Claudia raised her chin. “Actually, we refused to join the Party, and that meant Klaus was passed over for every promotion and pay rise. At times, those people made our life very uncomfortable. But more importantly, we held on to our self-respect.” She flicked a glance down to Felix and added, “I understand that Klaus and Jürgen will work together—that is unavoidable. But I have come a long way to remove my children from the influence of Nazi ideology. I am sure you understand why I do not want them mingling with the family of a man who enforced it.”

“But—”

“Please excuse me. I need to do some housekeeping.”

She pushed the door and I had no choice but to remove my foot. As the latch clicked into place, I looked down at Felix, who was staring up at me with big, sad eyes.

“Am I going to play with Luis today, Mama?”

“Not today,” I said heavily, turning back toward home.

Misery threatened to envelop me, but I shook myself. I had to keep perspective. Things in America were more complicated than I’d expected, but still not as bad as everything we’d already endured.

17

Sofie

Berlin, Germany
1935

Once when I was young, I tagged along on my parents’ resort vacation to Étretat, in France. I was fascinated by L’Aiguille, the famous needle rock formation, as well as the archways of rock that looped out over the ocean. But my favorite feature was a little cave, tucked at the other end of the beach opposite the resort. I’d been exploring its nooks and crannies all week. On the last morning I sat with my nanny, side by side at the cave’s mouth, watching the waves roll toward our ankles.

“How did this happen?” I asked her. I stared up at the rock ceiling and enjoyed a shiver of adrenaline as I thought about the weight of the coast’s famous alabaster chalk above us.

“It takes a very long time to carve out a cave like this,” she said. “Millions of years. Every wave washes away just a tiny bit of the rock. Even this week, it’s grown. It’s just happened too slowly for us to see it.”

I thought about that a lot after the Nazis came to power and the trickle of anti-Jewish decrees began. The new laws were so narrow at first that they attracted little outcry. First came the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, which mandated that civil servants provide proof of Aryan heritage. Most were easily able to do this. Those who had Jewish heritage, like Mayim’s father, Levi, were quietly dismissed.