Felix stared open-mouthed at the older man. ‘Then what was the point in sending us here?’

Bill gazed into space, deep in thought. ‘Hope,’ he said after some consideration, ‘as well as buying time.’

Alan joined Felix at the sink and spoke directly to his father. ‘You really think we’ll be going to war?’

Bill eyed the pair shrewdly. Alan might be much older than Felix but he looked just as scared. ‘They got beat just over twenty years ago, yet they’re back for more.’ He began ticking the list off on his fingers. ‘That’s twenty years of reviewing their mistakes, seeing where they went wrong and how they could have done things differently, and twenty years of planning and preparing for a war to end all wars, but this time with them as the victors. I’ve seen the newsreels, I’ve seen how that maniac can bend his own people to his will no matter how twisted it might be.’ He took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. ‘The night of the long knives, that’s what they called it.’ He looked from Alan to Felix. ‘Imagine killing your own army just to gain more power. They know what he’s done, yet they’re treatin’ him like a god. All standin’ there chanting his name over and over. I would never have believed anyone could be so stupid, yet they follow him like lambs to the slaughter!’

‘Fear,’ said Felix simply. ‘They don’t worship him, they fear him. Don’t forget, I lived in Berlin the whole time Hitler’s been in power, and I’ve seen the way he can turn people against each other, just because of a different belief or religion. The Germans have seen what he can do to his own people, so they’ve no doubt he can do it to the rest of them if they disagree with what he says …’ He glanced at Alan, who was looking quite unwell. ‘Your father’s right when he says Hitler’s ten times worse than the last lot.’

‘So what do we do?’ asked Alan, going back to his seat and sinking into it. ‘Keep our fingers crossed and pray they don’t turn their attention on us?’

‘That’s all we can do for now,’ said Bill, ‘’cos we don’t know what they’ve got in the pipeline.’ He glanced at Felix, adding for clarification, ‘What they’ve already got planned.’

‘They’re taking Jews to camps,’ said Felix, ‘thousands of us, yet no one seems to know where these camps are. How can they not know? Surely they must be huge to accommodate so many people? They must have been built in secret in the dead of night.’

Bill nodded. ‘Like I say, twenty years to prepare. If they’ve got us in their sights, first we’ll know about it is when they start droppin’ bombs.’

Felix swallowed hard. ‘You don’t know how lucky you are to have the Channel between them and you.’