The Shadow of War by Jack Murray (latest ebook reader txt) 📗

‘Did you see that?’ exclaimedone pupil, ‘His wife was in the car, too.’

‘I know, I saw Julia Kahn therealso,’ said one of the girls, referring to the young daughter of the Kahn’s.

‘It’s the Gestapo, noquestion,’ said Erich, voicing everyone’s thoughts at that moment.

The class returned to theirseats but moments later a voice said, ‘Look! There’s another car.’

Several boys left their seatsand went to the window. It was another Opel Olympia. A man in a trench coatstepped out from the back. He walked in through the front entrance.

‘More Gestapo by the looks ofthings,’ said one boy. By now the whole class was balanced precariously by thewindow, fascinated by the events.

Moments later the man stormedout shouting at the head teacher who was following him. The class was stunned.They had never seen their head teacher looking so meek. It felt like he was nowthe naughty schoolboy. Manfred wasn’t sure if he was enjoying the spectacle oruncomfortable with the fact that he did not understand what was happening. Infact, the whole class was wondering the same thing.

‘What’s happening?’ asked agirl, a little fearfully. The car door slammed shut and within seconds roaredaway from the school. Manfred glanced at Erich, who merely shrugged.

A new teacher arrived the nextday. The fate of Professor Kahn was never mentioned again. To talk of the professor openly was to risk punishment;everyone understood this. Manfred felt uneasy about the arrest. Although no onespoke of Kahn in public, in private the boys came up with ever more viciouslyimplausible theories on why Kahn had been arrested and also the mystery of thetwo cars.

One boy blamed him for themurder of a local SS man that had taken place a day earlier. Manfred almostlaughed when he heard that. Whatever Professor Kahn was, he was certainly nomurderer. But Manfred remained silent and let the stories career wildly along.All of the boys knew the real reason why he had been taken. It was as obviousas it was simple. Except for the second car. No one could explain this mystery.

Professor Kahn was a Jew. Allacross Germany it was well known that the Jews were being rounded up anddeported. This was all that had happened. Nothing to be excited about. However,Manfred remained uneasy. He had liked Professor Kahn. His last thought of Kahnas he left the group to return home that night was the look exchanged betweenhim and Diana Landau a few years previously.

-

Manfred stood and watched thehouse from a distance. Workmen moved furniture from a lorry while other menarranged things inside. A man and a woman appeared. Both seemed to be about thesame age as his own father and mother. Then a young girl appeared. She wasabout thirteen, perhaps older. Manfred smiled and thought about how she mightlook in a few years. Quite something, he concluded. Before he became tooconspicuous, he decided to continue on his journey. It was also too cold to bestanding still. Better to keep moving. Slowly, he felt some semblance ofcirculation return.

The snow underfoot wasbeginning to turn icy and he made his way carefully along the footpath to avoidfalling. As he walked home, he saw a car accident. There was ice on the road. Asmall lorry failed to stop in time and bumped lightly into the car in front. Afew passers-by stopped to look.

The man in the lorry got out.He was small, middle-aged and quite wiry. From the car a younger man got out.He was irate and began yelling at the lorry driver who held his hands up toapologise. The younger man was having nothing of it, though. He pushed theolder man and then hit him. The lorry driver collapsed to the ground. Thepassers-by shouted at the younger man to stop and he began to remonstrate withthem also. Then he heard screams.

Manfred pulled the coat uparound his neck and walked on.

 3

January 1938

The wood was covered in perfectwhite. The snow lay thick on the ground shining brightly in the morning sun. Theshatter-brittle silence in the wood was broken by the delighted screams ofyoung boys, at first a few and then many. All were bare-chested in the numbing cold yetdelighted to be so. Their roars were a release, a yell of defiance against the elements. Theywould not submit. They would not be seen to acquiesce to its icy tendrils. Onwardsthey ran; every step a triumph of their will over themselves and Mother Nature.

Manfred and Erich followed alongbehind the group. They were responsible for the village group. At this momentthey were happy to trail behind. It always interested them when the parents ofthe children urged them to ‘tire the boys out’. It was a universal desire, itseemed to Manfred and Erich, that parents wished their children to be in apermanent state of exhaustion. The mystery was never explained to them. Theirjob was to follow orders.

They reached the brook and thegroup stopped. It was a small clearing and the boys filled most of it. Erichleapt onto a log and shouted, ‘Jogging on the spot for one minute.’

Almost as one body they did asthey were ordered. Erich encouraged them, through insults and coaxing, to gofaster and faster. For the next half hour, the two dozen boys were led througha series of exercises, finishing off with a particular favourite.

‘We’ll finish now with acompetition,’ announced Erich. This brought a loud cheer from the boys. Hereached into one of the two bags that he and Manfred had carried with them.From the bag he extracted a wooden club.

‘We are going to see who canthrow the gren..., sorry, I mean club,’ this brought another loud cheer andErich had to wave his arms to quieten them. ‘I mean, wooden club,’ shoutedErich over the noise.

Manfred began to hand out theclubs. One by one the boys launched the clubs into an open space on the otherside of the brook. Each new extension to the distance was greeted by cheers.Anyone falling short was met with good-natured abuse. At the end the boy whohad won stepped forward to be met with acclaim