Read Online Group Portrait with Lady by Heinrich Böll - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Heinrich Böll
Ads: Link
all and could only end in disaster.
After that, Margaret’s stay in boarding school did not last long; it all came out, what she was doing with the boys in the village (most of them altar boys), there was trouble with the boys’ parents, with the priest, with the girls’ parents, there was an investigation of the case at which Margret and all the boys refused to testify—Margret had to leave school at the end of her first year. For Leni there remained: a friend for life who later was often to prove her worth in situations that were dicey if not extremely dangerous.
One year later, not in the least embittered but with a still unsatisfied curiosity, Leni joined the labor force: as an apprentice (official designation: junior clerk) in the office of her father, at whose urgent request she became a member of that Nazi organization for girls in the uniform of which she even (may God forgive her) managed to look nice. Leni—it must be said—attended the “den evenings” without enthusiasm—and it must also be added, before misunderstandings arise, that Leni had no conception whatever, not the slightest, of the political dimensions of Nazism; she did not like the brown uniforms at all—the Storm Troopers’ uniform was particularly distasteful to her, and those who feel able to some degree to put themselves in her place in terms of her scatalogical interests and of her scatalogical training at the hands of Sister Rahel will know, or at least suspect, why she found this brown so exceedingly unpleasant. Her half-hearted attendance at the “den evenings,” which she finally dropped because from September 1939 on she was working in her father’s business as a “war-essential” employee, had other reasons: she found the whole atmosphere there too redolent of convent piety, for the group to which shewas assigned had been “commandeered” by a strong-minded young Catholic woman whose intention it was to infiltrate “this business,” and who, after making sure—without due thoroughness, unfortunately—that the twelve girls in her charge were trustworthy—restructured whole evenings by devoting them to the singing of songs to the Virgin Mary, meditations on the Rosary, etc. Now Leni, as can be imagined, had nothing against songs to the Virgin Mary, nothing against the Rosary, etc., the only thing was—at this point in time she was barely seventeen—that after two and a half years of painfully endured convent-school piety she was not all that interested, and she found it boring. Needless to say, the infiltration attempts on the part of the young lady—one Gretel Mareike—did not pass unnoticed, she was denounced by a girl—one Paula Schmitz—Leni was even called as a witness, remained (duly coached by Gretel Mareike’s father) steadfast, denied without batting an eyelid (as did ten of the twelve girls, incidentally) that they had sung songs to the Virgin Mary, with the result that Gretal Mareike was spared considerable suffering; what she was not spared was two months’ Gestapo arrest and interrogation, which was “more than enough for her”—and that was all she ever said about it (condensed from several conversations with Marja van Doorn).
By now it is the summer of 1939. Leni enters upon the most talkative period of her life, one that will last for a year and three quarters. She is known as a beauty, obtains her driver’s license by special authority, enjoys driving, plays tennis, accompanies her father to conventions and on business trips. Leni is waiting for a man “whom she means to love; to whom she can give herself unreservedly,” for whom she is already “dreaming up daring caresses—he is to find joy in me and I in him” (Margret).Leni never misses an opportunity to go dancing, this summer she likes to sit on terraces, drink iced coffee, and play a little at being the “society woman.” There are some startling photos of her from this period: she could still apply for the title of “most
After that, Margaret’s stay in boarding school did not last long; it all came out, what she was doing with the boys in the village (most of them altar boys), there was trouble with the boys’ parents, with the priest, with the girls’ parents, there was an investigation of the case at which Margret and all the boys refused to testify—Margret had to leave school at the end of her first year. For Leni there remained: a friend for life who later was often to prove her worth in situations that were dicey if not extremely dangerous.
One year later, not in the least embittered but with a still unsatisfied curiosity, Leni joined the labor force: as an apprentice (official designation: junior clerk) in the office of her father, at whose urgent request she became a member of that Nazi organization for girls in the uniform of which she even (may God forgive her) managed to look nice. Leni—it must be said—attended the “den evenings” without enthusiasm—and it must also be added, before misunderstandings arise, that Leni had no conception whatever, not the slightest, of the political dimensions of Nazism; she did not like the brown uniforms at all—the Storm Troopers’ uniform was particularly distasteful to her, and those who feel able to some degree to put themselves in her place in terms of her scatalogical interests and of her scatalogical training at the hands of Sister Rahel will know, or at least suspect, why she found this brown so exceedingly unpleasant. Her half-hearted attendance at the “den evenings,” which she finally dropped because from September 1939 on she was working in her father’s business as a “war-essential” employee, had other reasons: she found the whole atmosphere there too redolent of convent piety, for the group to which shewas assigned had been “commandeered” by a strong-minded young Catholic woman whose intention it was to infiltrate “this business,” and who, after making sure—without due thoroughness, unfortunately—that the twelve girls in her charge were trustworthy—restructured whole evenings by devoting them to the singing of songs to the Virgin Mary, meditations on the Rosary, etc. Now Leni, as can be imagined, had nothing against songs to the Virgin Mary, nothing against the Rosary, etc., the only thing was—at this point in time she was barely seventeen—that after two and a half years of painfully endured convent-school piety she was not all that interested, and she found it boring. Needless to say, the infiltration attempts on the part of the young lady—one Gretel Mareike—did not pass unnoticed, she was denounced by a girl—one Paula Schmitz—Leni was even called as a witness, remained (duly coached by Gretel Mareike’s father) steadfast, denied without batting an eyelid (as did ten of the twelve girls, incidentally) that they had sung songs to the Virgin Mary, with the result that Gretal Mareike was spared considerable suffering; what she was not spared was two months’ Gestapo arrest and interrogation, which was “more than enough for her”—and that was all she ever said about it (condensed from several conversations with Marja van Doorn).
By now it is the summer of 1939. Leni enters upon the most talkative period of her life, one that will last for a year and three quarters. She is known as a beauty, obtains her driver’s license by special authority, enjoys driving, plays tennis, accompanies her father to conventions and on business trips. Leni is waiting for a man “whom she means to love; to whom she can give herself unreservedly,” for whom she is already “dreaming up daring caresses—he is to find joy in me and I in him” (Margret).Leni never misses an opportunity to go dancing, this summer she likes to sit on terraces, drink iced coffee, and play a little at being the “society woman.” There are some startling photos of her from this period: she could still apply for the title of “most
Similar Books
