The Runaway Family Read Online Free PDF Page A

Laura had rescued that afternoon. It was hidden under the bed, but she couldn’t examine its contents because the box was securely padlocked, and she had no key. Kurt had the key hidden somewhere, but that somewhere was in the ruins of the shop and Ruth had no idea where. It had never occurred to Kurt that he would not be there when the box was needed.
    There’s no alternative, Ruth decided. Tomorrow I’ll have to borrow some sort of tool from Leo and break the lock. Then we’ll go to Herbert.
    With the decision taken, Ruth tried to get some sleep, but her brain would not rest. Endlessly it re-played the riot, the storm troopers, the raid on the shop, the fire, and as a soundtrack to it all the baying of the mob, terrifying in its savagery, thundered in her head. Did that sound really only emanate from human throats? Her physical aches were as nothing compared with her mental torment. Her only concern was to keep her children safe, and with Kurt arrested, it was now up to her.
    Leo had reported back that the riots had been localised. “Just in our part of Kirnheim,” he’d said, “but they were carefully orchestrated… storm troopers whipping up the mob, encouraging the Hitler Youth to take part. Small riots, but breaking out everywhere!”
    “Didn’t seem like a small riot to me!” remarked his wife.
    It didn’t seem like a small riot to Ruth, either. It seemed to her that all Germany had gone mad; that persecution of Jews had become a national pastime. Going to Herbert seemed to be the only chance of safety. Herbert and Kurt were not close as brothers. Kurt had been happy to take over and run the family business, whereas Herbert had set out to better himself and worked as a clerk for a large legal practice in Munich. Ruth didn’t know him well, but surely Herbert would stand by his brother’s family in their time of need, it was just a question of getting to him.
    Eventually, lulled by the regular breathing of her daughters, Ruth dozed off and slept fitfully until the fingers of dawn pierced the curtains and woke her once again to the stark reality of what had happened to them all.

2
    As Frau Meyer sat the children down for some breakfast, Ruth presented Leo with the box.
    “All our important papers are in here,” she told him. “Kurt has the key. Please can you break it open for me?”
    Leo inspected the padlock and then went to his toolbox and produced a chisel and a hammer.
    “I’ll have to break the hasp,” he said. “I’ve nothing strong enough to deal with the actual padlock. Hold the box steady.”
    With Ruth holding the box firmly in her hands, Leo placed the end of the chisel and levered it against the hasp. With a resounding snap the hasp broke away from the box, allowing the lid to come free.
    “There you are,” he said cheerfully, and turned away to replace the tools, leaving Ruth to open the box and inspect its contents unobserved.
    Settling the box on her knees, Ruth lifted the lid. Inside were several documents; the family’s birth certificates, her and Kurt’s marriage certificate, the deeds to the shop, which the family had owned for more than thirty years. There was Kurt’s passport and her own, which she had used when she had taken the girls to Vienna for her nephew Paul’s bar mitzvah, and a small bundle of money, held together with an elastic band. In a small box was a gold brooch, a present from her mother, and in another was a pair of pearl earrings that Kurt’s mother had given her on their wedding day. Ruth stared down, dry-eyed, at the contents of the box, all that was left of their family fortune. She didn’t weep, she was already beyond tears.
    “You’ve got to be strong,” she told herself, “so that we’re all safe when Kurt comes back.”
    Kurt not coming back could not be contemplated, and in the meantime there was Herbert.
    She told the Meyers of her decision as soon as the children had been fed.
    “You mustn’t feel you have to go,” Leo said. “What