“Haven’t you heard what they’re doing to Jews?”

“You mean these incidents…”

“They attacked us in our apartment. I was barely able to escape. Findler was there, he stopped them.”

“Really?” Becker acknowledged with indifference. “The main thing is that nothing happened to you. By the way, did you sell that old shark your building?”

“Ten thousand marks down payment!”

Becker shook his head. “Ten thousand marks! What on earth got into you?”

“Just tell me: how did things go? Why didn’t you speak to me in Hamburg, and why were you traveling with those Sturmführers?”

“One thing at a time.” Becker began his report. “So, naturally those junk-dealing Jews caused trouble. You know how they wheel and deal. This time it was on account of the riots and so on. So I said to myself: Becker, you’ve never been a match for these people, and I quickly rang up a friend of mine in Berlin. Then he came to Hamburg along with another one. And when they showed up this morning wearing their uniforms, well, that was all it took, those Jews signed right away! Naturally I raised the price by five grand. You see how I do business? I’m counting the five thousand as travel expenses.”

Becker gave a proud, contented laugh and placed his broad, heavy hand gently on Silbermann’s shoulder. Silbermann brushed it angrily away.

“That was extortion!” he stated slowly.

“How else do you want to do business with Jews like that?” asked Becker, offended. “They told me they wanted to get out of Germany. Their relatives had been arrested, and they kept going on and on. I took it all in very calmly, and finally I said: but you’ve already purchased the ship—and endorsed the transfer order from the Reichsbank!—you have to take it! ‘Well,’ said old man Levi—you know what a smooth talker he is—‘I’m not sure we’re still allowed to do business. And government intervention counts as a force majeure, we have no choice.’ I don’t give a damn about that, I answered, you have to take the ship! Then he started to fuss. ‘First I need to make some inquiries.’ Straightaway I had the boys come over, and lo and behold: everything went smooth as silk. Fool that I was, I should have asked for ten thousand marks more. They were so scared they gave me a cashier’s check right on the spot, although I’m sure they would have preferred to have eked out another two days’ interest. But we know those tricks. At first it’s all brash talk, but once you take a swing there’s nothing to back it up. A lot of whining, that’s all.”

“You didn’t exactly behave decently,” Silbermann said sharply.