Futile Love
John Mertens

THE BOOK

This love story takes place in Germany between the years 1936 and 1943. At the age of seventeen, Erna Neuman and Hans Traber fall in love. Nazi laws force their separation because Erna is Jewish. During WWII, Traber now a soldier in the German army, finds Erna under circumstances that compel him to rescue her. Gradually and tenderly their first love is re-awakened as he attempts to take her to safety on a perilous journey to Switzerland. He fails...

A WWII love story you will never forget...

THE PREVIEW

At seventeen Erna Neumann was tall and slender. Her straight, black, shoulder-length hair was pulled smoothly over her head. Her dark eyes were intelligent and gentle. She was a shy girl, perhaps too shy for her age. It may have been the untimely death of her mother - she died when Erna was nine—and the fact her father was an introverted man that accounted for this.

That she met Hans Traber at all was sheer accident, for later she could not explain nor even guess why she had chosen to walk by the soccer field where the boys from the high school were kicking the ball around. It was even more perplexing to her how almost at once her eyes had singled him out of that bunch of guys running like hell after the ball. He caught her watching him though, and she blushed in embarrassment, turned her head and walked on. Traber stood there looking after her and it was plain to see that he regretted seeing her walk away. When she reached the end of the field, just a few steps before she would be out of sight, something within him told him that he should not let that girl slip away. He forgot the soccer.

***

When the guards met again in front of the bridge, Traber nudged Erna to follow him. On hands and knees they crawled to the edge of the canal embankment and from there forward along the narrow stone ledge of the embankment to where the trees ended. From there on the only cover was the rut of a footpath running along and between the canal and the barbed wire coil. The rushing water in the canal droned on, drowning any other sound. Traber looked over the edge into the canal. The current was strong and then he saw the ghastly spikes sticking out of the boiling current. He moved on, his body slid into the rut of the path. On elbows and toes he propelled himself forward. Erna did the same. Slowly they gained way. Ten yards from the bridge Traber raised his head to check on the guards. What he saw nearly stopped his heart. The dog was pulling frantically on the leash, trying to get into the poplar grove. He had picked up their scent. The guard released the dog. Nose to the ground it ran into the grove. The guard remained, watching. Now the dog reappeared sniffing the ground. He stopped, looked at his master and then scurried to the edge of the grove toward the canal. Traber's heart began to pound and sweat poured from his forehead. He knew what was going to happen. The dog came closer, scampering along the retaining wall his noose on the ground. Traber jumped up.

"Erna run! Get across the bridge!" he yelled. The dog howled. He had seen them. Erna jumped past Traber and ran. Traber grabbed the barbed wire coil with his bare hands and…

ACKNOWLEGEMENT

I wish to acknowledge the outstanding and invaluable editorial skill of my wife, Verdine Mertens.

THE AUTHOR

John Mertens was born and educated in Germany. He served in the German Army during WWII. After the war he studied engineering. A year after graduating he immigrated to the USA where he worked as a research engineer in the space and nuclear industries. He now lives and writes in the western United States.

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