“They are our friends.”
His father shook his head. “They are not friends of the Reich.”
Max’s stomach burned. “And we are?”
“Not friends,” his mother said, avoiding her husband’s gaze. “But we must collaborate with the new government, for the sake of your father’s job.”
It felt like they were being mowed down, run completely into the ground without speaking out. Or pushing back.
And at times, it felt as if he were just as guilty as his parents.
“The priest just spoke about loving our neighbor.”
His father reached for his pack of Woodbines and dumpedthem onto the coffee table, a dozen gray branches falling off a tree. He lit another one, and its smoke clouded the room again. “We’re only asking that our Jewish neighbors return to their homes.”
“Luzi Weiss is as Austrian as me.”
“She’s an Austrian Jew.”
“Luzi was born and raised in this city. So were her parents.”
“But her father’s parents were born in Hungary,” his father said. “They will find a good home there.”
He and his father—they would never see eye to eye on this. Max looked at his mother, hoping for support. “You know the Weiss family belongs here.”
His mother reached for one of the cigarettes, clinging to it as she shook her head sadly. “I don’t know who belongs where anymore.”
Max wished he could shake them both out of their stupor. The world was going mad, following a madman. They couldn’t just sit in their chairs, smoking cigarettes, as if nothing had happened.
“If you want them gone—” Max turned back to his father now—“you could speak with one of the consulates and obtain visas for them.”
“I must keep myself focused on cooperating with this new regime, or they will decide to take over the bank.”
“You care more about your job than about the Weiss family.”
“I care more aboutmyfamily! It is my chief duty before God and man.”
“Mother?”
She shook her head, seemingly helpless to offer any support as she’d done in the past when his father was angry about one of the injured or abandoned animals Max rescued from the streets of Vienna or the woods around Hallstatt. She, like him, hated seeing any creature in pain.
“Then perhaps I should go as well.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said.
Turning, Max rushed back down the hallway, toward the front door of the house.
“Where are you going?” his father shouted, but he didn’t respond. They should know exactly where he was headed.
And he wished he didn’t have to return home.
“Frau Weiss,” Max called, knocking again on the apartment door.
Someone moved inside. He could see a shadow behind the frosted glass, but no one answered.
“Nina?” he shouted as he jostled the handle. “Please open the door.”
He’d already apologized to Dr. and Frau Weiss for distracting their daughter at the ball, but while he’d visited Dr. Weiss in the past weeks, Frau Weiss hadn’t let him see Luzi.
