Free Wildflowers of Terezin by Robert Elmer

himself down. It didn't work. He checked his watch and hurried toward the Labour Library building where he was certain his contact would be talking politics.
     

     
    Hans Hedtoft, a leading member of the powerful Social Democrat party, would still be here, huddled with other Danish politicians in one of the meeting rooms surrounding the Labour Library. Yes, even at this hour. Because ever since the Danish government had resigned in protest last month, Hedtoft practically lived in the smoky huddles of emergency meetings and crisis councils. So Duckwitz pushed through an outer lobby as if he belonged there. Only now he ran the risk of someone recognizing him. Never mind.
    "May I help you, sir?" A young woman, perhaps a receptionist of some kind, intercepted him as he approached one of the closed meeting room doors. She obviously didn't know who he was, which was just as well.
    "Yes, actually, you may. I assume Herr Hedtoft is in that meeting." He made his best guess and nodded toward the nearest closed door. "Will you please inform him I'll be waiting for him over there?"
    He pointed toward a far corner where he hoped they might attract a minimum of attention.
    "Er . . . yes, of course, sir. Whom shall I say will be waiting?"
    But Duckwitz had already set off to find a discreet place to sit in the far corner of the library, beyond several meeting tables and on the other side of a bank of shelves. He pulled up pair of small armchairs and told himself over and over to calm down. And he waited. Two minutes later the Secretary of the Social Democrats stood over him with a puzzled frown.
     

     
    "They said you wanted to see me, Georg?"
    "Sit down, please." Duckwitz tried to contain himself, though he still felt as if he was hyperventilating. Hedtoft must have noticed.
    "You look pale." Hedtoft looked closer as he slipped into the other seat. "Is everything all right?"
    "Not exactly." He shook his head but managed to keep his voice down. Still, he could not look the other man in the eyes. Instead he stared off into the darkening window, and he gripped his hands to keep them from trembling. Surely Hans Hedtoft would be able to tell.
    "You're not well. Here, perhaps something to drink?"
    "No, no." Duckwitz finally turned back to the conversation and cleared his throat. "Listen to me. The disaster is going to take place."
    "The disaster," echoed Hedtoft, obviously not following.He would in a moment. Meanwhile he rubbed his high temples in confusion as Duckwitz continued.
    "That's right," he said. "All the details have been planned.Two ships will be in the harbor to transport five thousand.Trains for the remaining twenty-five hundred. Unless you do something in the next forty-eight hours, your poor fellow citizens are going to be deported to an unknown destination.All the names and addresses are known."
    Now Hedtoft nodded slowly as his eyes widened. By this time he had to understand. Did Duckwitz have to spell it out for him even more explicitly?
    "I'd always suspected something like this would happen," said the Dane. "But when?"
    "October first, starting at ten o'clock in the evening. It's calculated precisely so they'll all be in their homes for their holiday. Apparently, it's one of the major Jewish celebrations, whatever they call it."
     

     
    "Just three days . . ." Hedtoft spoke as if his head was spinning."How will we—"
    "I've already spoken with the Swedish government. They've agreed to take in as many refugees as you can transport across the Sound."
    "I see. But over seven thousand! I assume no one else knows? What about Best?
    "No one else." Duckwitz shook his head no, which left Hedtoft to marvel at the sheer lunacy of what they were discussing in a corner of the comfortable Labour Library.
    But there, now he'd gone and said everything. What else was there to be spilled? Or how much more treason could there be? Yet Duckwitz now felt a strange lightness, as if a load had been lifted and he could walk out of the library