Read Online The Far Side of the Sky by Daniel Kalla - Free Book Online

separated for more than three days in her entire life. And the prospect suddenly seemed torturously final.
    “Hannah,” Esther said in a loving but firm tone. “You must listen to your father.”
    “Please, Papa,” Hannah whimpered.
    Eichmann’s words—
It is imperative we rid the fatherland of this dangerous parasite
—flashed into his mind. Franz shook off the doubt. “It is decided, Hannah. You will go.”
    Hannah buried her face in his shoulder and began to weep quietly. Franz cradled her in his arms and kissed her on the top of the head. No one spoke a word.
    The telephone rang harshly. Esther hurried over to answer it. “Adler residence.” She listened a moment and then called over her shoulder.
    “Franz. It’s Herr Rolf.”
    “Dr. Adler, I have news,” Julius Rolf said once Franz had picked up the phone.
    Franz held his breath, anticipating the worst, but Julius went on excitedly. “I have made further enquiries with other booking agents. I was having no luck at all with the other shipping lines. However, one of the agents telephoned me back only moments ago. They have an opening at short notice. A couple who had booked a family cabin on the Italian liner
Conte Biancamano …”
He lowered his voice. “They … er … cancelled at the very last moment.” Franz picked up on Rolf’s inference, aware that the suicide rate among distraught Austrian Jews had skyrocketed in recent days. “It would be snug, but the cabin could house all four travellers in your family.”
    “How soon does it depart, Mr. Rolf?” Franz demanded.
    “It is terribly last minute. I would understand completely if you were unable to—”
    “When does it leave, Mr. Rolf?
How soon?
”
    “Sunday.”

CHAPTER 7
    The walls of Karl and Esther’s home were plastered with framed photos of the family from happier times. The nostalgia almost overwhelmed Franz. Fighting back tears, he located Karl’s hiding place behind the bedroom radiator and found the envelope containing eight thousand Reichsmarks.
    He took the money directly to the Rolf Travel Agency. While his son glared at Franz, Julius issued the new tickets. From there, Franz headed straight to Palais Rothschild.
    Reaching for the handle, Franz could hear, through the thick wooden front doors, Horst Schmidt yelling. Steeling his nerves, he paused to feel for the boarding passes in his pocket.
    Inside the cavernous atrium, Schmidt’s shouting was intensified. Franz dutifully took his spot at the end of the line. He counted nineteen people in front of him. The silent line inched forward as Schmidt took his time berating and degrading each person who reached his desk. He struck several. One woman fainted. Everyone approached Schmidt tentatively, their eyes to the floor and heads hung low. Franz sensed trouble when the elegantly dressed, middle-aged woman, four people ahead of him, stepped forward with head straight and shoulders high.
    Schmidt leapt up from his chair and leaned over his desk. “Who the hell do you think you are, Jew? Parading up here like you’re the Queen of bloody Sheba!”
    “I am Stella Kaufman, sir,” she said coolly. “I have come to see Lieutenant Eichmann regarding my exit visa. Just as I was requested to do.”
    “You are nothing, Jew!
And no one sees the lieutenant without my say-so.”
    Franz silently prayed that Frau Kaufman would submit to Schmidt’s authority, but she continued to hold his stare defiantly.
    “Kaufman, is it?” Schmidt said menacingly. “Any relation to the Jew thieves from that department store?”
    She sighed. “My grandfather established Kaufman’s, yes.”
    “To cheat and chisel good Austrians out of their hard-earned money with their overpriced rubbish and non-German goods.
Correct?
“
    Frau Kaufman didn’t answer immediately. The entire lobby went dead silent. Everyone, including the SS guards, had stopped to listen to the exchange. “No, sir,” she said. “My grandfather established Kaufman’s to provide