The Luck of the Weissensteiners (The Three Nations Trilogy) (14 page)

Greta was very pleased because i
t meant security for her Karl in Berlin. She had to admit that Wilhelm had been right to move there instead of Poland, where they could have got stuck, and could have ended up being part of the Soviet Union or could be subjected to the thorough German search for Jews in the Western parts of the country. If Wilhelm had been right before, he probably knew what he was doing now concerning Karl as well and that thought comforted her as much as Ernst did with his smiles.

The best news was that the army had not sent her brother Egon into battle. It really was a miracle when she thought about it. He was inexperienced infantry, the kind she would have expected to be sent to the front line first as cheap cannon fodder that would pave the way for the more experienced soldiers whom the army needed and wanted to save.
Immediately after the declaration of independence Egon had received a letter from the army requiring him to come for military examination. The new state needed to have its own security and since all the Czechs had been expelled, it needed more man power. Wilma had a fit of hysteria when she heard about it.

“They'll find out he is a Jew. That will be the end of us all. We have to flee. Let us pack our bag
s and run for it,” she ranted.

“Where
, may I ask, would we be going?” asked her father.

“We could try to get into Hungary. I have heard of a few who made it.”

“If they have not found out we are Jewish yet they won't find out now. They would never conscript Egon if they knew he was. The new laws forbid him to enter the army. They don't trust Jews with their weapons,” Jonah said. “In a very ironic way this is good news my dear.”

“But when they look at his …..
you know down there .... is he not .... won't they see?” Wilma was beating around the bush.

“No they won't. We never made him Jewish that way,” Jonah replied. “Why would
we do that to him? We did not have a Bar Mitzvah for any of you. We are only slightly Jewish by our culture but not at all by religion, you know that. I never thought there was a need to make a sacrifice to God from Egon's body. Don't worry about that. If they take him he will be fighting with the Germans, not against them. Mazel tov to that!” Jonah exclaimed.

Egon himself was surprisingly calm about the draft letter. He agreed with his father that it was a good sign. At least the family had not come to the attention of the authorities. There was also a g
ood chance that Egon's weak physical constitution might see him exempt from military duty anyway and even if he was drafted, he would be fighting with a winning army who seemed to be impossible to defeat. Jonah was more worried about the future of the weaver workshop if Egon left. He and the girls could only do so much and Egon had an amazing endurance for the work.

Egon had to report to the military
headquarters two weeks after he received the letter and after a very shallow and unsound examination was declared fit for all duties. His training commenced a further two weeks after that in the military academy buildings on the northern side of Bratislava. During his basic training, he was allowed one weekend leave a month and after that it would all depend on the state of politics and on his particular talents.

Sadly
, his instructors found nothing special or likeable about the quiet and shy recruit and recommended him for infantry or worthless cannon fodder as it was becoming known. Wilma was the most devastated in the family when he announced the results of his examinations. The only glimmer on the horizon was that he needed far less training than he would have had if assigned to a different part of the army. After he had finished his initial training, Egon had been allowed to carry on working in the weaver workshop until further notice but in July he had been called back to duty to the infantry regiment.

In the barracks
, one of his superiors noticed him reading books in his spare time and when examining the literate recruit further realised the potential of Egon’s scientific mind. For a trial, he transferred him to the radio units and had him trained up quickly. During the invasion of Poland, private Weissensteiner was a safe distance from the front line and yet received praise for his exemplary military service. His superior was appalled that during the original examination nobody had noticed his talent or his incredibly sharp hearing. While many troops remained stationed in the formerly Polish territories, Egon was sent back to Bratislava where he received further training and was made to study on army grounds. It was heaven for Egon who, for the first time in his life, excelled at something and received such encouraging praise for it. He was well respected amongst his comrades and quickly learned all there was to know. It was confusing to him as a Jew to find himself fighting with the Germans or at least on their side, but this was his opportunity to learn and acquire knowledge that he would be able to use later on in a civilian career. The war in Poland had been about territories and not about the Jews he told himself. The Slovak nation had regained the land it had lost to Poland just the year before and surely Slovak involvement in the war would now be over.

Wilma scolded him for fighting in a war which
, at least, indirectly affected the Jews. Nobody in her family quite understood why she was suddenly so concerned about the Jewish question. She had always been the one that laughed off reports about anti-Semitic incidents as exaggerated and avoidable, and she had never considered herself a Jew in the first place. She had not been brought up in any faith and had always ridiculed any believers, pointing out their irrational behaviours whenever she could:

“Oh yes, if he doesn't wear the prayer shawl his God won't listen to him,” or
:

“Does anyone actually really believe that that piece of dough turns into the flesh of Christ?”

Jonah had warned her several times how hurtful her comments were to believers of any faith and what a nasty and intolerant side of her such comments displayed. Wilma argued that these people had a brain themselves and if they chose to believe something that was so clearly against anything your senses told you, then they should have a thick enough skin to hear her bit of truth. However, when her siblings also asked her to stop, she promised not to make any more such statements in front of other people.

For Jonah and his family
, life was busy but good and for the first year of the new Slovakian state they managed to stay clear of trouble. The business was doing very well. The increased demand for army supply meant that even the less efficiently produced goods were needed. Old stocks that had not found buyers could now be sold. The profit margin was not excellent but the workshop ran at maximum capacity. The buyers were either ignorant of him being a Jew or, for the time being, were too desperate to care. The Hungarian countess who had commissioned two hanging wall carpets a few years ago had brought a lot of new clients to his business. The carpets with biblical themes had ironically become something of a fashionable item with these customers, the one thing he was legally not allowed to manufacture.

On bad days he would be driven mad by fear that the public display of his carpets on so many walls would eventually lead to his downf
all and identification as Jew; being talked about could attract the wrong kind of attention and without a reputation he and his family could starve. However, when in an optimistic mood he would say that in the public opinion this speciality of his had made him believable and safe as non-Jew.

Wilma had come to think of the family's continuing
‘slipping through the net’ as the Weissensteiner luck. The family had left the Ukraine before it had become too dangerous and so had managed to settle in Slovakia before the big wave of eastern European Jewish refugees came after the Great War. They were not as thoroughly inspected when they came and were able to make it widely believed that they were Protestants. The German school where Jonah enrolled his children in the province had been almost completely Catholic and did not offer religious education for Protestants. The children had thus avoided showing their lack of knowledge in Catholic classes without being identified as Jews. Wilma insisted that it was nothing short of a miracle that this ploy had worked out. Then they moved to Bratislava soon after the big wave of Jewish immigrants but since the children spoke perfect Slovak and the family was coming from the province, yet again they were not identified as Jews. At the German school in Bratislava they could refer to the lack of Protestant lessons in the province when a teacher questioned their complete ignorance concerning religion. So far they seemed to be always one step ahead of trouble, Wilma said. The business was doing well, they were living in relative freedom and instead of being found out at the army, Egon had stumbled on a promising career without even looking for it.

Since the incident on the bridge Wilma had never repeated this statement in public, believing that maybe she had jinxed their g
ood fortune by talking about it.

The rest of the Weissensteiner family still used the expression heavily to congratulate
themselves and to keep their spirits up whenever things were looking difficult. Wilma could not deny that maybe it was also that famous Weissensteiner luck that had saved her from death on the bridge. It was far from a pleasant experience but she had to consider herself lucky to have walked away from it. The acknowledgement of this relative piece of luck however did not help her to overcome the new found fear and anxiety. She had started to suspect and mistrust everybody outside her family. She shied away from the other weavers and customers and hid herself away whenever she could. Jonah and Egon saw this behaviour as a sign that she missed her sister and got word to Johanna that they would like to see Greta but Johanna kept postponing contact until times were 'easier'.

At the end of the year
, the English broadcasts on the wireless announced the establishment of a Czechoslovak National Council in exile in London and its diplomatic recognition by France, Britain and the USA. Johanna insisted that this was a sure sign that there soon would be a military intervention on behalf of the exiled quasi-government and it was worth holding out a little longer. Jonah realised that it was impossible to win an argument with this woman and, as much as it hurt him to see Wilma in such pain, he too felt it was safer to be cautious.

Christmas and
the New Year had been a huge celebration at the Weissensteiners. They had completed another two huge wall carpets ahead of schedule for the Hungarian countess, who had generously shown her appreciation for the fact that she was able to install them ahead of the tree decorations in the main hall of her manor house. The Countess was very pleased with the result and Jonah was confident that after the big New Year’s Eve ball at the manor house there would be further commissions from the gentry.

In January
, new Military laws excluded Jews and gypsies from draft and service, and when the first two waves of expulsions had not affected Egon, the family felt reassured that their status in the country was safe.

Jonah worried
much more about Wilma. She had taken to strange habits of late, running to the main door several times at night to check that it was locked and spending hours at the window. Her cooking had become more flawed than before and her dishes tasted as if she had used spices at random rather than following the recipes Greta had written down for her. Jonah realised that he could no longer blame any of this on the missing sister. Something was profoundly wrong with his daughter but she would not tell him what was troubling her mind.

Luckily
the workshop had been able to replace the girl that had blackmailed him into a raise last year. When he had first written to other weavers he knew for recommendations, he had not been successful in his search. Even letters that the Countess had written on his behalf to put more weight behind his requests had yielded no success. When he wrote more letters to find a replacement for Egon, who was back full-time with the army, he had more luck and managed to hire not one but three new weavers. One of them, called Alma, was particularly talented with the artistic and manual side of the work. For most of her life she had lived as a Slovak in Hungary and had returned to her home country now that it was independent. She had moved to Bratislava especially for the job and offered to help out with the cooking in exchange for a free room in the house. She was incredibly hard working and efficient and it was only due to her interpersonal skills that Wilma could be sufficiently calmed and made useful in the kitchen at all. Jonah was however worried what the other employees and his customers would say about his hysterical daughter. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to report her as a mad woman to the authorities and for her to be locked away in some sanatorium. Her erratic behaviour could be very unsettling at times, even though it flared up very irregularly. Alma was a godsend in this respect and she seemed too content living with the Weissensteiners to be considered a threat.

At the farm the main event of the season had been the discovery of Maria
’s secret affair with one of the helpers. Marius was not only a Jew and a refugee with no money or future, but, adding insult to injury, he was also married with three children. Benedikt blamed himself for letting this happen right under his nose and Johanna could hardly stop her husband from throwing the 'rotten apple' from the farm.

Benedikt had been so conscientious in che
cking up on the work force when he hired them but when they had proven themselves worthy he had become complacent and was fooled into trusting them. They had impressed him as hard workers and Benedikt had forgotten about the other dangers they could bring to the farm. When he discovered Marius and Maria in the barn he hit and beat the dirty bigamist until his face was covered in blood. When he finally stopped and Marius lay doubled over on the floor he said nothing. He stared at Maria with a puzzled rather than an angry expression, turned away and left. All he had was contempt for the stupid girl and her misguided urges.

Johanna took on the role of the punisher for him. Even though she did not resort to violence she made sure that Maria's life o
n the farm became a living hell. Limited food rations, work in the kitchen rather than in the fields, additional house work in the evenings and no contact with the farm workers. Everybody was worried that Maria might be pregnant but luckily that worry turned out to be unnecessary when a few weeks later Maria’s period came on time.

Benedikt of course threw Marius and his brother off the farm and hired two new people instead. He was gutted because Marius had been the be
st of the bunch. Maria was heart-broken. Marius had been her first true love. Nobody could begin to imagine what he meant to her and how special he had made her feel. Never before had she felt any kind of self-worth. He alone had given her this feeling and now not only was it taken away from her, she was also shunned and treated with the utmost disgust. Yet she was spared the horrors of finding out his sad future. Young unemployed Jews and gypsies – together with those who were expelled from the army earlier that year - were drawn into a forced labour initiative by the authorities, which later that year opened the first labour camps on Slovak soil. On the farm this was not known until much later.

For Greta the sad love affair was a very painful experience too as it gave her an idea of how little her new famil
y thought of Jews. Nasty comments had mainly focused on Marius’s class and the fact that he was married but there were enough allusions about his race to chill her to the bone. In the minds of the Winkelmeiers, Greta was hardly a Jew (because she was not a believer and did not look or behave the part) and so they did not think she would take any offence by what was being said. She could not have any loyalties in that respect and if she really did have any objections she would know better than to voice them. After all she lived on the family’s mercy and good will.

Greta was indeed painfully aware of her situation
and said nothing as expected. Had it not been for Ernst she might have considered leaving, but he was so well cared for here on the farm and she did not want to burn her bridges with the family in case Wilhelm and Karl one day came back. So she kept shtum and endured her life as single mother. She found her only good friend on the farm in Maria whose own isolation was so harsh that the two of them were almost naturally driven into each other's arms. They both felt more tolerated than welcome on the farm and were both grieving. For the first time in her life Maria had something that was so important to her that she found the strength to talk about it and opened up to Greta about her feelings. All of these were of course currently centred on Marius. Greta had been the only one not to judge her for the affair and the fact that Greta had been Jewish – just like her Marius – was another contributing factor for the new friendship.

Roswitha used this opportunity shamelessly for the purpose of becoming more accepted at the farm herself. She tried to shine particularly bright in contrast to her fallen sister and used every opportunity to complain about the Jews in general
and about Marius in particular. She spoke with disgust about lying with a man before marriage and pointed out all the mistakes that Maria made in the home and in the kitchen. Greta who was not used to such horrible and malicious behaviour was shocked at the blatant attack on Maria, but Johanna and Benedikt found it surprisingly amusing and laughed at the sarcastic and cynical remarks of their younger daughter. Roswitha became quite a hit with the two of them and the family gradually settled into two camps.

In February
, a land reform was implemented in Slovakia that made it virtually impossible for Jews to own land. Most land from Jewish farms was being confiscated, some of it got distributed to Slovaks and some of it was sold to the highest bidder, but the state kept the main share of these lands and leased it out to other farmers. To Benedikt’s and everyone else’s surprise one of his immediate neighbours turned out to be a Jew and the poor man and his family were stripped of their property. Government officials offered Benedikt to lease the land under very good terms and conditions, and by accepting the offer Benedikt suddenly became a farmer of much bigger influence in the region than he had ever dared to dream.

The former Jewish owner was allowed to remain on the land, now working under the obligatory labour directives for free. Benedikt enjoyed his new status as big shot immensely. With the new farm came also a bigger tractor that made working his fields easier. He didn't have to pay much to the government for the favour.

Johanna could not quite understand why the old owners wanted to stay at all – they had been given a choice - but Roswitha said they hoped to get their property back after the war and thought their chances were better if they remained in the vicinity. Besides, they had nowhere else to go now. They were land-locked between German and Russian occupied territory, both Jew hating countries, and the only possible escape route would have been via Hungary, who was however also sympathetic to the German Nation after it had helped Hungary successfully lay claims on southern parts of Slovakia at the Munich Conference in 1938.

Greta had to be more careful than ever not to be seen in public. Johanna was very worried that in revenge for losing their farm
, the filthy Jews would try and take them down with them. Being associated with Greta and her Jewish family could be bad for them now that the farm had expanded and Johanna was always one to plan for all eventualities in life - just to be safe. She began to think that it would soon be time for the Winkelmeiers and Greta to part ways but somehow she could not yet make herself do anything seriously about it.

Jonah and his family seemed to have been b
lessed with luck once again. His workshop was somehow omitted from the list of companies that had to change to a 51% non-Jewish ownership in accordance with the April laws. Was this another sign of the famous luck of the Weissensteiners? Had someone really forgotten about him as he would have liked to think? Was it the interference of some influential client or friend, as Wilma’s theory went? Or was his time still to come? As pleased as he was with the result, he felt it was not prudent to let down his guard and assume he and his family were out of the woods.

In April
, Denmark surrendered to the Germans. Norway was being invaded rapidly and the successful end of the German campaign was only a matter of time. At last there was some action on the political chess board in Europe, the kind that everyone had expected after the Blitzkrieg in Poland.

The Phoney War or “Sitzkrieg” (
sitting war) seemed to be over but unfortunately not in the way Greta had hoped. Instead of being attacked, Germany was expanding further with no real obstacles in its way.

Johanna and Benedikt as proud Germans were over the moon about the German success and the formerly so generous and hospitable Benedikt started to question whether they should risk their status and wealth fo
r Wilhelm's Jewish wife and off-spring. Of course he liked Greta well enough and the boy was simply adorable, but realistically what chances did Ernst have now to be ever accepted in the new Aryan society that was forming in Slovakia? Should they really risk their livelihood for these two undesirables? Wouldn't it be better to dump them and let them fight on their own? In Germany Jews were deported and those who harboured Jews were prosecuted as well. If that happened over here they would lose everything they had, and in Johanna and Benedikt’s eyes that was rather a lot these days.

Johanna had made up her mind to show Greta the divorce papers and ask her to move back i
n with her father in Bratislava but Benedikt still hesitated. The child was his bloodline, maybe slightly soiled by a Jewish mother but it was still a Winkelmeier child. Johanna was outraged at his attitude towards a mixed race child. He had hardly cared enough about his own children to spend time with them when they were young, but here was a mongrel and Benedikt was willing to risk their future for him, even if the risking was done out of ignorance rather than bravery. Johanna felt real jealousy and resentment. She had resigned herself to the fact that Benedikt was a farmer and not interested in family life, but his interest in Ernst was an insult to her own family and his neglect of it. Johanna's mind was made up. Greta had to go and take that little Jew bastard with her. Weeks went by during which she waited for the right opportunity to make this plan come true.

When Germany invaded the Benelux countries and France in May and had enormous success with its campaign
, Johanna used the heightened expectation of a German “Endsieg” to put more pressure on Benedikt.

“No one can stop Hitler. The European countries all crumble under his thumb. What a great war, nothing like the last one. Aren't you proud?” she asked with an excited tone in her voice.

“Of course I am proud,” he replied reluctantly. He could tell by that tone in her voice that this was a prelude to a totally different question, even though he did not yet know which one. “Every day I can hear another success story of the army on the wireless. It is amazing.”

“Exactly, we are really going to win this war.
This will be one giant victory, I tell you.” Johanna said, pleased that he had replied as she had hoped. Now she leaned to him in a conspiratorial way and continued. “We have to make sure we conform to his policies Benedikt. The Jews can't be helped any more. Their time is up.”

“I understand
what you are getting at but Greta and Ernst are part of our family. We can't just drop them like hot potatoes. It was you who wanted them here in the first place, remember?”

“She is not our family
anymore,” Johanna protested. “You know very well that Wilhelm divorced her. The child is a bastard now and worse, he has the Jewish nose. They are a liability to us, we have to get rid of them.”