Pennies For Hitler Read Online Free Page A

be respected. They’d say that they were sorry. The tall student would beg Papa’s pardon.
    He tried to tell himself the dragon story again. Stories made time pass. But the world of stories had vanished from his brain.
    There was a series of clicks outside the door as someone pressed the phone to get the operator. He heard Mutti’s voice, fast and urgent. Was she calling the University, to speak to Papa or the Rektor? Was she calling their house to talk to Lotte?

    He couldn’t make out the words. He had never heard Mutti speak like that, as though a shell of iron suddenly covered her, each sound tight and hard.
    Mutti put the receiver down. She opened the door, stepped into the room, then shut the door carefully. He ran to her and she held him close. For a second he was afraid that she’d feel hard and stiff too. But she felt just the same.
    ‘Mutti, what’s happening?’ He spoke English, because Papa might be hurt and so it seemed right to speak his language now.
    ‘The brave Aryan Super-race is getting rid of the unclean.’ Her voice was flat.
    She wasn’t crying, so he couldn’t cry either. Her face looked like it hurt not to cry. ‘I don’t understand.’
    ‘There is nothing to understand. Just hate. Just stupidity. How can you make the stupid see sense?’
    ‘Mutti, please.’
    ‘The students have been going through the records, to see if anyone at the University was Jewish.’
    ‘Because Jews aren’t allowed in the University?’
    She shut her eyes for a second, then opened them and nodded. ‘Some of the staff and students think that anyone who had a Jewish grandfather or even great-grandmother must be a Jew too. They think one Jewish ancestor taints your blood. They believe lies because they want them to be true. They think the Nazi Party will give them good jobs after what they did today. And you know the worst?’ Mutti clasped her hands together, almost as if she was praying. ‘They are right.’
    Georg let the last question out. He tried to make his voice strong but it came out as a whisper. ‘Why did they call Papa a Jew?’
    Mutti took a breath. Her face still looked as cold as the stone of the University.

    ‘Your father’s grandfather was Jewish. To them that makes your father Jewish too.’ She clenched her fists like Georg did at the dentist’s, as though the next words hurt almost too much to say. ‘It means they think you are a Jew.’
    ‘I am not a Jew!’
    ‘To them you are.’
    ‘No! We measured our heads in class today. I have an Aryan head. A perfect Aryan head! Herr Doktor Schöner said so.’
    ‘Your teacher is wrong. You can’t tell what race people are by their head size.’
    Georg stared at her numbly. Herr Doktor Schöner was a clever man. Mutti was just a mother, not a scholar. The Adolf Hitler Schule wouldn’t let Herr Doktor Schöner teach things that were wrong.
    There are no Jews in our family, thought Georg desperately. Jews killed babies. They poisoned wells. How could you suddenly be a Jew? But the students had yelled, ‘ Jude! Jude! ’ as they grabbed Papa. The student had called him a ‘little Jew rat’.
    ‘Do they think that you are a —’ he stumbled over the word ‘ — Jew too?’
    ‘Perhaps, because I married your father.’
    Could you catch being Jewish, like you caught the flu? It didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense. Today was broken. His life was broken. Later the shattered pieces might come together. ‘When can we see Papa? Will he be all right?’
    She answered neither question. ‘Georg, you must be brave. Can you do that?’
    He didn’t know. He nodded anyway. ‘Did — did they hurt Papa?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Mutti. That word was iron too.

    He wanted to ask how badly Papa was hurt. But his mouth wouldn’t make the words. Instead he whispered, ‘Where is he?’
    ‘Georg … I can’t answer that. I have no time to explain. You have to get to England: to Aunt Miriam. Now! As soon as we can get you there. You will be safe in