Read Online The Auslander by Paul Dowswell - Free Book Online

politics. Even the questions in the maths books were about politics:
    The iniquitous Treaty of Versailles, imposed by the French and English, enabled international plutocracy to steal Germany’s colonies. France herself acquired part of Togoland. If German Togoland covers 56 million square kilometres and contains a population of 800,000 people, estimate the average living space per inhabitant.
    Or:
    The construction of a lunatic asylum costs six million Reichmarks. How many houses at 15,000 Reichmarks each could have been built for that amount?
    Peter was impressed. These questions really made you think. In Poland his maths questions had been really boring: ‘If a farmer has five chickens and each lays seven eggs a week, how many eggs will they produce in three weeks?’
    Sport occupied a great deal of his time in school. Here in Berlin, being fit and healthy seemed more important than learning. In Poland, when the schools had closed, Peter kept fit with his chores around the farm, and he enjoyed doing team sports again.
    At the end of his first week there, Herr Kaltenbach asked him at supper how he was getting on in school. ‘I really like it,’ Peter replied. ‘All the sport is fun, but there’s so much of it. I wouldn’t mind learning more in class.’
    Kaltenbach ruffled his hair. ‘Growing lads need a lot of exercise. If you want to learn more than they’re teaching you at school, then there’s always the library. And I will be happy to talk to you about your work. But I would remind you of the words of our Führer: “Excessive emphasis on purely intellectual development leads to premature onset of sexual imaginings.”’
    The girls giggled. Elsbeth and Frau Kaltenbach looked faintly dismayed. Peter blushed. He supposed Herr Kaltenbach was teasing.
    Frau Kaltenbach rapidly changed the subject. ‘Charlotte, you must tell us all the bedtime prayer they taught you at school today.’
    Charlotte stood up and raised her right hand in a Nazi salute.
    â€˜ Führer, my Führer, given to me by God . . . Protect and preserve my life. You saved Germany in time of need . . . ’ She stopped and frowned.
    â€˜ I thank you for . . . ’ prompted Frau Kaltenbach.
    â€˜I thank you for my daily bread ,’ she rattled on, hurrying to the end. ‘ Be with me for a long time, do not leave me, Führer, my Führer, my faith, my light, hail to my Führer! ’
    They all clapped and Charlotte looked very pleased with herself.
    â€˜And how was your hockey match, Traudl?’ asked Frau Kaltenbach.
    â€˜We won again,’ she said with a grin.
    â€˜Do you do a lot of sport too?’ Peter asked. He was keen to keep the conversation a safe distance away from ‘sexual imaginings’.
    â€˜Oh yes,’ said Traudl and began to count off on her fingers. ‘Hockey, netball, swimming – all for the school, and I’m in the diving team! I like most of all to swim. When I’m in the water I just forget about everything, then before I know it I’ve done forty lengths of the pool. I like to swim every day.’
    That was certainly true. Whenever she walked past, Peter noticed a faint, antiseptic whiff of swimming-pool chlorine.
    Traudl had recently appeared in the local newspaper with three other girls on the swimming team. Frau Kaltenbach had cut the picture out and pinned it to the kitchen noticeboard. The girls floated in the water, with euphoric smiles, only their heads above the surface and all wearing rubber swimming caps with a swastika at the front.
    Peter confessed he was a poor swimmer. He had only ever managed a few strokes in the sea with his father, and that was no place to learn.
    â€˜Didn’t they take you to the village pool?’ said Traudl.
    There were no swimming pools in Wyszkow, or anywhere near it. Peter knew that if he told them this there would be sniggers and superior glances. ‘Both my