The Luck of the Weissensteiners (The Three Nations Trilogy) by Christoph Fischer

racial laws. Although these ideas were not the official party line of the German Sudeten Party, he only had to listen to his fellow party members to know that they were open to such policies. His marriage would be annulled and his son Karl would be treated like any other dirty Jew; there probably would be nothing he could do for Greta or her family once the Germans were here. The longer he thought about it, the clearer it became to him that he would have to try and see if he could save little Karl, get him out of the country and into safety, wherever that may be.
    Wilhelm would worry himself sick about the dangers that lay ahead of him and his family, but then nothing would happen again for weeks and he would calm down and feel silly to have got into such a state of panic.
    Then the news reached him that the Austrian Chancellor had resigned on Hitler's request and that the Austrian army had not offered any resistance worth mentioning when the German troops marched across the border in April. According to eye witnesses, the population had greeted the soldiers with flowers and enthusiasm. In Vienna there had been immediate acts of violence towards Jews.
    It wouldn't be much different over here, he suspected, so he had to make plans. The summer had been surprisingly uneventful politically. Konrad H enlein, the leader of the German Sudeten Party, was strongly supported by German diplomats and was increasingly able to make more and more blatant demands to the government. An Austrian plebiscite gave Hitler a clear mandate as the new master of the Ostmark, as he renamed Austria, and that gave the Sudetengermans further encouragement to voice their demands for autonomy or inclusion into the German Reich. Even in those parts of Slovakia where few Germans lived, the campaign was vocal.
    I n September, it was announced that European leaders would meet in Munich to come to an agreement with Hitler about the future of the German minority in the Czechoslovak Republic. Greta would have to make up her mind soon what she wanted to do, stay here with her family and take a chance with their lives or flee with him and little Karl and seek safety elsewhere.
    For some time it had been well known how horrendous ly the Jewish people in Germany were being treated and the reports about work camps had become more than just a vague and unconfirmed rumour. Hearing about deportations and beatings in Austria from refugees was particularly shocking because the anti-Semitic government had only recently been installed and was already very effective in persecuting Jews. Houses were raided, shops closed, officials dismissed or arrested and people were beaten up randomly in the streets. There was chaos and nobody knew if a missing friend had been arrested or had succeeded in fleeing the country. Soon the German tax for evading the country, a Reichsflucht Steuer, was introduced in Austria as well and now even the rich had difficulties raising the funds to be allowed out. Jewish passports were confiscated and returned with a “J” marked in it which was a request from the Swiss border police to make their life easier. Anti-Semitic sentiments were now more openly shown in Czechoslovakia as well; not just by Germans in the country but also by Nationalists and sympathisers within the Czech and Slovak community.
    “Where would we go?” Greta asked Wilhelm when he broke the issue of leaving the country to her.
    “We have a few options I think,” he replied. “Our first step would be to cross the border to Poland and from there travel to England or France or wherever we can travel to. It is more difficult to get a visa now because there are so many refugees but it is not impossible.”
    “Could we not just stay in Poland?” she wondered.
    “Poland is not safe either,” he replied. “Silesia has a German minority population. Hitler must have his eyes on it already. Poland can only be a stepping stone to our next destination. Hitler is sure to follow there once