Berlin Noir: March Violets / The Pale Criminal / A German Requiem

by Philip Kerr

Hjalmar,’

Farraj

Farraj

Wealth does have its obligations.’

Paul Pfarr.’

Paul Pfarr.’

‘Grete

‘You see, Herr Gunther, my daughter died intestate, and without a will all her property goes to her husband’s estate. Paul did make a will, leaving everything to the Reich.’

‘You see, Herr Gunther, my daughter died intestate, and without a will all her property goes to her husband’s estate. Paul did make a will, leaving everything to the Reich.’ He shook his head. ‘Can you believe such stupidity,

Ack!

‘You see, Herr Gunther, my daughter died intestate, and without a will all her property goes to her husband’s estate. Paul did make a will, leaving everything to the Reich.’ He ...

That is...stupid

‘Ulrich

Ilse Rudel.

That this goddess should be married to the gnome sitting in the study was the sort of thing that bolsters your faith in Money.

Ha

I woke with a whore’s drawers in my mouth,

Errrrrrr

Hess.

Herr Gruber,

a shifty little undertaker of a man.

Ha

Long ago I decided that it would be bad for business to fall out with Gruber and so, like all the other residents of Alexander Haus, I gave him three marks a week, which is supposed to cover my contributions to whichever new money-making scheme the DAF, the German Labour Front, has dreamed up.

Interesting

enhanced by the rodent-like washing movements of his skeletal hands.

!

‘Heil Hitler,’ he said. The lift started to rise up the shaft. I called: ‘Heil Hitler.’ You don’t miss the Hitler Salute with someone like Gruber. It’s not worth the trouble. But one day I’m going to have to beat the crap out of that weasel, just for the sheer pleasure of it.

Hm

juicy

cobra

‘Frau Protze,’

Frau Heine,

‘You help Jews?’ she said.

‘I hope you don’t think I have anything against the Jews.’ ‘Of course not,’ I said. But of course that is what everybody says. Even Hitler.

expensive silk dressing-gown

Not how I would treat myself...

You caught Gormann, the Strangler, didn’t you? I remember reading about it in the newspapers. You were famous.’

‘Wilhelm Eckhart.’

Illmann.

Kriminalkommissar Jost.’

work better that way: I’ve got a mind like a comic book.

Odd simile

pickled-walnut of a nose

Ha

Frau Schmidt.

in the centre of which rises the great Column of Peace.

Is it weird to have peace monuments in war countries?

A copy of an engraving by Dürer, which was as common in the Berliner’s home as an aquarium in a doctor’s waiting room,

Hm. And what's up with the that?

and a little silk swastika mounted in a large bronze frame.

Ick

used to be the headquarters for them Bolsheviks.’ ‘You mean the DAF building, the headquarters of the German Labour Front.

S S was. There was a piece of paper pinned to the right sleeve. It was an invoice from Stechbarth’s, addressed to Hauptsturmführer Pfarr, for twenty-five marks. I whistled. ‘So Paul Pfarr was a black angel.’

Herr Six was saying some terrible things about the Führer

Hooray for sixx

taking no notice of the crudely daubed swastikas, hammers and sickles and general obscenities that marked the street walls and which were their elders’ dividing dogmas.

ignoring the large Star of David daubed

I highlighted it to mark the first visit to a Jewish location But.l also note the repetition of daub

There was an old Pickelhaube helmet, a stuffed marmot, in a glass case, that looked as if it had perished of anthrax,

Ha

Weizmann’s

there’s no telling when they’ll ban Jews from breathing oxygen.’

Ack. Given how true the statement is

Nuremberg Laws – ’ he said with a scornful laugh, ‘ — they forbid a Jew to sell books. Even secondhand ones.’

‘Horst Wessel?’

Right now the market for gems is at rock bottom. There are lots of Jews leaving Germany who, to fund their emigration, must sell the family jewels. At least, those who are lucky enough to have any to sell. And, as you might expect, they get the lowest prices.

Of cpurse

they’d have me in a KZ quicker than the drawers off a Kit-Kat showgirl.’

Whhhhhat?

Peter Neumaier.