Chapter 38
Michaela looked out of the window at the rising sun.
The train was just pulling into Lorrach station, the final stop before the Swiss border.
She let out a deep sigh. Thanks to the Pervitin, Herr Seifert had endured the rattling of the train surprisingly well.
As soon as they arrived in Basel, she’d make sure he received expert medical attention.
She got up to stretch her legs in the corridor and to speak to Lieutenant Hesse in private.
He was standing by the window, smoking. She couldn’t remember ever seeing him smoke before this trip.
Looking more closely at him she noticed the tense neck muscles and the lines around his mouth that betrayed his clenched jaw.
He, too, was suffering under the responsibility he had to bear.
“Lieutenant Hesse, do you have a moment?” she asked softly.
“Of course. How is our patient?”
“Stable.” She gave him an encouraging smile. “It’s not far now. Provided nothing untoward happens, he’ll hold out, thanks to the Pervitin you got him.”
“It was the least I could do.” His agonized face touched her heart.
Michaela didn’t need a medical degree to realize he was carrying a heavy burden.
She wished she knew what it was. Maybe she could help him.
“You’ve done far more than millions of others, and I’d like to express my deepest gratitude.
Without you, without the other brave men in your organization, we would never have managed—”
He interrupted her with a wave of his hand. “Don’t thank me yet. We haven’t crossed the border.”
“Are you coming with us?”
“I’ll accompany you across the German side, into no man’s land. As soon as I see that you’re safe in Switzerland, I’ll get back on the train and return to Berlin.”
Michaela hesitated a few seconds before broaching the subject of her request. “I have a favor to ask you.”
“Fire away.” He gave her an encouraging look.
“I have a ring that belonged to my late husband. His wedding ring. It would break my heart if they were to take it from me at the border.” She hesitated, unsure if she could actually ask this favor of him. Lieutenant Hesse had already risked enough for Operation Seven.
“How can I help?”
“Could you bring the ring across the border? Across the German side, I mean. You could put it on your finger, then no one would notice.”
“May I see the ring?”
Michaela nodded, fumbled in her jacket pocket, where she’d put it a few minutes ago, and pulled out the ring. It was a plain gold band, with their initials and wedding date engraved on the inside.
He cast her an intense look as he took the ring. “You must have loved your husband very much.”
“I did. Every minute.” A wave of grief struck her and she had to take a deep breath before she could continue. “The last few years have been hard, but I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.”
Lieutenant Hesse slid the ring over his finger.
It fitted perfectly. A look of longing stole across his face.
Michaela wondered again what was going on in his mind, and why such a kind man wasn’t married.
Though she refrained from asking personal questions, since he was neither her patient nor a friend.
A soft glow spread across his face. “No one will suspect anything. I’ll return the ring on the other side of the German border, in no man’s land.”
“Thank you.” Michaela turned and stepped back into the compartment to pack her things. The nervous churning in her stomach calmed a little now that she knew Dieter’s wedding ring, her last physical connection to him, was safe.
Minutes later, the train drew to a halt at the Badischer Bahnhof in Basel. Michaela’s nerves were as taut as a bowstring. She could almost smell freedom. However, there were two border checks to get past, of which the first struck the greater fear into her.
She closed her eyes for a moment to collect herself and control the trembling in her body.
Now was the time to radiate confidence, after all, they didn’t want to attract attention.
Everything must seem as normal as possible.
After making sure that Herr Seifert could walk upright, with support from his wife, she took her suitcase in one hand and Ilse’s hand in the other.
Ilse’s fingers were freezing cold and sweaty.
Michaela squeezed it briefly and whispered, “Just a few more minutes, then we’ve made it. ”
“What if they send us back?” Ilse’s voice cracked.
Hiding her own fear, Michaela leaned down and looked her daughter firmly in the eye. “They won’t. Leave the talking to me and don’t say anything, not even if they ask you a question.”
A hesitant nod was the response.
“Think of the chocolate.” Michaela had no idea how much chocolate cost in Switzerland – there hadn’t been any for sale in Germany for a long time. However, she was confident Carola’s ten-franc note would cover it.
Finally, a smile stole over Ilse’s face. “I can’t wait.”
“Right, let’s go.” With a glance at Eva, who was already briskly walking along the corridor toward the carriage door, Michaela set off. Once they were in Switzerland, she’d finally have time to take care of the daughters she had neglected so much during the years of Dieter’s illness.
Eva was waiting for her on the platform, a telltale tremor in her hands. For all her attempts to appear grown up, she was still a child at heart.
Michaela gave her an encouraging nod. “No need to worry. We can do it.” She silently sent a prayer to Heaven that she hadn’t promised too much.
The Abwehr had sent notification of their arrival, including the necessary paperwork, to the border police in advance, but only the presence of Lieutenant Hesse’s tall figure truly reassured Michaela. He wouldn’t allow anyone to stop them from leaving at the last second.
Frau Seifert was the first in line. Michaela gnawed at her lower lip, as she watched intently as the border guard scrutinized Frau Seifert’s passport, along with the innumerable permits, before inspecting the sealed suitcase and setting the precious exit stamp in her passport.
Michaela was about to breathe a sigh of relief when the border guard commanded Frau Seifert to hold out her hands and push up her jacket sleeves.
Michaela held her breath as the elegant lady bared her scrawny, pale forearms almost to the elbow.
But where she had habitually worn several ivory and coral bangles, there was yawning emptiness.
The permitted wedding ring was her sole piece of jewelry.
Michaela bit her tongue, waiting for something terrible to happen.
But the border guard motioned Frau Seifert to walk to the line on the floor indicating no man’s land and ordered her to wait there for the rest of the group.
Then it was Herr Seifert’s turn. Miraculously, he was standing upright and even carrying his own suitcase.
For the hundredth time that day, Michaela silently thanked Lieutenant Hesse.
While the amphetamine contravened every medical standard, and its administration would undoubtedly lead to undesirable aftereffects, it was a price worth paying if it enabled their flight to freedom.
Michaela was under no illusions about the fate awaiting anyone who had to stay in Germany.
Once they were in Switzerland, everything else would work out, she was confident of that.
Next up was Leonore, who’d sat astonishingly still in her seat since she’d returned from her walk through the train alongside a very disgruntled Lieutenant Hesse. Michaela was dying to know what Leonore had done to rattle this usually calm man.
Finally, the border guard beckoned Michaela over. Her fingers were clasping the bundle of three passports plus the rest of their documents so tightly that her knuckles were white. She deliberately relaxed her steely grip and motioned to her daughters to come along.
Under the watchful eye of Lieutenant Hesse, the procedure went like clockwork until the officer suddenly asked, “Do you have anything in your jacket pockets?”
Michaela’s heart stopped a beat, before she answered in a tone of deep conviction, “No.”
“Show me,” he ordered, watching attentively as Michaela and Eva turned their pockets inside out.
Ilse however hesitated, and needed a second command from the guard, before she pulled a pencil stub and two meticulously folded sheets of drawings out of her left pocket.
Then she reached into her right pocket and grabbed a lump of dough she had shaped into a dog.
“Very talented,” the border guard said, beckoning Michaela. For one horrifying moment, she feared he intended to search her, and would find the undeclared franc note.
Instead, he held out a pair of scissors. “Here, please remove that badge from your jacket.”
Michaela’s jaw dropped. Once the shock had subsided, she accepted the scissors and set about cutting off first her daughters’ stars, then her own, before throwing the hateful objects in the trash.
The moment she was finished, the sun seemed to shine brighter, she could breathe easily again, and all the troubles of recent years drifted away. It was only in that second that Michaela genuinely believed they had escaped the Nazi regime.
She struggled to resist the urge to hug the border guard as she returned the scissors. “Thank you so much. You have no idea what a relief that is.”
He nodded with sorrow in his eyes. “My daughter-in-law is Jewish. The moment my son died at the front, she was deported.”
“I’m so sorry,” Michaela whispered. “May God have mercy on us all.” And by that, she meant both the victims in this life and the perpetrators – who’d truly need mercy at the last judgment.
Then she stepped across the line on the floor into no man’s land, where she set down her suitcase and fell into Leonore’s arms. She could barely hold back the tears. Behind her, Herr and Frau Lange crossed the border with Lieutenant Hesse.
As soon as the border guard turned away, Lieutenant Hesse pulled a coral necklace from his briefcase. Frau Lange gasped audibly and her eyes grew as wide as saucers, until at last a joyful glow spread across her face.
“Where did you get that?” she whispered, gazing at the beautiful necklace in awe.
“Your husband gave it to me in Berlin for safekeeping.”
Michaela noticed how moved both the Langes and the Lieutenant were. Instinctively, she laid a hand on her heart to capture this moment of complete bliss as an eternal reminder that indeed some wonderful people existed, even in the Third Reich.
“How can I ever thank you for this?” asked Frau Lange, her eyes growing suspiciously moist.
“Thank me by doing good for other people.” Lieutenant Hesse turned his face and dove a hand in his briefcase, withdrawing three hundred francs in cash, which he handed to Herr Lange. “This is for the first few days, until you manage to contact Herr Gisevius.”
Herr Lange accepted the franc notes and carefully stowed them in his wallet before shaking hands with the lieutenant. “We are all deeply indebted to you, and to the Abwehr. Who knows where we’d be without your heroic efforts.”
The lieutenant was visibly embarrassed at such depth of feeling. He self-consciously changed the subject. “I’ll wait here until you step onto Swiss territory.”
“Will we ever see you again?” asked Leonore.
“Probably not. If we don’t want your cover to be blown, you must follow the instructions you received in Berlin to the letter.”
“Sure.” Leonore pouted to express her dissatisfaction, but the lieutenant ignored her and approached Michaela instead.
Standing in front of her, he discreetly pulled the ring from his finger and pressed it into her hand.
In the tension of crossing the border, she’d completely forgotten it.
“Take good care of yourself and your daughters.”
“I will. We have so much to catch up on.” Michaela waved to him one final time before following her fellow travelers the few meters to the Swiss border.
Checking their documents, the border guard smiled kindly and said, “Well, you’re a lucky woman. It’s a miracle.”
And he was right. After so many years of harassment, they had finally done it – they had escaped Hitler’s Reich.