Chapter 24
Eberhard was in his office when the door flew open with a crash and a distraught Fr?ulein Vogel stormed in. She ignored the client, who anxiously shrank deeper into his chair, and stood, her face flushed bright red, in front of Eberhard’s desk.
“Those bloodsucking thugs! You have to help me, Herr Lange!”
“Please try to calm down, Fr?ulein Vogel. I’m with a client.”
Only now did she seem to notice the man Eberhard had been talking to. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.” Her stance, radiating outrage, gave the lie to her words.
Fortunately, Eberhard was practiced in soothing outraged people.
“Fr?ulein Vogel, would you kindly take a seat in the waiting room. I’ll be able to take care of your concern in just a minute.
” Once she had stormed out of his office with as much force as she had entered, he returned his attention to the man sitting in front of him.
“You can leave everything in my hands. I’ll handle the correspondence. ”
“Thank you very much, Herr Lange. It’s a disgrace, what our country has become.”
“You can say that again.” Eberhard shook the man’s hand and accompanied him to the door. “I’ll keep you informed.” Afterward he turned to Fr?ulein Vogel in the waiting room.
As soon as she noticed him, she jumped up, her eyes sparking with fury. “Those filthy, lying pigs! They’ve—”
“Not here,” he interrupted her. He turned the sign hanging on the door to the hallway to “Back Soon” and locked the door. “Come into my office, where we can talk undisturbed.”
She was about to let loose a further torrent of outrage, so he raised his hand. “Just a moment.” He pulled the telephone cable out of the wall. Since his line had been reconnected, he often imagined hearing a click, and was sure the line was tapped by the Gestapo. “So, what’s on your mind?”
“Those filthy bastards from the employment office…” He really wished she’d use fewer swear words, as they were terribly unbecoming for a young lady.
“Well, they’ve… they want… I can’t…” Fr?ulein Vogel put a hand to her chest theatrically, closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“They won’t issue me a clearance certificate because my work in the munitions factory is critical to the war effort.
” She snorted violently. “Clearly the German Reich cannot win the war without me and therefore I’m not allowed to leave the country. ”
It took Eberhard a few seconds to collect his thoughts. “That is indeed unwelcome news.”
“Unwelcome?” Fr?ulein Vogel’s eyes flashed in his direction, making him recoil.
“It’s a catastrophe. Those despicable crooks are determined to make life difficult for me at every turn!
This morning, they tried to deport me and an hour later I’m told the Reich cannot do without my labor!
If that’s not the most outrageous cynicism, what is? ” Her chin jutted out at him.
Despite her belligerent pose, she looked profoundly vulnerable.
Eberhard would have liked to put his arm around her shoulder, as he would have done for his daughter.
But he wasn’t familiar enough with Fr?ulein Vogel.
At least he now understood why she was so upset.
The shock of almost being deported must have gone bone-deep.
Thirty years of experience as a lawyer had taught him that clients often needed to vent their frustration before they were able to put their thoughts clearly into words.
He encouraged her to tell him the whole story from the beginning.
Fr?ulein Vogel described her close escape in such colorful detail it made a shiver run down his back.
She was fortunate to have had the presence of mind to call the emergency number at the Abwehr.
With frightening clarity, he realized that the same could happen to him, Selma, Johanna, or any of the other members of Operation Seven.
He made a mental note to instruct the members individually on how to act, should the worst happen, to ensure the best possible chance of resolving the situation quickly.
“… and then this man at the employment office explained to me that he couldn’t issue a clearance certificate because I am indispensable,” Fr?ulein Vogel concluded her story in a much calmer voice.
“It’s a travesty, indeed. Let us think about what we can do.” Eberhard picked up a pencil, twirling it between his fingers.
“I haven’t had time to do that yet, I was far too angry,” declared Fr?ulein Vogel, as if he hadn’t experienced her fury first-hand.
“Yes, I noticed,” said Eberhard. After all, just a few minutes had passed since she’d stormed into his office like a Valkyrie, swearing like a trooper. “Now we need to find a solution together.”
Her belligerence of a moment before dissolved at once and she slumped into a miserable heap. “I can’t. I just can’t think of anything.”
“What information do we have?” Without waiting for Fr?ulein Vogel’s answer, Eberhard wrote in spidery handwriting with his left hand on a notepad: War-critical work. Indispensable. Munitions factory. Employment office refuses clearance certificate on these grounds.
Re-reading his scrawled words, he had to suppress a shout of triumph, so simple was the solution. He gazed at Fr?ulein Vogel. “We just need to get you fired.”
“What? That’s not possible. I’m a forced laborer…” She stopped talking and frowned at Eberhard, before she nodded. “It’s a brilliant idea, Herr Lange. If I’m not engaged in war-critical work, there’s no reason to refuse me the stupid certificate. Just how do we get me fired?”
That was the crux of the matter. Eberhard picked up the pencil again, twirling it in circles.
As his eyes followed the spinning pencil tip, his thoughts spun along with it.
“Normally, I’d advise you to be late several times or to be slapdash in your work, but as a Jew, that’ll get you into trouble. ”
“I know.” Her face was a picture of misery as she slumped even further in her chair. “I could go into hiding.”
“No, that’s too risky.” Eberhard’s mind worked at full speed as his hand continued to turn the pencil. “The factory has to fire you of its own accord, for other reasons.”
“Maybe because the Abwehr needs me more urgently?” Fr?ulein Vogel suggested.
“Hmm.” He hated bothering H with such minor things, since the poor man already had enough on his plate. But no matter how he turned it over in his mind, only the Abwehr had sufficient influence to obtain the dismissal of a war worker. “I’ll talk to Lieutenant Hesse, he surely will find a solution.”
“Do you really think it will work?” whispered Fr?ulein Vogel.
Eberhard had no idea, though he didn’t want to unsettle her any further. “Leave me to worry about that. This will all resolve itself, and soon you’ll hold the requisite certificate in your hand.”
“Thank you so much.” Fr?ulein Vogel stood up.
“The SS gave me a terrible fright this morning. I’m more convinced than ever that I couldn’t bear being deported.
No matter what they try to convince us of, something unimaginably horrifying awaits everyone who gets off the train at the end of that journey.
I can feel it deep down,” she put a hand on her heart, “in here.”
“And I know with equal certainty that we will soon leave this danger behind us.” Eberhard wasn’t half as confident as he pretended. But he had no intention of betraying his fears to Fr?ulein Vogel.
Once she had left, he took his hat and coat, and set off to pay Lieutenant Hesse a visit.