‘Not me,’ said Marianne, ‘but I’d say that most women have that potential. I’ve never considered myself one, but I have to bite my tongue when I see Martin out without a coat in winter! Remind myself that a grown man would take even less kindly to maternal supervision than he did as a child.’

She donned her red leather jacket and slung her bag on her shoulder. ‘Shall we go and mingle with the Berliners, as Jake suggested?’

Avid observer though she was, Marianne could find no pleasure in this trip. Nor was the reason solely repugnance attached to the past, she reflected while Laura and Jake went to put on their coats. There was no shortage in the present of reminders of that past, and not just in Germany.

In Britain the National Front had a new and well-educated young leadership said to have initiated a long-term plan to infiltrate every walk of life. It was no longer just a matter of mindless thugs marching and doing their worst in the streets.

Marianne switched her mind to matters less disturbing and went to join Laura and Jake in their suite.

When they had been bowed from the hotel – such was the handsome young porter’s deference – Marianne recalled Howard’s mentioning that the Berlin Jewish Community Centre was also situated on Fasanenstrasse, and suggested that they take a look at it before going to gorge themselves on pastries.

Where the centre now stood was once a synagogue burned down by the Nazis in 1938. In the forecourt were some surviving fragments, left as a reminder.

Jake pointed silently to a grey concrete wall, on which was a memorial tablet bearing the Star of David. Momentarily none of them was capable of speech, nor were they when they entered the building and saw in the columned hall inscribed in bronze the names of the concentration camps.

Marianne could see from where she stood a library in which several young people were seated at tables as if studying. Some small children passed by in a group escorted by a girl who was possibly their teacher – which meant there was perhaps a kindergarten in the building.

When they left and were heading towards Kurfürstendamm, she suddenly registered the absence of guards and remarked upon it.

‘It’s possible they’re placed out of sight,’ Jake opined, ‘since I can’t imagine them not being required here.’

‘What I can’t imagine,’ said Laura, ‘is having to see that inscription in the hall each time I went there – if I lived in Berlin, I mean.’

‘Those who do, though, will long ago have stopped noticing it,’ said Jake. ‘They couldn’t live with that in the forefront of their minds all the time.’

Before they had reached the street corner, a reedy-looking youth drew abreast of them and was about to stride on when Marianne addressed him.

‘Excuse me – didn’t I see you in the library at the centre?’