Arianna Elisabeth Albrecht numbly submitted to the Germans' rough handling as they forced her into a car. If anyone told her ten days earlier that she would be in this position, she would have laughed in his face. In the late evening on 4 August 1942 in Potsdam, Germany, she had her last glimpse of her home, every window lit and her husband's rigid silhouette barely visible against the front door.

Arianna slipped through the water-closet door and locked it behind her. The filmy curtains at the window fluttered in a rare late-July breeze. She pushed her dark hair out of her face, carefully balanced herself on the edges of the cast iron bathtub, and pressed her ear against the vent above it.
"Heil Hitler!" Her husband greeted his personal assistant.
"Guten abend (good evening), Generalleutnant. . . orders. . . a large number of Jews to the new work camp. . ."
Arianna listened breathlessly, but could hear only snatches of the German conversation in the next room. Her husband voiced what sounded like approval. Her head spun with the few words she did catch. She strained yet harder to hear his next comment.
"We have heard rumors of locals helping the Jews to escape the country."
Arianna's heart pounded at what she had just heard. She strained to hear more, but the foot that was balanced on the far edge of the bathtub started to slip. She adjusted it slightly, not noticing that her pump had slipped off her heel. She watched helplessly as the shoe fell to the bottom of the tub. It landed with a clatter that the King of England must have heard in London.
The conversation in the next room ceased. The gentlemen were startled. They would have heard if someone had entered the room while they were talking, but whoever was in the water-closet at that moment had been unusually stealthy.
Arianna heard footsteps as one of the gentlemen approached the door.
"Who is in there?" her husband demanded, as he tried the locked doorknob.
She snatched her shoe from the tub and crammed it back onto her foot. Thinking quickly, she silently placed the bar of soap into the bottom of the tub before reaching for the doorknob.
"Arianna! I'm sorry, dear, I didn't know it was you." Eduard Albrecht's pale blue eyes softened when he saw his wife. "Are you ill? You look a bit flushed. What was that awful racket?"
Her British upbringing accented her German. "No, darling, I'm well, just a little overheated. I came away from the party to rest for a few moments, and this was the only place I knew I would not be disturbed." She smiled sheepishly. "I was going to wash my face to cool down, and, clumsy me," she laughed nervously, "I knocked the soap into the tub as I reached for it. It made a dreadful noise–I'm surprised you didn't think I had accidentally fired a gun!"
His soft chuckle complimented her giggle, and she continued, "I'm so sorry I bothered you."
"No, dear, that's quite all right, but I'm afraid you'll have to excuse us. Leutnant Schneider and I have some important business to discuss." His voice deepened with concern. "Why don't you go upstairs and rest for a few minutes?"
"No, I'm sure I'll be fine, I'll just go join the party again." She started through the doorway to the library, but he gently caught her tiny hand in his. "Are you sure you're all right?" He gazed with concern into her eyes as his six-foot frame towered over her. He was always worried about his petite little wife.
"Yes dear, I'm fine." She smiled tolerantly.
"Very well, dear, you go have a good time." He brushed her fingertips to his lips and gently dropped her hand. She beamed at him, greeted Leutnant Schneider, and left the room. Eduard and Leutnant Schneider heard brief strains of a Strauss waltz before she closed the door, and their minds once again turned to the war.

The house was quiet. The Albrechts always allowed the servants to take a break on the mornings after their big parties, and everyone in the house slept late except Arianna. She always arose early, no matter how late she was up the night before. Bible in hand, she crept out the back door and curled up on a garden bench under a large walnut tree. She didn't open her Bible, but the tears clouding her eyes wouldn't have allowed her to read in any case.
"Oh, Lord," she silently implored. "Father, I know he is one of Yours; I would never have married him without knowing for sure and having total peace from You about it. But, Father, this hatred. . .it has been cultivated in him since he was a child. Father, if it be in Your plan, please show him how wrong it is, before–before it consumes him," she begged.
A twig snapped, distracting her from her thoughts. She blinked to clear her eyes.
"Arianna!" a voice called softly in English from the bushes.
She recognized the voice, and laying her Bible on the bench, casually strolled towards the shrubbery from which the voice had come as if she were stretching her legs.
"Charles, what are you doing here?" she hissed at the offending bush.
"Meet me at the big juniper tree near the barn," he whispered, and stole in that direction.
She groaned softly and gazed in the direction of the barn. It wasn't more than five hundred yards behind the house, but a hardwood grove between the two structures obstructed any view of one from the other. "Oh, Lord, I'm sorry, but right now the morning is too lovely to read, even if it is Your Word. What if I put my Bible inside and change into some walking shoes, and just take a nice walk and admire the majesty of Your creation?" she called aloud, signaling her brother that she would be a few moments.
Five minutes later, she approached the large juniper, ten yards behind the barn. "Charles! Where are you?" she softly called.
He emerged from the brush, and she cast a worried eye over him. Both she and her brother were slim, but he was easily eleven inches taller than she. His added height caused him to look malnourished. Their slender builds and matching ice-blue eyes were the only parts of their appearance that caused them to look even remotely related. Charles appeared incredibly tall alongside his five-foot sister, had honey-blonde hair in contrast to her sienna-brown locks, and his tanned skin caused her ivory complexion to look more fair than it was. Her inspection ceased, and his appearance satisfied her that he was taking good care of himself. She had mothered her baby brother ever since their mother died when he was eighteen and she twenty, and now, although he was twenty-one, she still had difficulty breaking the habit
"How long does it take a woman to put a book on a shelf and change shoes?" He was used to her little "inspections," but he always teased a bit afterward.
"Five minutes by my watch," she countered. "Any news?"
"The Germans are starting to transport Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka–"
"Treblinka?" she interrupted, puzzled.
"It's their new ‘work camp,' but let's just say that almost everyone who goes to ‘work' out of German uniform gets ‘worked' to death." His voice was grim.
Arianna closed her eyes for a moment to clear the painful images from her mind. "What can I do?" She was resolute, but her voice trembled.
"We've got people in uniform on our side, and they've planned various ways to help some of the people away from the caravan–altering records, staging escapes, that kind of thing–and we have people to direct groups to various stations. What we need is places where people can stay until we can arrange transportation to take them to Sweden."
"So you need me to let some people stay here for a few days?" she interjected.
"Actually, it could be two weeks, or longer." His eyes paled with worry.
She took a deep breath. "That leaves a lot of time to be caught, and I don't know how much food I could smuggle out without someone noticing, but we do have the four bedrooms in the barn. We can crowd quite a few people in that space, if necessary."
"Some other people in the area are sympathetic to our cause; we can have them deliver food. They could leave it at drop-off points, and one of the men could slip out at night and get it. In what kind of condition are the rooms in the barn?"
"I'm not sure; we closed it when we discharged some of the servants at the beginning of the war, let's go see." She turned to lead the way.
"Is there a chance we could be caught?" Charles Arthur Foster wasn't known among his acquaintances to be helping Jews, but he didn't exactly want someone sympathetic to the Nazi cause to catch him and find out. "An unannounced visit early in the morning is a little odd, and I want to keep myself above suspicion so I can still communicate with you. "
"Possibly, but it's still early. We haven't used the barn for anything but storage since the war started."

"Well, there's plenty of room, at least," Charles commented as he surveyed the bare room a few minutes later. A little sunlight leaked through the drapes.
"I'd forgotten that we had all the furniture locked into the tack room and feed room downstairs before we closed this section. Furniture would have just wasted space anyway." She ran her finger over the windowsill. "It's awfully dusty, but we can't clean too much, in case someone sees it after everyone is gone." She frowned. "I hate to leave it, though, it's so hard to breathe in here."
"And remind them not to open the windows during the day, in case someone walks this way and sees them open," he warned her. "An inch or two might be acceptable, but any more than that is dangerous."
The other three rooms were as bare as the first, with the exception of a stack of boxes in the corner of the smallest room, which Arianna knew to contain some of the family's old books.
"Arianna, you must absolutely avoid detection. Whatever you do, do not get caught. It could mean death for you and many others." He turned to leave.
She glanced around the room to be certain that it looked undisturbed. "I haven't been caught yet," she replied grimly.
"It only takes once. This is different from smuggling a few loaves of bread and some cheese out of the house a few times," he warned her. "I plan to have your guests here late tonight."
"Fine, but I can't get up. Eduard is a light sleeper; he'd be sure to notice if I left. I'll come out as soon as I can tomorrow morning. Help everyone get settled, put any lights that you absolutely must have on the floor. I'll take the key from the inside, and after everyone is here, give the other key to one of the people. They need to be able to get in and out, but we should keep access up here unavailable to the general public.
"Sounds good. I'll try to let you know when I'll be back to take everyone away, but don't be surprised if you wake up one morning and they're gone. I'll get a note to you afterward, if that happens. Now I should get away from here before I get caught." He dropped a kiss on her cheek. "Be safe, Airy," he whispered, using his favorite pet name for his sister.
"I will. You, too, Charles." She watched him slip through he trees before she turned to stroll around the estate.

"Arianna, I couldn't find you earlier, but I invited Schneider and Helene for dinner." Eduard continued filling his brunch plate from the buffet.
"Oh good, it's been an age since I've spent any time with Helene." She replied enthusiastically, but she was inwardly downcast. No doubt conversation that evening would turn to the war. She could never satisfy herself that her act of delighting in the Germans' efforts was convincing, and she was always exhausted after an evening of trying. She sat down at the table, but her appetite had mysteriously vanished.
"So, shall you and Helene play a duet for us this evening? Or perhaps we can convince Schneider to bring his tin whistle, I'll find my harmonica, and you can play the harp! We'll have a quartet!" he teased gaily. He looked forward to a night of more pleasure than business, as the party the previous evening had proven to be quite the opposite.
"Heavens, no!" Arianna's musical laughter filled the breakfast room. "Helene and I shall not play a duet, nor shall the four of us make an attempt at a symphony. Helene is a wonderful solo pianist, and she certainly doesn't need the rest of us to befuddle her playing. She shall play and I will turn her pages while you and Christoph have your after-dinner cigars. Then perhaps we'll play bridge or some other game. At least that sort of activity doesn't offend the ears!" She playfully nudged his shoulder as they sat down at the table.

"Guten abend, Fräu Schneider! So good to see you!" Eduard bowed over her hand, then clasped Leutnant Schneider's in a warm greeting. The Leutnant saluted his superior. "No, none of that Christoph, tonight is no business and all pleasure."
The Schneiders greeted him, and disposed of their summer wraps. The windows next to the door allowed plenty of light into the elaborate entrance hall but caused the cream-colored walls to appear a soft shade of yellow. A stairway began to the right of the front door, and curved gently to the landing, which was directly in front of the ornate oak door. A balcony formed a semi-circle around the hall.
Karl, the butler, finished collecting hats and wraps and left with a request for tea. Eduard turned to his right and led the party into the parlor. He held the door for Fräu Schneider, then quickly stepped ahead of his guests and strode across the room to the windows. He drew the drapes and swung the shutters wide. The afternoon sun cheered the room, and the fresh air was a welcome relief.
"That is better. Won't you have a seat, Christoph? " He waved the Leutnant to the imposing forest green sofa. "You'll have to excuse Arianna; she had to run over to Potsdam for a few little things, but she promised to return shortly. You will play for us, won't you, Fräu Schneider?" He indicated the bench at the baby grand piano.
"But of course, Eduard. Any certain requests?" Helene teased, but obligingly slid into the seat and extracted a Chopin book from the stack resting on the piano.
"Why, the Military Polonaise, of course!" He laughed as the first chords of his favorite composition crashed on the keys.
Fräu Kraemer, the housekeeper, entered with a tray of tea and other refreshments after Helene finished playing, and Eduard bantered with his guests.

Shoes and stockings in hand, Arianna crept to the front door. She pushed her damp locks out of her eyes, put her free hand to the doorknob and slowly turned it, praying that it would not make noise. She had noticed the Schneider's car in the maple-lined circular driveway but decided to postpone greeting her company for a few moments. The door opened silently, and once she was safely inside, Arianna relaxed slightly and slowly started to push the door closed. The hinges groaned in protest moments before the door clicked shut.
"Arianna?" Her husbands voice floated into the foyer from the parlor.
"Yes, darling?" Her voice trembled and she swallowed.
"Dear, the Schneiders are here; come join us!"
"I'll be just a moment, I need to freshen up a bit!" she called, bolting for the stairs.
"Nonsense, dear!" She heard footsteps, and her husband's voice sounded as though it was coming nearer, "I'm sure you look quite love. . ." his voice trailed away when he arrived at the doorway, Leutnant and Fräu Schneider on his heels to greet their hostess, and what a bedraggled creature they beheld! Arianna was barefoot, and the shoes and stockings she held in her left hand were the only parts of her attire that appeared to be dry. Murky water dripped from her hair, brown drops made streaks down her bare legs, and her dress hung limply from her figure.
"Darling, what happened?" Eduard gasped.
"Well, you see," she began, "I asked Gustav to let me walk from the road. It's so hot out and I was so tired of riding in the sun; I just wanted to stroll through the trees. Well, I came to the lake, and I walked to the end of the dock and stuck my hand in the water. Oh, Eduard, it was so deliciously cold! I could not have resisted the temptation even if I had wanted to, and I sat right down at the edge, took off my shoes and stockings, and jumped. I tried to get inside and change before anyone saw me, but I guess that didn't really work." She finished in a rush and hung her head.
"Oh, darling, your little swim is nothing to worry about!" Eduard stroked his chin to hide his amusement before he could compose himself enough to send her sympathetically upstairs to change. He and the Schneiders silently returned to the parlor before all three succumbed to the laughter boiling in their throats.
"Oh Eduard," Helene's blue eyes twinkled as she spoke, "your wife is an absolute treasure! How I wish I had known her when I was twelve years old and acting as though I was eighty!"
"I agree, Fräu Schneider, but she often brings me to question whether I married a girl of eight or a young woman of twenty-one," he chuckled.
"Don't worry, Albrecht, you've only been married two years, your little wife will grow up quite soon enough."
Eduard's brow furrowed in concern, and he lost his lighthearted demeanor. "That's the problem, Christoph. The war has aged her so much already. I adore her vivacity and juvenescence. I don't want her to grow up."

The sun had barely begun to rise, tinting the world in various shades of gray.
Arianna dropped a kiss on her sleeping husband's forehead and smiled at his earnest expression, even in sleep. He had scrunched his eyes closed, and his sandy blonde hair managed to look tousled in spite of its short length. She had met him three years before when he was a student at the University of London, and they had married a year after their meeting–in spite of the tense relationship between their respective countries.
She slipped out the door and made her way to the tree, where she retrieved food for the refugees. She found a large basket filled with bread, some raw fruits and vegetables, and an unsigned note detailing instructions about dishes and other considerations.
Creeping up the stairway, she tapped on the door before using her key to open it. Ten anxious faces stared at her from the airy parlor.
"I have some food," she whispered, offering the basket to the oldest girl. She accepted it, and the other five children, four boys and one other girl, surrounded her as she distributed various items.
Arianna motioned the adults to follow her into the next room.
"Welcome to my home, my name is Arianna Albrecht." She introduced herself.
"I am Chaviv Betzold, and this is my wife Galia. My brother Ometz," he motioned, "and my sister-in-law Chava. We cannot thank you enough for what you are doing for us."
The two men looked alike, but none of the four appeared especially Jewish. They had dark hair, and their complexions, although fair, had an olive tint, but Galia had blue eyes, and Chava's were green.
"I am very pleased to meet you. Did my brother tell you anything of the situation here?" she enquired.
"He told us nothing other than to remain silent and that you would be here early this morning." Ometz replied.
"Very well. My husband is a Generalleutnant in the German military."
Her guests' eyes widened.
"Yes, you're surprised. I shan't go into details as to why I am doing this, but please believe that you are not here only to be caught now. However, exercise extra caution while you are here, as I am the only person on the estate who would not inform the Nazis of your presence." Her demeanor was that of an officer giving orders to subordinates.
"We understand, and we'll be. . ." Chaviv's voice faded.
"Arianna?" The four visitors heard the faint voice and froze, but Arianna crept to the window and peered through a small crack between the drapes. Eduard was no more than ten yards away. As she spread the drapes an inch, he looked directly at her. Her breath quickened. Apparently he saw nothing amiss, and continued down the path, further into the trees. Her eyes followed him until he was out of sight, then she turned back to the room.
"I need to get back to the house. Stay inside between six in the morning and eleven at night; you never know when someone might come this way. I'll be here every morning about this time." She rushed down the stairs, locking the doors behind herself.
Arianna circled through the woods until she came to the front of the house. She admitted herself at the front door just as her husband came down the hall.
"Good morning, Arianna. Olga said that she saw you walking out back, but I couldn't find you."
"I circled through the woods and came up by the lake."
"Next time you plan to take a walk in the morning, let me know! Perhaps I'll join you."
"What a wonderful idea! I plan to walk tomorrow; six a.m. sharp." She grinned impishly.
His eyes widened. "Six? On second thought, why don't we just stick to our after-dinner stroll?" He winked at her.
"Of course dear, if that's what you want," she conceded, her eyes twinkling. Her husband was not a morning person, and was unashamed to admit it.
"Anyway, dear, I was looking for you in order to tell you that I have to go to Bonn for a week or so. My train leaves in an hour."
"Oh, darling, must you?" Arianna struggled to appear saddened, but rejoiced inwardly, knowing that any danger of discovery decreased greatly with his absence.
"Yes, I'm afraid so." Eduard, on the other hand, truly was sorry. He didn't want to leave his lively wife for a moment. "But it is only for a week, and my business may not take even that long. Now, I need to get going. Gustav should have the car ready by now. I'll see you in a few days." He lifted her chin with his thumb and forced her to look into his eyes. She smiled sadly as he brushed a quick kiss on her forehead. He picked up his briefcase and a small suitcase and proceeded to the waiting charcoal-colored Mercedes.
Arianna followed him as far as the porch and raised her hand in farewell.