A Family Affair
May. 24th, 2017 07:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ties_that_bindTobias Holt was born as a result of an affair between Ludger Holt (Emcee) and German-Romanian, Mala Badis (Ezera's mother), in the early days of the Baader-Holt relationship, before Lugder even knew Ezera's father, Josef, but did know his brother, Andreas Baader, the leader of the Baader-Meinhof Group (aka: Red Army Faction) from his work in the Stasi and support of some of the group's ideals and initiatives.
The relationship was short-lived (it was only a brief marital interlude for Mala, anyway, who loved her husband dearly, but still had a more wandering nature that wasn't quite suitable for marriage in the first place) because of fears it would affect cross-border operations. However, Mala became pregnant because of the affair and in order to avert her husband's suspicions, went to stay in Dresden with an "ailing family member" for the last few months of her pregnancy.
Enter Tobias Holt into the world, who was given to his father and never knew who his mother was until a few months before her death.
In other words, Tobias Holt--Emcee's son--and Ezera Baader are half-siblings. Tobias suspects that Ezera might, in fact, be his fraternal twin, which would mean that Emcee was her father (something, if true, wouldn't go over very well with Ezera) and Mala Badis was a better schemer than most gave her credit for.
What Josef Baader knew or suspected, no one but perhaps Lugder and Mala know/knew. However, we do know that the two men became good friends for a long time, both saving one another from the Stasi. Josef Baader even hid Lugder and Tobias in his cabaret, giving the former a new identity and place in his club. For a few years, things were fine and Tobias had a home at the club where he and Ezera were told that they were cousins and that Lugder (now only going by the nickname "Emcee") was an uncle. Ezera had many uncles and aunts at the club and that was the only name that the children knew of the people going in and out for their and everyone else's safety.
But when the Berlin wall fell, the Stasi began cleaning up its loose ends which included traitors and those that fled with too many internal records and state secrets (like Emcee and Josef who would later use the material as blackmail against the German government for money and to get the state to fuck off).
The Baader’s and the Holt’s fled Germany in hopes of racing outside the reach of a dying intelligence structure. They fled separately. Ezera and Tobias, then about 8, never saw one another again. But Stasi assassins were never far behind.
For the Baader family, whose immediate involvement in the underground resistance movement in Germany had been significant, the pressures became unbearable as the Stasi threatened their lives even overseas via these contracted assassins. Finally bowing to the pressure and realisation that he couldn't protect his family on his own, Josef Baader made a devil's deal with the mafia so that his family was always protected and Emcee, whether from loyalty, mixed family relations or to protect his son, did the same. With with previous criminal, resistance, and state security experience, they were contracted by the mafia to do jobs, falling ever deeper into criminality. For reasons only revealed to Tobias much later in life, he learned that "uncle" Josef Baader faked his death, leaving his family. That always sat wrong with Tobias. Eventually, both "Emcee" and Josef became fixtures in the criminal underground (the former has property and racketeering enterprises and the latter used entertainment venues for drug and human trafficking fronts and to house prostitution rings.)
The difference between the families was that the Baader clan never told Ezera the truth of what happened. That was the last remnants of mercy from a father who loved her. Emcee pulled Tobias into the fold. It cannot be said that Tobias minded, although what choice does a child have when he grows up around criminality? But Tobias isn't unaware. He's made a conscious choice.
Families need to stay together. If even they are crime families.
The relationship was short-lived (it was only a brief marital interlude for Mala, anyway, who loved her husband dearly, but still had a more wandering nature that wasn't quite suitable for marriage in the first place) because of fears it would affect cross-border operations. However, Mala became pregnant because of the affair and in order to avert her husband's suspicions, went to stay in Dresden with an "ailing family member" for the last few months of her pregnancy.
Enter Tobias Holt into the world, who was given to his father and never knew who his mother was until a few months before her death.
In other words, Tobias Holt--Emcee's son--and Ezera Baader are half-siblings. Tobias suspects that Ezera might, in fact, be his fraternal twin, which would mean that Emcee was her father (something, if true, wouldn't go over very well with Ezera) and Mala Badis was a better schemer than most gave her credit for.
What Josef Baader knew or suspected, no one but perhaps Lugder and Mala know/knew. However, we do know that the two men became good friends for a long time, both saving one another from the Stasi. Josef Baader even hid Lugder and Tobias in his cabaret, giving the former a new identity and place in his club. For a few years, things were fine and Tobias had a home at the club where he and Ezera were told that they were cousins and that Lugder (now only going by the nickname "Emcee") was an uncle. Ezera had many uncles and aunts at the club and that was the only name that the children knew of the people going in and out for their and everyone else's safety.
But when the Berlin wall fell, the Stasi began cleaning up its loose ends which included traitors and those that fled with too many internal records and state secrets (like Emcee and Josef who would later use the material as blackmail against the German government for money and to get the state to fuck off).
The Baader’s and the Holt’s fled Germany in hopes of racing outside the reach of a dying intelligence structure. They fled separately. Ezera and Tobias, then about 8, never saw one another again. But Stasi assassins were never far behind.
For the Baader family, whose immediate involvement in the underground resistance movement in Germany had been significant, the pressures became unbearable as the Stasi threatened their lives even overseas via these contracted assassins. Finally bowing to the pressure and realisation that he couldn't protect his family on his own, Josef Baader made a devil's deal with the mafia so that his family was always protected and Emcee, whether from loyalty, mixed family relations or to protect his son, did the same. With with previous criminal, resistance, and state security experience, they were contracted by the mafia to do jobs, falling ever deeper into criminality. For reasons only revealed to Tobias much later in life, he learned that "uncle" Josef Baader faked his death, leaving his family. That always sat wrong with Tobias. Eventually, both "Emcee" and Josef became fixtures in the criminal underground (the former has property and racketeering enterprises and the latter used entertainment venues for drug and human trafficking fronts and to house prostitution rings.)
The difference between the families was that the Baader clan never told Ezera the truth of what happened. That was the last remnants of mercy from a father who loved her. Emcee pulled Tobias into the fold. It cannot be said that Tobias minded, although what choice does a child have when he grows up around criminality? But Tobias isn't unaware. He's made a conscious choice.
Families need to stay together. If even they are crime families.