The Luck of the Weissensteiners (The Three Nations Trilogy) (30 page)

The family had to stay together but somehow they had to avoid that other people got wind of Wilma
’s fragile state. Unexpected help came from the ladies Edith and Esther who, on the black market, were able to get some sedatives from the local hospital at rather exuberant prices.

Jonah was mortified to think
just how much he owed to her Highness and her friends by now, it was already more than he would be able to pay her back in his lifetime. Edith told him not to bore him with his constant whining about the costs and playfully demanded in exchange for the medication more play time with Ernst for her lover Esther.

In consequence
, the little boy spent entire days in the manor house and in the bargain it freed time for Alma and Greta to get busy on the carpet production. With Edith spending so much time running the Estate, Esther found herself very bored and so she sent one of the maids on frequent trips into town to find presents for Ernst. Her joy in spoiling the young boy was so great that she even had her maid make him new clothes from some of her own and older clothes. Greta watched this development with mixed feelings. On the one hand she was pleased at the attention and the riches her son suddenly could enjoy – especially at a time when the entire continent was struggling - but on the other hand she felt quite jealous and worried that her son was drifting away from her and into the arms of a much richer woman.

She had lost one child to Wilhelm and
his Fuhrer, one unborn and she did not want to lose Ernst too. Fortunately Greta was usually so occupied with Wilma and her recovery that she did not have enough time to dwell on the matter. She had to inject her sister once a day and the entire family struggled to hold down the hysterical woman who suffered from a strong fear of needles. Her arm had several bruises from the tourniquet and unsuccessful attempts to insert the needle. For hours afterwards Wilma would be calm but also drowsy, unresponsive and looking right through the people around her.

The entire family found it hard to watch her but didn't dare to lower the dose without the
advice of a doctor. Edith assured them that this was all very normal and nothing to worry about. She had visited some of her friends in mental institutions over the years – proof in her eyes that living on the verge of madness made a person much more interesting than the average normal person – and they had all been in such sedated vegetative states for periods of time. There was no cause for alarm about it.

In the afternoon Wilma would usually become more lively and communicative, sometimes even smile, bu
t after her dinner she would take a tablet to help her sleep. The nurse who had smuggled most of the medication from the hospital and had sold it to Edith had advised them to continue for at least two or three months with this treatment and then gradually lower the dose. She had not mentioned the addictive nature of the drugs nor that they would soon become less effective. Ernst was being kept away from his sick aunt to spare him the shock.

Greta was surprise
d that her father insisted they all worked so hard on the completion of those silly wall carpets; there were no buyers lined up for them. It was obvious the Countess was keeping them busy with these commissions only so that the family would not leave the manor house. In her eyes it was ridiculous to keep up the pretence of urgency. To dedicate so much time on the business when Wilma needed care and attention seemed very wrong. Jonah endured her criticism stoically without pointing out just how much the family was indebted to the Countess. In his book, putting all the effort they could muster into her orders was the least they could do and while Wilma was kept calm by the medication and proved so unresponsive it seemed a waste to try and talk to her. The thought of his daughter not making a full recovery was so painful that he had to occupy his mind with other things.

In March
, Johanna received a letter from the military informing her that Gunter now was officially missing. He had been part of a reconnaissance unit trying to hold up the Russian advance in the Leningrad region and had not been seen for a couple of days. Of course there was hope that he had been able to hide and would attempt to break through the enemy lines back to his squadron but for now one had to be prepared for the worst. The Fuhrer thanked her for the sacrifice she had made for the Reich and the Axis Powers.

She read the letter several times, unable to take the information in,
then she had to laugh. It was so like her son to mess things up at the worst possible time. Gunter had lasted almost five years in this war.

First he seemed safe because he was spared the dangers of the infantry. When all of the Slovak army was spared the further combats he was amongst the few that had been selected to assist the Germans against Russia. He survived Stalingrad and other fatal battles and now he got himself captured or killed when a German defeat was almost a certainty.

She knew she should be more upset about the scary news but in her mind she had worried about her son so much before, she refused to believe he would be caught out by the war at this late stage. She had never been proud of her son and only during the years of his army service had she created a little room in her cold heart for him. Absence makes the heart grow fonder she thought, and now with this sad and upsetting news he had returned to her life and reminded her of all the little things about him that she found so annoying and disappointing. She cried at night but she was not really sure she was crying for her missing son. She cried for all the sadness that she had carried around for her entire life. She cried and cried but her thoughts were not so much about her son than about herself and the overwhelming self-pity she felt all of a sudden, a feeling that she simply could not explain.

Benedikt was genuinely subdued about the news. Not because of profound parental concern and a deep love for his son either. He was alarmed by the rapid progress of the Red Army which he had known about in theory bu
t which had only hit home when he received the letter. His feelings for Gunter had always been even colder than those of Johanna and he had never believed that his son would last this long in the war anyway. When Gunter had been drafted, that was the moment that to Benedikt his son had died. The actual event was only a matter of time, he had come to terms with it right there and then.

Radio reports from the front line had
been almost absurd, it was hard to place it in the context of the peaceful reality at home. With the letter, the conflict and the threat of losing the war had become real and personal to Benedikt. This meant that his time in the spotlight was nearing an end, too.

Sarah found it hard to see Johanna so unaffected during the
se days, especially when she realised that the letter had arrived a week before Johanna even mentioned it to her maid. It was at this point that she realised how cold her mistress was – despite their growing friendship – and how careful she had to be around her. From here on Sarah decided to repair the relations with her brother Elias and the rest of the family who had come to shun her as Johanna’s pet Jew. Friendships were fickle but family might stick.

Elias had done well in Benedikt
’s eyes and the irregular controls of his work confirmed his immaculate running of the business. Benedikt had congratulated himself for his wisdom and his people skills and had no idea that he was cheated out of a large portion of his fortune and was keeping hundreds of Jews alive against his will.

Wilma
's period of medication came to an end after a few more months. She appeared to have made a good recovery. She was very tired and dozy for most of the day and was not very productive but her subdued calmness was very welcome to the family after her hysterical former self.

On Jonah's request Johanna never mentioned Gunter and his status as missing in action when she came to visit, which suited the not too grief struck woman just fine. She only brought Sarah with her once but the maid was visibly uncomfortable with a sedated or subdued Wilma and was order
ed to stay at home from there on.

News from the war alternated between good and bad. The Red Army was coming closer, b
ut then it was unexpectedly held up and pushed back by German forces. There were big time gaps between campaigns, a fact that some interpreted as a sign that the tables were yet again to be turned, whereas others believed this was temporary until further reinforcements had been mobilised. Success of the Japanese in East Asia brought hope to Benedikt but it was soon smashed to pieces when the Allied troops landed on the French coast in June. Resistance fighters and opportunistic opposition leaders in Slovakia had been communicating with each other since the end of the last year and were planning to stage an uprising to oust the pro-German government and to assist the Red Army in its approach to the Reich.

At the end of August
an armed uprising began with focus on east and central Slovakia but it suffered from a lack of coordination between the participating forces and from the small scale of outside support.

Benedikt was at the party
headquarters when a telephone call came through announcing the first wave of riot activities. The party secretary mobilised the local branch of the Hlinka Guard to protect the governmental buildings and the party office but without any major attacks Bratislava remained firmly in the hands of the Tiso government, probably due to its proximity to the Protectorate. In the north-east part of the country the pro-government Slovak army managed to secure some territory but many soldiers defected, some of which were able to get through ‘enemy’ lines and join the rebel forces, while others were disarmed and arrested by the Germans. Soviet partisans and weapons had been brought in to support the uprising but in lesser numbers than had been expected.

Initial suc
cess of the rebellion was confined to central Slovakia. Germany sent in troops from the north and from Hungary in the south to prevent a meeting of the Slovak soldiers with the Red Army, which had been expected to push into the east part of Slovakia shortly after the beginning of the uprising. However Stalin redirected his military focus suddenly onto Poland while other parts of his troops were held back by unexpected delays in their campaign progress themselves and this left the Slovak guerrilla fighters, now proudly called the 1
st
Czechoslovak Army in Slovakia,  in the lurch, struggling against six German divisions and one pro-Nazi Slovak unit.

Benedikt and his fellow party members had been surprised and
shocked by the conflict and had to endure rage and ridicule by the German officers who came to Slovakia’s rescue against its own people. The rebels managed to hold on to their territories for a surprisingly long time. The support they received from the population was greater than expected.

As the rebel forces were all linked to the Czechoslovak government in exile
, supporting the uprising meant that their nation could join the winning side at the last minute and could escape the consequences of losing alongside the Axis powers. It was an opportunity for collaborators with the Slovak government – which had been declared illegal by the Allies – to switch sides and wash themselves free of treason charges.

Benedikt secretly cursed his luck to be in the wrong part of the country during this cr
isis. Because of its distance from the fighting, Bratislava would be last to fall into rebel hands and without connections to the opposition he was once again stuck on the Tiso side under German influence. He would sink with this ship while in the east of the country politicians and party members had a chance to repent their sins and switch sides in time before their 'judgement' day.

The little community at
the manor house was not enthusiastic about these developments either. Everything seemed to be happening really quickly but reliable information was hard to come by and decisions had to be made on hunches rather than knowledge. The Countess knew she had to act soon but she did not feel quite ready to leave the country and her estate just yet. She had no certain idea how far the Americans had advanced on the continent and which would be the best route for her and the ladies to take to get to Paris. The arrival of the Red Army seemed to be halted for the time being but with the increased presence of German soldiers in the country there was not much safety. She scolded herself for taking the absence of Nazi control in Slovakia for granted.

She wanted to make it at least to Switzerland but was too afr
aid to start the journey. She decided to wait a little longer in the hope that the continuously changing political map of Europe and its moving borders would become more transparent.

Jonah had made up his mind and unsurprisingly he insisted on staying behind in Bratislava with Alma. The two of them were confident that their 'new passpor
ts' would be of help. The real difficulty had come to lie in persuading Wilma and Greta to join the ladies Edith and Esther on their journey to the west and to ensure that they got enough medication for Wilma to take with them on the trip - in case her nerves should suffer from the stress.

Greta
lived under the impression that it would be easier for them to live as Jews in a Soviet occupied country than travelling through Nazi Germany with a false passport. The way she presented her argument was sound and difficult to argue with – even for the Countess. The rumours of vandalism, looting and rape by the Soviet army worried her of course but she was hopeful that this could be averted. After all they were Jews and had been oppressed by the Germans, the soldiers would pick on someone else. She was much more concerned for the mental stability of her sister and somehow she felt inclined to take her chances by staying rather than leaving. Travelling with Wilma in her fragile state might not be a realistic option she claimed. Alma tried hard to convince her to go, pointing out that seeing Wilma medicated had alarmed anyone beyond reason. The poor girl had recovered well and there was now enough medication to ensure that any hysterics on the journey could be suppressed.