In the Presence of Mine Enemies Read Online Free PDF

will find out what we are. We even have our own special holidays—today is one.”
    â€œWhat’s today?” Alicia asked, intrigued in spite of herself.
    â€œToday is the festival of Purim,” her father answered. “The Germans and the Spaniards Aunt Esther was talking about weren’t the first people who wanted to get rid of the Jews. We’ve always stood out a little because we’re different from the other people in a country. And a long time ago, in the Persian Empire…”
    He got out a Bible to help tell Alicia the story. Not everyfamily had one in its house or flat these days. Still, the National Socialists mostly tolerated quiet Christianity. Alicia’s teachers sometimes made scornful noises about a religion better fit for slaves than for heroes, but she’d never heard of the Security Police paying a call on anybody who believed in Jesus. She didn’t know what would happen if somebody made a fuss about Jesus, but people knew better than to make fusses about such things. Christianity that wasn’t quiet was dangerous, too.
    â€œAnd so,” her father finished, “King Ahasuerus hanged Haman on the very gallows he’d built for Mordechai, and Mordechai and Queen Esther lived long, happy, rich lives afterwards.” Caught up in the ancient tale even though she hadn’t really wanted to be, Alicia laughed and clapped her hands.
    Very softly, Susanna Weiss said, “I wish someone had built a gallows for Hitler and Himmler. So many of our people gone…” She stared down into her snifter of Scotch.
    Alicia stared, too—at Aunt Susanna. The first Führer and the first Reichsführer -SS, who’d later followed Hitler as ruler of the Germanic Empire, were saints nowadays, or as close to saints as made no difference. Even with what Alicia had learned tonight, hearing someone wish they’d been hanged was a jolt. And Susanna…Susanna sounded as if she felt guilty for living on where so many of her people— so many of my people, too, Alicia thought wonderingly—had died.
    â€œI wish I could tell my sisters,” Alicia said.
    Her father and Walther Stutzman smiled at each other. A moment later, Alicia discovered why, for Anna said, “When I found out last year, I said, ‘I wish I could tell Alicia.’”
    Uncle Walther said, “It’s new, little one. It’s a shock. I remember how confused finding out what I was made me.”
    â€œBut you can’t say anything to Francesca and Roxane, you know—not anything at all,” Alicia’s father told her. “They’re too little. It would be very dangerous. They’ll learn when the time comes, the way you have now. If this secret gets to the wrong ears, we’re all dead. Just because therearen’t many Jews left doesn’t mean people won’t start hunting us. We’re still fair game.”
    â€œAre we—the people in this room—all the Jews who are left?” Alicia asked.
    â€œNo,” her father said. “There are others, all through Greater Germany and the rest of the Empire. Sooner or later, you’ll meet more, and some of them will surprise you. But for now, the fewer Jews you know, the fewer you can give away if the worst happens.”
    Who? Alicia wondered. Her eyes went far away. Which of our friends are really Jews? She never would have guessed about the Stutzmans, who with their blond good looks seemed perfect Aryans, not in a million years. Her teachers went on and on about how ugly Jews had been, with fat, flabby lips and grotesque hooked noses and almost kinky hair. It didn’t seem to be true. What else had they told her that wasn’t true?
    Her mother said, “Even though we have our own holidays, sweetheart, we can only celebrate them among ourselves. The little three-cornered cakes we had tonight are special for Purim—they’re called Hamantaschen