Cold Peace

Karl Liebherr burst in on his parents just as his father was putting on his jacket. “Don’t go to this Assembly, Vati!” Karl ordered.

“What do you mean?” His father asked astonished. “I’m a member of the City Council. I voted last night on the decision that is to be debated today. Of course, I must attend.”

“It’s a waste of time!” Karl countered. “By going, you only make a public spectacle of yourself! You will be photographed by the press, and everyone will know where you stand.”

“I’m not ashamed of where I stand, Karl.”

“This is like voting against Hitler’s Enabling Law all over again, isn’t it?” The way Karl asked the rhetorical question made it sound like something shameful.

Jakob, however, was proud of having voted against Hitler’s Enabling Law. “Yes,” he answered steadily. “There are many parallels, which is exactly why I intend to go.” He started for the door, but his son blocked his way. 

“Don’t you remember where your vote against Hitler’s Enabling Law got you?”

“Do you think I can forget two years in a Concentration Camp?” 

“Apparently you can! And the worst of it is that you never give a thought to anyone but yourself and your image! You don’t care about the consequences of your grandstanding for Mutti and me, do you?”

“Oh, so that’s what this is all about,” Jakob scoffed. “You think my public opposition to the SMAD might hurt your career in the SED. Well, I’m sorry, Karl. You’re a big boy now. You’ll have to deal with that yourself.”

“I can! I’m not worried about myself! It’s Mutti, I worry about. You honestly don’t give a damn about what happens to her, do you? No, of course, not! Just like in ’33! All you think about is your public image!”

“Karl! How dare you talk to your father like that!” Trude reared up.  

“Dare? It’s past time that someone stood up to him! I watched you suffer while he was in the KZ!” Karl told his mother furiously. “I watched you cry in despair. I watched you beg neighbours and relatives for help. I watched you humble yourself before the Nazis and try to play ‘nice little Hausfrau’ in the hope—”

Trude slapped her son hard. “Stop it! I’m not proud of what I did, but you have no right to judge me!”

“I’m not judging you!” Karl shouted. “I’m trying to stop it from happening all over again. Don’t you see? Are you both idiots? The SMAD has issued a decree and they will enforce it. The SED will enforce it. The police will enforce it. The Red Army will enforce it. Why do you have to go through this puppet theatre of defiance?”

“You think a meeting of the City Assembly is ‘puppet theatre’?” His father asked back. He did not raise his voice, yet he asked the question with acute intensity. He spoke slowly and deliberately, the apparent calm of his voice underlining the depth of his shock and outrage.  

“What else is it?” Karl shot back unintimidated. “Such quaint institutions have no place in a Farmers and Workers State. The Vanguard of the Proletariat knows what is best and should be obeyed without this bourgeois charade of democracy.”

“In that case, we can at least go on record as standing up for the Four-Power Agreements that the Soviets themselves signed.”

“Why?” Karl insisted. “What difference will that make? Four-Power government is dead. The Western Powers have ripped it up in favour of protecting the interests of their monied classes.”

Jakob refused to discuss his son’s Soviet disinformation. “Our stand will show the world that we know what is at stake and that we care about liberty.”

“Vati! I’m warning you not to go!” Karl was still shouting. He sounded enraged, but something in his tone had subtly changed. Both his parents recognised it. Jakob’s eyes locked with his son’s, and he saw terror in them. His son was afraid for him.

Trude touched his elbow. “Jakob….”

He looked at her and saw his son’s fear reflected in her eyes. “How many men have already disappeared? Even Herr Dr Hofmeier, who was utterly unpolitical, has never been heard from again. I don’t want to lose you — not now.”

“Trude,” he said her name gently. “You, of all people, must know that if I stay, you will have lost me more certainly than if I go. If I stay home, I abandon my principles. You would not want what is left of me after I have done that.” Turning back to his son, he said gently, “Thank you for warning me, Karl. Now, let me go.” 

Defeated, Karl backed away from the door and let his father out.