108 THE OPPERMANNS Markus smiled. He thought frankly that he, too, knew one of the brotherhood of whom he would be as ready to believe the worst as Moritz. Herr Rüdiger Zarnke. Herr Zarnke would throw hirn out of a moving subway train without the slightest hesitation. He would then have killed two birds with one stone: he would have done a deed eonfonnable to the world poliey of the Nationalist party and obtained a Bat for his brother-in-Iaw. Moritz growled on. Who was it, then, who was responsible for giving German eulture its world-wide reputation? The ten million eonservative Jews who speak Yiddish, their archaie German. It was they who had believed most profoundly in German eulture. They alone, all through the war, kept on the German side. 12,723 German [ews had fallen in that war, 2.2 percent of all the German Jews in existenee, far more than the corresponding percentage of the entire population. These fig- ures did not take into consideration baptized Jews and persons of Jewish origin. Counting them one would reach the approxi- mate figure of 5 pereent, unquestionably more than double the corresponding percentage of the entire population. Now they were getting their reward, these German [ews, "No, 1'11 have nothing more to da with these people. A way with risks. 1 still need eighteen pounds. Then 1 shall have all 1 need for Pales- tine. This is the last time we shall eelebrate the Festival of the Maccabees together here. I'm off." The Chanukka lights were burning low. Markus Wolfsohn listened ealmly to his companion, smoked his third eigar, and drank an Asbach Extra Old, He had his opinions and his brother-in-Iaw had his. It would be uninteresting indeed if everyone had the same opinions. If his brother-in-law Moritz really could not sit still, let him be off to Palestine. He, Markus, would see him off at the station and wave good-bye. But he himself would remain in the country and earn an honest living.

BOOK ONE: YESTEllDAY log On the same evening, Jaques Lavendel had also invited two guests to keep the Chanukka Feast with hirn, his nephew Berthold and his niece Ruth Oppermann. Jaques Lavendel had a connoisseur's love for objects of the old Jewish rituals. He had five particularly fine old Chanukka candlesticks: two were of Italian workmanship of the Renaissance period, one was Polish and had two mythical animals and blessing priests' hands carved upon it, one carne from Württemberg and was adorned with figures of birds and a small bell, and one was from Bucovina, of eighteenth-century workrnanship, provided, oddly enough, with a clock; it was a piece from which he ob.. tained special amusement on account of its absurdity. Here, too, they sang the hymn, "Moaus zur yeshuosi," Rock and Refuge of my Redemption. Jaques Lavendel sang it with his hoarse voice, taking a childish pleasure in it. Berthold watched the singing man in sorne surprise. The lights and the hymn had no meaning for him. The Christmas tree meant more. He looked upon the Chanukka ceremonies as a mere gesture. He had corne in the secret hope of discussing, in de- tail, with U ncle Jaques and Heinrich that case of his, that painful business with Dr. Vogelsang, in which nothing had been done since the day it occurred but which he knew, per.. fectly weIl, was far from finished. He had not spoken about it to anyone since then. He hesitated about eonfiding it to his parents or to U nele [oachim, The persons who would under- stand him best were, undoubtedly, Uncle Jaques and Heinrich. He waited rather impatiently for the dinner to come to an end. One ate weIl at Uncle [aques's, long and abundantly. Ruth Oppermann teased Uncle Jaques because it was only when he practised the old customs that he noticed the secret