Chapter 60 Chapter Fifty-Nine

Miriam.As soon as Castelnuovo arrived at the orphanage on the outskirts of Toulouse, he was particularly favored by the director.Long ago, Mrs. Rosen, a plain-looking single woman with little hope of finding a husband, had a happier time when she used to spend her holidays in Italy, where she loved Italian art and Italian art. music, and once nearly married a good-natured Italian Jew, only to be prevented by his serious heart condition.Miriam's crisp Tuscan accent now brought Mrs. Rosen back to the golden age, and her character was so gentle and lovely, so although Mrs. Rosen had always restrained herself and tried her best not to favor anyone— At the beginning of the construction of this orphanage, it was only planned to accommodate 300 children, but now more than 800 have been crammed in - but she still couldn't help it, and she loved this new little visitor.

It's time for free time before bedtime.Mrs. Rosen knew where Miriam was most likely to be.This girl also has her favorite little friend, he is a man named Jean.Helfen's French orphan, only one and a half years old.Jean looks a lot like Louis.Henry, especially the way he smiled and his big, blue eyes gleamed cheerfully.Before, when her parents were still around, Miriam used to have to talk to them endlessly about Louis and ask them questions, but she soon found that these questions always made her mother sad and her father angry, So I don't ask any more questions.Still, she often recalled, reliving the time she spent with him, like replaying old movies in her head.Now, her parents have left her, and she no longer has relatives by her side, so she is very attached to Jean.Jean was very fond of Miriam, and Viriam was always happy when she was with Jean.

When Mrs. Rosen found them in Jean's dormitory, the other children were running and jumping around in the big room, chasing games, but the two of them sat on the floor and concentrated on building blocks.Although they were all wrapped up as if they were in the open snow, Mrs. Rosen blamed Miriam for sitting on the cold floor.The orphanage has not yet received this month's pitifully small ration of coal, and what was left before had to be used to dry the water pipes in addition to cooking to prevent them from freezing.Miriam was wearing the fringed red scarf that Mrs. Rosen had given her. Although the scarf was too big and almost covered her face, it was very warm.Miriam and Jean sat down on the edge of a little bed, and Mrs. Rosen spoke to the girl in Italian, which Miriam loved to hear; Little hands, while teaching him to speak Italian after her.Mrs. Rosen did not stay long.Filled with warmth and joy, she returned to her office to deal with her own problems.

Her own problems were the same old administrative problems, only multiplied: overcrowding, undersupply, staffing difficulties, underfunding.There were not many Jewish residents in Toulouse before, and now almost all of them have disappeared, so all the burdens fell on her alone.Fortunately, the mayor of Toulouse is a kind man.Whenever there is no way out, such as coal, medicine, bed sheets, milk, etc., she will ask him for help.She sat down at her desk and resumed her pleading letter, but this time it seemed hopeless.The old French friends of the Jewish children were now very timid, lest they should be known to sympathize with the Jewish children.Now, this thin, haggard, sallow, and nearly sixty-year-old woman is wrapped in a faded coat and a worn scarf, writing letters while weeping.Those problems—once they were put on paper, seemed all the more hopeless.However, she had to find a way, otherwise how would these children survive?

To make matters worse, the many signs that another operation might occur at any time left the hearts of those who remained cold.Mrs. Rosen was not worried about her situation. She had a government-recognized position, and she held a solid certificate proving that she was a native-born French citizen.So far, only foreign Jews have been taken, although several French citizens were also deported during the previous operation.She was worried about these children. Almost all of the newly admitted children were of foreign nationality. There were hundreds of them!And about a third of them had no documents at all, all the baggage thrown at her by the police department.The French government drove the Jews to the East, left their children behind, and then stuffed them wherever they wanted, and the Jewish orphanages were filled with Jewish orphans.Such forced separation of flesh and blood is, of course, deplorable, but it was also made out of humanitarian considerations, for there were so many appalling rumors about what was going on in the East.The question is, why is there so little provision for these children's necessities?

Now, if there is a new operation and the police come to take away those foreign dolls, how will they deal with it then?Does she dare to insist that all children do not have birth certificates?Since France is a country that strictly follows the rules, this statement is of course hard to believe.Could she, then, have another excuse to say that she had burned all the records because she had been frightened by the Allied landings in North Africa and didn't know what to do?Or should we simply burn all records now?However, can this method really save those foreign orphans?Will it only bring disaster to French children, who will be taken away with other children?

Mrs. Rosen did not have sufficient evidence to be sure that the Germans were really looking for foreign children. She had never heard of such a thing happening.The fact that these children were sent to her orphanage showed that the Germans had no intention of deporting them, too.But she was still worried.It was now near midnight, and it was very cold, and with her frozen fingers, she folded the letter by candlelight (the lights had long since been turned off).At this moment, she suddenly heard a banging sound from the gate facing the street. Her office was so close to the street door that the knocking made her rise from her chair in panic.boom!boom!boom!God, this will wake up all the kids!They are going to freak out!

"Open the door! Open the door!" the man's voice was loud and rough! "Open the door!" Nagel, the SS chief, had problems of his own. He had a major obstacle to overcome: the target was not met, and after daybreak a partially-filled train was due to pass through Toulouse on schedule.The head of the SS in charge of Jewish affairs in Paris was throwing a fit, and the remaining Jews in the area couldn't make up the required quota anyway.They had either been broken up and dispersed in the countryside, or had fled to the Italian occupation.In any case, it can't fit three wagons.The operation in Toulouse had so far yielded only five hundred, against the fifteen thousand requested by Paris.

Fortunately, according to the records of the Toulouse Police Department, if you add the children and staff of the orphanage, you can get 907 Jews.Nagel, with the approval of Paris, is now going to take them all away, while another team is making another careful search of Toulouse in order to make up for the remaining shortfall.No Jew should be sheltered under any pretext.Now the SS lieutenant was sitting in a car parked across the street from the orphanage, watching the French police knock on the orphanage's gate.If there was a slight chance, these French policemen would come up with some random excuse and report to him that nothing had been done.But the SS officer just sat there waiting for the police chief to come out and report to him.

Nagel taught the prefect of the police a very ingenious nonsense, and told him to say that the authorities of the occupying forces needed the orphanage house as a sanatorium for German wounded soldiers, so all children and staff had to be relocated to a to the ski resorts, where all the hotels in Tyrol have been converted into a large center for children, with a school and a hospital, and lots of grounds; hundreds of children have been relocated from children's camps near Paris to Live there, those children's camps around Paris are much bigger than this orphanage.According to the unified regulations, when deporting Jews, some excuses must be made up to make them feel at ease and obedient.The Berlin Secret Decree emphasized that Jews are inherently credulous, especially when it comes to official news, even if it is a lie that can be exposed, they are willing to believe it.Doing so is of great benefit in dealing with Jewish work.

The door of the orphanage opened and the police disappeared through the gate.Lieutenant Nagel sat in the car and waited.Although he was wearing a warm new overcoat and wool-lined military boots, he was still very cold.He was smoking his third cigarette, nervous enough to even go in himself, though his military uniform might startle the Jewish staff inside.At this moment, the door of the orphanage opened again, and the French police chief came out. Although this guy ate French food rations, he was fat and fat, and the oil and water in his belly came from the black market.He walked up to the car, smelling garlic, and reported that everything was in order.The staff of the orphanage immediately packed their luggage and sorted out all the records of the orphanage.As for the gimmick of taking away the recorded materials, Nagel once emphasized in particular, in order to make this deceitful lie more like the truth.Wake all the children at three o'clock, help them get dressed, and give them a hot meal.Police cars and trucks will arrive at five o'clock to take them to the station.At six o'clock, they all waited on the platform of the train station.Under the pale moonlight, the expression on the Frenchman's fat face could not be seen clearly, but when Lieutenant Nagel said "Yes" in French, his downturned beard was just shrugged up, He showed an ugly wry smile. all the best.The train will arrive at a quarter past six, before most of the city's residents are up and out.Good luck, Nagel thought in the car on the way back.He has to rush back to the apartment to take a nap, and then he has to go to work.According to the order, when sending these Jews away, they must avoid arousing the sympathy of the local residents for them.Berlin has repeatedly issued notices warning of the possibility of unpleasant incidents, all the more likely if children are being escorted during the day in densely populated areas. In fact, it was a very gloomy morning, and it was still almost dark when the train came into the station.The Jews were just shadows, one by one, crawling into the carriages.When transporting children, in order to speed up, the lights at the station had to be turned on.According to the adults' explanation in advance, these children lined up in two rows, holding hands, obediently boarded the freight car along the sloped steps, and the youngest dolls were held by the nanny of the orphanage.Miriam.Castel Nuoqing and Xiao Rang walked together.Miriam had experienced this kind of relocation several times, so she was used to it.After all, this removal was not so painful as the forced separation from parents; besides, she was happy to hold Jean's hand, and it was a lot more reassuring for Mrs. Rosen to walk behind them with a baby in her arms. At the last moment, Lieutenant Nagel wondered whether it was necessary to load these twelve large cardboard boxes containing files into the freight car.These boxes are a nuisance; besides, those who wait at the terminal will be puzzled by them.However, at this moment he saw Mrs. Rosen staring at the cartons from the carriage.She was pale and full of horror, as if her life depended entirely on the fate of the boxes.Then why make her panic?Along the way, she had to coax these children to reach the terminal quietly.He pointed to the cardboard boxes with his cane, and some SS men loaded them into the carriage, and then closed the sliding door of the carriage, shutting all the children inside.Several black-gloved hands grabbed the cold and ruthless iron latch, turned it a few times, and locked the iron door firmly. There was no whistle when the train started, just a sound from the engine.