Opposite Sides (37 page)

“
Here, too.
Why won’t the authorities listen?” He glared at Hans as if the
blame rested upon his shoulders.

“
The
government,” Hans said, “ended up outlawing them in England. That
told them who was boss. Why can’t our government do the
same?”

“
What them in
the Reichstag!” He blew down his nose like a snorting bull. “We’ve
got more than Bolsheviks and Trade Unionists to contend with,
Erwin, my boy!” His uncle thumped his clenched fist heavily on to
the table which almost sent the mugs of beer bouncing across the
table. “Many parasites are feeding off this country. Everyone wants
more and more.”

“
Why don’t
you ask your workers to work less hours?” Hans asked. “Surely that
might save your business.”

“
Less hours,
less productivity. If my business goes under, where does that leave
me? Bloody starving, that’s what!”

“
You would be
able find something with your experience, wouldn’t you?”

“
Be
realistic, Erwin. There aren’t enough jobs to go around. Have you
not seen those queues at the soup places? And who is paying, I ask
you?” He shook his head, then held his hands up in exasperation.
“Not those in power! It is the public, that’s who. No wonder we’re
in such a bloody mess!”

Hans was angry with
himself over his own inability to find any satisfactory work. Yes,
there was day work, shovelling or sweeping but that was no job for
a man with his education. He needed constant employment with good
long-term prospects which uncle Karl was unable to offer at present
within this economic climate. He needed to replace the money for
Andrea which had been lost when investment companies collapsed
during the Wall Street crash and, like millions of others, he now
had nothing. Hans could not understand how so much money had
evaporated for his money had been real enough.

He received an update
from Jan earlier in the week describing the draconian measures
brought in by Prime Minister Ramsey MacDonald in Britain to try and
prevent a total collapse and Anne had written to tell him how those
dreadful sailors in the Royal Navy had been the catalyst for
rolling strikes and layoffs occuring throughout the country.
However, when he received Jan’s long letter, she had written that
it was the poorer people with their larger families who were
suffering the most while the well-off buried their heads in the
sand and carried on as if nothing toward was happening in the world
beyond their own privilaged spheres. But what was his country’s
government doing about the problem right on their own doorstep?
Very little other than the soup kitchens. There was a lack of
positive leadership and everyone was hurting. Hans felt there had
to be a solution and it had to be implemated sooner rather than
later.

“
What I meant
by shorter hours,” he suggested, “is that it would allow you to
employ more people.”

“
Impossible!”
Uncle slammed his wrist down hard on to the table. “I’ve already
had to cut each man’s hours as it is and that does not help them,
does it? There is not enough money in the business to employ more
men. I can’t even pay the wages I paid out a few years ago. This
depression will be the death of us and it does not help when each
bloody trumped-up government says is that ‘further cuts need to be
made.’ Doesn’t help, Erwin. The number of unemployed is still
rising and . . . ”

A knock on the door put a
sudden halt to Uncle Karl’s words of frustration. He pulled himself
reluctantly out of his wooden chair and walked over to open the
door. On the other side stood Renard, his grey hat in his hand as
he finished brushing the last of the rain drops off his coat. Now
he was ready to come inside.

“
Good
evening, Uncle.” He grinned. Renard always grinned. It sometimes
annoyed Hans as his brother even grinned when he was seemingly
upset or angry. “Bet you’re surprised to see me
tonight!”

Renard acknowledged Hans’
presence with a slight nod of his head. Hans thought his brother
had grown into a large, strong man since he last saw him. He was
easily the tallest of the brothers, a solid man with curly dark
hair and brown eyes similar to his aunt’s. He could easily have
been mistaken for the son his uncle and aunt never had.

“
Come in,
Renard. Come in.” Uncle Karl waved his nephew into the room and
then called to his wife. Aunt Laura was in the kitchen washing the
dishes. She was the kind of wife who was always busy in the
background preparing, cooking or cleaning. “Laura, Renard is
here.”

“
Hello,
Renard.” Aunt Laura wiped her soapy hands on her pinafore as she
stepped into view. Middle age had started to grey her hair and
thicken her waist. Hans thought that Mutti would have looked
similar, had she lived. “To what do we owe this pleasure?” asked
aunt Laura, the cheeks of her round face puckering into a cluster
of welcoming lines.

Renard laid his hat on
the edge of the table.

“
I thought
I’d call in.” He spoke directly to his aunt as he began to unbutton
his coat. “I came down this way for a meeting.”

“
Can I get
you something to eat?” Aunt Laura hinted that she needed to return
to the kitchen.

“
No thanks,”
Renard replied.

As soon as his aunt left,
Renard pulled out the nearest chair and sat down at the table. He
pushed his hat to one side and leaned with his elbows on the table
surface.

“
There was a
new man I wanted to hear. Everyone’s been talking about
him.”

His uncle reached for
another mug from the dresser behind him and placed it down on the
table in front of Renard. He poured beer into Renard’s mug until
the froth began to overflow the rim. He grabbed at one of the small
plates on the table that still remained from the evening meal and
emptied the remaining small cakes on it before pushing it over to
Renard.

“
Cake?”
Renard helped himself to one. His uncle continued with the subject
closest to his heart. “How’s business in your area these
days?”

“
Foul.
Absolutely rotten. And yours?”

“
Not much
better, Renard. It’s all these faction groups trying to bring the
country down. I’m not sure anyone’s got the answer,
though.”

Renard looked directly at
Hans for a few seconds. He had completely forgotten the presence of
their uncle as he stared Hans in the face, his eyes glowing and his
thick eyebrows raised in excitement. A wider than ever grin
stretched across his face and as his expression became more
animated, his excited voice grew louder and louder. By now Renard
was breathing so heavily that he could hardly get the words
out.

“
Brother, you
should’ve been at the meeting. It was fantastic! Absolutely
fantastic! There’s no other way to describe it! All the torches and
flags and cheering! It was electric!” He swallowed the rest of his
drink and began speaking with a new-found passion. “I went to hear
this new man speak. Herr Hitler. Never heard such a speaker before.
The crowd just went wild! Yelling! Chanting! So fantastic! ” Renard
leant forward with both elbows firmly on the table and his large
hands clasped together as he made the attempt to steady his nerves.
He paused for a few seconds to gather his racing thoughts together
before gesturing pointedly with his left index finger in his
uncle’s direction. “Now there’s a man who’s got the answers, uncle.
He promises to get rid of all these trouble-makers once and for all
and hand jobs and businesses back to us. ‘
Germany for all Germans
.’ That’s
what he says. Kick out all the unwanted, ungrateful lazy sods and
good-for-nothings who only want to ruin us.” Renard’s eyes grew
wide as he raised the tone of his voice. “You should have heard him
speak!
Deutschland
erwacht
! He’s the one to kick the
backsides of those idiots who signed the Treaty that’s crippling
our industries. The promises Herr Hitler made. He says that all
lands taken from us will be returned. He has guaranteed us
that!”

Hans and his uncle
listened to what Renard had to say. Hans was less impressed than
his uncle. Renard had always been one to brag or exaggerate and to
Hans there seemed to be too much boasting in what Renard had just
been telling them.

“
Sounds too
easy, I say. They could be empty promises. Anyone can promise the
moon and promises can easily be broken. Things are never that easy,
especially in politics.” Hans shuffled his feet uneasily under the
table. “Besides, what makes you so sure he will make it work while
others have failed?”

“
Stop being
such a pessimist, Hans.” Uncle Karl almost spat the words out like
a machine gun. He opened another bottle of beer and refilled their
mugs. “Give the man a chance, I say. If this man says he’s got the
answers, and, from what Renard’s just said he seems to have a good
following. Shouldn’t we at least give him a try?”

“
But will he
destroy the Republic?” Hans hardly gave time for the others to
answer. “How do we know that all the other main parties are behind
him? Can we even trust him, this man of yours, Renard?” Since he
had been in England, Hans had learnt the value of the democratic
way yet he did not want to see this country sink into argumentative
chaos. Renard leaned back in his chair with an air of supreme
confidence and spoke excitedly to his brother.

“
Of course!
Why not? Hindenburg will still be in charge. The only one against
the idea seems to be Ludendorff.”

Hans was confused. He
remembered what Heidi had told him and how the ageing general had
once supported this Herr Hitler.

“
But I
thought it was that General who supported Herr Hitler in the
Putch.” Hans was most emphatic.

“
He did.”
Uncle Karl thrust both elbows on to the table top and changed his
intense look away from Renard and to Hans. “But lately he’s decided
to go against the National Socialists. Look, if it’s going to save
my business and if it’s going to give jobs back to the people, it
makes sense. Anyway, to me it does.”

Hans nodded feebly yet he
had to agree that something should be done, and done fairly
quickly. He was one who needed to get a permanent job and quickly.
He had to admit to himself that he was worried what might happen if
he could not keep up regular payments for Andrea. But he did not
want to divulge that to either his uncle or his brother. After all,
some things were better left unspoken.

During the next few
months President Hindenburg did reluctantly ask Herr Hitler to form
a new government. The new government immediately passed a law which
silenced all opposition and finally it appeared as though the
entire country was pulling in the same direction. It looked as
though this new man and his party were going to lick Germany back
into shape. But as everyone relaxed and congratulated themselves on
having found a solution, Hitler sacked the ageing Chancellor and
grabbed the position for himself. No-one lifted a finger to stop
him. Then, in a relatively short time, before anyone could draw a
breath, Chancellor Hitler had created his new Reich and had all his
close supporters installed in the Reichstag. Rallies and
speech-making, the like of which had never been heard before,
echoed up and down the country from the Alps to the North Sea, from
East Prussia to the Rhine. Hysteria grew like a giant and the
new-founded nationalism extended its tentacles into every pocket of
society. National socialism was preparing to spread wide its eagle
wings.

With incentives from the
new government, uncle Karl’s business began to flourish again and
he was able to take on more men and, for the first time in years,
pay each one a good wage. He insisted Hans stay longer and make use
of the education he had received by looking after the books and
accounts. The firm had changed from making only domestic and
hunting knives to manufacturing army knives, bayonets and munitions
and as a consequence, the business had been given a most welcome
boost to its finances from the National Socialist funds which
enabled uncle Karl to purchase all the necessary equipment for the
expansion. There was a new policy to insure all businesses, large
or small, which may prove useful to the running of the new Reichs
should survive and survive well. As a result, a new vitality was
spreading out into all corners of the country and things were
really looking up. The depressive years of the early thirties had
been thoroughly pushed aside.

One evening, Renard
arrived at his uncle’s house accompanied by two very sour-looking
men; both perfectly turned out in their respective dark uniforms,
one more senior than the other.

“
Heil
Hitler!”

Hans had already realised
that it was dangerous to criticise this new political situation,
for there seemed to be ‘ears’ listening in every corner. He had
already been informed that one misplaced word or one inappropriate
connection could result in imprisonment. There had already been
several arrests further down their street and those who were
outspoken never came back and nobody dared to asked why. It was
better to shut certain aspects out of one’s mind and pretend that
they were not happening, like the smashing up of shop windows where
Jewish families had had their businesses. It was easy and gave one
a false sense of security not to notice such things but then the
majority of people had been conditioned to look the other
way.