Professor Maximilian Wagner and his elegant wife walked hand in hand toward the university.
“You can still change your mind, darling. We can go back if you like, I’ll take you home.”
“Oh Max, I have to go this time. Even you said I don’t go to enough of these things, and it would look odd if I missed one that was in your honor.”
Maximilian had become very popular at the university as his career advanced, and he regularly attended the semi-official celebrations to honor promotions and successes. Tonight’s celebration was in honor of his recent publication.
At the cocktail party, people greeted each other politely and spoke affably to one another. A lady from the university went up to the rostrum and announced the occasion for the evening’s celebrations, and then invited the rector to say a few words.
The rector made some remarks about Professor Maximilian Wagner’s work. As he came to the end of his talk, he raised his voice to expound on the superiority of scholars of the German race. He congratulated Maximilian Wagner, an exemplary scholar and an exemplary German.
Just at that moment the waiter, standing with a bottle in the middle of the hall, popped open the champagne and, as the champagne spouted from the bottle, sounds of applause rose in the hall. The rector joined the other professors and drank champagne. Everyone came over to Maximilian to congratulate him.
The lady from the university went up to the rostrum again to end the ceremony and read a message from the ministry of education. As soon she had finished, everyone in the hall shot out their right arms and shouted: “Heil Hitler!”
Deborah felt tense. She wondered if anyone had noticed she hadn’t given the salute. In the meantime the disagreeable woman at the rostrum repeated some of the words in the message. The people in the hall once again took their glasses in their left hands and began to shout, “Heil Hitler.”
This time Deborah stuck out her arm with force. She did so with such violence that she hurt her shoulder. She shouted with all her might: “Heil Hitler!”
Bending her arm at the elbow, she drew it back and thrust it out again in an even more violent salute. She shouted so fiercely that her throat hurt: “Heil Hitler!”
Maximilian Wagner went over to his wife, gently took her arm and lowered it, then put her hand on his shoulder and gently led her to the door.
They went out without saying goodbye to anyone, but no one paid any attention. Everyone understood this German lady’s feelings, her excitement, and her pride in her husband’s success. Indeed, after they’d gone people even smiled at her fervor.
As soon as they were home Nadia said, “I’m sorry, darling.”
Max leaned down and tenderly kissed his wife on the cheek.
It was their habit in the evenings to discuss what was happening as they read the newspapers in the back room, the room furthest from the neighboring apartment. They laughed bitterly about articles such as the one that claimed Jews could be recognized by their smell.
Max put down the paper and looked lovingly as his wife.
“Perhaps the man is right!” he exclaimed. “I know you by your scent too. It always intoxicates me.”
This time Nadia didn’t laugh.
“They’re looking into Aryan and Jewish marriages, Max,” she said. “They’ve already started in other cities. They won’t let us live here anymore.”
“I don’t know, my love. They haven’t done anything like that at the university yet. They see us as the most trustworthy group. There’s no danger yet.”
Nadia leaned forward and cradled her head in her hands. She knew from the way people were talking in the streets and the markets that the situation was becoming even more dangerous. She knew that her husband always tried to comfort her and understate the danger, but she knew that day by day they were closing in. She also knew that, as loving and well intentioned as he might be, there were things he didn’t see or understand, that he wasn’t as sensitive to the mood as she was. She’d heard talk about people who’d pretended to be German, and knew that there was a lot of suspicion about this. There’d even been Germans arrested and sent to camps because they’d been denounced as Jews.
She couldn’t stand to live with this constant fear anymore. She was terrified by the thought of being sent to a camp, of being separated from her husband. Indeed, she was just as worried about how he would survive without her. And, on top of this, she was pregnant. Of this she was certain, it was at least two months.
Despite Max’s confidence, she was sure there were suspicions at the university. She could feel it. It seemed as if their friends there had begun to avoid them. Nor did she believe that academics were as trusted by the regime as he seemed to believe. These people didn’t trust anyone, and they were naturally suspicious of cultured and intelligent people. Max had refused to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler and believed his position would keep him safe, but she wasn’t so confident it would. No, their position in Germany was becoming impossible.
They’d spent hours talking about this, and both of them realized they’d long since made the decision to leave. Yet they still behaved as if they were trying to decide. They’d even talked about it with Max’s parents, who’d agreed that it was best for them to go abroad.
“But where will we go, where can we live?” asked Nadia.
“Istanbul…We can make a new life for ourselves there. After all, we have friends there.”
Maximilian’s father had friends in high places and was able to take care of the passports and visas. They sold the belongings they couldn’t take to a dealer on the far side of town who didn’t know them. Max resigned from the university, ostensibly for family reasons.
One Saturday they boarded the train and began their journey to Paris. The last thing that Max did before setting off was to mail a letter to the rector from the station. Nadia had tried to dissuade him, but he wouldn’t listen.
Max saw this letter as something he was bound by honor and conscience to send. It denounced the Third Reich and proclaimed his abhorrence of Hitler’s racist policies and his pride in his Jewish wife.
Nadia kept insisting that it would be dangerous to send the letter. “What if something goes wrong, Max?” she said, “What if they get hold of the letter before we leave the country? And is it really necessary to make these men angrier than they already are? I ask you, indeed I beg you, don’t send that letter. Tear it up and throw it away.”
But for some reason Max, who was usually very sensitive to Nadia’s wishes, couldn’t bring himself to listen to her. From what he said, this was above all a matter of principle. This was a way to raise his voice against the regime that had destroyed the great nation of Germany that he loved so much and to show them he wasn’t afraid of them. “Please don’t insist,” he said to Nadia. “This matter is more important to me than you could imagine. Don’t be afraid. After all, we’re getting on the train. By the time they get this letter we’ll long since have arrived in Paris.”
As the train set off for Paris, Maximilian and Nadia talked excitedly about staying one week there, and then boarding the Simplon Orient Express and traveling to Istanbul. They were happy to be starting their new life. They sat down at a table in the train’s pleasant, elegant dining car.
“To a wonderful future!”
Maximilian was drinking champagne. He was in a celebratory mood. But Nadia drank only water because she was pregnant, and she wouldn’t be able to relax and truly celebrate until they were safely out of the country. She’d also had a tension headache for the past few days.
Nadia had introduced herself as Deborah to a couple of people they met on the train. They were very nearly at the border and soon she would be able to say, “Nadia” with pride to anyone who asked her name.
The station at the border was full of Nazis. They looked like packs of wolves with their high-peaked hats, swastikas, an
d leather coats.
Maximilian held out their passports and visa documents to the Nazis. He felt relaxed because everything was in order. The Nazi who was checking them didn’t give them a second look. He simply stamped the documents and gave them back. He then wished Maximilian a good journey and began to walk away with the other officer. They even touched the peaks of their caps politely to “Frau Wagner.”
Perhaps those men would be the last Nazis they ever saw in their lives. Well, they weren’t going to miss them, were they? They didn’t even glance back at them but continued their conversation. Meanwhile the pudding they’d ordered arrived.
However, Nadia kept rubbing her temple. Max filled a glass with water.
“Come on, take your medicine, my love, before the pain gets worse.”
“I don’t have it with me, it’s in my suitcase. I’ll go and get it later.”
“No, I’ll get it for you.” Max got up and massaged his wife’s temple a little. “You’ll see. Once we get to Istanbul, you won’t have headaches any more. I’m sure the headaches are from tension.”
He touched his wife on the shoulder and went off. Their compartment was three cars ahead, and it was easy to walk there because the train wasn’t moving. When he entered the compartment, he opened Nadia’s case and began to search for the medicine. At that point the train started moving. Finally he found the medicine in her toilet bag. The train was gathering speed as he made his way through the three cars to the restaurant car. He sat down at their table. Nadia wasn’t there; she must have gone to the bathroom. As he waited he took a sip of his champagne. He put the medicine beside the glass that he’d just filled with water.
The train was forging through the darkness of the night. After leaving Nazi Germany behind, the rattle of the train seemed more cheerful. They were now in France. They would not go back to Germany as long as those people remained in power. He would give Nadia the life she deserved in a neutral country; he would give her the happiness and security she deserved.
Time passed, but there was still no sign of Nadia. He noticed that people were giving him strange looks. Finally he went to the toilet and knocked on the door.
“Nadia are you all right, darling?”
A little later the door opened and a smart gentleman in a bow tie came out. Maximilian went to the waiter.
“Do you remember the lady I had dinner with?”
“Of course, Mr. Wagner!”
“Well, where is she?”
“The Gestapo came and took Mrs. Wagner off the train at the border.”
“What?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what happened. After you left they came and took Mrs. Wagner.”
It was as though the waiter felt a secret pleasure in saying this. There must be a cruel Nazi concealed under this polite front; the situation seemed to amuse him greatly.
“In other words you’re saying my wife stayed in Germany?”
“Yes, Herr Wagner, I’m afraid so!”
“I want to go back.”
“You can’t, Herr Wagner! It’s a fair way to the next station.”
Maximilian ran to the engineer in horror, but nothing he said made any impression on the man. So he went and pulled the emergency brake in the corridor. The train came to a sudden jolting halt. The conductor rushed up and shouted “What are you doing, Herr Wagner. You’ve stopped the train in the countryside in the middle of the night! Even if you get out here there’s nothing you can do.”
That was when Maximilian saw the train’s doctor immediately behind him. The doctor stabbed a syringe into Max’s arm. That was the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness.
When Maximilian came to, he was lying on the bed in his compartment. His head was aching. When he tried to get up, he realized that he was handcuffed to the bed.
What had happened was terrible. Unbelievable. He was on French soil and Nadia was at the mercy of the Gestapo. He wanted to go back immediately. He began to shout and scream again. The door opened and a security guard came in.
“Let me go!”
“Don’t worry, we’ll let you go in Paris. We had to sedate and handcuff you because you posed a threat to the safety of the train and the passengers.”
“Release me!”
In Paris he got off the train and immediately called Germany. But his father sounded strange on the phone, as if he was having a conversation with someone else.
“Father, what are you saying, I don’t understand?”
“Yes, my friend, I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
“Father, I’m in Paris now. Do you know about what happened on the train?”
“Of course, it’s a deal. Very well, we’ll do that. It’s best you go there. Yes, that’s the best place.”
“Are you trying to tell me not to come back, Father? I can’t come in any case. The letter to the rector…”
“The Gestapo is here,” his father’s voice whispered. Then he continued in a normal tone.
“Yes Kurt, we’ll talk again as soon as you arrive.”
“I understand, Father. I’ll go ahead to Istanbul. Father! Please find Nadia!”
There was nothing to do now but wait for the Istanbul train. For days, he wandered in despair through the streets of Paris. He didn’t eat, he didn’t drink, and he didn’t rest. He hoped that if he wore himself out he might be able to sleep on the train and reach Istanbul without going mad. He wanted to live. He had to survive for Nadia.
A group of people, most of them Jews, was waiting for the train at Sirkeci station in Istanbul. Professor Wagner’s news had arrived ahead of him, and his friends had rushed to the station to meet him. They’d expected a grieving, exhausted man, but were not prepared for what they saw. The commotion died down as soon as he stepped off the train, and they began to behave as if they were at a funeral. They each greeted and embraced him in turn, and muttered a few words of heartfelt consolation.
Max was determined to save Nadia. He would do whatever it took, even if it cost him his own life. If he had to, he would go back to Germany, and he was even willing to try to assassinate Hitler.
Maximilian couldn’t talk about his grief to his friends. But there was no need for him to do so because it was obvious. Most of the professor’s acquaintances in Istanbul lived in the district of Bebek, by the sea. First they settled him into the Pera Palas Hotel. A few weeks later they rented a small flat for him near the university. He wouldn’t need a larger place until Nadia came.
The first thing he did was to arrange all of Nadia’s things. He ironed her clothes and hung them in the closet, put away her shoes, and arranged her perfumes and creams in front of the mirror on the dresser. He hung their wedding photos on the walls.
Everything was ready. All that was missing was Nadia. Maximilian went back and forth to the university like a robot, taught his classes, and started learning Turkish. He concentrated on finding out where Nadia was, but this was very difficult under the circumstances. Despite his influence, Max’s father could do nothing either; he couldn’t reach Nadia. He himself was in danger now because he had a Jewish daughter-in-law, and his standing had diminished.
When Max met people he knew, either new acquaintances or old friends, all he could talk about was Nadia. They talked mostly about the war. Just about everyone in Turkey, and indeed the whole world, could think about little else.
Turkey had remained neutral, and tried to remain on good terms with everyone, including the Germans. Atatürk, who had died the day after Kristallnacht, had been replaced as president by İnönü, who resisted Churchill’s pressure to enter the war. But there were many influential people in and out of the government who supported Hitler and who celebrated news of German victories.
Turkey was exporting chromium to Germany. A “German Information Office” was set up in Istanbul and was extremely s
uccessful in its propaganda. The German expatriate community would meet at Teutonia-Haus and give parties in the garden of the consular residence in Tarabya. Maximilian and his friends were ostracized by them, and people from Max’s circle had no place there. Indeed, the German government was putting pressure on the Turkish government to return the Jewish scholars. Adolf Hitler sent a special representative to prepare reports about them and influence the Turkish government:
His name was Scurla.
Max went about his life, keeping busy at the university and with various social engagements, but the only thing that mattered to him was to find Nadia and rescue her. In time, his efforts to do so brought him to Notre Dame de Sion.
Notre Dame de Sion was a French Catholic girls’ school in the Harbiye district and, at the time, one of the most prestigious girls’ high schools in the city. Some of his students and colleagues were graduates of the school, and he had been there once for the wedding of a Turkish colleague.
He returned later when he learned that they were involved in efforts to help Jewish refugees. He told them Nadia’s story, and they told him sadly that all they could do was to pray for her. But he did learn that there was a certain Father Roncalli who might be in a position to help.
Father Roncalli, later to become Pope John XXIII, was then the Vatican Apostolic Delegate to Turkey and had become very popular not only among Turks, but also among all the religious minorities in the country. He was the first Catholic priest to say Mass in Turkish and had become involved in rescuing large numbers of Balkan Jews, partly with the help of Franz von Papen, the German ambassador to Turkey.
Papen was a former chancellor of Germany and had been instrumental in bringing Hitler to power, and as ambassador to Austria had played a leading role in the Anschluss. Later he fell out of favor with the regime and several of his close associates were killed; it was proposed that he become ambassador to Turkey to keep him away from the center of power. Atatürk objected because he’d known Papen during World War I and considered him untrustworthy, but after Atatürk’s death his posting was approved. Papen’s mission was to do his utmost to keep Turkey from joining the war on the allied side, and, if possible, to convince the Turkish government to join the German invasion of Russia. He was also charged with developing ties with the Arabs. Yet, interestingly, Papen helped Roncalli to save the lives of as many as 24,000 Jews. Later, during the Nuremberg trials, Roncalli testified in Papen’s defense, and he was acquitted.
Serenade for Nadia Page 17
