Rosa had been encouraging Herman and Lena to come to the cabaret club with her for some weeks. They had eventually agreed to it, even though it really wasn't their thing. After parking their car up, they met Rosa outside the entrance: her hair was tied into a bun, she was wearing two large and elaborate earrings and a striking low-cut green dress, and she was holding a man's hand. He was about a head taller than Rosa, with a square face and earnest brown eyes.
"Herman and Lena, meet Richard Baumann", announced Rosa, in the style of a club announcer.
"So you're Herman and Lena", said Richard: both of them nodded.
"Pleased to meet you", said Richard, and he shook hands with both. Rosa then beckoned them, with an excited and mischievous grin on her face.
Inside the club, Rosa immediately sprinted onto the dance floor, while Richard ordered four drinks. He found a table, then made his way to the floor to join Rosa. At first they danced together, with Richard repeatedly spinning Rosa round and lifting her up, to her evident enjoyment. After a while, Rosa began to drift away and dance on her own, while Richard returned to the table where Herman and Lena were sitting. Rosa's moves were not the most elegant but she was full of energy: she spun herself round too many times to count, she waggled her hips, lifted up her skirts to above knee height, and would softly press her face and body up against any man who agreed to dance with her.
"Don't you feel jealous when she does that?", Lena asked Richard.
He shrugged. "It's just her way of enjoying herself. I know that I'm the one that she loves."
"If she enjoys it, then it's fine", said Herman.
"I suppose so", said Lena, somewhat grudgingly.
Eventually even Rosa tired of dancing and she left the floor and sat down next to Richard, drenched in sweat.
"Do you come often to this place, then?", asked Herman.
"Yes", said Rosa breathlessly. "I absolutely love it here."
"I would never have guessed", smiled Herman.
"What about you, Richard?", asked Lena. "Is this your first time?"
"No", said Richard, "I go here a lot too." (Lena looked somewhat put out by this.)
"We met here", said Rosa. "Two months ago it was, we met on the dance floor and there was . . . something, a spark, between us."
"She's an amazing dancer", said Richard, looking at Rosa with pride and affection: she turned her head and smiled sweetly at him.
"But why do you do it", asked Lena, "all this dancing, all that . . ." She couldn't think of the right word.
"It's the spirit of the times", said Rosa, "these wonderful new times that we live in. All the old restrictions have gone, we're now free to do as we please, no more of the old 'women must behave modestly' nonsense."
"But aren't you worried?", Lena inquired.
"Worried?", echoed Rosa in a puzzled voice.
"About the example you're setting to your students", said Lena.
"Do you really think I walk into my classroom every morning and do all those sexy moves?", said Rosa scornfully. "My work and my leisure time are completely separate."
"Do your bosses know what you do of an evening?", Lena asked.
"Why am I supposed to tell them that?", demanded Rosa: her eyes were flaring up now. "My pupils like me, my bosses tell me I do a good job, that should be enough. And don't you dare talk to me like that." She was glaring at Lena now.
"Please, Rosa", said Richard, placing his hand on her arm, "don't get so angry with Lena, this is all new to her."
Rosa yanked her arm away from Richard, looking almost as angry with him as with Lena.
"It's not that, she's just a sad, stupid bore."
"Now just a minute", said Lena, her voice rising ominously.
"Calm down, Lena", urged Herman. "And Rosa, don't be so rude."
"Rude? She was the one who was rude to me", hit back Rosa, "accusing me of 'corrupting the youth', saying I'm unfit to be a teacher . . ."
"Yes but . . . can we . . . let's just talk about something else, can we?", suggested Herman: out of the corner of his eye he saw Lena getting ready to argue back.
A brittle silence descended. Eventually, Richard spoke, rather awkwardly:
"Did you see that rally last night?"
Herman sighed. Richard eyed him.
"You weren't there, were you?", Richard asked.
"No", said Herman, "but my best friend probably was."
"Your best friend?", repeated Richard.
"I have . . . or used to have, a friend called Theobald", said Herman. "We've known each other for years, fought in the Great War, but then he got really upset about the armistice, swallowed all that 'stab in the back' thing. He's since met a man called Franz who's a really ghastly anti-Semite, me and Lena met him once, and he insulted us."
"Did your friend introduce you to this man?", asked Richard.
"Yes", said Herman, "Theobald didn't hate us then, and he thought if we met him Franz would stop being anti-Semitic."
"He was really stupid like that", added Lena, "so we decided we wouldn't see Theobald again."
"And I've since learned", said Herman, "that he's joined the Nazis, I know he admires Hitler, he told us how he thinks Hitler has the right ideas."
Richard's and Rosa's mouths were wide open.
"So you're no longer friends with this Theobald?", asked Richard.
"We're well out of it", said Lena. "I wouldn't want to hang around with a Nazi. But this rally . . . in this city, you say?"
Richard nodded: Lena looked seriously worried. Herman smiled indulgently at her.
"There's no need to worry", he said, "Hitler's a really horrible man, but he's no threat, things are so much better now."
"He's just a raving madman", added Richard, "there's no way people will vote for that. I mean, even in the bad times, he had to try and seize power by force: he knows he can't win an election."
"You're always complaining about everything, Lena", said Rosa, seemingly delighted to score points over her sister-in-law. "You really need to cheer up."
Lena gazed at each of the other three in turn.
"Why are you so complacent?", she asked. "There's a very nasty streak in this country, there are people who are prepared to listen to Hitler. And if he did come to power, we", she indicated herself, Herman and Rosa, "would all be in danger."
"I wouldn't be", said Rosa. "I'm not a Jew, he wouldn't go after me."
It was the previous night. Theobald and Franz were standing in the packed crowd, waiting for the Führer to arrive in nervous and excited anticipation. Theobald had also persuaded a somewhat more reluctant Gertrud to come along too. When the main man finally made his appearance: a huge cheer erupted from the crowd: Franz bounced up and down with excitement, Theobald waved enthusiastically, Gertrud politely applauded. The noise continued until Hitler stepped up to the microphone: then it instantly fell silent.
"Good evening!", bellowed Hitler: the crowd acclaimed him raucously in response. "After four years, finally, I'm allowed to speak to you all: the Jew's grip on the government has weakened!"
More loud cheers.
"But only very slightly", Hitler continued. "He may have lost this battle, but behind the scenes the cunning Jew is continuing his plots, secretly worming his way into every single one of our institutions: the government, the media, our schools, the civil service . . . everywhere you look, is the hidden hand of the Jew. And slowly, very slowly, too slowly for most people to notice, the poison that the Jew injects does its work, corrupting and destroying this country, this Germany, the greatest country in the world! Should we tolerate this?"
"No!", the crowd shouted back in unison.
"If we look to Russia", Hitler went on, his voice rapidly rising, and his hand gestures becoming ever more dramatic, "and we see what the Jew does when he gets his way. All the Bolshevik filth, that is the work of the Jew. While here in Germany, the Jew is the creator of finance capital, squeezing money out of decent Germans like you and I to line his own dirty pockets, and has foisted this weak democratic system on us against our will, in order to keep Germany down. The Jew divides us, telling us that we all belong to different classes and should fight against each other, instead of uniting to fight our common enemy: himself. All of this is part of the Jew's eternal desire to destroy Germany, so the Elders of Zion will control the world! And he has come very close to achieving this aim, when almost nine years ago, when we were fighting the enemy hard and were close to winning, he stabbed us in the back and signed the armistice. Given the chance, the Jew will always betray us!"
Theobald nodded vigorously: after all, had Herman and Lena not betrayed him?
"And so", Hitler concluded, now virtually screaming, "I will fight and fight against these black-haired, hook nosed traitors. I will not let them destroy Germany: instead I will remove every last Jew from this country, so that never more can that accursed race harm us again!"
Hitler stepped back from the podium. The crowd raised their arms in salute, and chanted "Heil Hitler!" over and over again. Gertrud was hesitant at first, but after some encouragement from Theobald, eventually she joined in. The over the loudspeakers the national anthem blared:
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