“Soon enough,” I replied, my heart sinking as I said it. She would likely start at ten—just a few short years away. I looked back to Georg, who was almost quaking with excitement as the leaders barked instructions at the children to prepare to recite the pledge.

Several hundred boys straightened their spines and echoed in unison the chant my son had already learned by heart.

“In the presence of this blood banner which represents our Führer, I swear to devote all of my energies and my strength to the savior of our country, Adolf Hitler.” My son looked right at me and beamed with pride as he chanted, “I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God.”

Adele’s apartment was still vacant and I couldn’t bring myself to rent it out. We didn’t need the money, and the thought of sorting through her belongings was still too much. Every morning, I went into her courtyard to tend to the animals and the plants that remained. On Wednesdays, I packed a basket of whatever was in season, and Gisela and I took a trip to drop it off to Martha.

There were still so many unknowns from the night Adele died. We never figured out how the Gestapo caught wind of the chain of women helping Mayim’s family for all of those years, nor did we know why some of those women, including Martha, escaped suspicion. But Martha could explain some things.

“Adele called and asked me to come by in the morning with my son’s car. She was trying to stay calm, but I heard her panic.” Martha arrived at sunrise—only to find Adele had passed. “I convinced the Bavarians to go to their room and freshen up, and while they were gone, I checked the apartment. I found Mayim hiding beneath the kitchen sink. She’d been there all night.” I swallowed a lump in my throat at the thought of that. The same hiding place she’d endured while her father was killed. What a torture it must have been to see history repeat itself twice in just a few days. “I snuck her out the back door and over the courtyard wall. By the time the couple came back downstairs, Mayim was hiding in my son’s car and I was sitting with Adele on the bed, calmly saying goodbye.”

“I see why you and Adele were friends.” I smiled tearfully.

“It was nothing,” Martha said dismissively. Then her face fell. “I wish I could have done more for her, Sofie. There were thousands of Poles camping out in the open at the border because the Reich wouldn’t let them stay but Poland wouldn’t let them in. I don’t know what happened after she left my car, but I think of her all the time.”