entire Quarter if this were the case. Regardless, Anna must help him. What can be done for Jews who have been taken into protective custody? If only Anna had paid more attention to the rumors whispered around her during her daily errands. It is like trying to recall voices overheard from another room while one is dozing. Random beatings of Jews, roundups, detainments, deportations. The homes of Aryans who question the treatment of their Jewish neighbors suddenly empty and remaining so night and day, mail accumulating in their boxes, milk souring on the doorsteps.
But Anna remembers hearing that the SS can be bribed, particularly if the supplicant is pretty and desperate enough. She has used her looks for lesser things. And the safe in Gerhard’s study surely contains something of value. Anna need only think of a way to get her father out of the house.
She sets the terrier’s body down, its eyes having long since filmed over. Then, after cleaning her sticky hands as best she can with straw, Anna leaves through Max’s back garden so as not to be seen. The SS may still be abroad, and the last thing Anna needs is to be detained for questioning as to why she is in this district. The premature dusk is smoky and raw, its uniform grayness an ally to Anna in her dark Zellwolle coat. She races through the alleys of the forsaken Jewish Quarter, skirting tricycles and ducking lines of washing, all the while clutching the spectacles in her pocket.
4
THAT EVENING, GERHARD IS FORCED TO AMEND HIS DIN-ner plans. He telephones his important new acquaintances and arranges to meet them at a restaurant. After all, Anna hears him explaining into the receiver, he doesn’t want them to catch his daughter’s influenza. Anna has told him that it is rampant in Weimar just now, the streets a symphony of sneezes, the shops like TB wards. Gerhard’s companions must be pleased with his concern for their health, for Anna hears him humming as he dresses and descends the stairs. The cloying fragrance of his Köl-nischwasser, of which he has used a great deal, lingers long after his car disappears from the drive.
Some time later, Anna creeps down to the kitchen. Breaking into her father’s safe has been useless, as the strongbox contains only Gerhard’s traveling papers and a gold pocketwatch that no longer tells time. Anna sits dully in a chair, forcing herself to nibble a wedge of cheddar while she considers alternate plans. None comes to mind. Perhaps the watch would be worth something on the black market, but Anna has no idea who might be involved with this risky venture nor how to find out. In despair she abandons the cheese on the table.
She is attempting an apple next when she hears a rap on the window near the maid’s entrance. She freezes with her teeth half-sunk into the fruit. The knock comes again, faint but insistent.
Anna rushes to the door and flings it open to find Max standing there.
Oh, my God, she cries, dropping the apple, which wobbles unheeded across the floorboards. Oh, thank God you’re all right—
Max tries to smile.
May I come in? he asks.
Don’t be a fool, Anna tells him. She tugs him into the kitchen by the shirtsleeve.
Max props himself against the icebox as Anna secures the lock and begins whisking the curtains shut.
So you know, he says. About the Aktion this morning.
Anna turns to examine him. He is covered in mud, his hair plastered to one side of his head as if he has just awakened, and there is a shallow scratch on one cheek. Other than this, he appears unharmed.
I was in the Quarter and I ran across Herr Nussbaum, she says. And when I went to your house, I found the animals—
They killed them, Max says.
Yes.
Max frowns at the floor, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat.
I was afraid of that, he says. I wanted to do it myself, the humane way, but there wasn’t time.
Anna begins rummaging through the pockets of her skirt.
I have your glasses here somewhere, she says. I know you’re hopeless without them—
Then, without warning, she begins to weep.
Max comes to Anna and takes her in his arms. This is the first time he has held her properly, and Anna relishes it, damp and filthy as he is. She sways against him, closing her eyes, but Max stares at the wall over her shoulder, distracted.
How long will your father be gone? he asks, detaching her.
How did