‘Have you heard what went on last night?’ she asks. She doesn’t wait for a reply. ‘Everyone was talking about it on the bus. They rounded up all the Jewish men, women and children in Gohlis and brought them right down here, close to the zoo, then chased them down the steps into the water of the Parthe! Imagine that, at night, in November!’

She takes a breath and then a bite of buttered bread, her jaws sawing, lips pressed closed.

‘They drove them, like a herd of sheep, right into the water itself, and kept them there several hours!’

‘Goodness,’ Mutti says, and pours herself another coffee. She stubs out the remains of her cigarette into the ashtray and lights another.

‘Some say freezing in a dirty river is what they deserve for all the evil they do in the world.’ Ingrid takes another bite of her bread, her eyes lingering on mine.

‘And what happened to them then?’ Mutti asks.

‘They were shivering like mad, of course, so after a few hours of keeping them in the water, they let the women and children go home. The men are being taken to a camp, they said. Just imagine it, though. Herding up people and sticking them in the river! Who would’ve thought that up, eh?’

‘Indeed,’ Mutti murmurs. She gets up and switches on the wireless set. It crackles to life.

‘I also heard,’ Ingrid leans towards me in a conspiratorial manner, ‘that anyone caught fraternising or helping one of them, would end up in the camp too! Fancy that, Fraülein Herta, eh?’

‘I—’

But mercifully, the voice on the radio drowns out all other noise in the room.

‘… The patience of the German people has been exhausted. The events of last night were neither organised, nor prepared. In cities all across Germany they broke out spontaneously. The Jews were the instigators of this wave of violence. The long-suffering German people were merely responding in an outbreak of fury. The Jews have made a tremendous mistake. A very costly mistake. They must pay for the damage they provoked. One billion marks will be levied from them. It will cost the insurance industry six billion marks for the destruction of shops, synagogues and homes, but not a penny of it will reach their criminal pockets. Twenty thousand of them remain incarcerated while they reflect on their misdeeds.’

I’ve heard enough.

‘I’m going to school,’ I announce.

‘You are to come straight home, Hetty, do you understand?’

‘Yes, Mutti, I promise.’

I grab my satchel, put on my coat and hurry out of the house.

*

At seven fifty-five, from my vantage point across the street, I watch the receptionist, bundled in a fur coat, unlock the double doors to the offices of the Leipziger Tageszeitung. The lights flicker on inside the building on the ground floor. After a few minutes, other members of staff begin to arrive, greeting each other and pushing their way through the doors.

Five minutes later, I enter the building myself. The young, blonde receptionist fixes me with big blue eyes. She is still setting herself up at the desk facing the front doors.