On that day, the 25th of May, the second birthday of Kaas Busbeck, the son of Mylia and Ernst Sprengler, but formally registered as having as his father the doctor Theodor Busbeck, with whom he lived, on that day, the 25th of May, the couple who on that morning had escaped from Georg Rosenberg, despite making various attempts, didn’t succeed in seeing the child.

Theodor Busbeck’s house was guarded by an officer who controlled all entries and exits to the building, and despite certain signs pointing towards the existence of a child in that house [...] at no moment had the child itself ever been seen.

Ernst could not withhold a gesture of agitation, brutishness: he walked up to the man [...] standing in front of the gate [...] and pushed him, clumsily.

Ernst’s violent movements were influenced by what can be called incompetence in form, the treatments at Georg Rosenberg had softened the muscles; machines designed to exert force had been deflected from their purpose, becoming, over the months, machines of contemplation; muscles that observe, that watch from the window, muscles that wait.

from Jerusalém [Jerusalem]