War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 192

Chapter 6: Anna

A

t the Charité hospital in Berlin Anna was sitting at the desk jotting down information about the patients in her department when Professor Scherer, a handsome man in his fifties with salt-and-pepper hair, stopped by with more paperwork for her to look over.

“How are things going, Fräulein Klausen?” he asked politely. Since marrying a Slav was illegal according to the Nuremberg racial laws, she had married Peter in a clandestine Catholic ceremony performed by Pfarrer Bernau. For everyone except her immediate family, she still was a bachelorette.

“As good as can be given the situation. This war takes a toll on everyone.” Anna looked up at the professor, who was her mentor and fatherly friend. One of the most renowned scientists in the Reich, Professor Scherer had contacts in the highest Nazi circles and rubbed elbows with Goebbels, Himmler and even Hitler himself. The head of the medicine and human genetics studies carried out at the prestigious University Clinic Charité in Berlin, his one-of-a-kind work in the field of human biology catapulted his research light-years ahead of everyone else’s.

When she’d first met him about a year ago, she’d admired both his brilliant mind and his impeccable, aristocratic manners. Becoming his protégée had been the shining point in her life – until darkness dimmed her admiration for him. While she still respected his scientific brilliance, she despised his lack of a conscience. He wasn’t a fervent Nazi like so many others, but an opportunist who used his powerful connections exclusively to advance his own career.

Professor Scherer nodded and closed the door to the small nurse’s office. When he returned, a worried look covered his face. “We will do the best we can, but this war might not end in a positive way for us.”

Anna gasped. Saying Germany might lose the war was akin to sacrilege and could result in a conviction for

Wehrmachtzersetzung

, defamation of the Wehrmacht. Maybe she could manipulate his critical mood in her goal to find Peter. She carefully searched for words.

“Professor, I wonder what happened to your driver. Do you think he might be caught somewhere and needs our help?” Anna said with a shy smile.

Professor Scherer cast her an indulgent smile. “I know you fancied him, so I put out my feelers to investigate his whereabouts.”

“Oh…” Anna felt the blood rushing to her cheeks. He had? And what had he found out? That Peter worked as a spy for the British and was in fact a Pole, not the German he claimed to be?

“Unfortunately I couldn’t find out anything. Peter Wolf disappeared without a trace from the face of the earth after he took leave for personal affairs. I’m afraid that leaves only one conclusion…”

Anna nodded.

“…the Gestapo took him for whatever reason. These things happen.” The professor pushed his glasses up on his nose and gave her a warning glance. “It is best if we never mention his name again, lest we get caught up in the net.”

Anna nodded again. Maybe it was for the best that the professor thought Peter had been taken by the Gestapo. If someone found out what he’d really done and his current location, her own life would be hanging by a thin thread. A million ideas crossed her mind about how she could still enlist the professor’s help to rescue Peter, but without his knowing her hidden motives.

“May I ask another question, Professor?”

“Sure, Fräulein Klausen.”

“Wouldn’t it be prudent to visit some of the camps?” He’d done this in the past, mostly to oversee the results of some of the horrific medical experiments performed on the hapless prisoners.

“Why would you suggest this?” The smile froze on his handsome features.

Anna struggled for words and cold sweat broke out on her forehead as she racked her brain for a believable excuse. “I…just thought…since there were news reports of recent outbreaks of typhus, and dysentery. We might need to do something…to prevent the disease from spreading to the civilians.”

“That is a noble cause, but right now is not a good time to be seen in the camps. If the worst happens and – God forbid – Germany does lose the war, it’s best not to be associated with some of the things that have been happening there.”

“I understand,” Anna said with a mixture of awe and disgust. Professor Scherer had enough conscience to know the brutal treatment of the prisoners was wrong, but he still condoned it as long as it furthered his own career. He truly owned a brilliant – and shrewd – mind.

At the end of her shift attending to the never-ending influx of patients from the last nightly air raid, she took her bicycle and rode to her mother’s place, which was now her home, too. On the way she had to stop several times and carry the bicycle across heaps of rubble and craters in the road, but it was still the fastest way to travel.

When she finally arrived home where Jan waited for her, sadness enveloped her heart over Peter. She hugged Jan, still amazed that at the age of twenty-two she’d suddenly become the stepmother of a twelve-year-old boy.

After everything he’d endured, the perceptive Jan picked up on her desolate mood and said, “Don’t worry, Anna. My dad will come back. He found me once when everyone thought he was dead, and he will find me again.”