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is
nothing more than applied biology. We must purify the Aryan race if
Germany’s health is to survive, and that will be the physician’s
task, yours and mine—don’t forget that.”
    “ That is nonsense and
evil, Father. I’ve never heard you speak like this
before.”
    “ Why? Treating the
hereditarily sick by sterilization should be seen as a God-given
blessing. Think of all of the mentally disabling illnesses that
will be eliminated. What a utopia to live in.”
    “ What about the Jews? Will
we sterilize them, too?
    “ No, I would think not,
though they do intermarry at times with other races, which they
shouldn’t do. Perhaps prohibiting them from doing so would be
enough. They are doing that now in America between the Negro and
the white person.”
    Erich stood up, leaning against a
cabin wall for support. Not only was he deathly seasick, he was
sick of his father’s ramblings. Finally he said in a faint voice,
challenging his father, “I will not be a part of this nonsense.
Prague is where I will be in the fall to study philosophy and
psychology and finish my medical training, not Germany. They don’t
speak of such trash there, only of the liberation of the
mind.”
    So Erich did go to Prague to finish
his preliminary medical studies for the coming years of clinical
training. There the great writings of Husserl and Freud and Jung
saturated his daily thoughts, leaving little time to think of home
and Germany. Never had his mind and soul been so free. His father,
now alienated from him, had joined the National Socialist party,
marching in lockstep with its racial ideology of cleansing the
Aryan race. But Erich had no time for such madness. He would go
home to Dresden only twice during his years away, then only to see
his mother whom he cared deeply for. And it was when he returned
from home the second time that he would seek Julia’s
companionship.
    After asking Julia to have coffee with
him, Erich was indeed summoned, as he later would laughingly refer
to it, to her home for a formal introduction to her father, Dr.
Jiri Kaufmann, a distinguished professor of psychiatry at Charles
University. The confidence Erich initially felt as he set out for
the encounter quickly abandoned him the moment he crossed the Old
Town square and entered Josefov, the ancient Jewish quarters.
Though many Jewish families lived outside the quarters, Dr.
Kaufmann resided in the same small house on Kaprova Street that his
father had, and his grandfather before him, only a stone’s throw
from Maisel Synagogue, where his family had worshipped the Hebrew
God for over 150 years. He had met and married Julia’s mother
there, a good and gentle woman by everyone’s account. Together they
represented ten generations of Jewish blood in Prague.
    Erich stood in front of the small
stone house looking up and down Kaprova, which seemed empty of all
life except for an ugly stray dog on the corner, barking loudly at
him. He wondered how many secret eyes had been watching from behind
the drawn curtains as he walked past the row of houses leading to
Julia’s. Tomorrow, Mrs. Kaufmann would spend the day explaining his
evening presence in their neighborhood.
    Julia opened the front door as he
started through the walkway gate.
    “ I was afraid you might
not come. But believe me, to Father some traditions are still worth
holding on to, even though it is 1938.”
    “ It’s a stretch for just a
cup of coffee,” Erich said, laughing as he followed Julia into a
small study where Dr. Kaufmann stood alone in front of dark wooden
shelving stacked with medical texts and journals.
    “ Father, this is Erich
Schmidt, one of my classmates at the university.”
    Erich stepped forward with his hand
extended but was met with a disarming silence by Dr. Kaufmann.
Unnerved by the awkward moment, Erich glanced nervously around the
study, then at Julia. This wasn’t what he had expected. Dr.
Kaufmann’s rudeness would be the easiest way to dismiss him