You did the right thing. Like I said in the ghetto, you and I can survive here. They couldn’t. And now, thanks to you, they won’t have to.”
Thanks to Mildred and her mysterious contact, Sara almost added, but she kept silent. She could tell from bystanders’ sidelong glances and curious stares that their tearful parting had attracted notice. Natan must have sensed it too, for he put his arm around her shoulders and quickly ushered her from the platform.
She tried not to brood over the onlookers’ hostile, curious stares as she and her brother made their way back to Friedenau. Just as they turned onto their street, a mechanical roar thundered overhead. Shading her eyes with her hand, Sara looked up and spotted airplanes flying in precise military formation toward the northeast, wave after wave of aircraft, dark, angular shapes stark and swift against the cerulean sky.
“Heinkels and Messerschmitts,” said Natan. “The Luftwaffe’s on their way to the Brandenburg Gate to send old Adolf best wishes on his birthday.”
“May he never see another,” Sara retorted, her gaze fixed on the soaring aircraft, heedless of who might overhear.
Chapter Forty-four
May–August 1939
Mildred
Although the American presence in Germany had greatly diminished, as long as Donald Heath remained at his post, Arvid and Mildred trusted that the State Department knew what was going on in Germany. What the United States government would do with that information was another question entirely.
On long, deceptively sedate walks through the Tiergarten, embraced by gentle breezes carrying the fragrance of fresh blossoms and the music of songbirds, the two men walked a few paces ahead, their voices quietly urgent as they discussed what Germany’s finances revealed about Hitler’s plans for the future. Mildred and Louise followed after with Don Jr., keeping a lookout for anyone who might be trailing them or observing them too keenly as they passed.
By late spring, Arvid was convinced that Hitler intended to invade Poland. He was equally certain that if France and Great Britain stood united in strong opposition, imposing strict economic sanctions or sending in troops to curtail Hitler’s plans for expansion, the damage to his prestige could be enough to bring down the Nazi regime from within. Arvid also told Heath that the resistance distrusted Neville Chamberlain and suspected he sympathized with Hitler. “Chamberlain suffers under the illusion that Hitler’s ambition is limited to Eastern Europe and that he can be appeased with some gifts of territory here and there,” Arvid said. “My friends and I aren’t fooled. We place our trust in Roosevelt and in his democratic ideals. We believe in him. We only hope he believes in us.”
Mildred and Arvid had no doubt that Heath trusted the intelligence Arvid provided, but as summer approached, they began to suspect that the United States government would never understand the perilous urgency of the situation unless they heard it from Arvid himself.
Unexpectedly, an opportunity arose to test their theory.
In July, the Economics Ministry sent Arvid to Washington to meet with U.S. trade officials. His official assignment was to secure copper and aluminum supplies for Germany’s factories, but he had a second, secret mission of his own to offer to help the United States against the Third Reich. Heath had arranged for him to meet with several trusted colleagues in the Treasury Department, and he assured Arvid that if they were impressed with his interview, they would take his offer to the secretary of state.
Mildred accompanied Arvid as he sailed from Hamburg to New York, but while he continued on to Washington, she remained in New York to visit friends, after which she would embark on a lecture tour of several universities in the Northeast and Midwest. Since it was verboten to take enough money as she needed out of Germany, her friend Clara Leiser had invited her to stay with her while she was in the city.
Mildred had not seen Clara since she had visited Berlin in August 1935 on behalf of the New York courts. As Mildred unpacked her suitcase in the guest room, Clara sat cross-legged on the floor and asked if the grim reports out of Germany were accurate.
“Whatever you’ve learned from the American press,” Mildred replied wearily, “the reality is far worse.”
“Why haven’t you put any of this in your letters?” Clara protested. “The Nazis haven’t turned you, have they?”
“Of course not,” Mildred replied, taken aback. “Our mail is censored, and the Gestapo isn’t constrained by ordinary laws. They can arrest anyone on a whim, condemn anyone to prison or