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The Reichs

It was in Bremen. Lana was the only child of Mr. Reich, a German-Jewish industrialist. Lana was a brilliant student of Marburg's Cohen. She spent her child years reading, and listening to the conversations of her father's friends. The mother had died a year before, and her father had really taken his wife's death to heart, giving much of the daily run of his construction business to others.

This man, who traveled all over Europe, who impressed everyone with his sanguinity and charity, had become saddened by his life, and now was living routinely. He was a patriot who prided himself on his iron cross.

Again, Heinz Merling, who worked for Lana's father, came to look over blueprints for the construction of a library for him. Heinz was tall, blonde and blue-eyed, the epitome of what was soon to be extolled in Germany. But Lana would have none of him.

She was reading Thomas Mann when he came in.

"Quite a Mann, Lana."

"Yes, I like him. I've finished reading Anna Karenina, but I don't want to wind up like her."

"Things are getting bad here in Germany for the Jews. I can taste it."

"Would you like some coffee?"

"The dregs in Germany are going to come out."

"Do you think because you're a carpenter you're also a prophet?"

"I know I'm not a Jew. Is that why you're rejecting me?"

"It might kill my father."

"He's a humanitarian and a liberal, except when it comes to you."

"I think you're right."

"I'm worried about your father, because things are getting bad all over Germany."

"I don't want to think about them. Maybe we will have to leave. I like England – since reading George Eliot."

"You're living in some kid of a dream world with all these writers. You only love your past and these books of yours. Perhaps you have someone else in mind."

"I have a friend who is studying psychology in Austria. Walter has a good sense of humor."

"So you don't like me because I won't get your father's Jewish jokes? I don't think there'll be many left here in Germany. Do you love this Walter?"

"No. After my mother's death I went to see him for a consultation. I was very melancholy. You see, my parents were inseparable, and I'm an only child. I felt I had to assume too much responsibility after her death, and I don't have the temperament for it."

"Then I can forgive you for your anxiety."

"My mother was from a banking family that lived here since the 16th Century. My father worked his way through his industry that has few Jews."

"I lost my father in the war. Perhaps I'll join the army."

"Don't become one of the Nazis because of me."

"I loathe them as much as you do."

"They would like to win you over."

"They can never get me. But you are so haughty sometimes. I feel very hurt by you. Lana, I'm devastated, and I have to leave."

"Even if I fell in love with you, it wouldn't work."

"Because our egos are too much alike?"

"You don't understand my suffering."

"I sometimes think you like your suffering, Lana."

"I'm not a Christian like you."

"I've read Nathan the Wise and wept over it."

"I know you are a good man."

"But I'm not good enough, rich enough, not in your class or religion. Is that it?"

"No, no. It's because I'm too old, in many ways, for you."

"But I can protect you for a while, until you get a visa."

"I am afraid."

"So am I. It will not be hard to learn English."

"Some day."

He walks out the door.

A month later, Heinz comes back.

"Lana, I made it here past the watchdogs outside."

"You know my father."

"Let's get out of here."

"Did you join the Army?"

"No, they're drafting me. Let's get out."

"I can't, Heinz. Please be good and go."

"You think you're better than me."

"So you believe the lying Nazi propaganda."

"Deep down you can't trust me."

"Perhaps."

"I've been reading Rilke."

"Here. Take my first edition."

"Is that all you can give me?"

"I don't want my father to find you here."

"There's rumors around that he may not be here very long. I'd like to help both of you get out. Soon books will even be forbidden. And there will be no watchdogs for the Jews."

"Please leave, Heinz. This is too painful for me."

Six months pass, and Heinrich Reich was murdered. Heinz was drafted into the Army. Lana died by her own hand. Heinz never heard about Lana. He always imagined she died in one of the camps. It was told to me that in 1946 Heinz met a Jewish survivor from Weimar, Anna Holzman, and married her. The Nazis could never have his soul. May his kind live a thousand years.

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