Chapter 9 The Secret List
The Secret List
Berlin
Helene and Derek had left Dr. Vichow at a solitary train station in Poland at four o’clock in the morning after crossing the
border with no difficulty. The sleepy soldiers hardly paid attention when they explained that their elderly friend needed
to see a specialist in Warsaw for a serious medical condition.
Dr. Vichow’s last words to Helene were seared into her memory: “Don’t let Rudolf Kummer get away with this. Find the list
of librarians they’re going to do away with, and send it to von Hindenburg. Then warn everyone on it that their lives are
in danger. They’ve got to escape.”
He had given her a nearly impossible mission.
Helene did not think of herself as a hero, but instead as simply another human being.
But in that, in her personhood, infinite freedom and absolute dignity were bestowed upon her.
Helene’s paternal grandfather had always said that being human meant knowing how to choose between complacency and action.
She had no idea where he had picked up that idea, as the old diplomat wasn’t exactly a philosopher, but every bit the man of action.
As Helene fiddled with a pencil in her office, Lena marched in unannounced, as usual.
“What’s on your mind? You’ve been distracted the past few days. Problems with your Prussian prince?” Lena snickered, amused
with herself.
“No, nitwit. You’re always going on about him.”
“Yeah, but are you really sure you want to marry a guy with a big spike on his helmet?”
At Lena’s description of a pickelhaube, Helene joined in the laughing.
Lena plopped down and looked straight into Helene’s eyes. “I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s going on.”
Helene took a deep breath and nodded toward the open door of the office, which Lena stretched out to close without moving
from her seat.
“We took Dr. Vichow to the border of Poland. He’d been beaten half to death. I didn’t say anything about it so you wouldn’t
be in any danger. Knowing things is risky these days.”
Lena sat up, crossed her arms, and frowned.
“I’m sorry, okay?” Helene said.
“There are no secrets between us. We’ve been friends since the first day of university classes. I remember you telling me
your dreams for your life, and I thought you were crazy.
Then I learned for a fact that you are crazy, and since then I’ve been by your side in all your crazy, quixotic ideas.
You’re not so different from all the authors you adore.
Those writers are lonely souls looking for happiness and determined to create imaginary worlds because they don’t like the real one.
That’s you to a tee—a memory keeper of everything that other writers have given the world. ”
Lena’s uncustomary pontification took Helene by surprise. “You’ve never said anything like that to me before. Thank you. I
think of myself as just a local librarian.”
“Just? Do you know how many kids have gone back home with their eyes shining, hungry to devour the latest adventure novel you recommended?
Or how many elderly people have chased away the loneliness at night by reading the books you’ve given them? I can still remember
Mario, that laborer from Italy who was illiterate. You taught him to read in German. You opened his eyes, just like Jesus
did in one of those miracles they talked about at church when I was a kid. You’re pure light! But sometimes I cannot stand
you. So come out with it: What all did Dr. Vichow tell you?”
Helene chewed on her pencil, a nervous habit she had developed as a child. She had spent a few days trying to work out a plan
but did not want to put anyone else at risk.
“The wedding is just over a month away. I should be focused on it, like my mother and Derek’s mother say, but how can I think
about a wedding at a time like this?”
“We’re all postponing our lives. Nobody knows what’s going to happen. Sometimes I think they’re going to kick us all out.”
“Well, you’re Aryan. You’ve never been active in a political party, and you’ve got a brother in the SS,” Helene said without
thinking.
“He’s no brother of mine!” It was one of the few realities Lena could not face. “Almost my entire family voted for the Nazis,
and they used to be Social Democrats. The world has gone stark raving mad!”
Helene got up to make sure no one was looking through the window of her office door, then sat on the edge of her desk.
She briefly recounted the night that Dr. Vichow had showed up at the library and then told Lena: “So I’m thinking about going to Rudolf Kummer’s office and stealing the list. I think he has an office at the central library, on the same floor as Hugo Andres Krüss. ”
Lena’s eyes were popping out of their sockets. She shook her head over and over and finally managed to ask, “Who do you think
you are, Mata Hari?”
“No, but it’s got to be done. You in?”
Lena drummed her fingers on the table for a few moments and stared into an empty corner. Then, with a smirk, she said, “Nothing
sounds better than a new adventure with my best friend.”
Helene was flooded with relief. She felt that falling into step with destiny, however elusive it was, might be the key to
overcoming any difficulty.
Helene decided not to mention anything about her plan to Derek. She comprehended the risk she was taking by entering a government
office and stealing an official document, especially in the new Germany, where the consequences for any misdeed could include
being locked up in a work camp with no trial, or even facing death itself. And anyway, later she would need Derek’s help getting
the list to President von Hindenburg or his aides.
The first obstacle was finding an excuse to be in the vicinity of Kummer’s office.
Lena suggested that they could request a meeting with Krüss and ask him to reinstate funding for the Neukolln library’s community projects.
Helene could excuse herself to go to the bathroom and, while Lena distracted Krüss, could find the list, take a picture of it, and get back to Krüss’s office before anyone noticed.
The plan sounded simple enough at first, but enacting what they had scribbled down on paper would not be easy.
A few days after they requested the meeting with Krüss, they received a positive reply. On the appointed day, Lena and Helene
dressed their best.
The taxi dropped them at the entrance to the Prussian State Library, one of the most impressive libraries in Europe. This
mother of German libraries housed an unrivaled collection of rare books, manuscripts, and historic documents of incalculable
worth.
Helene and Lena stood in awe before the majestic facade. The building was only nineteen years old, but it seemed like a holdover
from classic antiquity. Inside, the great circular hall emanated the magnificence Germany wanted the world to believe it had.
Yet that temple to the language of Goethe, Kant, and Schiller was now at the service of Nazi propaganda.
They showed their IDs at the front desk. Dressed in a tube skirt and white lacy blouse, the amiable secretary seemed more
like a Valkyrie than a librarian. She led them up the steps, down several hallways, and finally to the door of Krüss’s office.
“Excuse me, ma’am, I have a question. Is Rudolf Kummer in his office? I wondered if we might greet him while we’re here.”
The secretary gave them a puzzled look, as if any aberration from the schedule were disconcerting.
“I really couldn’t say. He spends most of his time in Munich. I’m told he does not care much for the hustle and bustle of
Berlin.”
She went to a nearby door and knocked, then opened it and checked to make sure there was no one inside.
“I’m sorry, he must be out.” Then she went back to the imposing door of her boss’s office, knocked, and led the women in.
“Herr Krüss, Miss Helene Nathan and Miss Lena von Bülow to see you,” the secretary said while everyone shook hands.
“I’m pleased to meet you. You’re doing excellent work at your branch. Please, take a seat.” Krüss’s smile was friendly and
his demeanor attentive. They had only seen him once before at an administrative meeting, and at a distance, but up close he
seemed as personable as he had during his presentation.
“Thank you so much for being willing to meet with us, and so soon. I imagine you’re extremely busy.” Helene turned her brightest
smile on the man. Her mother always said that a happy face is the best visitor’s card.
“Yes, but you two represent the cultural veins of the city. We need the information to flow so that Berlin can continue to
breathe. What I regret most about my job, though I’m the first to admit how lucky I am, is that I hardly spend any time with
the books themselves anymore.” He cast a glance at the large shelf lining one wall, then got up and pulled out a few volumes
to show them. “That’s why I keep some works in here, to enjoy them when the weight of the work drags me down.”
Helene and Lena leaned forward and looked at the first book. Krüss donned a pair of gloves.
“This is a manuscript of tales of the Brothers Grimm. I love looking through it. The writing is illegible, but undoubtedly
it’s one of our greatest treasures.”
He put it back on the shelf and pulled out a much thicker volume.
“Have you young ladies ever seen an original Gutenberg Bible? This one is from 1455, when Gutenberg started it all. The Chinese had already invented a printing press, but with Gutenberg, books became accessible to people outside the walls of a monastery. I could go on all day about the papers of Humboldt, Johann Sebastian Bach, Beethoven, or Martin Luther, but you’ve got the idea. ”
“This is amazing!” Lena said, and her awe was not an act.
They all sat back down, and Krüss stroked his chin, looking expectantly at the women before him.
“Well,” Helene began, “at the Neukolln branch we have literacy programs and a traveling library project, where we take books
into the working-class neighborhoods. As you’re aware, during the recent transitions in government, the funds for these outlets