All of whom were sent to concentration camps.
The nausea hadn’t left since she’d read the letter. The enormity of evil was almost impossible to comprehend. She pressed her shaking hand to her stomach again. She needed to calm down. Getting emotional would make her sloppy.
So many lives depended on her. On Melanie and Rick, Dr. G and Grandmother, and the plan they’d developed to rescue these precious people. “I’m right beside you.” Mel’s calm voice from the right soothed her frayed nerves.
“Me too,” Rick chimed in from her left.
It was time. She gave a nod, and she heard the doors open. The plan was simple. Get in. Find a room to camp out in. Let the head of the school know they were present and ask to speak to the students. If they did it all as quickly as possible, perhaps the SS and Gestapo would never know they’d been there.
“Rick, it appears there’s an empty classroom to your left. TakeChaisley in there and stay with her. I’m going to find whoever is in charge.” Melanie’s firm order was quiet.
A tug at her left elbow, and Rick’s deep voice cocooned her. “I’ll walk with you. Only about six paces to the door.”
“Thank you.” As they entered the room, she smiled. “You were correct. Six on the nose.”
“There’s a chair over here behind a desk. Wait just a moment.” His footsteps sounded all over the room. A door opened and closed. More steps. “Okay, I had to check it out first. Twelve steps over to the desk.” He was at her elbow again, letting her step with confidence.
She found the desk and chair and took a seat. “Thank you, again.”
His steps went back and forth in front of her.
“Are you nervous? Is that why you’re pacing?”
“There’s so much we don’t know about this place. Do you have some sort of plan?”
She laced her fingers together, willing her heart to stop pounding in her ears. “Actually, I wanted to encourage the students first.”
“And then?”
“I don’t know. But they might need to know what’s really coming so they can be prepared. And know that there are people willing to help.”
He sucked in a breath. Loud and long. “They’re just kids.”
Yes, they were. But someone had to prepare them. “Keep your tone quiet, please, Mr. Zimmerman.”
“Might I also remind you that we are inBerlin.”Rick’s words were whisper soft but held a sharp edge.
“I know very well where we are.” Footsteps—a great many of them—sounded in the hallway. She understood Rick’s hesitation. Her own nerves seemed tighter than a piano string. But he would see. God was at work.
“Miss Frappier, I’ve brought you the students.”
Chaisley restrained a frown. Why was Melanie’s chipper voice so forced?
Chaisley stood. Was her friend trying too hard to be positive or was it because she was speaking in German? What had she seen? “Wonderful. Welcome.” She clapped her hands together and prayed that if Melanie needed to warn her about something, she would do it soon.
Steps and shuffling were accompanied by soft commands from a couple of older-sounding people. Teachers?
Someone touched her elbow. The scent of Mel’s hand cream gave her away. “There are only twenty-one students left.” She’d switched to English. “The headmistress is gone, and there are two teachers.”
“What happened to the headmistress and the rest of the students?” There should have been twice that many.
“The woman in charge was taken as a political prisoner last week for helping a Jewish family leave. At least, that’s the rumor.”
“If I may, Fräulein.” A young voice that sounded as lyrical as Mozart’s sonata in C Major spoke up. “Many of the families are finding a way to leave.” Her voice was so beautiful and uplifting, even when conveying the words that weren’t pleasant. “Especially after the older students were taken away to hospitals for forced sterilization.”
Chaisley gasped. The blunt statement sounded so harsh coming from one so young. Like a slap in the face. What had they had to endure here?
“We have tried to be honest with our students here and their families,” another voice chimed in. “My name is Freida, and I am one of the teachers.”
