Chapter 13 The Boehnckes

When it comes to people who opposed Hitler, I can't help but think of the Bernkes. The so-called family consists of only mother and daughter.I got to know Miss Bernke first.It turned out that we could be regarded as classmates. She was a few years older than me and studied Slavic linguistics.As I said above, the Institute of Slavic Languages ​​is also in the Gauss-Weber Building, sharing a floor with the Institute of Sanskrit.As soon as you walk into the door of the large room on the second floor, you will find the Institute of Iranian Language in the middle, turn left to the Institute of Sanskrit, and turn right to the Institute of Slavic Languages.I come to the Institute every day, and although Miss Bernke does not come every day, she often comes.We learned Russian together with Dr. von Green, and that's how we got to know each other.She sometimes invites me to her house for tea.I also introduced Zhang Wei and Lu Shijia to her.There is only one old mother in her family.His father has passed away. It is said that he was a professor of some sciences before his death, and he belonged to the high-paid class in Germany.Therefore, the economic situation is quite good. I live on the first floor, and the home furnishings are both magnificent and antique.It was rumored that Miss Bernke's father was one-fourth or one-sixth Jewish, and had crossed the critical line of being slaughtered and persecuted, so he could live in peace.However, since there is such a layer of entanglement, they have a strong aversion to Hitler.This has become the basis for our talks.

Miss Bernke is a brilliant student and can speak many languages.As far as Slavic languages ​​are concerned, she knows Russian, Czech, Yugoslav, etc.This is her main department, not surprisingly.As for what her two sub-departments were, I forget; maybe I didn't know then.Anyway, I can't tell.She was a few years older than me, and she was excellent in studies; because she was a girl, she was not conscripted into the army.For her, talent and time are more than enough.But by the time I passed the Ph.D. oral exam, she was still a college student.With her talent and hard work, it doesn't seem like this should be the case.However, it is like this, and I don't know the secret.

This young lady is not very beautiful, and her temper is probably a bit lonely.Therefore, very few people associate with her.She has passed her age, and she has never seen her have a boyfriend, and she herself doesn't seem to care.The mother and daughter are inseparable, with extremely deep and sincere feelings.Once, I was in the forest on the mountain and saw her mother and daughter walking together, which gave me an epiphany. The word "walking" seems to apply only to the Chinese, not to the Germans at all.I saw their mother and daughter standing side by side, mother right and daughter left, arms crossed, and then left feet together, as if in a military training ground, an invisible person shouted the password, the steps were orderly, no disorder was allowed, and the eyes were straight. Looking at it, he walked forward in a hurry, the speed was the speed of racing, only heard the sound of shoes under his feet hitting the ground, and disappeared in the depths of the dense forest in an instant.This has nothing to do with the Chinese people's leisurely and leisurely pace.I can't understand the fun in it.I can only blame myself for being too shallow.

This problem exists first.After we got acquainted, besides meeting at the research institute, Miss Bernke occasionally invited me and Mrs. Zhang Wei to her house for tea and dinner.Her mother is not tall, with a kind face, elegant conversation, and grace.It seems that she is highly educated.The old lady is proficient in all kinds of European classical culture, whether it is music, painting, literature or art, and she can talk about it clearly and eloquently, which makes people happy and happy.When it comes to cooking in the kitchen, the old lady is also an expert.The young lady could only serve the dishes by the side and start a fight.At that time, it was a time when food was extremely scarce, and some people brought their own food stamps when they invited guests.Even so, "It's hard for a clever woman to cook without rice", and I have to save a few days to invite a guest once, so that my already hungry stomach will endure even more unbearable hunger.Under such circumstances, this old lady cooked a table of decent meals with her own hands.It was almost like she was doing magic tricks, juggling.We have almost become mythical people, sitting at the table, in a trance, the steaming delicious food has been neatly placed on the table.You can imagine how hungry ghosts like us, who have fallen into the hell of hunger, devoured the food.This meal became a meal I will never forget.

However, in my opinion, what excites me the most is not the exquisite meals, but the hearty chatting and scolding Hitler and other fascist leaders together.The two of them, mother and daughter, hated all the perverse actions of fascism.As I said above, Germans with this kind of thinking can only swallow their anger and bury their thoughts deep in their hearts, and never dare to expose them at will.But once they are with us, they can talk freely and quickly.Those days were indeed very sad.Zhang Wei, Lu Shijia and I, we Chinese, endured all the disasters that the Germans generally have to endure, and there are more disasters, and we still have a family and a country.In my distant land, my life is at stake.The British and American planes may lay eggs on our heads whenever they are happy, and they will definitely go to see God or Hades.Hungry in my stomach, and insecure in my life.Although we are not so far from "we only wash our faces with tears day and night", it is conceivable that our spirit will never be happy.Under such circumstances, only when I went to Bernke's house could I temporarily forget my worries, as if I had found an oasis in the desert, a safe island, a paradise of peach blossoms, and a township to avoid Qin.Therefore, we often ignore the air-raid siren sounding outside, talk about it, forget the passage of time, and talk until late at night, only to suddenly remember: It is time to go home.As soon as I walked out of the gate, the outside was pitch black and silent. I looked around and saw no light. It seemed that I was the only one left in the universe.

After I left Germany, when I was in Switzerland, I wrote a letter to her mother and daughter.After returning home, there was no further contact.A few days ago, when I met Zhang Wei, he told me that he had frequent contact with them.Later, Miss Bernke married a Swede, and the mother and daughter moved to Northern Europe to live.The mother passed away the year before last in her nineties, and her daughter is still in Sweden.Will I still see her in this life?Hope can be said to be negligible.sad husband!