No one beyond a few misty-eyed dreamers like my father could still be misled by the Nazis’ posturing. Hitler would not stop at Austria or the Sudetenland. War was about to break out in Europe. On March 12, 1938, the Austrians welcomed the Germans as if they were distant relatives coming back into the fold. They might be a bit frightening, but they carried armloads of gifts. The Germans organized handouts of food to the neediest and promised to extend the social security network to all Austrians. They also promised payments to the unemployed and vacations to schoolchildren. The war over, we woke up with a major hangover and buried our shame under geraniums and furniture polish. When a new referendum was ordered by the Nazis, workers and bourgeois alike jumped at the chance to sit in their German uncle’s lap. He might have rapacious jaws and wandering hands, but his wallet was well stuffed.
Marianne Gödel had warned us in vain. The more clear-sighted among Kurt’s Jewish friends were already gone. I was blind and married to a man who was deaf. Giving in to my own panic would have dragged Kurt down into a deep and crippling anxiety. My job was to smooth things over. A minority was still sounding the alarm, but I belonged to the silent majority. How do you go against the current of history when your comfort and your hopes for personal fulfillment are not in any way altered by that current?
I can’t lie: I saw the broken shop windows, the families kneeling in the gutter, the abuse of the elderly, the street arrests. Like all the others, I reacted as though bobbing in a whirlpool where, to keep from drowning, you think of yourself first.
I’d asked Anna if I was making a mistake in not accompanying my future husband to America.
She simply shrugged. “I can’t tell the future, sweet cakes. What does your guy say about it?”
“Everyone is moving there. You should think about it yourself, Anna.”
“With what money? And how am I going to feed my son over there? I’m not going to start streetwalking in New York just to get away from these German hicks! Anyway, America is only for the rich.”
“Your Dr. Freud has left the country.”
“Then there will be plenty of work for us here.”
“My mother-in-law says the Nazis are going to eliminate the Jews.”
“So you have nothing to worry about. You aren’t Jewish. And I’ll be fine. They won’t come looking for me in Purk! Anyway, Wagner-Jauregg has always kept an eye out for me. And my kid is staying with good people. They would never rat him out.”
On April 10, the referendum ballots were inscribed with two circles: a big one for Yes and a tiny one for No. As if that weren’t enough, Nazi officials inspected every ballot as the voters emerged from the polling booth, passing the paper from hand to hand. The Reich had guaranteed itself an overwhelming majority in a rigged election. A staggering 99.75 percent of Austrians voted Yes. I did the same, then went and barricaded myself in our apartment in Grinzing. That evening, the news of the outcome would set off extraordinary violence in the streets. Kurt worked in the silence of his study. I touched his shoulder lightly. He emerged from his dream to say, “Adele, did you find any coffee? Yesterday’s was just terrible.”
21
The receptionist, a phone wedged to one ear and a tooth-marked pencil behind the other, motioned her to wait. Anna used the time to sign the register. She was surprised to notice that Adele had another visitor: Elizabeth Glinka, who had been the Gödels’ live-in registered nurse. Anna nibbled on the stub of a fingernail. Might she impose, or should she make herself scarce, as a courtesy? She’d have liked to meet this woman who had witnessed the Gödels’ last years together.
“I’m sorry, Miss Roth. No one is allowed to visit Mrs. Gödel today.”
“But I see that she has a visitor.”
“That person is waiting in the lobby.”
“Did something happen to Adele?”
The receptionist righted her coffee cup, which was tilting dangerously, and answered with a prim expression, “I’m afraid the information can only be given to a family member.”
“Mrs. Gödel has no family.”
The woman frowned. Her fingers, deprived of nicotine, worried at the already mauled pencil.
“She had a bad night. The doctor on duty didn’t like her chances this morning.”
Anna’s heart started racing. “Is she conscious?”
“She’s very weak. The best thing for her is to avoid any excitement.”
“I’m going to leave you my telephone number. Would you call me if there are any developments?”
“I’ll put the word out. Everybody likes you here. It’s so unusual for a young person to spend any time with our residents.”
Anna walked away in a daze. She’d known that Adele was in poor health, but the older woman had always seemed to have inexhaustible vitality. She couldn’t die like this. They had parted with bitter words. Anna had been short with her and felt responsible for the elderly woman’s sudden decline.
Too tired to retrace her steps immediately, she dropped into a Naugahyde chair. Nearby a woman in her sixties was knitting. Her hair haphazardly blow-dried, the visitor gave Anna a big smile. She had a hard face, but her brown, heavy-lidded eyes radiated an unmistakable kindness. Anna couldn’t tell whether the glow was meant for her specifically or for the world in general.
The woman stopped her rhythmic clicking and stowed her knitting away in a patchwork bag before coming to sit next to Anna. She held out a firm hand. “Elizabeth Glinka.”
“Anna Roth. I’m delighted to meet you. Although the circumstances …”
“Don’t worry. Mrs. Gödel has been through worse.”
She tilted her head, examining Anna with frank curiosity. The young woman sat straighter.
“Can I call you Anna? Adele has often spoken about you. She’s right. You’re pretty and you don’t know it.”
“That’s just the kind of compliment Adele would give.”
Elizabeth placed her calloused hand on hers. “It’s a good thing, what you’re doing for her.”
Anna felt a twinge of guilt. Their relationship was still ambiguous. She hadn’t made clear to herself where her interest ended and her affection began. Mrs. Gödel might have complained to her old nurse about their last discussion.
“Originally, I came to her with a specific goal in mind.”