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catechism lessons for several months during which he would test their current knowledge of the Bible and then teach them in detail the differences between the two branches of Christianity. He also scolded them for having gone to Catholic Church so frequently when in fact they were not of the right faith. In his book that was as blasphemous as eating meat on a Friday.
    Benedikt found it h ard to keep his anger in check and to let the priest carry on with his sermon, but Johanna and Elizabeth made up for his offensive body language by throwing admiring glances at the priest, playing up to his own grand vision of himself as the wise and charitable saviour of these poor souls before him.
    Wilhelm and his father Oscar kept quiet and when put on the spot , they showed their lack of knowledge without any attempts to hide it or even make excuses for it. Father Haslinger was enraged whenever he saw the depths of their ignorance and ordered them to do homework. He knew that it was the women who were behind this whole conversion idea and if the men were ready to take on the new faith, he wanted to make sure they had to work for it. It shouldn't be made easy for anyone to convert and receive the reward of salvation. Baptism was a privilege and its right should be earned.
    When the date of their b aptism was near, Johanna mentioned little Karl to the priest and asked him if - after his father Wilhelm had become a Catholic – it would be possible to baptise Karl too? Father Haslinger thought about this for a while and then he said he would only do so if Karl’s mother was a Catholic too.
    Johanna immediately saw where this was going and in a desperate attempt to hide from the priest that Greta was a Jew she said, yes, the mother was kind of a Catholic, but she had only been baptised, had not been raised in the faith after that and had not received her confirmation. Elizabeth stared in disbelief at such speedy lying but Oskar punched her gently in the side to signal that she had to go along with it.
    “I will personally see to it that she receives the sacrament if she is willing to. I can't have a little Catholic boy raised by a non-believer. It would not be in God’s will,” Father Haslinger stated with seriousness in his eyes and turned to leave.
    Johanna rolled her eyes behind his back and then addressed him with as much humbleness that she could muster without laughing. “You are too kind. Of course you are right. I will speak to the mother.”
    Greta was shocked when she heard the proposal by Johanna.
    “You want me to pretend I am baptised so I can learn about Catholicism and convert, just so that my son can be baptised as well? That is a lot of lying and effort for something so unimportant. Will your God not punish you for all this deceit of a priest?” she said.
    “It must be better in his eyes than remaining Protestant or Jewish,” Johanna replied.
    “Do you really think that it will make such a difference in the community? No one is interested in German s, regardless of their religion,” Greta guessed.
    “I think it will make a big difference with the locals. It is not too muc h of an effort. We have all just taken that stupid course, so don't worry about the studying. We all can help you with the preparation. After that you only need to go to church once in a while, just like before,” Johanna assured her. “Who knows when we might need the help of our neighbours. It can't be wrong to make more friends and get the locals to see us as peers and fellow church goers and not just as rich German land owners. The Catholics love seeing someone come onto the right path with them. We'd have the Father as an ally which is good and the congregation hangs on his every word.”
    Soon Greta gave in and went to the lessons, even though it meant she had to give up even more of her precious little spare time allotted to reading. Father Haslinger was less strict with her than he had been with the others. He was quite aware that Greta