Chapter 10

Algy Makes Plans

To say Algy was stunned by her pronouncement was an understatement. The roller coaster of emotion almost floored him. "Took him away?" he managed to stammer. "Where to?"

"Mauthausen," she sobbed.

Algy looked blank. "Where's that?" he asked, bewildered.

"It's about 15 kilometres from here, towards the East," she explained. "They are building a new camp where people will work on Messerschmitts. They have taken my father there."

"What about your mother?"

"She was at home when I left this morning. I don't know if she's still there now. Attacks by the mob are getting worse. Ever since Herr Hitler came and made a speech there have been more people and more violence. She is not a strong woman. It is so hard on her nerves."

Algy thought swiftly. Making up his mind, he told the girl to stay where she was while he went to their house to find her mother. If he was successful he would bring her to the hiding place and they would all go to the hotel together. The girl's words made him ask: "is there anything I can say that would convince her I can be trusted? I might have difficulty persuading her to come with me otherwise."

She hesitated. "Tell her Becca wants to go to Vienna University to study Law," she said finally. "I haven't told anyone but my mother and father, because after the new laws, the universities have begun to select people on racial grounds and I know I shan't get a place."

Algy looked shocked. "This gets worse and worse," he breathed. "Stay here. If things are as bad as that, you won't be safe on the street."

"But what if you are arrested?" she asked fearfully.

"If I don't come back in an hour," Algy informed her, "go to the Wolfinger Hotel and ask for a man called Bigglesworth. Tell him what's happened and what I'm going to do."

She protested that as a Jewess she was not allowed to go into the hotel.

"Then call him on the telephone," exclaimed Algy impatiently. "If necessary, call yourself Mrs Lacey and let him know what's going on. He'll make arrangements to meet you. Here," he thrust some schillings and pfennigs into her hand. "In case you don't have any change for the 'phone!"

She took the coins hesitantly. Algy swallowed his impatience, realising that the strain under which she was forced to live was sapping her resilience.

"Don't worry," he reassured her softly. "We'll make sure we get you all safely away to England. Remember what I've told you."

As he left the corridor under the stairs, he last saw her huddled on the floor, clutching the coins to her breast as a drowning man clutches at a life raft.

Algy emerged onto the empty street to find the only evidence of the pogrom was shards of broken glass, scorch marks and a litter of uprooted cobble stones. He moved quickly along the thoroughfare, scanning the numbers until he found the one he wanted. Glancing to right and left to make sure he was unobserved, he dashed up the steps and hammered on the door. No one came. He rapped sharply again and thought he heard a gasp.

"Mrs Meier!" he called out urgently. "I'm a friend. Please let me in. I need to talk to you."

He thought he saw a face behind the curtain, but it was swiftly removed.

"Becca told me she wants to go to study Law," he added. "In Vienna – she said you'd know I've come to help if I told you that."

After what seemed an age, the door opened a crack. "Where is Becca?" quavered the woman suspiciously. "You've taken her!" her voice cracked and she seemed about to descend into hysteria.

Algy hastened to reassure her that her daughter was safe and waiting for her. "We can't have this discussion on the doorstep," he urged. "Let me in so we can arrange to get you away."

She looked at him anxiously. Algy stared back, trying to be patient. After what seemed to be an age, she made up her mind about him. Reluctantly she opened the door wider and Algy leapt into the hall. There was something about her air of terror which was catching, he thought.

The woman who faced him had once been beautiful, he realised, but worry and fear had etched deep lines in her features. Her eyes searched his face, suspicious that his appearance was some sort of trick.

Algy hastened to reassure her. When he told her of the plan to take them to England, she blinked and stared at him in disbelief. Her hand clutched at her throat. For a moment he wondered if she was going to faint, but she leaned against the wall for support.

"My husband," she began, but Algy interrupted. "I know. Becca told me. He's been sent to build Messerschmitts in Mauthausen."

"I won't go to England without him," she said fiercely.

"You won't have to, I promise. We'll take him with us, don't worry," Algy told her soothingly. "The main thing for now is to join up with my colleague so we can arrange to get your husband away. In order to do that, first we need to get you and Becca to our hotel."

At the mention of her daughter, the woman's eyes filled with fear. "She went out this morning," she whispered. "I haven't seen her. There was a mob on the street …" she seemed about to break down in hysterics.

"She's fine," Algy hastened to assure her. "She safe. She's waiting for us farther along the street. You will have to abandon everything when you come with us," he informed her regretfully. "We won't have room for any luggage and we'll have to move swiftly."

The woman looked dejectedly around the bare hallway. "We have almost nothing left," she said dispiritedly. "They have taken everything."

"Get your coat then, if you're ready," urged Algy, "and we'll go."

The Professor's wife turned and went slowly up the uncarpeted stairs. It seemed to Algy, waiting impatiently by the front door, to take an age before she reappeared, dressed in a grey coat that had seen better days, with a dark red hat perched at a jaunty angle on her greying hair. She seemed to have conquered her nerves and appeared, if not exactly cheerful, at least less fearful. The prospect of escape his arrival represented had given her hope.

She came across the hall to stand beside him. "I'm ready," she announced in a sad, quiet voice. Algy smiled reassuringly and offered her his arm. She took it hesitantly.

He was about to open the front door when suddenly the calm was shattered by the sound of hammering and a loud demand to open up in the name of the Reich.

Mrs Meier turned deathly pale and shrank back, all her confidence draining away. "It is the Sicherheits Dienst," she whispered in terror. "The ones who came for my husband this morning. Now they have come to arrest Becca and me."