Chapter 12 The Plan
The Plan
Berlin
With five days left before the wedding, Helene was busier making plans about where to hide the books than about the menu or
the order of ceremony. Derek had taken charge of most of the wedding details, with his mother’s help. Mrs. von Sholtz did
not take kindly to the fact that a bride-to-be was barely interested in the most important celebration of her life.
Helene spent most of the day in the library with Klaus and Lena, organizing their lists and files of books and adding new
ones that might fall out of favor with the Nazis. The more radical the regime grew, the greater the amount of oversight Rudolf
Kummer exercised—and the less safe it was to be in the library. It seemed like they were racing against two clocks: one for
hiding books, and one for the impending wedding.
Lena came into the office with one eye cocked in perplexity.
“What’s going on?” Helene asked. Though she had come out of her emotional slump, she did not feel strong enough to bear more bad news.
“It’s not terrible, but I’m not sure if it’s good.”
That got Helene’s attention. She put down her pencil and studied Lena.
“We’re starting to get collections—people are asking us to keep their private libraries safe. At first I didn’t want to take
anything, because I thought it might be a trap. But these are people we know and trust, not your average extremist,” Lena
explained, taking a seat.
Kaiser—Helene had started bringing him to the office with her—gave Lena a curious look, as if he were participating in the
conversation. Lena stroked his ears distractedly.
“Are they high value?” Helene asked.
Lena shook off her reverie and answered, “Yes, some of them: first editions of All Quiet on the Western Front and A Farewell to Arms. Also some first editions of Marx and other authors. But what’s coming our way most are Jewish books. Rabbi Moses has asked
to keep his entire library here. And so has a Protestant seminary! The Nazis are purging all Christian books that speak positively
about the Jewish people, as well as important manuscripts or ancient translations of Scripture.”
“We can’t keep every one of the 5,800 books on the list. I know Kummer’s behind all this nonsense.” Helene was testy with
anxiety simply trying to protect just Neukolln’s collection, let alone the entire neighborhood’s.
“But some of these are unique editions . . .”
“But the risk is getting too high. In our quest to save one more book, we might lose all of them.”
Lena deflated at Helene’s words. She picked up a book from the desk and started flipping through, immersing herself in the feel of worn pages and the smell of aged paper.
“Each book that disappears causes irreparable damage. Think of the Library of Alexandria or the Library of Pergamon. We’re
witnessing the fall of ideas before the ideologies and new pagan gods that have taken the place of the old Judeo-Christian
God. Those barbarians are going to devour everything as they spread ignorance and hatred all over.” She knew her friend was
right but hoped her words would get through beyond reason.
Helene rested her hand on her chin and looked over their lists. Those yellow-lined pages were the library’s last hope. She
hoped her colleagues throughout the country were doing something similar, but there was no way of knowing.
“The Nazis have destroyed a large portion of holdings at Humboldt University. They want to get rid of the Jewish Community
of Berlin Library, and they’ve even gone after the Central Library . . .”
Helene sighed. “Fine, but how are we going to do it?”
“To start, let’s give this collection a name. Things don’t exist until we name them.”
The two friends started brainstorming while Kaiser licked his milk bowl. Eventually Lena went to fix tea. The steam rising
from their teacups breathed new life into their thought process, and the sugar in the cookies inspired fresh ideas.
“The Library of Freedom . . .” Lena offered.
“Or Alexandria, in honor of what got burned,” said Helene.
“Too mythical,” Lena said. She bit into a cookie and savored the momentary pleasure of such an ordinary ritual.
“The Library of Forbidden Books?” Helene suggested, but Lena shook her head.
Just then Klaus popped his head in. “The Secret Library of Berlin?” It was clear that he had been listening.
Both women nodded.
“Yes, I like it! It’s an act of rebellion in name of our city. Berlin held out hardest against the Nazis, and now that they’re
here, we’re the ones suffering most because of them.” Helene spoke animatedly now, energized by the solidarity of resistance.
“Perfect!” Lena declared. “And now, where should we put it?”
“Well, the best place to hide something is right out front, under the nose of the person looking for it. That is, exactly
where they would never think to look,” Klaus said, helping himself to the cookies and tea. “Lucky for us, Hitler likes tea.
If not, he’d say it was a foreign product and it would get black-listed as well. I’ve never been fond of those Alpiners in
their silly little lederhosen playing their doodley-toodley-doo folk music.”
Helene giggled but Lena, impatient at Klaus’s vague roundabouts, insisted, “So what are you getting at?”
“In front of that building the Gestapo took over in Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse Plaza, there’s a little building that belonged
to the Embassy of Czechoslovakia. I bet we could rent it and store the books in there. No one would think that right next
to Gestapo headquarters and all the other government and ministry buildings was where the biggest Secret Library of Berlin
was located.”
Helene and Lena stared in shock at Klaus, who was grinning from ear to ear. It was a dangerous plan, but a brilliant one.
They would have to get the keys to the building and transport thousands of books to it under the noses of Nazi authorities.
Klaus was a firm believer that people’s greatness was a factor of the dreams they were capable of imagining, and he had a
very active imagination.