_(excerpted from original story)_
Then he confessed why he in particular needed to get out. Months before he had been accused of a crime called Rauschenade. The word translated to “racial disgrace” but in Hans’s case, referred to the fact that he, a Jew, had dated a non-Jew. He still had the newspaper article stuffed in his wallet. “Although the girl wanted to be kissed, the accused should have known that under present circumstances, no such tenderness is permitted.”
As Marta listened to him tell the story, she watched his eyes. He was intelligent. Escape, as he saw it, was a carefully calculated decision. You had to believe that good existed just like that: good. And that what shadowed your life, that vague cloud—that was evil.
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