And so now for the bad news. I am so sorry to have to tell you that Walter passed away three years ago, very suddenly, of a heart attack. He was, as well you know, the best of men. During the war, he played his part in fighting the Nazis and suffice to say here that he was extremely brave. Later, he ran a successful hat business until his dying day. He diversified away from furs as the world rather turned away from such material, into the couture world of ladies’ hats! He was always charming and the ladies, of course, loved him. He was a good husband and we – Stanley, the cousins and our own children (we had three) – remain devastated to have lost a wonderful husband, father and uncle. I hate to have to tell you such sad news by letter, but, Stanley, your remarkable son, is alive and well. He is a successful lawyer, married and has two children of his own – teenagers now, one boy, one girl. I have been lucky to have been part of his life – he is a joy. It is inconceivable that you should not visit. We will make arrangements. Stanley has done well in life and we shall pay for your trip over. You are welcome to stay for as long as you like. I will write again soon.

Yours, Anna.

*

Anna approaches my table and I stand. For a moment we stare at one another, blue eyes searching brown. There is no hint of hatred, only sadness. Understanding, perhaps. But there is something else too. A glimmer I can read because it is this which has kept me going through the darkest of times.

Hope.

And Anna, the woman I have never met until now, who has haunted my dreams for half a lifetime, comes forward and enfolds me in the warmest of embraces.

A Note from the Author

My father’s family were Ashkenazi Jews, originally from Brody, which is now in the Ukraine, but formerly in Galicia, a province in the north-east of the Austrian empire. During the nineteenth century, the Fein family business, in common with many other Jewish businesses at the time, traded hides and skins. They travelled back and forth from Brody to Leipzig, an important centre of European fur trading, for the fairs which had operated there since the Middle Ages.

Changes to the laws in Saxony in the late 1830s paved the way for the establishment of Jewish settlements, and in March 1870, the Fein family officially became Saxon citizens, settling in Leipzig. The Feins fully integrated into German life. Well-educated and ambitious, they built up a successful fur trading business (established in 1904) in the Brühl, at the heart of the Jewish fur-trading quarter, and owned property. All of this was ultimately to be stolen by the Nazis.

My father became a Doctor of Law in 1931 and established his legal practice in the summer of 1932. On 30 June 1933, my father was banned from practising law in Germany because he was a Jew. He applied for positions all over Europe, but to no avail. Anti-Semitism was on the rise all across the continent. Having read Mein Kampf a few years earlier, my father was only too aware what danger a newly elected Hitler posed. Towards the end of 1933, he left Germany (his young wife, who was expecting their first child, following a few weeks later) on a temporary visa to enter England, a status that remained until he was finally granted citizenship in 1946. Until then, he had to apply annually to the Home Office to remain in the country. He was permitted to do so – without ever being interned – on the basis of providing evidence of the success of his business, and therefore his ability to support himself and his family financially.