'The others didn't.

'
'What?'
Birth a n d Fate 'None of my other ones lived, Doctor.'
The doctor stood beside the bed looking down at the pale,
'Everything is normal,' the doctor was saying. 'Just lie back and tired face of the young woman. He had never seen her before
relax.' His voice was far away in the distance and he seemed to be today. She and her husband were new people in the town. The
shouting at her. 'You have a son.' barman's wife, who had come to help, had told him that the
'What?' husband worked at the local customs-house on the border, and
'You have a fine son. You understand that, don't you? A fine that the two of them had arrived quite suddenly at the small hotel
son. Did you hear him crying?' about three months before. The husband was always drunk, the
'Is he all right, Doctor?' barman's wife had said, but the young woman was gentle and
'Of course he is all right.' religious. And she was very sad. She never smiled. In the few
'Please let me see him.' weeks that she had been there, the barman's wife had never once
'You'll see him in a moment.' seen her smile. Also it was said that this was the husband's third
'You are certain he is all right?' marriage, that one wife had died and that the other had left him
'I am quite certain.' for rather unpleasant reasons. So it was said.
'Is he still crying?' The doctor bent down and pulled the sheet up a little higher
'Try to rest. There is nothing to worry about.' over the patient's chest. 'You have nothing to worry about,' he
'Why has he stopped crying, Doctor? What has happened?' said gently. 'This is a perfectly normal baby.'
'Don't excite yourself, please. Everything is normal.' 'That's exactly what they told me about the others. But I lost
'I want to see him. Please let me see him.' them all, Doctor. In the last eighteen months I have lost all three
'Dear lady,' the doctor said, touching her hand. 'You have a of my children, so you mustn't blame me for being anxious.'
fine, strong, healthy child. Don't you believe me when I tell you 'Three?'
that?' 'This is my fourth . . . in four years. I don't think you know
'What is the woman over there doing to him?' what it means, Doctor, to lose them all, all three of them, slowly,
'Your baby is being made to look pretty for you,' the doctor separately, one by one. I can see Gustav's face now as clearly as if
said. 'We are giving him a wash, that is all. You must allow us a he were lying there beside me in the bed. Gustav was a lovely boy,
moment for that.' Doctor. But he was always ill. It is terrible when they are always
'You swear he is all right?' ill and there is nothing you can do to help them.'
'I swear it. Now lie back and relax. Close your eyes. Go on, 'I know.'
close your eyes. That's right. That's better. Good girl . . . ' The woman opened her eyes, looked up at the doctor for a
'I have prayed and prayed that he will live, Doctor.'
few seconds, then closed them again.
'Of course he will live. What are you talking about?' 'My little girl was called Ida. She died a few days before

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 Christmas. That is only four months ago. I just wish you could have says. "It will be a new place and you can have a new doctor .. ." '
seen Ida, Doctor.' 'Please don't talk any more.'
'You have a new one now.' 'You are the new doctor, aren't you, Doctor?'
'But Ida was so beautiful.' 'That's right.'
'Yes,' said the doctor. 'I know.' 'And here we are in Braunau?'
'How can you know?' she cried. 'Yes.'
'I am sure that she was a lovely child. But this new one is also 'I'm frightened, Doctor.'
like that.' The doctor turned away from the bed and walked over 'Try not to be frightened.'
to the window and stood there looking out. It was a wet grey 'What chance can the fourth one have now?'
April afternoon, and across the street he could see large raindrops 'You must stop thinking like that.'
falling on the red roofs of the houses. 'I can't help it. I am certain that there is something in our
'Ida was two years old, Doctor . . . and she was so beautiful that blood that causes our children to die in this way. There must be.'
I was never able to take my eyes off her from the time I dressed 'That is nonsense.'
her in the morning until she was safe in bed again at night. I used 'Do you know what my husband said to me when Otto was
to live in fear of something happening to that child. Gustav had born, Doctor? He came into the room and looked into the bed
gone and my little Otto had also gone and she was all I had left. where Otto was lying and he said, "Why do all my children have
Sometimes I used to get up in the night and walk quietly over to to be so small and weak?" '
her and put my ear close to her mouth just to make sure that she 'I'm sure he didn't say that.'
was breathing.' 'He put his head right up to Otto's as if he were examining an
'Try to rest,' the doctor said, going back to the bed. 'Please try insect and he said, "All I'm saying is, why can't they be better
to rest.' The woman's face was white and bloodless, and there was examples of human beings? That's all I am saying." And three days
a slight blue-grey colour around the nose and the mouth. after that, Otto was dead. And then Gustav died. And then Ida
'When she died . . . I was already expecting another baby when died. All of them died, Doctor . .. and suddenly the whole house
that happened, Doctor. This new one was four months on its way was empty . . .'
when Ida died. "I don't want it!" I shouted after the funeral. "I 'Don't think about it now.'
won't have it! I have buried enough children!" And my husband 'Is this one so very small?'
. . . he was walking among the guests with a big glass of beer in 'He is a normal child.'
his hand . . . he turned around quickly and said, "I have news for 'But small?'
you, Klara, I have good news." Can you imagine that, Doctor? We 'He is a little small, perhaps. But the small ones are often a lot
have just buried our third child and he stands there with a glass stronger than the big ones. Just imagine, Mrs Hitler, this time next
of beer in his hand and tells me that he has good news. "Today I year he'll be almost learning how to walk. Isn't that a lovely
have been given a new post in Braunau," he says, "so you can start thought?'
packing immediately. This will be a new start for you, Klara," he She didn't answer this.

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 'And two years from now he will probably be talking all the The mother didn't move. She didn't even turn her head to
time and driving you crazy with his questions. Have you settled look.
on a name for him yet?' 'Go on!' cried the barman's wife. 'He won't bite you!'
'A name?' 'I am frightened to look. I don't dare to believe that I have
'Yes.' another baby and that he is all right.'
'I don't know. I'm not sure. I think my husband said that if it 'Don't be so stupid.'
was a boy, we were going to call him Adolfus.' Slowly, the mother turned her head and looked at the small
'That means that he would be called Adolf.' peaceful face that lay beside her.
'Yes. My husband likes Adolf because it has a certain similarity 'Is this my baby?'
to Alois. My husband is called Alois.' 'Of course.'
'Excellent.' 'Oh . . . oh . . . but he is beautiful.'
'Oh, no!' she cried, raising her head suddenly from the bed. The doctor turned away and went over to the table and began
'That's the same question they asked me when Otto was born! putting his things into his bag. The mother lay on the bed,
He needs a name immediately. That means he's going to die!' watching the child and smiling and touching him and making
'Now, now,' the doctor said, taking her gently by the shoulders. little noises of pleasure. 'Hello, Adolfus,' she whispered. 'Hello, my
'You are quite wrong. I promise you that you are wrong. I was little Adolf. . .'
simply asking a question, that is all. I love talking about names. I 'Ssshh!' said the barman's wife. 'Listen! I think your husband is
think Adolfus is a particularly fine name. It is one of my coming.'
favourites. And look — here he comes now.' The doctor walked over to the door and opened it and looked
The barman's wife, carrying the baby, came across the room out into the passage.
towards the bed. 'Here is the little beauty!' she cried, smiling. 'Mr Hitler!'
'Would you like to hold him? Shall I put him beside you?' 'Yes.'
'Is he well wrapped?' the doctor asked. 'It is extremely cold in 'Come in, please.'
here.' A small man in a dark green uniform stepped softly into the
'Certainly he is well wrapped.' room and looked around him.
The baby was tightly wrapped in a white woollen cloth and 'Let me shake your hand,' the doctor said. 'You have a son.'
only his little pink head stuck out. The barman's wife placed him The man smelled strongly of beer. 'A son?'
gently on the bed beside the mother. 'There you are,' she said. 'Yes.'
'Now you can lie there and look at him as much as you like.' 'How is he?'
'I think you will like him,' the doctor said, smiling. 'He is a fine 'He is fine. So is your wife.'
little baby.' 'Good.' The father turned and walked over to the bed where
'He has the most lovely hands!' the barman's wife cried. 'Such his wife was lying. 'Well, Klara,' he said, smiling. 'How did it go?'
long delicate fingers!' He bent down to take a look at the baby. Then he bent lower and

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lower until his face was very close to the baby's head. The wife 'Yes, Klara, I know.'
lay sideways, looking up at him with a frightened look. 'Three dead children is all that I can stand, don't you realize
'He has the most wonderful pair of lungs,' the barman's wife that?'
announced. 'You should have heard him screaming just after he 'Of course.'
came into this world.' 'He must live, Alois. He must, he must . . . Oh God, protect him
'But my God, Klara . . .' now . . .'
'What is it, dear?'
'This one is even smaller than Otto was!'
The doctor stepped forward. 'There is nothing wrong with
that child,' he said.
Slowly, the husband straightened up and turned away from the
bed and looked at the doctor. He seemed confused and
frightened. 'It's no good lying, Doctor,' he said. 'I know what it
means. It's going to be the same all over again.'
'Now you listen to me,' the doctor said.
'But do you know what happened to the others, Doctor?'
'You must forget about the others, Mr Hitler. Give this one a
chance.'
'But so small and weak!'
'My dear sir, he has only just been born.'
'Even so . ..'
'That's enough!' the doctor said sharply.
The mother was crying now. Her body was shaking.
The doctor walked over to the husband and put a hand on his
shoulder. 'Be good to her,' he whispered. 'Please. It is very
important.' Then he pressed the husband's shoulder hard and
began pushing him forward to the edge of the bed. At last, the
husband bent down and kissed his wife lightly on the cheek.
'All right, Klara,' he said. 'Now stop crying.'
'I have prayed so hard that he will live, Alois.'
'Yes.'
'Every day for months I have gone to the church and begged
on my knees that this one will be allowed to live.'

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