Today, May 2, the Hungarians had opened their border with Austria.

They did not do it discreetly. The government held a press conference at Hegyeshalom, the place where the road from Budapest to Vienna crossed the border. They might almost have been trying to provoke the Soviets into a reaction. With great ceremony, in front of hundreds of foreign cameras, the electronic alarm and surveillance system was switched off along the entire frontier.

The Franck family stared in incredulity.

Border guards with giant wire cutters began to slice up the fence, pick up great rectangles of barbed wire, carry them away, and throw them carelessly into a pile.

Lili said: “My God, that’s the Iron Curtain coming down.”

Werner said: “The Soviets won’t stand for this.”

Lili was not so sure. She was not certain of anything these days. “Surely the Hungarians wouldn’t have done this unless they expected the Soviets to accept it, would they?”

Her father shook his head. “They may think they can get away with it . . .”

Alice was bright-eyed with hope. “But this means Helmut and I can leave!” she said. She and her fiancé were desperate to get out of East Germany. “We can just drive to Hungary, as if we’re going on holiday, then walk across the border!”

Lili sympathized: she yearned for Alice to have the opportunities in life that she herself had missed. But it could not possibly be that easy.

Helmut said: “Can we? Really?”

“No, you cannot,” said Werner firmly. He pointed at the television set. “First of all, I don’t see anyone actually walking across the border yet. Let’s see if it really happens. Second, the Hungarian government could change its mind at any time and start arresting people. Third, if the Hungarians really do start to let people leave, the Soviets will send in the tanks and put a stop to it.”

Lili thought her father might be too pessimistic. Now seventy, he was becoming timid in his old age. She had noticed it in business. He had scorned the idea of remote controls for television sets, and when they rapidly became indispensable his factory had had to scramble to catch up. “We’ll see,” Lili said. “In the next few days, some people are bound to try to escape. Then we’ll find out whether anyone stops them.”

Alice said excitedly: “What if Grandfather Werner is wrong? We can’t just ignore a chance like this! What should we do?”

Her mother, Karolin, said anxiously: “It sounds dangerous.”

Werner said to Lili: “What makes you think the East German government will continue to allow us to go to Hungary?”

“They’ll have to,” Lili argued. “If they canceled the summer holidays of thousands of families, there really would be a revolution.”

“Even if it turns out to be safe for others, it may be different for us.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re the Franck family,” Werner said in a tone of exasperation. “Your mother was a Social Democrat city councilor, your sister humiliated Hans Hoffmann, Walli killed a border guard, and you and Karolin sing protest songs. And our family business is in West Berlin, so they can’t confiscate it. We’ve always been an irritant to the Communists. In consequence, unfortunately, we get special treatment.”