Because Edward was there I had to know what was happening. I opened the door cautiously. It was a strange sight which met my eyes. The room was in chaos. There were upturned tables and broken glass everywhere. The young men were all standing very still at attention; they were singing, their hands raised as though in a salute.

The customers remained seated, nervously fingering their glasses; they were mute, dazed. Not one of them, I was aware, had attempted to stop the upheaval which had been started by Else’s young man and his half dozen friends. They had allowed these thugs to break up the place. The singing stopped. Else’s young man came forward to where Helmut was standing in the midst of the ravages of the room. He stood before him and then deliberately spat into his face and said: “Jew.”

When he turned away, Helmut’s hands were clenched. Kurt caught hold of him. I thought at first Helmut was going to strike the young man.

The young man was looking straight at me. He stared for a moment. Then he clicked his heels and bowed. He turned away, collected his followers and they filed out of the schloss. I heard the sound of the starting up of car engines and then they drove away.

All the customers were slinking away in relief and, I fancied, with an expression of guilt. We stood in the room then, assessing the damage. There was broken glass everywhere. Several tables had been overturned and some chairs were in pieces. But it was not the damage which was responsible for the oppressive gloom. It was what it indicated. There was so much I had to learn, but I knew this was not an isolated disaster. It was an evil portent.

I heard Frau Brandt whisper in agonized tones: “What are we going to do? What will become of us all?”

I think that was what was in all their minds.

It was late when Dermot went back to his hotel in the town. He said he would come back tomorrow early and help with the clearing up. He could not understand why the Brandts did not call in the police. It was a pure case of unprovoked vandalism.

They did not want to speak of it that night. They were too shocked to do so. Frau Brandt’s attitude told me more than anyone else’s. I sensed in it a certain resignation, an acceptance of something that was inevitable.

It was late when Dorabella and I retired to our bedroom. We were both subdued.

She said that Dermot had been marvelous. He had looked after her so carefully. But I did not want to talk of Dermot. My thoughts were with the Brandts.

We did not sleep much that night. I doubt anyone in the schloss did.

The few guests who were staying had breakfast in the public dining room as Edward, Dorabella, and I did.

Afterwards we went into the damaged room where Kurt and the rest of the family were attempting to restore some order. Edward rolled up his sleeves and worked energetically.

Dorabella and I did what we could. The main difficulty was the broken glass which seemed to have embedded itself in everything.

During the morning Dermot arrived to help. He was very angry. He said it was shameful. He had talked to the people at his hotel and they had said it was happening all over Germany. The Führer wanted a pure race in Germany and that did not include Jews.

It had never occurred to me that the Brandts were Jewish. There had never been any reason to mention it. Edward said he may have heard it and thought no more about it. Kurt was his friend and his race would make no difference to that.

That morning we learned what was happening in Germany.

We had worked for several hours and cleaned most of the debris; we had taken away the broken chairs, set up all the upturned tables, washed a great deal of the stains from the walls which had been made by the tankards of beer which had been thrown against them; and in the dim light the room did not look much different from what it had before the debacle had begun.

We were all tired and sat down together. Gloom hung over us as thick as the forest mist.

It was no use ignoring it, and I am sure we found a slight relief in talking of it.

Kurt said: “It had to happen sooner or later. I am only sorry that it was during your visit. I am ashamed that you should have seen it. It is a blight on our nation. But you must not go away and think: ‘This is the Germans.’ It fills many of us with sorrow. It is an ulcerous growth…a cancer. It fills us with shame and, yes, fear. From one day to the next we do not know what our fate will be.”

“It is monstrous,” cried Dermot. “How can people let it happen? These thugs—they are nothing more—come with their songs and slogans…and dare do that! And they get away with it. I think one of the most shameful aspects of the case is that it was allowed to happen and nothing was done about it.”

“It has been so for some time,” said Hans. “These people are members of the Hitler Youth of the Nazi Party. When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 he put Baldur von Schirach in charge of the youth of the country. German boys of ten were registered for what they call Racial Purity and known as the Deutsche Jungvolk. They are investigated to make sure they have no ‘alien’ blood, and if not, they are eligible at the age of thirteen to join the Hitler Youth Movement, the Hitler Jugend. At the age of eighteen they graduate from this and become members of the Nazi Party.”

“Whose aim it is to go round the country breaking up people’s homes!” cried Dermot indignantly.

“They are what are called Aryans, it seems.”

“It’s monstrous,” said Edward. “This can’t go on.”

“It has been going on for some time,” said Kurt, “and it grows worse.”

“Do you mean to say,” cried Edward, “that you live in fear that this sort of thing may happen at any minute?”

“I have lived with that fear for some time now.”

“And the people stand by and allow it!”

“They can do nothing else. The Führer has done so much for the country. We were in a dreadful state. Our currency was worthless…our people in desperation. We are not a race to sit down quietly and accept such a fate. We do something about it. We were defeated in the war and for that we had to suffer poverty and humiliation. Then this man came. He did much good. It is unfortunate for us that he hates our race. I sometimes believe that he wants to exterminate us completely.”

“That’s impossible,” said Dermot. “And this can’t go on. It’s ridiculous. And all these people who were there did nothing to stop it!”

“They were wise. No one can stand against the Nazis. They are in control.”

“It seems incredible that people could be allowed to behave so.”

“It is difficult for you to understand. But this is Germany.”

“Do you mean,” said Edward, “that tonight they may come along and do the same thing again?”

“I do not think they will do that. We are not important enough. We are only small people. They will go somewhere else. They have warned us…that is all. They want us to go away. But we have lived here all our lives…our forefathers were here before us. That means nothing to them. They do not like our race.”

Every one of us wished we knew how to comfort them. But there was no comfort we could offer.

We were all subdued. I had no desire to go out again. The fairy-tale villages had lost their charm for me. They had a beautiful exterior behind which evil lurked. I just wanted to get away, to go home, where everything would be normal. I looked back over those enjoyable days before I had seen that spectacle of destruction, but I could not forget the expression in the eyes of Else’s lover. How could a young man like that behave as he had? He had no pity for the innocent people he had attacked. I could have understood if there had been a quarrel and he had lost his temper, but it had all been done in cold blood. It was a senseless, calculated attack on people because they were of a different race from his own.