctor listened to the babies heartbeats, said that they sounded normal, then he had taken samples of the urine. He discerned the source of the blood to be several burst vessels around the cervix, and he also noted a very high level of protein in the urine. He recommended total bed rest, but Bernidette was an active and willful woman and not one to comply. She wanted to continue helping her neighbors struggling in these hard times by baking and distributing bread and cakes to the needy.
One day when she was at a local middle school dropping off cookies and fresh loaves of brown bread she suddenly fainted. Luckily a teacher had been there to catch her and help her fall on her bottom, otherwise she might have crushed the poor young tots growing inside of her. When Edward arrived on the scene, he had angrily queried Bernidette about what had happened and her reasons for being out of the house, but he could hardly keep up his rough routine when she cracked a large, tearful smile and told him she had promised a boy named Hans some bread for his little sister who was nearly starving to death. She told him that she had felt fine and then all the sudden she had seen spots in front of her eyes, black spots like sun spots clouding her vision, and then she had woken up on the ground.
Another visit to the doctor had revealed high blood pressure, and Edward vowed to keep her home and as comfortable as possible in bed, even though lying down was the last thing that felt comfortable to Bernidette and she spent most of her time in a wakeful state of dis-ease.
But all that bed rest had to be forgotten now, as he listened to what Levi turned Lewy had to tell him. "Things have become very bad, my friend. You must take your wife and leave the country. My wife and children will soon be travelling to Oslo to stay with a distant cousin, they are leaving at four a.m. and do not plan to return for some time. But you, my friend, I fear you may be in even more danger than they, the so-called lowly Jews in a country full of hate. As you know, the war has not been going well as of late. Hitler is now blaming the Jewish sympathizers. He says that they have been working against the country as traito
rs, leaking information and sabotaging the war effort. His next task is to round up all these so-called traitors and send them to work camps. You know what that means. I am afraid your wife would never survive it. And you, my friend, are high on his list. This is what I have heard. Your wealth has brought you attention and I fear it won't be long before they come for you. You must escape."
Edward put his head in his hands and tried to rub away a massive migraine that was forming. This made no sense. He was a loyal, proud German with not a drop of foreign blood or hereditary taint. How could he be targeted? For being too generous and too kind.
He thought of his sweet wife Bernidette helping all the local children and seethed… "so this is how kindness is repaid?" he thought.
He was worried. Worried about leaving the country and their trusted Dr. Fruhstuck so late in the pregnancy. He was worried about more selfish things as well. Namely all of his money and what would happen to it if he was to suddenly flee the country. Everything was tied up in German banks and stocks and bonds. It would take months, if not years, to even recover and amass half of his vast fortune in cold hard cash. How would he provide for his family? Where would they go? Unlike Levi, he had no relatives in foreign countries. He was an only child in a long line of only children, and his own parents had died young. He had some relatives scattered throughout the homeland, but no one he knew that could provide safe haven. In fact, most of his relatives were so jealous of his riches that despite his generous birthday and Christmas gifts, they would probably turn him happily into the Gestapo. No, it certainly did not seem like a good time to move.
As if seeing his thoughts, Levi lay a small, battered briefcase on the coffee table in front of the fire place and pressed a button to pop it open. Edward breathed deeply as he saw the most beautiful sparkling of colored light dancing in the brightness given off by the fire. The case was filled with gorgeous gem stones. Some of the prettiest Edward had ever seen in all his years in the jewelry business.
"What on earth?" Edward asked.
Levi explained, "Edward, you have always been a good friend to us, and your wife, Bernidette, she is one of the loveliest Aryan creatures on earth. Her soft, kind nature puts all these Nazis to shame. It has been wonderful knowing you and doing business with you, but now it is my turn to help give you new life. There is enough money here in this briefcase to get you to safe haven. I want you to trade some of these gems for a ticket to the United States. You can head to San Francisco, a coastal city in California. I have family there that will help you start a new life. You can use the remaining gems to start a new jewelry business on Market Street, and my family will give you shelter as long as you need it. I hear it is a bustling, busy city and I know that in no time you will be standing on your own two feet. It may be difficult for you to accept having foreign born children, but isn't that a small price to pay? For life, for freedom? Please accept this as my gift to you for our many years of friendship."
Levi shut the briefcase and handed it to Edward, who accepted, patting it twice as if to confirm.
"But what about you Levi? Please tell me you have plans to move in with your wife and children in Oslo soon?" Edward asked.
Levi shrugged and shook his head. "There is much I need to take care of here, my friend. My kids are older and my wife is very healthy. They will do fine without me for some time in Oslo. As for me, I have more money than Odin. Hitler can't fuck with me."
The two men embraced for the last time, a long, solemn hug of solidarity and friendship amidst chaos. When Edward returned to his bedroom he found that his precious wife had somehow managed to find sleep, and so he let her slumber. He would tell her in the morning about the goings on and he would figure out a plan.
Unfortunately, the next day Edward found that it was much harder to leave Germany than he could have ever imagined. In fact, it was nearly impossible to get out of Europe to the Americas. The only method he could discover was on a cruise ship that was leaving London in a week. But how to get out of Germany and into an enemy country was a whole different story. Edward was fearful of consulting any of his connections. It was hard to know who was the enemy and who was a friend. Finally, Edward consulted with Dr. Fruhstuck. The good doctor condemned travel for his poor wife, but understanding that she would quickly lose the children if she was sent to a labor camp, he came up with a brilliant plan. The German hospitals were seriously short on supplies. Everything from bandages to medicine was running out. The doctor was friends with a Swiss physician who was a member of an international relief organization. Part of his duties was running in medical supplies from other countries to help the sick and injured German civilians who had done nothing to bring this pain upon themselves. His name was Luca Meier, and he was planning to take a trip to England to fill a large truck with desperately needed antibiotics. It would be incredibly risky, but Dr. Fruhstuck recommended that Edward and his wife hide in the truck and make their way out of Germany.
It was very dangerous indeed. Being so heavily pregnant, it was very difficult for her to tolerate being in the back of a truck going over the bumpy, bombed out, unkempt roads that had been decimated during the war. But there was really no choice. Dr. Meier and Fruhstuck collaborated together, thinking long and hard about how they could make things safest for Burnidette. They decided that they could fill the truck with badly worn hospital bedding. Many of the makeshift shelters used large burlap sacks filled with scraps of cloth as makeshift bedding for the patients. If they could hide the couple amongst a big collection of these old sacks, they might be able to make things safe and even a bit comfortable. They hollowed out an area in the center of the piles of sacks and enclosed Burnidette and her husband inside with food and water. If Dr. Meier's truck was to be stopped by a German officer, he could say that these sacks were being transported for exchange, cleaning, and repair. He could even tell the officer that there had been a very bad virus that had wiped out a large number of townspeople and that was why the sacks needed to be exchanged or sanitized. That story would probably keep any of those chickenhearted Gestapo from sniffing around too closely.
So it was that Edward and Bernidette took the long, thirteen hour drive from Berlin to London. Edward held Bernidette tight, doing his best to keep her comfortable and shield her from any unnecessary bumping around. Still, the trip took its toll on her, and several times Edward was sure she was going to faint from exhaustion and strain. She reported frequent headaches of worse and worse intensity, and she spent most of the time on the open road moaning loudly. Dr. Meier gave her several exams when he could, but other than reassuring her that the baby's had strong heart beats, there was not much he could do.
"Just lay down and try to stay comfortable," he assured her. "Drink lots and lots of water!"
When they arrived in London, it seemed like they had been in that truck for three days, not thirteen hours.
Edward helped Bernidette slide out of the truck and they breathed in the fresh, foggy air of near freedom. Dr. Meier assisted Bernidette in boarding the cruise ship bound for America, and he waved the brave couple bon voyage. Edward had given him three large rubies as payment. Edward and Bernidette settled quickly into their cabin and Edward told Bernidette not to get out of bed for the duration of the journey. He propped his beautiful wife, who was now a ghastly pale and still moaning about her head, with several of the ship's pillows, and then he was off to the dining hall to try to find some food and water that could nourish her back to health. He was amazed by the lavishness of the ship, and perhaps got a bit too caught up in admiring all of the buffet's offerings and the gigantic gold and glass chandelier that hung above it. By the time he got back to the cabins, he could hear Bernidette from far away moaning and screaming.
When Edward got to the door of their cabin he saw it was open. He rushed inside and found the ship's doctor and a throng of concerned passengers watching his wife. Bernidette was on the bed with her legs spread wide open. The doctor was guiding her breathing and instructing her to pus
h. Edward pushed his way through to his wife.
"What is going on?" he asked, panicked.
The doctor asked him who he was, and he informed him curtly that he was the husband and father of the twins.
"Twins!" the doctor exclaimed.
"Oh my. Well that explains it, in part. Your wife is in early labor, sir. She hasn't been responding to my inquiries except to scream, and I am doing my best to guide her as far as she will listen. Perhaps I can get some answers from you."
Edward told the doctor that Bernidette was 34 weeks pregnant with two children and she had been suffering from headaches, dizziness, high blood pressure, and had been confined to bed rest.
"Quite some time to choose to go on a cruise," the ship's doctor retorted. "Anyway," he continued, familiar with the large number of refugees escaping the continent in any way they could find, "she must be suffering from pre-eclampsia. At least, that's what her symptoms suggest. Did her doctor mention anything about that to you?"
Edward shook his head no. He knew that Dr. Fruhstuck had been hiding something. So his wife had an illness? It was typical of those know it all Berlin doctors to think it was their right to hide things from the patient. So concerned they were with psychosomatics and hypnotism and what not.
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