The Good Liar (34 page)

the city. During the journey they were silent, not daring to share

confidences, not able to offer one another false reassurances. The

van drove through two sets of gates. Their reception was brisk but

civil. Their belongings were logged individually in a large stiff-

backed book before being taken for storage. In a small room they

were each given a rough grey serge uniform and told to change.

There was even a child’s outfit for Lili. A female guard watched

them and placed their own clothes into a large brown paper bag.

Back at the reception desk Magda was told to sign the book that

listed their belongings. They were shown to a white- walled, cold

room just large enough to accommodate five thin beds. There was

no bedlinen, only a dirty blanket folded at the foot of each bed.

Their mother muttered repeatedly, ‘It’s a mistake. We’ll be home

shortly.’

Eventually Charlotte interrupted her. ‘Don’t say that, Mama. We

all know what’s going to happen.’

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Her mother stared at her.

‘No, Charlotte,’ said Hannelore gently. ‘We don’t know. Mama

may be right. And Lili . . .’

Hannelore looked at her and smiled, soothing her with her eyes.

But Charlotte had no regard. ‘We’ve seen the families. We’ve forgotten them. No one’s ever come back. It would take a miracle.’

‘Well, let’s believe in that miracle,’ said Anneliese.

They fell silent again.

3

The publicly appointed defence lawyer met Magda and the girls in a

small, shabby office at the detention facility. Lili did not remember hearing his name. Though a kindly looking man in an old- fashioned wing collar, he sat on the only chair and spread his papers on the

rickety table, leaving Magda to stand before him like a supplicant.

Lili tried to pay careful attention but could not stop herself watching the trees swaying in the wind outside.

The man told Magda that the family lawyer was sadly unavailable

to represent them. In any case it was doubtful that sufficient funds remained to pay for him. Their assets had been confiscated pending

judgement. He had been appointed by the court in their interests

and would do his very best for them. He smiled comfortingly before

continuing.

‘Your husband’s case will be heard in two weeks’ time,’ he said,

‘and then your position will be clearer. But there are separate considerations, not least your husband’s Jewish heritage.’

‘But my husband isn’t Jewish.’

‘Of course. That may be so. But it appears that the state may con-

test that assertion. There is an allegation that one or more of his grandparents may have been Jewish. Researches are now taking

place. Given that your husband’s maternal grandparents grew up in

Pomerania, however, this may prove problematic. We’re reliant on

the Polish authorities.’ He looked at her with a little smile of helplessness. ‘Whether or not one or both of his maternal grandparents

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was Jewish is of course critical to a judgement as to your husband

being a non- Aryan of the first or second degree.’

Lili was having difficulty following the logic.

‘But neither of his mother’s parents were Jewish,’ said Magda.

‘They were Germans, from Danzig, with German passports. That

should be simple enough to check.’

‘Do you know for certain?’

‘Well, no. It never seemed important.’

‘Indeed,’ said the lawyer cheerfully. ‘Check they will. Diligently.

Naturally they cannot simply accept a citizen’s word. And given the, er, questions regarding your husband’s integrity and therefore the

family’s, they will also be checking carefully your own ancestry.’

‘Of course,’ said Magda. ‘I understand.’

‘Should it be discovered that relevant facts have been concealed

from the authorities by you or your husband, there will be an

impact. But the greatest consequences will flow from your hus-

band’s trial.’

‘I’m sure Albert would never be disloyal to Germany. He’s not

interested in politics.’

‘Naturally you would say that. But you can’t expect the state to

take it on trust. Especially in the circumstances.’

Magda stared at the man. Lili’s attention drifted. All she wanted

to do was to return home and lie in her soft feather bed. It had

begun to snow again and she watched the flakes driven by the wind.

It was cold, always cold here, and the boredom and the dirt and the despair accumulated in their squalid little room.

Finally, the funny little man with the wing collar was saying

goodbye.

‘I’m sure it will all work out for the best,’ he said, as Anneliese wept. ‘We’ll meet again shortly to consider what we should do

next.’

Her mother had not yet cried; not even in the deep of night when

she could not sleep had Lili seen tears on her mother’s face. Han-

nelore embraced Anneliese as she shook. Charlotte stared on

blankly. Lili felt sad but was not quite sure why. Possibly because of the distress of her sisters and her mother’s clouded face.

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4

She did not see the lawyer with the wing collar again.

If only they had known these days would be so precious. They

had certainly not seemed so at the time. They were confined to

their room apart from their short excursions into the winter cold to walk around the bleak courtyard. She did not know whether they

were kept there or chose to remain. Every so often, a meagre meal

would be delivered, usually cold, by a woman with an unsmiling

face. Each time Lili wanted to use the stinking lavatory facilities along the corridor her mother went with her. The corridors were

deserted, though Lili could hear the distant sounds of children chattering somewhere else in the building. They did not sound happy

but she might have been projecting her own feelings on to them.

She knew something was seriously wrong but could not bring her-

self to believe that her father had done anything sufficiently bad to visit this upon them.

It could only have been a short number of uneventful weeks but

Lili later recalled them more vividly than the following years.

She would wake first and try to gain extra warmth by twisting

the rough blanket around her more closely. She would lie quietly

and watch her mother sleeping on the bed opposite hers. The beds

were close enough together for her to touch her mother but she

never dared do so for fear of waking her. Magda was near to exhaus-

tion anyway. But sometimes Lili would stretch her neck and reach

her face towards her mother’s so that she could feel her breath on

her cheeks and sense the life in her. When it was bitter cold, Magda would invite Lili into her narrow bed, and they would put one blanket on top of the other and Magda would wrap her arms around

her and squeeze her and bury her face in Lili’s dirty hair, and Lili would snuggle back so that every part of the back of her body was

touching her mother’s. But the bed was too small and Lili too rest-

less at night. She insisted unless it was just too unbearable that she was warm enough in her own bed. Because she knew her mother

needed sleep.

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They would all rise together and she would watch as her mother

and sisters summoned the facial expressions that would say to one

another: it’s all right, it could be worse, soon it will be over. None of them believed it but it was a means of navigating the day. One of

the sisters might be able to find a corner of bread and some water

for breakfast and then they would talk, avoiding stories of the life they had once led and instead looking forward to the lives they

would later enjoy. Lili had decided she would become a teacher and

that she would never marry and that she would move to a small vil-

lage in Bavaria where she would live in a cottage.

‘A gingerbread cottage?’ Charlotte had said, laughing.

‘Why, yes,’ Lili had replied. ‘How did you know?’

Every so often the talking would stop, for a reason Lili could not

divine. Anneliese would turn her back on her sisters and whimper.

Hannelore would comfort her. Charlotte would stare into the mid-

dle distance and Magda, grey lines framing her eyes, would sigh.

In the afternoon, perhaps after a bowl of thin soup, they would

be allowed out to walk around the building. They walked in a yard

bordered on one side by a blank windowless wall and on the other

three by uncultivated scrubland. They were somewhere outside the

city, yet it did not seem to Lili as if they were in the country. Tall fences topped by three long coils of barbed wire marked the

boundary.

During the evening they talked again, always in undertones as if

they might disturb someone, or quietly played the childish games

they had made up. They never spoke of Albert Schröder, and some-

thing inside Lili told her not to ask Magda about her father. At a

certain point, never predictable, the light would cut out abruptly

and it was time to try to find sleep.

5

They heard nothing about the proceedings against their father. Their life consisted of waiting, for invisible processes to be completed and decisions to be taken. That much seemed to be tacit between her

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mother and the people who oversaw their detention, ordinary people

for the most part, with haunted and harried looks on their faces. Or possibly this was a complexion Lili later placed on them.

The next phase was managed with characteristic precision by the

authorities, and a little finesse. Magda was called to the facility manager’s office on the floor below to discuss certain legal matters. She followed the burly supervisor obediently, head down; she had

already been conditioned in the way of things.

‘We’ll practise some French when I get back,’ she said. They had

taken to lessons together, with no books and relying on Magda’s and the other girls’ own knowledge. It was a way of passing the time.

A few minutes later the supervisor returned. She said brightly,

‘Showers. They’ve fixed the boiler at last. You girls will be the first to use them. Your mother will have a chance when she gets back.’

She handed over thin, stiff towels, the colour washed out, threads

hanging from them, but laundered at least, leaving one on the bed

for Magda. The girls filed along the long linoleum corridor and into a suite of rooms they had never seen before, better maintained than the rest of the accommodation.

‘New clothes as well,’ said the supervisor. ‘And a medical check-

up. I’ll leave you to get ready for the showers. They’re just through there. Leave your dirty clothes in a pile in the corner.’

They undressed and looked at the new underwear, trousers and

tunics that lay on the benches. Hannelore folded and stacked the

clothes they had taken off and, carrying their towels, they walked

through.

It was a communal shower, with more than enough space for

them all to stand together. Charlotte found the tap and they watched as the powerful flow became warmer. Eventually it was steaming

hot and they walked under the healing waters. Lili realized that no one had spoken since their mother had left their room but now they

were giggling and whispering.

It felt like a rebirth, the warm water cascading down on them.

There was even soap. Grey runnels of grime drained down the

sluices below their feet. Finally, the supervisor called from the adja-cent room, ‘Time’s up.’

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Buoyed, they dried themselves by the benches and pulled on the

clean clothes. Charlotte made a neat pile of the towels.

The supervisor carried a clipboard. ‘Medicals now,’ she said, ‘and

then please, straight back to your room.’ She opened the connect-

ing door to another room, in which, Lili could see, a bespectacled

woman in a white coat stood waiting.

‘Schröder, Hannelore,’ announced the supervisor, and Hannelore

walked with her into the room.

‘Until later,’ she said, smiling.

The supervisor closed the door firmly behind her. The remaining

three girls were excited.

‘It must have been sorted out. Perhaps that’s what Mama is talk-

ing about with the manager,’ said Anneliese.

‘We’ll soon be home,’ said Lili.

‘I’m going to put on my best clothes and dance in the ballroom,’

said Charlotte, ‘on my own.’

It was only a few minutes before the door opened again. Han-

nelore did not come back.

‘She’s back in your room,’ said the supervisor, smiling in reassur-

ance. ‘Now, Schröder, Charlotte.’

Charlotte walked into the room, giving a little wave as she went.

A small patch of darkness crossed Lili’s consciousness but it was

soon gone as Anneliese took up the commentary on what she

planned to do when they arrived home. After a short time she too

was gone.

Left on her own, Lili began to think. Their mother had told the

other girls that if they were ever separated one of them should

always stay with her. But there was no need to worry. They were on