“The Soviets refuse to expedite travel permits with temporary papers.” Anna tossed four stamped travel permits and one rejection onto the kitchen table.
Since Mutter knew that Richard and his new bride lived with Aunt Lydia, she itched to travel down there and visit the son she hadn’t seen in years. But that meant they had to cross the Soviet zone. And with the tension between the former allies running higher by the day, bureaucratic nitpicking aimed at Berliners was a common occurrence.
“So now what?” Lotte asked, picking up the temporary papers she’d had expedited at the Danish-German border.
“You need to apply for papers under your real name,” Anna said.
“Which you should have done weeks ago,” Mutter reminded her and walked over to the sideboard, from where she took a sheet of paper
