The Luck of the Weissensteiners (The Three Nations Trilogy) (7 page)

His choosing her instantly repaired some of her
self-esteem issues. Instead of feeling inferior, she swayed to the other extreme, looking down on other men and women who, in her view, could not live up to the high physical standards of her husband and herself but there was something about Wilhelm that she adored completely. It had taken her a while to see through his quiet exterior and see his potential, but now she was a sworn admirer. He may not be as strong as her Benedikt but he was masculine in many other ways; a quiet authority, a leader and he was also the most attractive of all the boys. He would be the one to carry on the good looks of the Winkelmeier men.

Even his brothers
looked passable compared to Gunther, her own son. If she was completely honest with herself, Johanna much preferred Wilhelm and she would even rather had Ludwig or Bernhard for a son in place of Gunter, the soft weakling with the crooked nose. Her daughters all had inherited Johanna's own pretty looks, but Gunter was not much to look at all. He had ended up with the features of Johanna’s old father, whose most valued quality had been the possession of huge amounts of land - the only reason why Johanna's mother had been attracted to him at all. Later in life, after years of having to make do, this had pushed her to find satisfaction for her physical needs elsewhere. The resulting scandals were yet another reason for Johanna to distance herself from her own family and desperately wanting to feel as one of the Winkelmeiers.

Johanna gradually gave the young couple more freedom and treated them with the most attention. Despite Greta
’s questionable roots, these two were the couple of the future. Nothing they did was ever wrong in her eyes. Wilhelm lacked strength but in that serious face, Johanna could read an intellectual superiority and leadership skills just like those of her husband Benedikt. Once her infatuation had been established, regardless of evidence to the contrary, she projected more superior qualities onto his character.

However, Johanna did not
approve of the frequent visits from members of the Weissensteiner family to the farm. They might be polite and nice enough as visitors, but they were dark, gypsy looking and much more obvious as Jews than Greta, who could have passed for a gentile woman at any time. The Weissensteiners had responded to Greta’s less frequent visits to the weaver workshop in town by coming to the farm themselves, even though that meant they had to travel on a Saturday. Before the Berlin members of the family had left, it had been custom that whenever the Weissensteiners came to visit the guests would be well fed and, additionally, Elizabeth had always given them some food to take back home to the city. Greta had always appreciated this generosity and had seen it as a gesture of respect towards her. She had just got pregnant again and her family was so excited and pleased with the news that they seemed to visit almost every weekend now – very much to Johanna's annoyance.

Benedikt also worried that their reputation and standing in the community might suffer from a noticeable association with these Jews. J
ohanna was secretly more concerned that Greta’s family would somehow lay claim to Karl and that she would have to share him with his mother's family. It was obvious that he belonged to the Winkelmeiers, blond and Aryan that he was. While she had previously always tolerated the Weissensteiners being welcomed warmly by Elizabeth and the big fuss the relatives had made when the Jews came, Johanna as the new hostess never offered them food or drinks when they arrived. Instead she emphasized loudly how busy she was and made sure that Greta had very little time to spend with her family. There were less people on the farm now with much more work for everyone and surely that had to be understood and respected. Greta’s brother Egon seemed to take the hint immediately, coming less frequently to the farm; when he did come, he was naturally quiet during the visits, seemingly preferred to be left alone and somehow could never wait to go back home.

Her sister Wilma however noticed the wind of change
in their reception and took great offence. Unwilling to be shunned like that, she would deliberately challenge Johanna by asking for drinks or food every time they came to visit, forcing the skinflint of a woman to cook up ever more outlandish excuses to deny these requests. Wilma enjoyed this game of childish revenge but did not realize how much damage she was doing to the fragile family relations. It was exactly this pushiness and noisiness that annoyed Johanna most and, she believed, was the main reason that so many people hated the Jews. What a shame that her handsome Wilhelm had not at least been able to find a rich Jewish woman – if his wife had to be one of those; a banker’s or a lawyer’s daughter would have been much more acceptable. The wealthy and established Jews in the west were usually so assimilated or westernised that only their physique could identify them as Jews. While Greta herself was very decent and not at all obvious, Greta's sister Wilma was – bar the black clothing - the stereotype of a poor eastern Jew, that even their own, rich kind did not want to be associated with. Admittedly, the Winkelmeiers were not particularly wealthy or posh but they certainly were far above such outrageous behaviour and poor standing.

The conversion of the entire Winkelmeier family to Cath
olicism had worked wonders for them and over the last year, the Slovak locals had become friendlier towards them, probably thanks to Father Bernhard Haslinger’s encouraging word of mouth. This was still a new and fragile development and in Johanna's view, it had to be consolidated at any cost. The last thing they needed now was questions being asked about the young pregnant mother's Jewish visitors from town.

After the Great War
, a lot of Jews from Galicia had been expelled by the Russian army and after unsuccessfully trying to establish themselves in Vienna many had opted for the Jew-friendly haven of Bratislava as their new residence. The local Slovak culture was already too ‘unruly’ for Johanna’s Germanic taste, there was no need for any more of that kind and certainly not on her farm.

As for the brother Egon,
on the few occasions when he did open his mouth, his whining, negative and always complaining attitude was another thing that she disliked of `the type`, as she loved to call the Jews. He was working with the father in the weaver's workshop in town and like the father was always busy. If any of them had to stay behind to supervise the workers, he would usually volunteer, probably too lazy to come all the way out to the farm.

Greta'
s father Jonah however, was a man to Johanna's liking. Completely untraditional and very aware of his low position as Jew in the Czechoslovakian society, he was mostly kind and humble and therefore very agreeable. He himself had suggested limiting the contact between Greta and her family as she was a Winkelmeier now, a 'Catholic' and a German. The less she was associated with her Jewish family the easier it would be to protect her. With the announcement of Greta’s second pregnancy however he seemed, at least temporarily, to have forgotten his previous conviction but at least he knew that it was necessary to be careful in case the politics in Slovakia should develop in a similar way as in Germany. Especially now that there were less people living on the farm, any visitors would be more noticeable. A sensible man this Weissensteiner - if not somewhat pessimistic. Quite handsome for the type she had to admit. His wife Barbara had died of the Spanish flu after the Great War and he had never remarried, which was difficult to understand. If she would recommend any Jew, it would be him. Almost as respectable and proper as a German, if you could say such a thing but maybe that was why the women amongst his own people were not after him in the first place.

One Saturday when the Weissensteiners had come again and seemed to be set on staying the whole afternoon
, Johanna had had enough and took Jonah aside.

“Jonah, you lot have got to stop coming here all the time,” she said. “You know it is dangerous.”

Jonah was a little surprised at her directness but immediately agreed with her.

“You are right. I should not have got
carried away with the whole pregnancy spiel.”

“I
understand how you feel Jonah and I hate to take that away from you but if you had not mentioned yourself that the visits were too frequent, I wouldn't have known what to say to you but you know how it is these days. We can't risk any gossip about the family,” she explained.

“Of course,” he agreed. “Thank you Johanna. Say no more. We will be leaving shortly and I will make sure that we stay away for a while. After all
, there is not much we can do for her while she is pregnant. Only fussing and that won't help you get the farm work done. I am sorry we were so thoughtless and thank you for reminding me of my fatherly duties.”

As much as he realised that Johanna
’s concern was mainly for herself, he knew all the same that she was right. It would be hard for him not to see his daughter but she was a married woman now.

Johanna was relieved how easy it had been to see them out of the door. None of the arguing and pleading she had expected and
feared of his type, no haggling and no discussion.

Greta was not aware of Johanna
’s resentments. Now that things between the two of them had finally improved she saw everything a little too optimistically to have a proper grasp on reality. To her, Johanna had always been a bit odd and difficult but completely harmless as long as you just let her be. Since Elizabeth had gone, they were almost becoming friends and it would have been completely inconceivable to the pregnant girl to think that the mistress of the farm had asked the Weissensteiners not to visit.

In the following weeks during which Jonah and Wilma stayed away
, Greta missed her family but she regarded herself lucky to have found a home with the Winkelmeiers where she could blend in and bring up little Karl with so much assistance. She knew it was a great blessing that Wilhelm had not abandoned her when she fell pregnant out of wedlock. It would have been his fault, he had said he would take care of 'everything' (obviously not very successfully) but many other young men in those days would have denied their responsibility afterwards and not taken the firm and positive action in the way that Wilhelm had. She had married a good man with a great family which was going to grow again thanks to her. Johanna was so fond of little Karl and she had great expectations for the next child. It was no wonder she was fussing about the pregnant Greta and her little boy in the way she did. Secretly, Greta had always hoped that one day her sister Wilma might come and live with them on the farm; that would make her life just perfect. Several times, she had mentioned this idea to Johanna and Benedikt but got little response.

Wilma was currently
running the Weissensteiner household but too often got things wrong to be called a good choice for the job, especially since Greta had left. She was a hard worker but not very organised and always in need of careful supervision and encouragement. Her involvement in the weaving business had turned into a disaster and had come to an abrupt end. Without someone checking up on her there had been too many mistakes, not necessarily big ones, but enough to bring the quality of their carpets into disrepute.

In her housekeeping sim
ilar flaws frequently showed up. She would start chatting and forget that the soup was boiling over, that she had left the front door open and when she went shopping for dinner, she often returned with only half of the ingredients. One thing or another was always happening to her which made her hard to employ anywhere, particularly when there were so many people looking for jobs.

Greta believed that if Wilma was working on the farm
, that problem could be solved because she could work closely with her sister or under someone else’s guidance and supervision.

With her pregnancy
, Greta thought it was worth giving the issue one more try but Johanna would hear none of it and said they could not afford to take on someone with such a lack of concentration. Greta was upset about her little scheme failing.

Greta
’s new friendship with Johanna lacked a certain intimacy that she was used to from her own home and left her feeling empty. Maria and Roswitha had failed to transfer their warm feelings for Elizabeth on to her. The girls displayed a deep mistrust of other women and never opened up to her in the same way that Wilma did. Her husband Wilhelm was so busy at work that he often spent his entire evenings reading instead of playing with Karl or talking to her but she knew that reading was his passion. When Johanna criticised him for it Greta always defended him, saying that if he didn't read as much, he would not be able to sell books and make a good living. Deep down however, she was very lonely.

Wilma was upset about the separation from her sister, too. She loved Greta more th
an anyone in the world and being apart from her was very difficult to bear. She could see the reason for it but it was painful. All her childhood she had relied on Greta to support her. Greta had been the clever one in school, had helped her with her homework, had explained whatever Wilma did not understand and had made complicated things sound easy. Greta had been her extended brain and in return, Wilma being the stronger one, had always taken on the more physical tasks and in fights with other girls, Wilma had always defended the two of them - even though she was younger. The two sisters were as close as twins. Wilma could never wait for the next Saturday to come so she and her father would go and see Greta and Karl on the farm. On some Saturdays the workshop was too busy for them to get away but just the possibility of a trip to the farm was exciting enough to keep Wilma full of energy and optimism. All this was gone from her life now and the days were grey and monotonous.