Free Berlin: A Novel by Pierre Frei

corridors, past pale faces staring silently at you through the peepholes in their cell doors.
'They lead you down a staircase into a basement, open a door, push you in front of a lectern. There's a burning candle and a crucifix on the lectern. Behind it you see the public prosecutor who demanded your life in court and now is going to get it. Beside him, your own lawyer and a lay assessor. Three men not involved in the case stand around the room in black suits. To your left there's a black curtain from ceiling to floor of the basement. You hardly notice it.
'You see the public prosecutor. He reads the verdict out to you again, you don't know why, you know it by now. You hear his final words: "Executioner, do your duty."
'The black curtain is hauled up. Bright light fills the white-tiled space behind it. You see the scaffold. It's smaller than you expected. One of the black-clad men takes hold of your ankles from behind, pulling your feet from under you. Another holds your hands behind your back. The third holds your upper arms and body. They drag you to the scaffold and push you forward over it, like a loaf of bread going into the oven. You look down into the basket which will soon catch your head. You feel the hard wood of the frame closing over your neck. The executioner pulls the cord. The guillotine falls. It falls for an eternity, and then finally brings you release.'
Karin raised her face, wet with tears. '1 didn't want that to happen,' she sobbed, shaken by convulsive weeping.
'Lore Bruck did. She had an old score to settle with Nadja. An everyday tale of jealousy.' Erik de Winter was lying beside Karin on the grass. 'I once had to attend an execution as lay assessor. I had to tell you what it's like. I couldn't spare you. Even if it happened nearly a year ago. You can't come to terms with something unless you know all about it.'

Alongside films designed to encourage the population to hold out. Goebbels had decreed light fare to divert their minds. Theodor Alberti was directing an amusing love story, Springtime Games, starring Karin and Erik. This warm, sunny spring of 1945 was ideal for location shots beside the river.
The rumble of guns from the East had been coming closer and closer these last few days. Since yesterday columns of German soldiers, gaunt figures, had been moving along the nearby road in the vague hope of reaching the Western lines on the other side of the Elbe. It would be better to be taken prisoner there than fall into Bolshevik hands.
'Go over to make-up and get your face repaired.' Erik helped her to her feet, but then immediately threw her to the ground. A low-flying Russian aircraft swooped past close above them, engines roaring. They heard the staccato tack-tack of its machine guns. Earth sprayed into the air around them. Then it was quiet again. A lark sang high in the sky against the distant thunder of the guns.
All right, ladies and gentlemen,' called the director from the river bank. 'Come on, children, time to shoot the bathing scene.'
Not with me, Theo,' called the chief cameraman from the slope.
'What's the matter, Erwin?'
The cameraman pointed to the opposite bank. 'Oh, nothing much, just a Russian tank on course for the Greater German movie industry. Adios, amigos, I'm off' He settled his peaked cap firmly on his head and disappeared over the far side of the slope.
Now they could hear the drone of a diesel engine and the rattle of tank tracks. A T34 came slowly into view on the other side of the river. 'Come on, this way.' Erik rolled down the slope and dived into the reeds. Karin clutched her shoulder bag and followed him. She was wearing trousers, a sweater and stout shoes, because the screenplay had provided for a hiking scene before the river-bathing. She landed beside him. In single file, they waded kneedeep through the mud. They clambered back on land once they were past the next bend in the river.
Erik pointed to a hayrick. 'We'd better dry off a bit there before we go on. I have