Hauptmann Schweitzer adjusted his hat and surveyed the street from the shelter of an overhang. Nothing much going on. In half an hour he could get out of the cold and head back to Berlin for Christmas. He would be glad to go. Warsaw was a miserable place to be in the winter.

"Hauptmann!"

He turned to see another officer crossing the street towards him. As the man approached, Schweitzer recognised him as fellow Hauptmann Reinhart Berger. They saluted.

"Bergen, you old son of a bitch, I didn’t know you were stationed here too!"

His friend grinned. "And I’m getting out as soon as I can. Horrible weather!" Schweitzer and Bergen began to head back toward City Hall.

They passed a young woman and a thought occurred to Bergen.

"So Rudi, what’s all this I keep hearing about your sister seeing a man?" he asked teasingly.

Schweitzer raised a tawny eyebrow. "Surprised?"

"Well, quite frankly, yes! Who is this superman who walks on water and wins the fair lady’s hand?"

"His name is Maximillien von Reichter. He’s a skinny little doctor from Bavaria."

"You’re kidding."

"I kid you not."

"Well for God’s sake, if we’d have known that’s what she wanted, every man in Berlin would have changed addresses and gone to medical school!" laughed Bergen.

"Ah, but you know that wouldn’t work."

"Wouldn’t it?" he mocked.

"Of course not - she’d still be able to tell you were a load of horny bastards!" They both burst into laughter.

Maria laughed as the little dachshund puppy struggled to pick up a ball nearly the same size as itself. Another puppy noticed Maria and pressed its tiny paws against the window, yapping excitedly.

"They’re so adorable! I just want to take them all home with me!" she gushed.

Max made a noise of polite agreement, although he didn’t really share Maria’s enthusiasm for fuzzy little animals. They had run into each other while Christmas shopping and now, walking home, Maria had stopped outside a pet shop window to exalt over a litter of wiggling puppies.

"My family had a dachshund when I was a little girl," she explained as she straightened up. "I love them." Max recalled his father’s Alsatians as they continued on their way.

Despite the war with England and her allies, Christmas 1939 was relatively normal for the Schweitzers and their friends. Presents collected underneath the glimmering Christmas tree, and the house was filled with the nostalgic smelled of pine and Yuletide baking. Sibling rivalry waned (as way always attempted at this festive time of year), and Maria even tried her best to tolerate her brother’s hopelessly dim-witted girlfriend.

On Christmas Eve, when presents were to be opened, there was knock at the door. It was Max, with Maria’s gift, which he had explained on the telephone had to be brought in person that evening.

There was a very strange sound coming from the whatever-it-was as the family and Max settled in the parlour. Maria very carefully lifted the top of the gift box, not quite sure what to expect.

Her eyes grew wide as a velvety brown head and two scrabbling paws emerged, wiggling excitedly. Maria squealed with joy as she lifted the dachshund puppy out of the box.

"I can’t believe it! Oh, thank you thank you thank you!" Maria wrapped her arms around Max and, catching the rest of her family quite off guard, kissed him boldly.

Her parents and brother smiled at each other proudly. It looked as if Maria might become a bride after all.

This observation was more than just wishful thinking. Anyone who had seen Maria that winter would have agreed with the Schweitzers. She and Max were constant companions. They went to movies, took walks with Lilli the pup, and beat each other at chess. They worked on Maria’s homework and even had the first dance of 1940.

For Maria, her time spent with Max was a bright spot in an increasingly dark world. The persecution of Jews continued without mercy and countries fell to the Reich at a frightening pace, but with Max’s arm around her, Maria felt a little more hopeful. maybe, she concluded, maybe this feeling was love.

One night early in the year, when the ground was just beginning to thaw, Maria crept out of the house on another of her secret missions. This time, however, she wasn’t going out to give food. She was going out to get information.

She had walked into the kitchen that morning to discover a new housekeeper. A very obviously Nordic one. When she asked where Janina was, her father answered that she had been "called away," in a matter-of-fact voice Maria knew meant "no more questions." It bothered her intuition all day, and by evening she was determined to find out whether or not her suspicions were right.

As she made her way into the Jewish neighbourhoods, Maria saw that she had been right to worry. It was bizarre. Everything was as still as death. The only light came from a few street lamps, dimly illuminating block after block of empty yards and dark, locked up houses. It was utterly deserted. Either deserted, Maria concluded with a sinking feeling, or emptied out.

"Stop! Who’s there?"

Maria felt her blood turn to ice. She whirled around to face the piercing beam of a flashlight. A flashlight held in the hand of a trenchcoated officer.

This is it, thought Maria. I’m dead. They would interrogate her. Take her to court and find her guilty of treason. And then she would hang. They would hang her publicly in the square where she would slowly twist in the wind, eyes bulging out of her blue face -

"What are you doing here?" The officer demanded, having regained his composure after the shock of finding a pretty redhead in his flashlight beam.

Maria hesitated for what felt to her like several hours, frantically thinking of what to say. An idea struck her. It was revolting, but she had no other plan, and not much time either.

She sighed in relief and put a hand to her chest. "Oh, thank goodness! I was so afraid you were a thief or some maniac about to kill me!" she giggled.

The officer’s expression faintly softened. "What are you doing here, Fraulein?" he repeated. She approached him with a sexy swing in her step. "My little puppy ran away. I was looking all over for her and before I knew it I got lost," she explained with a little pout.

The man smiled. She was only a harmless girl. And not a bad-looking one at that. He sneaked a quick look at her chest.

"Come on," he gave her his arm. "I’ll take you back home." Maria grinned and took it.

She told him her address and they set out off through the dark streets. The conversation was light and the officer said he was sure the puppy would turn up somewhere. He was not particularly intelligent, Maria could tell, and easily distracted by the attention of women. To her additional relief, he was middle class and therefore not likely to have heard of her. She was free to playact without much suspicion. Arriving at Maria’s house, the officer was about to bring her to the front door when she tugged on him to stop. He looked down at her in confusion.

"Oh no, please don’t wake up my parents," she begged. "They’ll never let me out of the house again! Let me go in through the back door?"

The officer looked stern. "I’m sorry Fraulein, but it’s my duty. Besides, it’s too dangerous for a woman to be out by herself at night."

Maria moved closer to him, so that her breasts were pressed against his uniform.

"Please? I promise I won’t do it again," she said in a sugary voice. The man’s eyes were wide.

"Uh, well..."

She let her leg brush against his. "Just this once?" she breathed.

Now he had broken into a sweat. Maria fingered his hair.

"Oh - all right," he gave in, stammering a little. Maria giggled and strutted over to the garden gate. She turned to give him a little wave before disappearing around the side of the house.

The officer returned the wave in a daze. "Just -" he began to call as she turned the corner, "- um...don’t...do it again," he finished to himself.

Inside, Maria breathed a sigh of relief as she locked the door behind her. Entering the hall, she met up with Lilli, who whined and licked her owner’s hand. Maria told her to stay quiet and carried her up the stairs.

It was only as she pulled the bedcovers over herself and Lilli that Maria began to cry. She tried to silence it under her pillow but the tears just wouldn’t stop. She cried in fear for the missing Jews. She cried in disgust at what she had done to save herself. But she cried the most in realising there were no choices left. The days of rebellion were over. It was imperative now, to save her life, that Maria Schweitzer fit in. And a crucial part of her fitting in, she knew, was marriage.

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