The Luck of the Weissensteiners (The Three Nations Trilogy) (3 page)

Over the centuries Bratislava had become an island within widespread anti-Semitic sentiment and had attracted a large
Jewish community from all over eastern Europe. Not trusting that deep rooted prejudice and hatred could be erased by modern laws, Jonah’s main aim was to blend in when they got to the city and to not be noticed as Jews. Too close an association with the Jewish community might attract unwanted attention and damage his business, which was why he chose not to set up shop in the Jewish quarters of the city. In the 1921 census he avoided the issue by using a loophole; he did not declare his family as being of 'Jewish Nationality' but wrote that his mother tongue was German and so by the rules of the census form his nationality must be German.

Jonah was well informed about the political situation in Nazi Germany and its potential implications for Jews in Czechoslovakia. In his view it could only be advantageous for Greta to have a German boyfriend. The boycott of Jewish products was starting to make life difficult for Jews in Germany.
If this started to spread over here, having a German passport and husband, especially one that did not seem to mind her heritage, could be good for the entire family.

Greta was a hopelessly romantic girl. Wilhelm knew this much from her book choices. W
hen it came to girls he was admittedly less of a romantic at heart and more of a slave to his own raging and tormented hormones. He had convincingly played the enchanted lover to Greta, read her poetry and wrote passionate long love letters which he inserted in the books he kept giving her. Not before long, he had managed to make her fall in love with him, yet his own feelings were still a little ambiguous.

Greta interested him as a
person, that much was true. She was intelligent and wise but as important as her love for books was to him, he was becoming painfully aware that this had become an increasingly smaller part of her appeal. He respected her and found her ideas on literature very impressive but in his relationship with her his physical needs became soon the most important factor. So it turned out that he did not mind her Jewish heritage at all when she finally told him on his next visit to the workshop, following her father’s orders to do so. She confessed that since the official census the family was officially known to the state as Lutheran Germans but there was always a danger that their lie might be uncovered.

To her relief Wilhelm was not in the least worried about any of this. When Greta commented how unusual it was to find a man who was so relaxed about the Jewish issue he curtly replied that he had once heard rumours that it was the Jews who had
caused the crash at Wall Street but that meant nothing to him at all, especially since it was hardly Greta's doing what had happened over there.

Blissfully ignorant of most prejudices against the Jews he could not find anything wrong with his sweetheart. The closer and more 'intimate' the two of them grew
, the less he wanted to hear about it. He knew that her family had not much money, so they had certainly nothing to do with the ‘nasty Jewish financiers and bankers’ that everyone so hated. She was simply the most attractive woman he had ever known, her eyes were seductive and her beauty taunting. All he wanted to talk about that afternoon was what it would feel like to be alone with her and spend a night with her. Nothing else mattered to him. At any other time she might have found his remarks rude or offensive but on that particular day she was too relieved to take offence and see the shallowness behind them.

He didn't have to wait very long for his 'curiosity' to be satisfied.
Now that they knew he was kosher, her father encouraged her to progress with this relationship and she possessed none of the inhibitions other young women of her age were plagued with. Wilhelm bombarded her with compliments and declarations of eternal love and his hypnotic blue eyes made her melt in his arms. Before long they were kissing by the church wall after work. Soon kissing became only the first part of their amorous games and within a few months they consummated their passion, hiding in his family’s farm barn on Sundays when everyone else in the house had gone to church. He claimed he had to go to work for an inventory which raised no suspicions whatsoever.  Wilhelm was known as a keen worker and as he had not told anyone about Greta, his cover story was coherent with his usual dedication to the shop.

The Winkelmeiers were not even aware of her existence. Wilhelm did not want to become the laughing stock of his brothers, who were not very romantic
and who would only talk dirtily about girls when they were in their own company. Wilhelm was far less romantic than Greta but compared to his brothers he was certainly a gentleman. Conversations amongst the siblings about his feelings were out of the question.

The length of his stay in Czechoslovakia had also never been decided, which made her being Jewish not a pressing matter.
Wilhelm’s family had come from Berlin to Bratislava in 1931 after the Great Depression. There were no jobs and no money for the men in the family in Berlin and so Wilhelm's father, Oskar, decided that the best place to survive would be with their relatives in the country where food was often more available in times of famine. Oskar had a cousin called Klaus Winkelmeier in Brno but Klaus and his family were struggling to survive and organized for Oskar, his wife Elizabeth and their children to live with another cousin, Benedikt, who owned a farm near Bratislava and who, assured Klaus, could easily accommodate and feed their Berlin relatives as long as they could help out on the farm.

Benedikt was an arrogant patriarch and
anxious to preserve his status, from the very first day he treated the family as intruders. Initially, Oskar found that very trying but he managed to keep his head down and quickly began to enjoy the developing camaraderie between himself and Benedikt. Having been unemployed for a while, he appreciated the physical sensation of hard work and the way it made him feel like a real man again. He gradually earned Benedikt's respect for his strength and the effort he put into his work. Benedikt gradually started to trust him with bigger tasks and Oskar was always eager and proud to prove himself worthy. 

Oskar's other two sons,
Ludwig and Bernhard, were also a huge help to Benedikt, who had only two daughters and a teenage son, all of who could help with some of the lighter farm work but not with the really heavy loads. It was a relief for Benedikt not having to hire so many strangers for the season. You never knew how reliable these workers were and if any of them had long fingers or would try to get fresh with his daughters.

Benedikt
’s farm was in a good location and he was renting out some of his machinery to another farm which brought in additional income. Having family staying, for which he only had to provide food and accommodation, was very convenient. It also meant that Benedikt's wife, Johanna, could stop wasting all of her time in the kitchen and do more of the regular housework like sewing and cleaning which she had lately neglected.

Oskar's wife Elizabeth was known for her expertise in the kitchen and took o
ver those tasks. In addition, she taught Johanna's girls, Maria and Roswitha, a few tricks in that department that could come in handy when they were looking for husbands at some point in the future. The girls were still a few years away from the courting age but they had both inherited the good looks from their mother, who despite her sometimes harsh and bitter facial features was still able to turn admiring heads on the street.

Maria was the older of the two sisters and
at seventeen probably the one Benedikt had to be protective over the most. She had completed her eight years of compulsory education at the German school in Bratislava and was now back at home helping full time on the farm. Her grades had been above average but Benedikt did not believe in educating her any further than necessary. She was beautiful enough to hope for a good marriage, especially with her links to a well-run farm and as the oldest child, he had naturally treated her with the harshest discipline so that she could be used as an example to the younger ones. The effect of this on Maria was that she had learnt to keep her mouth shut at all times and to always do as she was told. She spoke little, sat with her head down and appeared grateful for any attention she was given.

Any young farmer would be lucky to have such an obedient and
hardworking wife, Benedikt
often
thought, and he felt incredibly proud of forming her character so successfully.

Maria however was far from being a happy girl even though she never complained. From early childhood
, she had learned that this would get her nothing but a few slaps and humiliation from her parents. The rough treatment had beaten most of her personality out of her and unlike many of her friends at school, she felt completely useless and empty inside. Most of them were not the children of farmers but the offspring of rich landowners and skilled tradesmen. They never accepted this wallflower in their midst and ridiculed her for smelling of cows and horses. Even when she got good grades, the other students laughed about her outside the school building, screaming that she was empty in her head and that was why she could remember everything that they had been taught in the lessons so well.

In comparison
, her younger sister Roswitha was outgoing, lively and always appeared to be happy, even though this too was not quite the case. At fifteen she had suffered two years less of the severe punishments than Maria and she had very quickly learned from her older sister's behavioural mistakes and become more compliant and submissive.

Roswitha was not as pretty as Maria
and she was much slower at farm work and in school. She did however look much happier than Maria; she smiled more because she had realised that it was possible to charm people with a pleasant demeanour and they were more likely to give her attention if she seemed obliging. She enjoyed working as long as she was able to chat and socialize, unlike her sister who preferred to be left alone. Roswitha loved it best when the whole family was working in a field together and her happiest moments were the evenings when everyone was gathered around the wood stove in the living room and someone told tales or sang. She hated to be alone and when Wilhelm's family moved to the farm she was delighted to give up her room for the boys and to share with Maria.

Both girls were picture p
erfect blonde specimens of Aryan beauty, even though Roswitha's hair was much darker than Maria's. The sisters were not very close to each other which was due to Maria's almost permanent silence. Roswitha could talk for the two of them and would tell her sister everything there was to say about her life but she could not get through the quiet and blank exterior.

Maria was very grateful for the attention but somehow felt too timid, vac
uous and uninterested to share much of her own life; she was often simply too unsure what would be expected of her and what might be an appropriate reply. Nothing ever happened to her anyway, so what could she tell that could compete with the elaborate stories of her sister?

Roswitha
did not know how to read these silences. She carried on talking regardless and, in the absence of protests, hoped this to be fine but the one-sided nature of their conversation did not allow for much closeness between the two of them.

Now that both girls were back from school they were even less likely to have anything interesting happening to them. Their lives were dull and monotonous. A few excursions to the market with their mother
were all they ever were treated to and even those trips were performed under time pressure and strict adult supervision.

The local country youth was mainly Slovak and the girls would have felt out of place trying to socialize with them. Benedikt warned them to stay away
from the boys in the village. His daughters should try and find German husbands and he was concerned that the youth around here might persuade them otherwise. To meet fellow Germans they would have had to go into Bratislava, here in the rural areas there were only Slav peasants.

Their brother
, Gunther, was the youngest of the three children and at the age of fourteen he was already regarded as a weakling in his parent’s eyes, much better off at school than inefficiently wrestling with the heavy and physically demanding farm work that he was so clearly not cut out for. Gunther was intelligent and would probably make a much better living than his father one day; he was best advised to earn his money with his brain rather than with his two left hands and with the arrival of the Berlin relatives there was an opportunity for the boy to fulfil this dream without causing a labour shortage on the farm.

Gunter was actually much stronger th
an Benedikt gave him credit for but in the latter’s macho male ideas of a boy of his age, he would always fall short of expectations and without fail would be made aware of these disappointments. This permanent criticism had robbed the lad of all his confidence and without a chance of ever catching up with his father's demands, he had long stopped even trying. It had never been spoken about but it was clear that Gunter would neither inherit the farm nor even ever work on it later in his life. Benedikt had used him as little as possible as help, worrying that he would constantly have to check anything Gunter had done to ensure that no mistakes had been made. With the arrival of the Berlin boys the heat was definitely off him. Oskar’s sons, Ludwig and Bernhard, filled the role of farm hands effortlessly and far beyond Benedikt’s already high standards. The farmer loved to instruct the two physically strong boys in the farm work and to see finally the results of his coaching in the way he wished his own son could have done; the fact that the Berlin boys were much older did not matter. In his view, Gunter was a failure of the highest order, always had been and that shame would stay with his father forever.