The Jerusalem Inception (33 page)

“Enough,” he said as if reading her mind. “There’s only here and now, okay?”

They held each other for a long moment.

Tanya breathed deeply. She rebuked herself silently for letting gloom and fear take over. Israel wasn’t a Shtetl, or a ghetto, but a Jewish state with an army of dedicated men and women, ready to defend it. And she had a vital role in that effort. “My assignment here will end soon. I’ll probably be sent back to Europe. This house might be empty or occupied by someone else when your next leave comes around.”

“I’ve never been abroad. Can I visit you?”

There was no way she could see him in Europe. Mossad life didn’t allow for casual visitors. To change the subject, she asked, “Have you received any letters from home?”

“Are you kidding?”

Tanya was surprised. Abraham had clearly said that his wife would write to Lemmy. “Your mother didn’t write to you?”

“She probably forgot about me already.”

“Don’t be stupid!” Tanya immediately regretted her sharp tone. “There’s nothing my daughter could do to make me forget her. Your mother will never—”

“What do you know about Neturay Karta?”

“I know how a mother feels.”

“Not my mother. She feels what my father allows her to feel, which obviously can’t include feelings for a banished son.”

“That’s not what—”

“I don’t want to talk about it!” Lemmy put down his coffee and left the kitchen. She heard him enter the bathroom, and a moment later the water was running in the shower.

E
lie Weiss had spent the night at the Pension Naurische, a small hotel run by an elderly couple near Zurich’s train station. When he came downstairs, Frau Naurische handed him a thick envelope addressed to
Herr Danzig
. Taking his breakfast in the cozy lounge, Elie used a butter knife to open the seal.

One of his agents had collected background information on Armande Hoffgeitz. Technically it was a violation of Israeli law, which limited all overseas clandestine activities to Mossad. But Elie had never considered his operations to be subjected to this or any other law. Only the best interest of the Jewish people counted.

He pulled out a manila folder, which contained approximately twenty black-and-white photographs. In the first photo, a family was seated on the deck of a sailboat, chewing on sausage sandwiches. The parents were pudgy, but the two children seemed athletic. The note on the back of the photo read:
Armande, wife Greta, daughter Paula, and son Klaus V.K. Hoffgeitz.

Another photo showed a thin, tall man in a dark suit and a tie standing by a Rolls Royce. The note on the back read:
Günter Schnell, long-time assistant to Herr Hoffgeitz.
In the next photo, the family entered a church whose front was adorned with three stained glass windows that seemed familiar. The agent noted that the Hoffgeitz family regularly attended Sunday afternoon mass at the Fraumünster on the Limmat River, which apparently was opened to tourists in the morning hours.

As he walked to church through the streets of Zurich, Elie remembered walking with his father to the synagogue through the muddy roads of the shtetl, both of them in black coats and wide-brimmed hats. At the door of the synagogue, Rabbi Yakov Gerster greeted them with his son, Abraham. The rabbi asked how Elie had been progressing as an apprentice
shoykhet
, and while Elie’s father bragged about his son’s proficiency with the slaughter of livestock, Abraham scrunched his face in revulsion.

With this memory on his mind, Elie mounted the stone steps of the Fraumünster church and entered the cavernous space, which was braced by multiple cross-arches high above. The three aisles of the gothic basilica were lit by the rays of the sun, filtered through the stained glass windows. Less than a third of the pews were taken. The Hoffgeitz family sat up front. The organ played a thunderous tune, and the parishioners sang a hymn. He sat in the rear, far to the right. It was chilly, the damp air scented with candles. He hesitated before removing his wool cap, but he had no choice.

The pastor, in a black robe, signaled to the organ player, who picked up the pace, bringing it to a roaring climax. The organ was enormous in size, with hundreds, perhaps over a thousand pipes rising to different heights.

“This is a special day,” the pastor began, his German spoken with a French accent. He pointed to the front of the choir room and the stained-glass windows. “Thanks to the generosity of our faithful and the divine gift of the inspired artist, we are blessed with the presence of prophets Elijah, Elisha, and Jeremiah.”

This jolted Elie’s memory. Months earlier he had read in a newspaper article criticizing the elderly Jewish artist Marc Chagall for accepting a lucrative commission to create biblical scenes for a Swiss church, including one of Jesus Christ, in whose name countless Jews had been murdered over the past centuries. Elie shifted in the pew to get a better look.

While Elijah was rising to heaven in a chariot of fire, Jeremiah hovered in a hazy blue cloud. The next stained window showed Moses looking down on the Israelites in the midst of battle. Jacob occupied the next, his ladder reaching for the sky while a seraph wrestled him to the ground. Elie almost laughed at the next scene, which had the walled city of Jerusalem descending from a yellowish sky while King David and Bathsheba looked on amorously.

The pastor, meanwhile, crossed over to the most striking depiction, a greenish-orange creation that starred Mary, Baby Jesus, a floating tree, a lamb, and the crucifixion, with an adult Jesus ascending to divine heights that required Elie to crane his neck to look at the top, near the ceiling, where their Messiah was finally free from his earthly suffering.

The pastor’s sermon went on for a half-hour, extracting lessons of modesty and charity from the lives of Elijah, Elisha, and Jeremiah, concluding with Jesus. Elie watched the Hoffgeitz family, the mother nodding approvingly, the daughter glancing at her watch, and Herr Hoffgeitz’s chin resting on his chest while he napped. The son, who was about twelve, seemed captivated by the colorful biblical scenes.

The service ended with another hymn. Elie put on his wool cap and moved to the shadow of a thick stone column. The Hoffgeitz family lingered to look up at the windows, while the pastor spoke animatedly, gesturing at each of the scenes. He paused when Herr Hoffgeitz spoke and leaned forward in deference.

Elie slipped outside and chose a discreet vantage point. A dark Rolls Royce glided into the plaza. The driver came around to open the door.
Günter
.

A rattling engine noise drew everyone’s attention as a yellow VW minibus arrived, stopping behind the Rolls Royce. It was filled with teenagers with longish hair. The daughter jumped in, and only young Klaus waved at the departing VW, which left behind a smell of burnt oil. Across the rear of the minibus, a crudely painted serpent slithered between purple letters
LASN
, which Elie suspected stood for Lyceum Alpin St. Nicholas, the Swiss boarding school once attended by SS General Klaus von Koenig and Armande Hoffgeitz. It appeared that the prestigious boys’ school had become coed.

L
emmy tied a towel around his waist and went to the living room. He felt at home among Tanya’s books, the music from the wooden box of the radio, and Bira smiling from her photo on the wall. He found Ayn Rand’s
The Fountainhead
and flipped through the pages, finding familiar passages.

When he put down the book, Lemmy noticed a cigarette lighter leaning against an empty ashtray. He picked it up, surprised by its heavy weight. With his thumb he opened the tiny cover and pressed. It worked. He thumbed the cover, extinguishing the flame. He could see the glint of silver under the greenish coat of aging.

Tanya entered the room, carrying two cups. “You didn’t finish your coffee.” She sat on the sofa. “I made you a fresh cup.”

“I’m sorry for ending our conversation so abruptly.”

“Apology accepted.”

“No one can possibly understand Neturay Karta unless you’ve been part of it.” He sat next to her and picked up the cigarette lighter. “Have you started smoking?”

She put down the cup, splashing hot coffee on the table. “Give it to me!”

He held it up, away from her, and pulled out the Mauser with his free hand. The long shining barrel lined up with the oxidized rectangle of the lighter. Both had the same engraved initials. “Who is
K.v.K.
?”

E
lie crossed the Limmat River and headed back to the Pension Naurische. Sunday traffic was sparse. The tram rumbled by, throwing electric sparks from the overhead wires. On Bahnhofstrasse, near the entrance to the central train station, he bought the Sunday edition of the German-language daily
Neue Züricher Zeitung
. Farther down, he found a small café off the main road and sat at a round table outside, raising his collar against the early evening chill, and lit a cigarette.

The waitress noticed the Lucky Strike pack on the table and asked, “
Amerikaner?
”

“
Nein
,” Elie said. “
Ich bin ein Berliner
.” It amused him to name another divided city when lying about where he lived. Before she could ask more questions, he ordered black coffee and
Erdbeertoertli
, a traditional Swiss dessert of strawberries and whipped cream in a pastry cup.

The front page carried a long article about a proposed ban on foreign-controlled banks in Switzerland. A headline on the second page reported that Mahmoud Riad, the Egyptian foreign minister, had gone to Jordan to negotiate a military pact with King Hussein. Until now, the young king was not receptive to the idea. But the events of April 7, almost three weeks earlier, had created a different mood. According to UN observers, Syrian cannons atop the Golan Heights had released a barrage of 247 shells on the Israeli farmers at Kibbutz Gadot on the shore of Lake Kinneret. The IDF air force sent a squadron to destroy the cannons, and the Syrians scrambled their planes into the air. In the ensuing dogfight across the clear sky over Damascus, Israeli Mirage jets shot down five Syrian MiGs. This intimidated the Jordanian leadership enough to support joining an Egyptian-led alliance against Israel.

Elie put down the paper and nibbled on the Erdbeertoertli, its crust practically melting on his tongue. The confetti strawberries were too sweet for his palate, and he washed it down with a bit of coffee. The steam rising from the coffee made him rub his neck, still tender after several months of healing. The news of an Arab joint command, dominated by the belligerent Nasser, was a realization of Israel’s worst fears. Elie knew he had little time to waste. As soon as the Hoffgeitz Bank began transferring Klaus von Koenig’s fortune to the accounts in Paris, he would return to Jerusalem.

“K
.v.K.
stands for Klaus von Koenig.” Tanya looked away from the Mauser and the cigarette lighter, two personal objects Klaus had carried on him every day until his death. “He was in charge of budget and finance at the SS Central Command, reporting directly to Himmler.”

“You knew him?”

“I lived with him.”

Lemmy’s face paled. “As a sex slave?”

“As a lover.”

“You loved a Nazi?”

“I loved a man, a wonderful man, despite who he was, or
what
he was.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It didn’t start that way. I was only thirteen.” Tanya closed her eyes, taking herself back to that horrifying day. “We arrived in the morning. My mother. My little sister, Edna. A train filled with Jews from Lindau, Germany, our hometown. My father had died a year earlier. He had always thought of himself as a German first and a Jew second. But when they burned down his bookstore, it just broke his heart. At least he didn’t live to see us arrive at Dachau. Three days in a cattle car, no room to sit, no water, no toilet. No dignity. We were made to strip naked and line up by the doors to the showers, shivering from cold and fear. The doors opened. My mother and Edna were pushed in, but someone grabbed my arm and pulled me aside. I wanted to go with them, but my mother shook her head. She knew.”

Tanya wiped her eyes. It had been a long time since she had allowed these memories to surface. She felt Lemmy’s hand on her arm. “To this day I cannot remember my mother clothed. She’s forever naked in my mind, holding Edna’s hand as the steel doors were shut behind them. I know she was a beautiful woman, always dressed tastefully. I know it, but I cannot visualize her the way she had been before Dachau. I can’t, and there are no photos left to remind me. It’s as if our past, our nice little family life in Lindau, never existed.” Tanya took a deep breath. “Anyway, there I was, standing with my hands over my breasts. It was so cold. I saw a tall man in a long coat and an officer’s cap. The others looked like midgets around him. He took off his coat and draped it around me.” Tanya rubbed her neck with her hand. “I can still feel the stiff collar chafing against my skin.”

“And then?”

“I was lucky.” She shrugged. “Not only to stay alive, but to be with Klaus.”

“Lucky?”

“I was numb with grief, alone in the world, with no one to protect me. He could have used me and put me back in line, but he didn’t. He took me to his home and nurtured me back to life like a precious bird with broken wings.”

Lemmy’s mouth was slightly open, his expression incredulous.

“You think I should have hated Klaus?”

He nodded.

“Because he was a monster, responsible for killing millions of innocent people, our people, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re correct. He was part of that evil machine. But with me he was someone else. He was a confident, impeccable man, who showed me only kindness and devotion. He was the first man I’d ever been with—as a woman. He was there for me, strong and caring, very patient and considerate. I know it sounds crazy, but I knew that he really loved me. I was his angel, and he was mine.”

“But he was a Nazi!”

Tanya rolled a lock of her hair around her finger, as a girl would do. “If you were a young woman, perhaps you would understand. I was just becoming a woman then. My body and my emotional universe revolved around those feelings. Klaus von Koenig loved me,
really
loved me, like no one else before or after. He was a formidable man. Senior SS officers trembled before him. But with me he was different. He saved my life, but he treated me as if I saved his. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for me, and I was happy with him, would have stayed with him even after the war, would have gone to Argentina and borne his children. I would have.”