Page:Storm Over Paris.pdf/258

own. Every "Aryan" on a throne of gold. Yes, we've figured out everything, down to the last decimal. So many slaughtered, so many crippled, so many burned, so many enslaved-and the rest liquidated!

Does anyone's hand quake? Then he is a weakling, a coward! Out with him! Out of our ranks! We are the rulers of the earth! Not only are we equipped with modern weapons, our hearts are modern, too. Hearts fashioned of molten steel, they beat their metallic beat to the rhythm of the Fuehrer's commands. Forward, Germans! To victory! Today Europe, tomorrow the world!

As Paris disappeared in the dim distance, it became more difficult for Anna and the children to move on. Outside of Orleans the automobile in which they were riding crashed into a military truck and was flung off the road. The owner of the car and his young daughter were seated in front when the collision occurred. Both of them were taken to the hospital. By some miracle Anna and the children escaped injury. Soon the miracles began to repeat themselves. On one occasion a bomb exploded a bare metre ahead of where they stood, killing one man outright. At another time a mine exploded on a part of the road they had just quitted. A little further on, they barely escaped being spattered by bullets from a low-flying enemy plane which turned its guns on the fleeing refugees.

But Anna was not relying on any miraculous intervention to save her and the boys from harm. She made her way through woodlands and marshes, avoiding the open roads which were crowded with soldiers and civilians. The ground trembled under the heavy treads of the tanks, freight trucks, automobiles, motorcycles; anything and everything on wheels, including baby carriages, jammed the roads in flight from nowhere to nowhere.