Some Murders in Berlin

by Karen Robards

“Exsanguination

Baring her soul to a semihostile stranger was not in the cards. Pain equals weakness, and weakness was another of those things she’d learned was best kept to herself.

The hot, strong brew was, quite possibly, the best thing she’d ever tasted, and she savored it. His own cup sat untouched on his desk. To ignore such a luxury as real coffee was, Elin thought, a sign of how little the deprivations of war affected the Nazi elite. For everyone else, real coffee was simply unobtainable.

The hereditary principle, which stated that criminal tendencies and behavior were inherited and ran in families, had been well researched, and was widely accepted in certain scientific circles. The Nazis, especially, were firm believers.

To condemn whole families for one individual’s misdeeds seemed to her barbaric. As well as factually, empirically, wrong.

Since the Danish Army had laid down its weapons and King Christian and the country’s leadership had agreed to a “peaceful occupation” to end the so-called Six Hour War in which Germany had conquered Denmark, the Danes had been careful not to provoke the occupiers into taking harsh measures against them.

plenipotentiary

Judenfrei was what they’d called it once, meaning that an area had been freed of its Jewish population, ostensibly by forced evacuation and resettlement. Judenrein had a more sinister connotation. It meant that Berlin had been cleansed of every last drop of Jewish blood.

miasma

all entertainment offerings had to be approved by the government, and the Reichmusikkamer controlled every aspect of the music scene. Public and private dance events were banned along with “degenerate” music and styles of dance. The prohibition covered swing and jazz and any music by non-Aryan artists or with connections to enemy countries, which included most of the popular songs and artists of the day. The Gestapo was vigilant in its enforcement, zealously seeking out and raiding venues where the forbidden music was played.

Her takeaway from what she’d seen was that vice, so openly rampant under the Weimar Republic and so energetically deplored by the Nazis, clearly still survived in the Third Reich.

perspicacity,

It dismayed her to discover that she was acutely sensitive to the size and strength of his hand even through her sleeve.

“Dagmar Overbye,”

Her heart thumped. He was right about everything he’d said, and the temptation to give in, to explore where this unlooked-for attraction might lead, was nearly irresistible. She was glad of how dark it was, because she feared what he might read in her eyes. That kiss, that unbelievable kiss, still burned on her lips, pulsed through her body, was maybe even imprinted on her soul.

By the time he lifted his head she was dizzy and breathless and clinging to him like he was the only solid thing left in the world. Her heart pounded and she felt soft and shivery. It had been a long time since she’d been with a man, years, and even with Lars, even in the beginning, she’d never felt like this.

He nodded. Their eyes met. For a moment something—a sizzle of electricity maybe—arced in the air between them.

A sign affixed to the wall beside the front door bore the image of a red, three-pronged branch with leaves twining around it.

Lebensborn Society.”

He was walking beside her, not touching her although he was close enough that their arms brushed. She was, to her dismay, acutely aware of him. He was wearing a jacket and she had on a long-sleeved blouse and yet, mortifyingly, those fleeting encounters with what was essentially his elbow were giving her goose bumps.

Black Orchestra,

Elin shuddered as she saw the danger yawning before her. In her zeal to indict Haupt, she’d forgotten that the Nazis would consider any damage to their reputation to be far more important than, say, the lives of murdered young women.

despite the Führer’s avowed dislike for women in makeup,

And then he scooped her clear up off her feet and carried her upstairs. Their passion was steamier than every secret, guilty, erotic dream she’d ever had.

It was an even better feeling to know that because of the efforts of the Danish Resistance to evacuate them in the teeth of the Rosh Hashanah raid, ninety percent of Denmark’s Jews had survived the war.