… What is the reason for our economic woes? Simply the overpopulation of our lands! The German people survives with 135 inhabitants per square kilometre, and yet the rest of the world has looted Germany throughout the past one-and-a-half decades. The German people are not enemies of England, America or France, and desires to live calmly and peacefully, while Jewish and non-Jewish agitators persist in rousing the animosity of these peoples against the German people… Germany will not be swayed from its reckoning with Jewry. It is a shaming display when we see the entire democratic world filled with tears of pity at the plight of the poor, tortured Jewish people while at the same time crying that they ‘cannot possibly admit the Jews!’ And these world powers have no more than 10 persons per square kilometre! Small matter that Germany has been good enough to provide for these elements for centuries, with their infectious political and sanitary diseases. What we do today is no more than to set right the wrongs these people committed.

… Europe cannot find peace until it has dealt properly with the Jewish question. In the time of my struggle for power, it was primarily the Jewish people who mocked my prophecy that, one day, I would assume leadership of this Germany, and would press for resolution of the Jewish question. The resounding laughter of the Jews then, may well be stuck in their throats today, I suspect.

Once again I will be a prophet: Should the international Jewry succeed in plunging mankind into yet another world war, then the result will not be a Bolshevization of the earth and the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.

I put the paper down. What if there is another war? What if it reaches England and Walter is no longer safe there either? What if this thing spreads all across the world? I think of the Leipziger Meuten and I know for sure: if we don’t fight this here, now, then it will gather force and sweep over Europe and beyond. It’s time I put aside my own problems, my own safety, and live up to my promise to Walter.

Dressed for school, I first make for the café. I’ve not seen Lena since that awful day in December when I met with Frau Keller. The doorbell jangles as I enter and she looks up in surprise.

‘Hetty!’ She comes to the door to greet me. The café is semi-full of workers, either having finished a shift, or about to go on one. There is a strong odour of sweat, tobacco and grime. ‘Come through to the back.’

Her mother is working in the kitchen. She looks older than I recall. More stooped and grey. Her dress hangs loosely from her shoulders and Lena also looks thin, her cheeks drawn in. There are lines on her forehead and around the corners of her mouth that I’d never noticed before.

‘How are you?’ I ask. The two exchange a look. Lena’s mother turns her attention to the stove and places potato and bacon into a pan with a sliver of butter.