The Mendelssohn Connection

By James W. Macnutt

Berlin, 2005: Will MacIntosh – the Canadian protagonist of James Macnutt’s previous, acclaimed, novel On Five Dollars a Day – is now a seasoned lawyer of almost 40 years who has allowed himself a three-month sabbatical in Europe. He intends to indulge his abiding fascination with European history and culture, and perhaps even connect with his own family history. Will’s interests are viewed with bemusement by his travelling companion Isaac Menshive, an old university friend who now practises surgery in New York and who views the trip as a welcome excuse to let rip. However, when they learn that Isaac has become the beneficiary of a staggeringly wealthy trust, the two of them determine to discover its origins, all the while aware that they are being followed across Eastern Europe by shadowy figures whose motives they can only guess at...
Moving across Europe from Berlin to Moscow via Poland and Belarus, The Mendelssohn Connection – the first in a trilogy – combines the structure of a travelogue, centred on the ever-bantering odd couple of Will and Isaac, with an impressively researched thriller, which patiently and methodically reveals a constantly growing, web-like conspiracy that threatens to envelop them completely

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Oct 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781787104990

James W. Macnutt

James W. Macnutt has been a practising lawyer for over 54 years and was honoured with a K.C. appointment in 1989. He continues in his full-time practice of law with the law firm of Cox & Palmer having offices in each of the four Canadian Atlantic provinces. Mr. Macnutt has written extensively on Canadian architectural, legal and parliamentary history as presented in numerous journal articles and in twelve major publications in book form. He is concentrating now on creative writing in the fictionalized history genre of which the stories in this volume are part. He continues to write and has four new manuscripts in draft form which will be published in due time. Married with two children, Mr. Macnutt has four grandchildren, two girls and two boys who collectively prevent complacency and indolence.

Book preview

Books by the Same Author

Heritage Houses of Prince Edward Island (2006)

Inside Island Heritage Homes (2008)

The Historical Atlas of Prince Edward Island (2009)

Building for Democracy (2010)

Building for Justice (2015)

A Century of Service of Rotary on Prince Edward Island (2017)

Historic Furniture of Prince Edward Island (2017)

On Five Dollars a Day (Austin Macauley, 2017)

The Spectre of Stanhope Lane (Austin Macauley, 2019)

Forthcoming:

The Odessa Connection

The 9/11 Connection

James W. MacNutt

The

Connection

Copyright © James W. Macnutt 2021

The right of James W. Macnutt to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

ISBN 9781786932167 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781787104990 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2021

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Dedication

I dedicate this book to the enduring strength and creativity of the Jewish people, surviving as it does as a spiritual and cultural group in spite of repeated attacks on their persons and their property after centuries of discrimination and persistent hatred. It was as a result of years of study of Jewish history and my encounters with their achievements that I was inspired to write this book – a book that I hope will be accepted as an expression of the admiration, and gratitude I feel for their many contributions to our shared Western values.

Acknowledgements

My continuing obsession with creative writing is taking me from family time I would otherwise have with my wife Barbara, two daughters Jane and Carolyn and four grandchildren Charlotte, Mark, Jack and Emma. I acknowledge their interest and support for my writing and thank them for their encouragement.

Inez Somers has been vital to the production of the nine books of mine published so far. Her extraordinary attention to detail during the typing and editing of The Mendelssohn Connection continues that service to me and to the publisher. The production of a book, be it fiction or non-fiction, is a team effort. No one was more vital to the team that produced this book than Inez, as she was for my earlier books.

Also on my local team is my editor Pamela Borden who as a law librarian displayed her meticulous attention to detail in each of her three edits of this book. She is also a dedicated and inspiring enthusiast for my writing, something that sustains me when doubts arise, as they do.

The Rev Dr Jack Whytock, a friend and an author in his own right, read the manuscript on a couple of occasions and encouraged me in my efforts and assisted with helpful suggestions on the text, for which I thank him.

I also wish to thank Austin Macauley and its clever in-house editor Walter Stephenson who has been a great help with creative suggestions on the text.

Prologue

The Beginning

A thirst for adventure through travel requires satisfaction, or the need will be quenched by less savoury means. Years of travel during the forty years before this major excursion in 2005 taught Will MacIntosh that travel with plan and purpose was the most satisfying for him. Pointless travel was hollow and disappointing, and it missed much of the possible adventure. Little would remain, however, of the original plan and purpose: what would emerge for the 2005 excursion would be far more extensive, threatening and revealing for Will and his companion who would share the travels with him.

This trip would be a first for Will. The length of the travel far exceeded his usual two or three weeks. The most singular aspect of the trip, however, was that he would have a travel companion other than his wife. This time his companion was a friend he had come to know well at university thirty years before: Isaac Menshive. Isaac had business in Europe and had invited Will to join him, knowing that Will had studied the Russian language at university and had already travelled some of the planned route during forty years of travelling. Will’s language skills and geographical experience were assumed, by Isaac, to be extensive, though Will himself would acknowledge them to be much more limited. In fact, they were cursory and largely forgotten, as would prove to be the case when challenged by events arising during their travels together.

Berlin was the beginning of the estimated three-month exploration of history and ultimately of self for Will and his companion. Standing on the southern side of Ernest Reuterplatz looking east along the Strasse das 17 Juni, Will was transfixed by the contrast in the view before him, comparing it with his last visit to Berlin, on this spot, forty years earlier. The post-war damage evident at that time was extensive, notwithstanding much hurried rebuilding. The 2005 view exposed further rebuilding, but some of it of the highly self-conscious modern styles of architecture then fashionable. Internationalist it may have been known as but, Will thought, thankfully little of it crossed the Atlantic. What drew his particular attention was the absence of the Wall. The Berlin Wall had been built in stages by the East Germans, being fully constructed by 1965. By 2005 it had been demolished.

It is gone, Will said to Isaac as they stood there, but the mental barrier between the eastern European Communist ideology and western democracy has not been so easy to remove. As I watched on television the East Berliners, later helped by West Berliners, tear down that wall, I couldn’t accept the change. Somehow that wall protected me and my family from the threat to our security posed by those on the eastern side of the wall, even as far away as Prince Edward Island in Canada. Removal of the wall resulted in freedom of passage throughout Berlin, but with its removal there was exposure to political contamination from the east.

Isaac made no reply, so Will continued. I remember standing here in July 1965 at the height of the Cold War feeling surrounded by a dangerous and threatening presence in the East that appeared ready to imminently move on West Berlin bringing the two sides into another world war. Standing here at that time, the stability, security and barrier offered by the wall provided great comfort and peace for North America. The Americas were a long way away, but profoundly different ideologies divided the Russia-dominated east and the west protected by the United States. In 1965 those political and military differences were even more conceptually distant from each other than the geography of the places.

Will looked towards Isaac, thinking about how he had first got to know his old friend. They had become acquainted while at Dalhousie University in the 1960s in Halifax, Nova Scotia and had remained in contact and continued to have shared interests and outlooks which made them lasting friends. Isaac, as an American citizen, had been sent to a Canadian university to remove him from being drafted to fight in Vietnam. He happily adapted to the quiet civility of life at one of Canada’s oldest universities and modified his behaviour and opinions to fit in with his Canadian friends. His strong academic achievements at Dalhousie, including a medical degree, had prepared him for specialisation in a lucrative medical field that enabled him to lead a life of independence and self-absorption. The claims of family and careers separated the friends from time to time, accentuated by one living in New York and the other back on Prince Edward Island.

The pleasant bright skies and comforting sultry heat of this, the first day of their travels, seemed to belie the momentous changes facing both east and west as the friends stood there. The integration of the eastern section of Germany with that of the west continued to be uneasy and would take years to meld. Attitudes to a central unified government, the very nature of a united German democracy in a free and integrated society, and the removal of distrust, hostility and suspicion by each side of the wall to the other would take decades to resolve.

Will and Isaac had studied history and political science together during their undergraduate years at Dalhousie and both had kept up with news as it related to the changes in the forms and styles of the governments in Central and Eastern Europe. They had frequently plotted to abandon family and job obligations for a month or so and to travel to and into Central and Eastern Europe, starting with Berlin. The risk to Isaac was great because his grandfather had been born in Czarist Russia, and according to the laws of modern Russia in 2005 he continued to be a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and its successor the Commonwealth of Independent Republics – later restyled back to its original identity, ‘Russia’. Even though his grandfather became an American citizen in the 1920s, Isaac believed he was at risk of being drafted into Russian military service if he entered Russia. Nationals returning during the Soviet-era for a nostalgic visit were occasionally selected as examples of Soviet power and as reprisals for their family having escaped without permission. Being Jewish, Isaac would have been especially vulnerable. By 2005, it was generally considered safe for expats or their descendants to visit Russia. How long that would last was anyone’s guess, but Isaac was sceptical that it would last long, particularly under the Putin presidency. While he considered the current political climate to be the safest in decades to visit the country, Russia, after all, was Russia. He seldom referred to his grandfather’s birthplace as anything other than ‘Russia’ for very good reasons that would become apparent later.

One curiosity, as far as Will was concerned, was that Isaac had asked Will to address him as Itzaak for the duration of their trip.

Time was required to make arrangements for both self- employed professionals to travel together at a convenient point in their respective calendars. After predictably convoluted negotiations both at home and at their professional practices a departure date of late July 2005 was arranged, with a return in October. The three months were decided to be essential to enable them to complete their objectives.

They would start in Berlin, travel east through Poland to Warsaw and from there to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, and then into Russia. In Mother Russia they planned to visit Smolensk and then on to Moscow. The distance to Moscow from Berlin was approximately 800 miles and their planned itinerary could have been managed in two or three weeks, but they knew travel conditions in the east were not up to western standards. They had established an agenda that involved historical and cultural exploration that could only be achieved with a thorough examination of the significant sites and visits to Isaac’s family in Germany, Poland, Belarus and Russia, which would involve much more than the cursory exploration of the territory they planned to visit. Will had a friend who was in a prominent position in the Canadian Embassy in Moscow who had agreed to take them around the city and vicinity. This added a great fillip to the interest of their Moscow visit but also increased the time required for the trip.

Two months appeared to be a long time to those being left behind, but to the travellers it would hardly suffice to enable them to achieve what, in their minds, was planned and essential.

Will’s wife and family required considerable persuasion before they would accept his absence from hearth and home for such an extended period of time. His wife was understandably the most resistant to the trip, but she was aware of Will’s passion for writing which had been thwarted by his family, professional and community obligations.

Over time she recognized that what Will proposed was in the nature of a sabbatical, something she was entitled to as a teacher. She also knew or suspected that if there was continued denial of this opportunity to gain the research for a novel he had been planning for years, there would be more devastating ruptures in the family than a separation. She finally convinced herself that the marriage was strong, that she was strong and that Will needed the mid-career break from routine to enable him to explore dimensions of his personality and potential creative abilities.

Will and Isaac had travelled to Berlin separately and had met in Berlin that morning at breakfast. The themes of their trip were discussed in detail. While they had earlier identified their reasons for the trip and their objectives, the planning was conducted by telephone and by mail. Meeting now without the inherent restraints of secondary communications, they were able to further develop their ideas. The theme of the trip was to be: Why repeat disasters? The disasters they had in mind were those of a military, political and cultural nature. All very lofty, they knew; what they did not know was that the disasters they would encounter would be personal and threatening.

The theme they settled on focused on the wars waged by Napoleon and then Hitler, and the similar fate of both as invaders. For Isaac, his primary interest was to try to understand his family history in Russia, which had been repeatedly subjected to personal and economic attacks with other Jews in the Czarist and Soviet-eras. The Holocaust and the causes of the repeated violence against Jews in Eastern and Central Europe was a theme both Isaac and Will wanted to explore and to try to understand. Numerous secondary themes emerged during their conversation that morning; many more would surface as they moved forward with their travels from Berlin to Moscow.

Part 1:

Berlin (Days 1-10)

Day 1

What is the significance of the Berlin Brandenburg Gate? I know it is the symbol of Berlin, but why is it so important? Isaac’s knowledge of certain aspects of Eastern and Central European history was extensive, but either he had a mental block where German Pre-World War II cultural history was concerned, or he had neglected or failed to retain it. He would rely on Will who was considerably more up-to-date, having travelled the planned route only four years before.

Apart from the architectural importance to Berlin and the north German people, the Brandenburg Gate embodies the architectural, social and political German identity of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history of what we now know as Germany. Together with the Reichstag, it serves as the symbol of the reunification of post-war East and West Germany – which as I am sure you recall occurred only fifteen years ago.

Isaac let out a non-committal Huh! in response.

This gate and what it represents is the story of what has brought us here this summer. Let’s go down and sit in front of the Reichstag and consider it close-up. There is a vast amount of history there, and wonderful views that will be a good start, suggested Will.

Their walk along the edge of the Tiergarten under the linden trees in bloom brought Will vividly back to his first visit to Berlin in 1965. At that time, he still suffered hay fever and was acutely affected then by pollen, leaving him almost prostrate for a day or two in a suffocatingly hot and humid tiny room in a pension; there was no air conditioning in hotels then except in some of the five-star variety. Hay fever bothered him much less in recent years, probably part of the gradual deterioration in his senses as he aged, he thought. At least I’m getting some benefit being now over 50.

The gardens lining the street were as organized and meticulously groomed in precise patterns as the German mind was able to produce. While somewhat rigid and formal in layout, everything was displayed at its best and with daily watering by city works looked impressive. The plants and trees showed no stress from the intense heat.

The long walk gave the friends a chance to catch up on their families.

Isaac reminded Will he had been married twice and was considering another venture into the blissful state that apparently had so far eluded him in his prior marriages. With Rachael, I had one child, Ruth, who is now twenty-two. She lives with her mother in Miami and when occasionally permitted by her mother, we have telephone contact and a few letters are exchanged. There is little depth to our relationship, I’m afraid. I suppose I could have tried harder or I could have visited her in Miami more often. But, as you know, that marriage broke up because three-quarters of my time was taken up with developing my orthopedic practice and the rest of my time was spent chasing nurses and a few actresses. About five years after the divorce I remarried, rather too quickly, without getting to know number two. Number two proved to be a money-grabbing bitch, interested in my bank account but not in me or in us. That lasted ten years only because we had two children in rapid succession and I felt I should do more to engage with these children, still feeling very guilty about Ruth. Eventually I was liberated when the bitch found an exceptionally rich entrepreneur who removed her from my care. She may have been removed from my care but not until she almost cleaned out my assets. I was so relieved to be rid of her I didn’t fight very hard. I have been playing the field since, but Sarah my current interest and I have spoken of marriage. I suppose we are sort of engaged, but I am in no rush.

Will considered his own family history, which was much more prosaic: one marriage, two children, both in their twenties, each at university in professional schools. Will felt somewhat embarrassed that he had not displayed greater testosterone in his relations with the opposite sex. At least one miserable divorce is de rigueur these days, he thought. However, things were as they were, and he felt no need to alter the status quo. The occasional dalliance might have been invigorating, but the consequences would have been swift and draconian if he had.

As they walked toward the Brandenburg Gate they passed numerous NATO military vehicles in procession on the street, apparently coming from the precincts of the Reichstag. Even this late after the close of the Second World War, German military forces were exercised only through NATO, not as a separate national force. The purpose of the procession was not readily apparent, but there were enough black limousines with darkened windows to announce that persons considered important were being transported towards or away from other persons of importance.

Crowds assembled on the sidewalks to watch the spectacle. The street vendors selling ice cream and others selling trinkets had a booming trade. German national flags, which were held aloft as the vehicles moved past, were particularly popular among Berliners, the latter being usually very identifiable.

In the distance a military marching-band was heard. Somewhat strident and heavy on the ear, its actual location would only become clear as Will and Isaac approached the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. The military eventually gave up dominating the air waves, so an opportunity for renewed conversation became possible.

As we decided a few weeks ago, I have prepared briefing notes for our trip on those historical, architectural and cultural points of interest that have been my points of interest. You have prepared similar notes for yours. This all sounds rigid and weird for two friends escaping to Europe for two months, but each of us has an ulterior motive in undertaking this adventure. I hope to write with the objective of publication in some format. I haven’t yet, but it is a consuming obsession for my future plans, commented Will, as they settled somewhat comfortably on rigid metal seats in an open-air café.

Yes, briefing notes sound like a school trip… or a bus tour. I agree, though, said Isaac, "that we will get much more out of our experiences this summer if we have them. They will keep us engaged in asking the right questions, visiting the right places and seeing interesting people. You know my primary reason, apart from escape from middle-age routine, is to understand the appalling treatment of Jews in Eastern and Central Europe. I know many of the facts, but I have deliberately closed my mind to the human factors and emotions that created the victimization of the Jews over here. Remember, my grandfather was born in Russia. Yes, I know it became the USSR after the 1917 Revolution, but it was always Russia to me and to my family.

"I hope to discover how I could do something to ameliorate the condition of Jews in Eastern and Central Europe – when I understand the reasons for the fate of my people. Will, I have prospered and amassed more money than I need through my practice and successful investments.

As you may remember… I told you that was a goal during our history and poli-sci courses (you wrote some of my papers on that theme, as I remember). I think I would like to do a video or television programme. The contrast between life for Jews in the mid-twentieth century living in this area of the world and in North America is so different it is hard for Americans to comprehend. Think of the Holocaust. I believe I have the ability to research and prepare a commentary on the sources and reasons for the historic treatment of Jews over here. It may help in creating greater acceptance and respect for Jews in America. So, briefing notes are not as artificial and bizarre as it might appear.

Moving across the boulevard Strasse des 17 Juni at the Reichstag brought their attention back to that building. Will commented that it was built in the 1890s with its completion in 1894. It was the parliament building for the Imperial Diet. It served as such until 1933 when a fire gutted the building. This brings our being here back to you, Isaac – I’m sorry, Itzaak. The Nazis were in power then, but in the early years of their assumption of power Hitler proclaimed the disinformation that the fire was started by the Jews to undermine the democratically elected government in favour of the National Socialist Party – the Nazis. There was no proof offered of that allegation, but it was put forward in the characteristically Nazi dogmatic propaganda style the world was going to become familiar with. No one effectively challenged the theory that it was caused by the Jews, but there is absolutely no verifiable evidence that the Jews of Berlin or elsewhere had anything to do with the fire, said Will.

Look at the building. It is undergoing renovations to architectural plans conceived by English architect Norman Foster. Curious that the post-war German government would select an English architect to redesign its parliament buildings. Well, on further thought, not really, because Foster is one of the new celebrity international architects attracting considerable interest. The Germans wanted the imprint of celebrity on their new building. At the moment there are no equivalent Germans who have the same cachet. The building in its original design was just as aggressively competitive as will be its rebuilding. Look at it. It is designed in a heavy, somewhat ham-fisted neoclassicism that is a precursor to the style espoused by Albert Speer –

Remind me… said Isaac.

Speer was Hitler’s architect on staff at Nazi headquarters. He had the mandate to redesign Berlin and significant parts of Germany – and after the Anschluss, significant parts of Austria, too.

Will almost seemed to be talking to himself. Has Foster altered the 1890s design much? To the original structure on the outside below the eave line, not much, other than to make it functional as a modern democratic legislative building, but where Foster’s imprint and originality is expressed is in the rebuilding of the dome – and in the interior. You can see it is being reconstructed. The concept developed by Foster for the dome is being commented on widely in the western media. The dome will be glazed with spiral walks around the interior surface, many storeys above street level. But the single most dramatic aspect of the design is that as one walks up the spiral ramp, the walker can look over the interior edge of the spiral into the legislative chamber below. This is a profound reminder to the legislators that their work is open to public scrutiny. A powerful concept and an important statement of post-war German democracy.

Do you have anything as symbolic as the Foster dome in Canada? asked Isaac.

No, most of our legislative buildings were built before the end of the nineteenth century, although some of the western Canadian buildings were constructed early in the twentieth century. The earliest of our legislative buildings are in the Maritimes. Those in Ottawa are late nineteenth century with rebuilding after a major fire in the Centre Block in the early twentieth century. We have not had war and internal civil strife of a kind that would destroy them as happened here. So, our buildings do not have a Foster outlook. Our oldest buildings including the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa were English in their precedents, protocols and architectural concepts. There has been no need to change them. There has been no internal threat to our democracy and no remedial changes in the theory of our democratic government.

Let’s walk over to the Brandenburg Gate, suggested Isaac, signalling that Will’s propensity to lecture was in full bloom and needed to be restrained.

I will give you my briefing notes for Berlin when we get back to the hotel.

Good, I won’t take time to read them while I am exploring during the day – or at night if I am more engaged in other pursuits; but I promise to read them, probably at breakfast.

They walked past the Brandenburg Gate, along Ebertstrasse until they came to and crossed over compacted rubble in an area clearly left flattened from bomb damage during the war.

You do realise, Itzaak, that you are now standing on the Nazi chancellery? Deep below street level in the basement or sub-basement of the chancellery was the final administrative and security post held by Hitler in the closing days of the war. It was here in Hitler’s bunker that he married his companion, or mistress, Eva Braun, and later that same day as a honeymoon gift he gave her cyanide which she duly took, killing herself and after a brief respite as a widower he killed himself, less painfully with a self-inflicted bullet to his brain. His body was taken out of the bunker up to street level somewhere around here by his dutiful security guards. Following his clear instructions his body was cremated, or it now appears, partially cremated. The Russians claim that as its army entered Berlin they found the partially consumed body and took it to Moscow to symbolize the ultimate capture of the Nazis by the USSR. This area doesn’t look like much now, but it was at the centre of Nazi government and saw some of the worst decisions made and being implemented by Hitler and his cronies.

Will, where do you find all this stuff? asked Isaac, fearing another lengthy answer.

It is a period that has fascinated me for years. Much of my travel over the last fifty years, to about thirty separate countries, has been to visit and to conceptualize what happened during the war. I really think it is important for us all in the west to understand what happened and why. Perhaps it will prevent a repeat of the disaster that was World War II.

Great, let’s get some exercise and food, said Isaac in response.

Silence followed for a while as if a gift from above. The friends walked a short distance over the remains of part of the Berlin Wall into former East Berlin, now a constituent part of a unified Berlin. There they found a café where they had lunch. Neither Will nor Isaac were cooks, so food was intended to fill the pit and was either pleasurable or not. Neither took much notice of the name or the nature of the food. Will was more interested in the price and whether the concoction had red, green or yellow peppers, the presence of the latter ruling out many menu items.

After a restful lunch Isaac suggested they start their afternoon walk along the Unter den Linden at the Brandenburg Gate. He knew he would receive a commentary on the gate, but willingly subjected himself to the lecture as he knew the symbolism of the architecture of their main upcoming cities and sites was important in understanding the values, goals and social pretensions of the people of each place, as part of understanding the position of Jews in the cultures of each country they would visit.

Will explained that the gate was modelled in principle on a Classical-period Greek ceremonial gate. It was built, Will said, "between 1789 and 1791 according to architectural plans developed by Carl Gotthard Langhans. Its design is based on the Propylaeum, the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. Ancient classical Greek architecture was also the inspiration for the Greek revival architectural elements in the Reichstag nearby. On top of the gate is a statue, comprised of four horses known as a quadriga, celebrating a symbolic victory of peace. The quadriga was removed during the Napoleonic Wars, then reversed and remounted in 1814, complying with the orders of Prussian King Frederick III to celebrate military victory over the Napoleonic forces during the War of 1812. Hitler, ever the propagandist, had the quadriga turned towards the west as a bold statement of his objective of victory over the west as represented at that time by the allied powers led by Britain and France. By 2005 the Berlin Wall, which had been constructed though the centre of the city by this Communist East German government effectively dividing it, had been removed, but the land on which the Wall was built and adjacent areas still required extensive restoration."

Will recalled the gate in 1965 when the Wall was at its fullest extent. Reference to the Berlin Wall, as a wall, was a misnomer as it was two parallel walls with a cleared distance of several meters between the walls. Any area within a hundred feet from it, in West Berlin, was a potential killing zone. East German police enjoyed taking pot-shots at anyone on the west side who approached the wall at a distance that exposed them as an easy target. During that period neither East Berlin nor West Berlin took any steps to repair the heavily war-damaged gate or nearby areas. Will recalled that forty years before he saw trees and other plants growing out of and around the Brandenburg Gate – as was the case with much of the Reichstag.

The application of classical Greek architectural elements as the most important symbols of the Prussian state – as this area of Germany was known when the gate was built – announced to the world that Prussians understood the culture of the Greeks and the origins of classical Greek values. The Hohenzollerns were the royal family of Prussia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The image of classical Greek philosophical and architectural values, popular elsewhere in Europe in the early nineteenth century, were what the Hohenzollerns wished to present to the world as theirs and those of the peoples they ruled. They would build in the most fashionable style, and could do so, they thought, better than anyone else in Europe. When the Brandenburg Gate was built, there was no Germany in the twentieth-century sense. Berlin was the capital of Prussia when the gate was built. Prussia in 1790 was a tiny kingdom, but one with the highly aggressive objective of unifying all the German-speaking peoples under the Prussian rule of the Hohenzollerns. Much of the history of Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries stemmed inevitably and deliberately from Prussian leadership in creating itself as the central power in a united Germany of mainly German-speaking peoples who were to have, who must have, common linguistic and cultural values. All of this, Will told Isaac, was expressed in the gate and its symbolic relationship with the Reichstag.

When Isaac was freed from further instruction at the gate, they walked along Unter den Linden into the cultural and governmental core of pre-World War II East Berlin. It was already about 4:30 in the afternoon. Both travellers were weary and needed a rest, particularly as Isaac had plans for entertainment that evening.

When they got back to the hotel Will went to his room and picked up a copy of his briefing notes for Berlin which he delivered to Isaac in his room. As he was still suffering from jet lag, he begged off joining Isaac that evening. Will noticed that Isaac seemed somewhat relieved to be left to his own devices and free from absorbing any further educational observations produced by Will.

Will’s Briefing Notes, prepared July 1, 2005

• Pomerania, now divided between Poland & Germany, is a name whose origins are from the early Polish: pomorze, ‘by the sea’.

• 1466 with the Teutonic Order’s defeat, Pomerania became again subject to the Polish Crown as Royal Prussia.

• German population in Pomerania adopted Protestantism in 1534… the Polish population remained Roman Catholic.

• Suffered greatly under the Thirty Years’ War, depopulating large areas. In 1648 the Duchy of Pomerania was divided between Swedish Empire and Brandenburg-Prussia. Pomerania remained with Polish Crown.

• Prussia gained southern Swedish Pomerania in 1720 and then invaded and annexed Pomerania from Poland in 1772 and the remainder of Swedish Pomerania in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars.

• After 1815, the former Brandenburg-Prussian Pomerania and the former Swedish parts were reorganized into the Prussian Province of Pomerania and the former Pomerania was made part of west Prussia.

• With Prussia both provinces joined the newly minted German Empire in 1871. The Polish minority were discriminated against and measures were taken attempting to extinguish its culture and language, to create a single German-speaking people.

• 1866 Austro-German War – Seven Weeks’ War between German Confederation under the leadership of Austria (one side) and the Kingdom of Prussia (joined by Italy)

• Results:

– Prussia annexes parts of Bavaria, Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, parts of Hesse-Bierstadt, Holstein, Schleswig, Nassau and Frankfurt

– Dissolution of German Confederation (transfer of power to Prussia from Austria)

– Formation of North German Confederation

– formation of Austro-Hungary

• also known as:

– The Brothers’ War

– Unification War

– German Civil War

– War of 1866

– Fraternal War

• Franco-Prussian War, July 19, 1870 – May 10, 1871, between Second Empire of Napoleon III and the German states of the North German Confederation, led by the Kingdom of Prussia

• Part of the wars of German unification resulted in the:

– formation of the German Empire

– collapse of the French Second Empire

– German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine

• The North German Confederation:

– parts of former Pomerania

– Prussia

– Mecklenburg

– 22 independent states

– the first modern German nation state

– joined in the war by Bavaria, Baden, Wurttemberg

• After World War I defeat Pomorze Gdańskie Pomerania was returned to a rebuilt Poland, except the predominantly German-speaking city of Gdansk which was given independence as the Free City of Gdansk.

• Hitler and National Socialist Party (Nazi) 1933 won national election, gaining electoral power in Reichstag, thereby forming the German government. The election was held after Hitler assumed power and effective control of the German government. Also, it was after the devastating fire in the Reichstag which politically destabilized Germany.

• In 1938 Hitler expanded its Province of Pomerania to include parts of Germany’s province of Posen-west Prussia.

• By the start of World War II Hitler had effective control over most of Central Europe including Austria.

• In 1939 after the Hitler invasion and conquering of Poland, Germany annexed the remaining portions of former Pomerania then within Polish borders.

• During the war Jews were deported from the Pomeranian region and exterminated at a camp near Lublin.

• Slavic Poles were also rounded up and exterminated as they were considered by the Nazis to be untermensch (sub-human) races.

• After World War II all of Pomerania was within Soviet control as part of Poland.

Day 2

Looking haggard and rough, Isaac turned up for breakfast in the hotel dining room the next morning and sheepishly confessed his entertainment last night was more robust and exhausting than he had expected; but he assured Will he was up for the day’s schedule.

Just as well, thought Will, as it is Isaac’s plans we are following today.

Isaac’s interest in Jewish pre-1945 central and western European history required a concentrated study of Jewish Berlin and an investigation of those records that survived the war. His repeated questions to his parents, never satisfactorily answered, were whether the Holocaust was an extreme isolated Nazi policy or whether it formed part of a broader Eastern and Central European experience. His need to understand was fuelled by the knowledge that several members of his mother’s family had disappeared between 1939 and 1945.

My mother’s mother, my grandmother Ruth Cann, was born in Berlin in 1890. Her family were successful industrialists and well-connected in the Jewish community here. I don’t know which industries, or anything about them other than that the family was very rich. Even though they were Jews, they were courted and entertained by the Christian aristocracy and the emerging industrial upper middle classes, all of whom needed money. Money was the glue, I guess, that kept some of the Jews somewhat integrated into the upper reaches of Berlin society. The Jews were careful in their observance of Jewish customs and religious practices – that they would not disturb the Christian majority or be too blatant in their daily religious or cultural activities. Money always prevails. Even in late nineteenth century Berlin when Bismarck was reconfiguring the economy into one that would be industrial-based, many Jews were courted by the Christian elite as suitable spouses for sons and daughters. I always thought it was a mark of acceptance or even admiration for Jewish culture. The more I learn about the rapidity with which virtually the whole of German society turned on the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s, I doubt that was the case. I suspect the attraction was Jewish money only and once secured through dowries and marital settlements, the acceptance was discarded.

Will replied, Wouldn’t it have been apparent that those soliciting marriage with the Jews were only after their money? Surely their attitude to Judaism and their distinctive cultural practices would have been transparent?

No; remember, the sophistication of the upper reaches of German society was no less refined than in London, where the same fascination with Jewish money was taking place. No, those seeking or requiring the money were adept in being plausible, but I have to admit, I think many Jewish families were fully complicit in the marital transactions – hoping, naively, that intermarriage would lead to greater acceptance and to being recognized as equals in the newly developing Germany.

Well, Itzaak, let’s see what we can find today. Where are we to start and what do you hope to find?

We shall go to Oranienburger Strasse which was the pre-war centre of most of the Jewish community. The surviving records, albeit few, are found in or near the Hackescher Markt. The old Jewish Cemetery is located in that area. I am told that after the war the surviving records were assembled, organized and available for research. Some of the nineteenth-century burials in the cemetery have been identified. I want to discover whether there is any record of my mother’s family. She wouldn’t talk to us much about her family and what happened to them.

Alright, let’s set out, but as we go, tell me how Berlin Jews ended up in Russia.

Isaac answered, I’m guessing a bit, although I have some information from an aunt of my mother’s who gave me a little information years ago when I was a teenager. I wish I had listened more attentively. It appears that the Jewish community, while loyal to the countries in which they were living, were essentially transnational. They had a sense of an extended Jewish community that stretched across national borders. The sense of Jewishness was common to those in Russia, Poland, Germany and England, for example. So, there was a lot of travel from one community to another. My father’s family were Russian, living in Moscow, I think, but their businesses frequently took younger male members to Berlin. During one of those visits, my great-grandfather, Gregor Menshikovsky, was introduced to my great-grandmother. The two families were related and had many friends and connections in common. I really know very little of the connections or family relationships. I don’t think my father’s family was as wealthy as my great grandmother’s, but they were on their way up. That was established by my grandfather Itzaak Menshikovsky who, then aged 30, had access to Bismarck. Bismarck was encouraging Russian investors like my great-grandfather to establish manufacturing works in Germany. It appears the Russian family was into metal works and occasionally, when required by the Russian military, they manufactured armaments. No doubt that is what attracted Bismarck to my great-grandfather’s family business. Anyway, my great-grandparents met, fell in love and the rest is unknown but predictable.

What was your grandmother’s family name? Do you know her parents and siblings’ names and where they died?

Her name was Anna Cann, and her father’s name was Aaron. Yes, grandmother had a brother and a sister… I don’t think either survived the ’thirties. I know nothing of them. The Nazi persecution of the Jews started long before the outbreak of the Second World War. It is possible, but unlikely, that I have second or third cousins in Berlin or elsewhere in Germany. I would love to find out. My family is so abbreviated and unknown I almost feel like an orphan. I think I would be more grounded and settled if I could find other members of my family. As you know, I have a sister, Anna, but she and I have little contact. I don’t even look like anyone in the family I know. Let’s see what we can find.

As they left the Bleibtreu Berlin Hotel, a new hotel on the Ku’damm Street, they passed numerous high-end luxury shops, taking note of those that required visiting when time could be found for exploring the mercantile attractions of a highly prosperous and wealthy city. Isaac made it clear earlier that he had arrived in Europe with several credit cards, most without a spending limit and a line of credit on his American Express account accessible through his bank’s European reciprocating banks.

Will’s schedule involved an early start to the day. But checking opening times for their destinations they discovered they had over two hours to kill, so they stopped at a sidewalk coffee shop and sat down to enjoy a couple of espressos and to hear more of Isaac’s story.

Have you made so much money in your practice that you can have such surplus funds available not only for this trip, but for very expensive shopping? I have seen nothing so far on Ku’damm that I would or could afford, except, perhaps a new silk tie. I thought wives one and two had cleaned you out.

"I have accumulated a healthy investment portfolio after wife two was detached from my accounts. Will, perhaps I didn’t tell you, but my father died earlier this year. The family led a quietly prosperous lifestyle but nothing exceptional. In fact, my father appeared to deliberately avoid notice or display. After his death, my sister and I met with the family lawyer, investment adviser and accountant at the lawyer’s office in New York. I thought this was rather heavy-hitting for a simple estate. Simple estate it wasn’t. The estate lawyer explained that the will was indeed simple: everything to us equally except for a substantial bequest to a Jewish charity in New York. When I heard the amount of the bequest, I thought, either there was a mistake or there will be nothing left for Anna and me.

"The lawyer noticed my shock and disappointment and said with evident distain, ‘Your father hasn’t forgotten either of you.’ I sat back, telling myself to be more patient. It turned out that my father was extraordinarily wealthy. He was an academic teaching at NYU in the foreign languages department where for the past few years he had been dean. Deans do not make enough to become a little rich, let alone at the scale the lawyer estimated."

Will said, Well, your father’s family must have been very well established in mercantile and industrial businesses and in banking in Czarist Russia.

Well, that is part of the mystery. It appears that they were wise in anticipating the 1917 revolution. They may have moved much of their wealth to Switzerland where it was held in numbered accounts for many years. My father, it seems, was not aware of the money on deposit in Switzerland or the terms of the deposit, other than that it formed part of a trust. The terms specified that the money was to be held without notification to any member of the family for seventy-five years. Then the bank was to instruct the trustee to seek the descendants of the depositors. It is not clear why seventy-five years, but that is something I hope to find out. Anyway, the money was designated to go to the oldest male descendant of the depositor surviving in 1976. My father was identified and notified that some of the money was available to him. What he was entitled to at that time was turned over to him. It turned out to be a very small part of the total. The balance was to go to whichever members of his family who survived him and to whom it was assigned, I think.

Isaac took a pause to give his revelation due weight.

"Will, the total amount on deposit with the trust was close to 500 million dollars! Hell, I thought my father might have had investments worth about $100,000. We lived in a rented apartment on the Upper East Side, so there was no value in that. I don’t mind saying I felt panic when I heard the figure. I thought: ‘What has the creator of this wealth done to accrue such a staggering sum which no one knew about?’ I asked my sister Anna whether she knew there was so much wealth and where it came from. Dad was always much more open with Anna than me, so I thought he might have confided in her. ‘No,’ she said, ‘Dad always moaned about taxes, food costs and rent. Mother never disagreed or indicated that they weren’t cash-strapped.’ I turned to the lawyer and asked whether he had information on whether Dad knew about the size of the investments. The lawyer looked at me with a withering, condescending glare and said, ‘No. I know he didn’t. Your father knew he had to decide in his will who would receive it.’

Frankly, Will, while I knew the money was acquired by others, probably generations ago, one of the reasons for my trip this summer with you is to find out more about my family to discover the origins of the wealth. I have always admired your perseverance and how trustworthy you are – perhaps even half-bright – and I need you with me to keep me balanced and in focus.

Before we move on, why do you wish to use the name Itzaak here in Europe and cease to be Isaac as I knew you at Dalhousie when we were students? asked Will.

"The reason should be obvious now that I have revealed the inheritance. I must, I think, assert my Jewishness in every manifest way so that I can limit the amount of distrust and resistance to confiding in me by Jewish communities here in Europe. We are an insular people accustomed to attacks on our culture, language and businesses. I have recently taken up formal Jewish studies from a highly respected rabbi, an academic friend of my father’s. I have, through him, reinforced my suspicion that I would only get co-operation and family secrets revealed if I was accepted as one of them.

Anyway, what difference does it make to you, Will? If you prefer, when we are on our own ‘Isaac’ will do. At university you seldom called me by my first name. It was usually ‘twit’, ‘hey you’, ‘morose one’ and ‘slug’ – names I liked only because they were a sign of acceptance and a kind of personal connection between us. You were a verbal bulldozer then, Will, as you are now. I hope that will continue as I don’t have many real friends I can trust.

All right, Itzaak it is, said Will. Itzaak, I have trouble saying the name and relating it to you, but on this side of the pond I will try to remember this very foreign-sounding name and that it is you. I certainly had no idea that you were the lucky beneficiary of such a vast fortune. It’s interesting that there is such a mystery underlying its origin. I am keen to get into this with you. The expertise gained in my law practice includes the laws and practice of trusts, wills and estates, so I may be of some help there. The laws of Eastern and Central European countries differ from the English law-based practice in Canada, but there are sufficient common elements, I’m sure, that I can pick up the specific differences as we go.

Great, I look forward to getting into this with you. This is an added dimension to our adventure.

Now, to bring us back to the land of the living, what is it you want to achieve today? – This is your day and your agenda.

"Right. I wasn’t sure how to raise the inheritance with you and unsure of how you would react, although the way you have, Will, is what I had hoped. As we visit each major city on our route, I must discover what records there are of the Jewish families connected to mine who lived here, what their businesses were and how the families were connected, including by marriage. You see, I know almost nothing about my European relatives. I know my mother’s maiden name was Menshikovsky – probably a distant relative