The Forbidden Six

December 24th, 1932

Early that morning, Liese awoke with her mind set upon baking something for her friends. She had decided the night prior that she was going to bring something to her friends but she didn't know what yet.

After getting dressed, she hurried down to the empty kitchen and flipped open her mother's careworn recipe book. The recipe she settled on looked daunting but fun to make. It would take around an hour. Liese glanced at the clock. She had enough time to make the sweets and get to church on time.

Her family wasn't necessarily religious; everyone always went to church on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day whether they were religious or not. The only time her family ever attended church was on those two days. Liese's only solace was the fact that she would see all of her friends there, spare Leyna and Pieter Engel, since they were both Jewish.

Liese walked to the living room and lugged the radio to the kitchen, so she could listen to music as she baked. After fiddling with the knobs for a moment, she found a station playing music she liked and got out the ingredients to make Berliners. She made the dough then rolled it into balls to fry them. As the doughnuts were cooling after being fried, Liese went to wake Augustine.

She opened the door without knocking. It hit the wall with a bang and came flying back towards her. It hit her on the shoulder and she indignantly cried out. Augustine sat up and blinked. Liese crossed the room and threw open the curtains. He screeched and covered his eyes with one of his hands.

"Frohe Weihnachten. I made Berliners. Do you want to help me fill them? I'm going to bring some to my friends later today after church," she wondered as she looked out the window. It had started to snow. Thick clumps of snowflakes lazily drifted down from the gray sky and settled on the ground.

"Fill them?" Augustine echoed. "Fill them with what?"

"Jam. Raspberry jam. What do you think I'd fill them with? Dirt?" She pretended to eat an imaginary doughnut. "I love a good old dirt Berliner. My favorite!" He laughed as Liese glanced out the window once more. "Anyway, it's snowing."

The nine year old sat up straighter to see the snow softly falling from the gray sky. He glanced at his sister. She shrugged and started to leave the room. He flipped over in his bed once again. She stared at his back for a moment.

"If you help fill them you can eat one before me," Liese said.

Augustine grinned and hopped out of bed. "Can I eat the jam?" He followed his older sister to the kitchen and reached to grab one of the doughnuts. Liese swatted his hand away.

"Nein! I need it and Mutti needs it for later. You know we're in a Depression. We can't waste anything. It's hard enough for us to get food as it is. With all the inflation and such..." Her sentence died away.

Augustine thought for a moment. He frowned. "Then why are you baking something and giving it away?"

She faltered as she grabbed the jam and started to put it into a piping bag. After stuttering for a moment, she came up with an answer. "I'm helping out. It's not like I'm going to give away all of these Berliners."

Augustine's eyebrows raised and he gave her a dubious look.

"Are you going to help or not?"

"No."

"Augustine!" Liese indignantly cried. "You said you would help."

"I changed my mind. People can change their mind, you know. And you know how to do it. You're twelve; almost an adult. An adult has to make things on their own, you know."

Liese huffed as she piped raspberry jam into the first Berliner. Augustine sat on the kitchen counter and watched. He was quick to point out all the things that she was doing wrong. She scowled when Augustine told her that she was holding the piping bag wrong for the third time.