Meanwhile it was more than possible that some were putting their money where their mouths were, financing those ‘Hitler lives’ computer games. Who was it who said that the evil men do lives on? Probably Shakespeare. And there were those in Germany, as elsewhere, trying to ensure that it did.

When a few days later Hess’s death in Spandau prison was revealed to have been suicide, Howard could have had no more chilling a confirmation of his fears. Neo-Nazis from far and wide, young and old, had begun crawling out of the woodwork to pay homage alongside their German counterparts to the ‘martyr’ of their creed.

Chapter Six

Nathan had not been to London since his great-grandson’s Brith, and Carla had asked Laura to let her meet his train, a rare opportunity for her to have her grandfather to herself.

She watched him slowly make his way up the steep incline to the ticket barrier at Euston Station, where she was waiting with David, now a toddler, in her arms.

‘That lad is some weight for you to carry!’ Nathan joked after they had greeted each other and were walking to where Carla had parked her car.

‘Talking of weight, why don’t you carry David and I’ll take your suitcase, Grandpa—’

‘That would be no hardship for me,’ he said. ‘How often do I get to hold him?’

When they had swapped loads, Carla said lightly, ‘Do doctors ever get themselves checked up?’

‘When this one last did he was told he had angina, which he already knew. But nobody needs to worry about him. His little pills for an emergency are always in his pocket. So what’s new with you, Carla? Is Alan still set on going where Reform rabbis aren’t recognized? Why, after all his years of studying, would he want to go and bang his head on a brick wall?’

‘I’ll let him tell you himself.’

‘He doesn’t have to, it was a rhetorical question. A challenge was always what that boy relished.’

‘There’s more to it than that, Grandpa. Many Israelis now want to live the Reform Judaism way. What I’m saying is that Alan feels called to go where he is needed. Some Reform rabbis already there have more than one congregation apiece to cope with, though they don’t yet have synagogue buildings. One day they will be recognized—’

‘I hope you’re right. But with the ultra-orthodox ruling the roost in Israel, it will take a lot more people standing up for their rights than seem to be doing so now.’

Carla gave him a smile. ‘You were the Reform pioneer in our family, weren’t you?’

‘And oh, the wrath it brought on my head! Marianne was the first to follow in my footsteps and we were made to feel like partners in crime, I recall.’