For the Gestapo, the knock on the door was at a surprisingly sociable hour—nine o’clock on a Sunday morning. As soon as Father had opened the door, he knew that he had been denounced. It wasn’t worth wondering who had done it; it could have been anybody—even family members were betraying each other. He was taken to the cells, where he spent a week with little food or water, and was beaten so badly that his left eyeball was dislocated. It had then gotten infected, and had to be removed in a hospital.

He was lucky. Apart from his eye, the only other thing he lost was his job. He hadn’t been sent to the camps because of his Iron Cross, but even that wasn’t a guarantee. He was allowed back home, although he had to report to the Gestapo at four o’clock every day. And because the tram conductors wouldn’t let him on, he would have to walk there, a four-kilometer gauntlet of abuse, spit and blows. Within three weeks, Father’s spirit had been broken. The light in his eyes, which had stayed burning even after the death of Heinrich, vanished. He would sit in front of their empty fireplace, his remaining eye fixed on the Iron Crosses and a picture of Heinrich.

It didn’t surprise Leni that Paul ended their relationship—she had always suspected he was a bit spineless. Neither did it surprise her that the great amount of attention she normally received from other men disappeared, replaced with the whispers of “Jude.” And no longer was she asked to sign up to all those Nazi Mädchen groups, the ones who had been so desperate to have her join because of her great figure and looks. Never mind that she wasn’t actually a Jew, but then she wasn’t going to deny who her father was, wasn’t going to pretend that he wasn’t a part of her. It was they who were making her into a Jew, not her family.

What did surprise her was the arrival of the SD. Mother had screamed at the two officers, dressed in black SS uniforms, when they took Leni away. That had earned her a punch, and words to the effect that where Leni was going was better than living with a bitch who had soiled the Volk by marrying a filthy Jew. Leni had cried too, and had felt a little scared, but she knew she wasn’t being taken to a camp. They would have taken Father first, and besides, she didn’t think the SD had anything to do with the camps.