Page 36 of Hell to Pay
“That he’d been involved somehow with the von Stauffenburg plot,” I said.
“You know that?” His voice was startled.
“I learned it tonight. So you came to him, and he hid you and the children here, in the cellar.”
“He’s done it before, I think,” Dr. Becker said. “Sheltered people, and helped them move on. There’s a privy in the other room, and we aren’t the first to have used it. Also the cistern, and pallets for beds. He came down in the wee hours to bring us food. I don’t know more than that. I didn’t ask your father,because what one hears, one can be forced to tell. But I think there have been others.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Who knows? Other Jews, perhaps, downed Allied aviators—their lives aren’t worth much, from what I’ve heard—those few who have resisted the regime …”
“So you’ll be here for—” I stopped. I didn’t know how to ask this. “Is there a … some plan? To get you out?”
“There may have been,” Dr. Becker said. “I think your father was working on it. Now, though? I don’t know what the plan is now, if we are to be as consistently bombed here as other German cities have been. Will there be enough food? An escape route? And when will the Russians come? Who can say? We will have to be resourceful.”
When I finished the story, Alix said, “Talk about having to grow up fast.”
“Exactly,” I said. “I was a sheltered child, at least as much as money and position and age can shelter anybody living in such a time. And then I wasn’t.”
“So, obviously,” Alix said, “that’s enough proof, right? I mean, here my grandmother is, with all her documentation and all her knowledge of the palace. Could we look for the tiara now, please?”
Dr. Eltschig didn’t answer her. He looked at me instead and said, “Your documentation and information are significant. Unfortunately, however, there could be at least two other explanations, and I don’t believe we can move forward without more proof than this.”
17
ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS
Alix said,“What?”
Ben said, “You’re kidding.”
Ashleigh said, “I don’t believe you people.”
Sebastian said, “Could you explain your reasoning, please?”
I said nothing. What could I say, after all? Sebastian was right—I wouldn’t know what to respond to until I understood the objection.
Nobody else on the board spoke, and neither did Dr. Bauer. Germany remains a disciplined and quite hierarchical society even today, and there was one leader here.
Or two, because I had power in this situation as well. “You said ‘at least two other explanations,’” I told Dr. Eltschig. “I assume you mean two ways in which I could be somebody other than who I say I am. I can think of three ways, actually.”
“Please go on,” Dr. Eltschig said.
“One.” I ticked it off on my forefinger. “I could be Lotte, the scullery maid in the palace. She wasn’t much older than me and about my size, and, of course, she knew the palace and my family well. If I’d died—I mean, if Marguerite had died inthe bombing raid or its aftermath along with my parents—either the first raid or the second, as you have only my word that everybody survived the first—and my mother had brought the parure downstairs with her, Lotte could have abstracted myKennkarte,my identity card, the photos, and the parure, and taken on my identity. That is, if Lotte had been the sort of devious criminal who could think of such a thing, and not a sweet and hardworking but quite unintelligent young girl. And if shehadassumed my identity, why the secondKennkarte?She would pretend to be the princess after the war, but not while it still went on? Why?”
“Maybe because of the Gestapo thing,” Ben said. “Because they’d be after you.Wouldthey be after you, though? I thought it was your dad.”
“The Gestapo believed in spreading a wide net,” I said. “But if I’m Lotte and making up this story,wasthere any Gestapo thing?”
“Right!” Ben said. “You made that up to give you an excuse for running off alone with the jewelry. Except … would you have been the only one who survived, if you’re not you, I mean? If you were all in the same place, wouldn’t everybody have died? And if youwerethe only one who survived, and you did all that, why didn’t you come back here and, you know, get your stuff back?”
“But then,” I said, “why didn’t I come and get my possessions back long before this, if I really am Marguerite? Other than the fact that the palace was a ruin. Lotte, on the other hand, would certainly have jumped at the chance to escape to the United States with the parure. She wouldn’t have been able to get away with the impersonation in Dresden itself, where I was known to so many people. No, the real difficulty with the Lotte hypothesis is: how did she alone survive in that cellar? How did she know about the secret passage and the other cellars, if I’m telling the truth about that? And where didshe discover all this derring-do? Of course, I’m the only one who can attest to her character, so we’ll call this one ‘unproven’ and leave it for now.”
“Well, yeah, we will,” Alix said. “I can’tbelieveyou.”
“Oh, come now,” I said. “You’re more clever than that. You’re no Lotte, that’s certain. Think, now: what’s the second explanation? Which is actually much more plausible.”
Alix said, “Do you think you should really treat this like a game, Oma?”
