by Sarah Rayne
It horrifies me to know that when I sent you all those details of our travels, and of how and where we searched for the twins, you were relaying it all to Mengele’s people. That, I now see, is how Paul Porringer found us in the old house, Deadlight Hall.
As you know, the twins were never found, and as far as I understand it, Mengele himself has evaded justice so far.
I am sorry for your approaching execution, and bid you farewell and safe journey beyond. In time I hope I shall come to think more kindly of our years of friendship.
M.B.
At the foot of the letter was written, ‘Returned to sender after the execution of the recipient for war crimes.’
Michael laid the letter down as carefully as if it might fall apart. For a long time no one spoke – Nell thought none of them could find anything to say.
Then Leo said, ‘So that is what happened. That is the ending.’
‘Yes.’
‘Did that man – Paul Porringer – really know what had happened to the twins, do you think?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t think Maurice or Schönbrunn knew – they both talked of the “hesitation” when they asked Porringer the direct question about the twins.’
‘As if he was not prepared to admit that he, or his people, had failed to take them,’ said Michael.
‘Yes. But I don’t think either of them was prepared to take the chance,’ said David. ‘That’s why Schönbrunn went to Auschwitz. Nothing more was heard of him.’
‘And Mengele evaded justice,’ said Leo, half to himself.
‘Oh, yes. He left Auschwitz for a camp in Gross Rosen, but he fled from there a week before the Russian soldiers arrived. He lived most of the remainder of his life in South America. I think he died in the late 1970s. My great-uncle made several more attempts to find Sophie and Susannah Reiss, but he never did. As for Schönbrunn – no one ever knew his real name, so it was impossible to make any proper search.’
‘Yes, of course. Well,’ said Leo, ‘it’s all a long time ago, and I’ll try to think that Schönbrunn probably died in a rebellious blaze of battle somewhere.’
‘It’s the likeliest thing.’
‘Oh yes.’
But Nell, watching him, knew he had been hoping that Maurice Bensimon’s letters might have told him what had happened to his beloved twins. She was filled with deep sadness that they had not done so.
*
Dear Nell
Everything is now in place for our auction next month. We have had considerable interest in the silver golem, following the PR campaign – the TV segment was particularly good, we thought – hope you caught that – and there was also a mention on Antiques Roadshow. The mail-out of our pre-sale catalogue has brought a number of enquiries, and we think we’re in for some lively bidding on the day.
I’m looking forward to seeing you again at the sale, and it’s good to hear you’re bringing the owner of the golem with you. Can I take you both to dinner after the sale, please?
However, my main reason for emailing you is that yesterday we were contacted by a lady who apparently owns the ‘twin’ to Professor Rosendale’s figure. She had seen one of the TV items, and has asked if we would deal with the sale of her own figure. It is identical in all respects, except for being engraved on the underside with the Jewish character for the letter L – the Lamed, a thick horizontal stroke with the upjutting line on the left and the downward tail on the right.
We are, of course, happy to deal with this sale, but feel very strongly that it would be far more advantageous to sell the figures as a pair. This really would be a case of the sum being greater than the component parts. The proceeds could be divided on a strict 50/50 basis between the two owners (less, of course, your commission and ours).
As Professor Rosendale’s representative, could you put the proposal to him, and let me know his decision as soon as possible?
It would be a bit of a scramble to alter the present selling arrangements – amend the catalogue and do a new mail-out – but we think we could manage it, and in fact there should be some useful publicity to be got from the discovery of the second figure!
I don’t think we can disclose this second seller’s name at this stage, but I can tell you she is a Polish lady who escaped Nazi-occupied Warsaw as a small child in 1943 along with her sister. Apparently they were later smuggled out of England by a nursing sister who worked for Military Intelligence, and who believed the girls were in danger from Josef Mengele. It sounds as if the woman simply removed the two girls from some house in the depths of winter, and got them away before anyone realized. Another of those remarkable and unsung stories of bravery!
The girls were taken to Canada, where they both went on to study medicine. The nurse also found work there, and never returned to England, severing all connections in order to safeguard the two girls – even though she had family ties in the area, and a great-uncle or something who once owned a glass manufactory there. But she wanted to destroy all traces, in case she and the two girls could be found – although it seems she did leave some old papers with a local farmer and his sister.
The owner of the second golem is one of those girls, and she hopes very much that Professor Rosendale will agree to her request for the sale of both golems. She feels – as I and my colleagues do – that it would be the right thing for these two figures to be brought together again after so many years.
All best wishes.
*
MON PLAISIR, MONMOUTH STREET
DINNER RESERVATION
Table for seven booked for 8 p.m. this evening:
Reservation contact: Ashby’s Auction House (host)
Guests: Professor Leo Rosendale
Mr David Bensimon
Dr Michael Flint
Mrs Nell West
Dr Sophia Reiss
Miss Susannah Reiss
