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.Now that the passport for you has not materialised the decision was made for me.We simply can't afford a journey to America.Nowhere in Europe is safe for us all together right now.At least here you have my family to support you.”“You are right,” she agreed.“We have been fooling ourselves.It is really going to happen, isn't it? It is not just a rumour or a vague possibility.Hitler will swallow the country up.”“I think so,” he said.“Somehow I always doubted it would come to this.We have talked about it all the time but now that it is so close I am still surprised.If I am stuck on the farm it is going to be like a prison for me.I am not going to see anyone who means anything to me, my family, you or Karl,” she said sadly.“It won't feel like a prison,” he tried to console her.“You will be busy with the new baby and hopefully the situation in Europe will be resolved soon.Johanna and the girls are also going to take care of you.Don't worry.”“When are you planning to leave?” she asked.“You’ll miss the birth of your child.”“I know.Promise me you’ll send me photographs of the new child,” he said, now more confident since the emotional outburst he had feared had not occurred.“I have waited too long as it is.I am leaving tomorrow morning.I am really scared for Karl, Greta.More than you can imagine.If it was not for Karl I would wait but I must get him out of here.You must appreciate that.”Greta sunk her head onto his shoulder and cried.“Just hold me Wilhelm,” she begged him.“Oh what a disaster this continent has become.”Wilhelm was very pleased about the way Greta had taken the news.Better than he had ever could have hoped for.She was so calm and understanding and the conversation had not gone at all how he had expected.He was incredibly relieved that she had not queried his decision any further.He had had nightmare visions of having to justify himself more and ending up having to talk about the Jewish genetic diseases and his worries about the new baby.She would not have believed him and tried to convince him otherwise.He was sure that the pamphlets were right, why else would Hitler be so obsessed with eradicating the Jews? The fear of those dreadful genes was the real reason why he was leaving and he had long stopped pretending to himself that he was ever going to come back to his wife.There was no future in a mixed marriage in these times.He had once loved his wife but he was no longer infatuated, naïve and uneducated.Now he knew the dangers he had played with and the miscarriage should have been a final warning to him; they should have stopped trying for another baby then.He felt bad about abandoning Greta like this but what he was doing was better than what some German men allegedly did to their Jewish wives to save their own skin.At least his family was offering to look after her.She was not left stranded and she was not being deported as so many Jews had been.Greta in her naivety believed his assurances that this was only a temporary solution until the situation had changed and that he could not wait to be reunited.Once she had shown herself so calm and reasonable he felt safe to make her promises he knew he would not keep - anything to get away quickly and without a scene.Next morning, after Wilhelm and Karl had left, Greta cried for a long time but Johanna scolded her and told her to pull herself together, which helped.They sent a letter to Jonah and informed him that there should be no contact between the two families at least until the birth.Four days later Greta went into early labour and delivered another Aryan looking little boy, whom Johanna insisted for good measure they christen right away.They named him Ernst (the serious) after Johanna's father as a thank you for all her help but also to impress on the little child the seriousness of the times he had been born into.Johanna wrote to Wilhelm at his parent's new address in Berlin with the good news.His child was a boy, healthy and blond.Her prayers had been answered and Greta had even allowed them to christen him right away, so now even a priest could vouch for the little boy not being Jewish.Greta’s father had agreed to the no visit policy and in turn, Johanna had promised she would soon take the new baby into town to the weaver workshop to show him off to his other relatives.Wilhelm was relieved to hear the news but once he had arrived in Berlin and taken in its fascist climate, he decided to abandon any remaining link with Greta
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