A/N: The other day I watched 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas' for the first time. Of course, I'm a sucker for a WWII movie, so I watched it with baited breath. Before the movie started, though, I got the idea of a Labor Camp!fic with Prisoners!Ludwig and Gilbert. Of course... when I saw the movie's end... I don't think I could ever kill off the characters here like that. I cried. DX
Um... some history now... The specific Labor Camp the boys are at is Auschwitz III - Monowiz. It was in the annexed part of Poland and had both Jews and non-Jewish Germans who were deemed 'not up to par' with strength. Um... Oh! In one of Gilbert's character's songs, he mentions Silesia. This camp was supposed to be located in Silesia. Um... the Nazi's ordered the rest of the prisoners to do a death march near the end of the war and then in January in... 1945? the Red Army saved the survivors. I didn't put the death march in. More creative license is that I'm not sure if there were any medical experimentations held in Monowitz, but I wanted to include it. The 'doctor' that cuts Gil open is Josef Mengele - "The Angel of Death." I am also unsure if they ever experimented on albinos, but it seems like something that would happen since they look 'different' from 'normal' people.
Sleep medicine - if it's not obvious enough - is anesthesia - something Mengele never used.
The terms "East" and "West" that the boys use are childhood nicknames. Gilbert was born in areas of what used to be Prussia - in the East - while a few years later, Ludwig was born in West Germany.
I hope you enjoy this. Oh! I also meant for when the doctors are talking about Gil and they say albino... That's in German. Heheh. Albino translates to Albino in German... I'm not sure on the gender though. Probably masculine.
Three months, two weeks, and four days. Gilbert and Ludwig Beilschmidt had been in Auschwitz for three months, two weeks, and four days. And for those nearly four months, Gilbert had been protecting his last remaining flesh and blood by sneaking food, working for the two of them, and taking punishments for the both of them.
Gilbert was getting skinny while Ludwig's weight only fluctuated a little. Gilbert was becoming weaker while Ludwig remained the same. Gilbert was beginning to worry while Ludwig barely understood what was happening around him.
"Is that a flower over there, West?" Gilbert pointed behind the little boy. When he turned around, he scraped his food onto Ludwig's plate.
"I don't see a flower, Big Brother." Ludwig giggled at his brother. "Your eyes must not be working today."
"Yeah." Gilbert tapped his temple. "My eyes must not be working. Now hurry up and eat, I'm already done."
Ludwig nodded and quickly finished his breakfast. "Do we have more work?"
"Yeah. I'm afraid we do. But when we are done today I'll play a game with you before we go to sleep. Does that sound okay?"
"Yes!" Ludwig hopped up and scurried over to the shed and grabbed two shovels.
The blisters on Gilbert's hands were popped and were oozing over the shovel's handle. As the splinters dug into his palms, he could do nothing more but grin and bear it. If at least, for Ludwig.
Speaking of which, Gilbert glanced at Ludwig. He was diligently shoveling the dirt which would eventually become a grave, even though Ludwig did not know that. The little boy, barely eight years old, was a hard worker, Gilbert had to admit that.
"You holding up there, West?"
Ludwig looked up from the ground. "Yes, Big Brother." Then he went back to shoveling.
The nights were cold. Freezing, almost, with no blankets for Ludwig. The brothers slept in bunks with up to three other people pressed together. For Gilbert, the nights were horrifying. The other men in the huts cried and called out for their lost wives, sisters, daughters. Gilbert never let Ludwig go at night.
The freezing nights with little sleep and the long days of hard work wore Gilbert out with the little food he kept for himself.
"Get up, East." Ludwig shook Gilbert again. "Get up, please."
Gilbert rubbed his eyes. "Sorry, West. I think I was dreaming."
"Hurry up, East. They're coming to check." Ludwig ushered his brother.
Gilbert looked over his head. The pair of soldiers that came every other day were coming towards their hut to check for any dead. Gilbert hopped up and the two quickly ran off towards the shovel shed.
"I know it's getting colder, Luddy," Gilbert said. "But we don't have any other clothes. Besides, do what Uncle Fritz used to say. Jump around and you'll get warmer." He laughed when Ludwig started jumping up and down in place.
"I can't jump when I'm sleeping, Big Brother." The laughing died.
"I'll figure something out, don't worry."
"If I wear your shirt, you'll be cold, East."
"No I won't. I'm too awesome to be cold. You haven't seen me shiver once, have you?" Ludwig shook his head. "See? I can't get cold. Now put it on and go to sleep."
That night, Gilbert's lips turned blue.
"W-Where are they taking you, East?" Ludwig held onto Gilbert's arm.
"I dunno. To the hospital, I guess. For I check-up. Now stop hanging on me and go get your work done. I'll be back when I'm done." The two soldiers dragged Gilbert by the arm towards the dark building.
"We've never seen someone as white as him."
"It's been recorded. It's called, Albino."
Gilbert sat on the examining bed. He knew he was albino. Uncle Fritz had told him when he turned seven. But, he couldn't understand why it mattered if he was albino or not to these soldiers.
"He'll make for a good subject." The other man agreed.
"I'll inform the Führer and the tests will begin as soon as he agrees."
Tests? Gilbert thought. A written test, or a check-up, maybe. "What kind of test?" he asked the soldier that had stayed.
The man seemed to ignore him, but he answered a few moments later. "To see why and how albinism works."
"L-Like… Cut me o-open?"
"Yes. But don't worry. You'll be up on your feet soon enough." The man chuckled and scribbled something onto a clipboard.
Gilbert felt his stomach turn.
"Don't I get something to ease the pain? Like, sleep medicine?" Gilbert asked frantically as the knife came closer to his stomach. "P-Please!" He felt the cold tip press down and then a prick as it cut through his skin. "Please! Please!"
Gilbert screamed as his stomach was opened up. The restraints kept him from struggling much, but he squirmed from the needle as best he could.
"Shut up!" The doctor shouted. His voice frightened Gilbert, but the boy stopped.
Gilbert gritted his teeth and soon everything was black.
When Gilbert woke up again, his stomach was throbbing painfully and he felt like he would be sick. When he tried to lean over, he felt the stitches holding his stomach close pull and he lie back straight. He swallowed back the bile and looked around the room.
It was the same room from before he passed out. Sans the doctor and his assistant.
Gilbert shivered, suddenly realizing how cold the room was and how cold he was. He laid his head back down and closed his eyes. He counted the throbs in his stomach, each as a second and started from one every sixty. He fell back asleep soon after that.
The doctor woke Gilbert up the next time.
"There's nothing different from a normal child his age." The man mumbled under his breath as he wrote on the clipboard.
"I am normal," Gilbert said.
The man looked up and laughed. "If you were normal, you wouldn't be on that table or in this camp, now would you?" And he laughed some more.
Gilbert puffed his cheeks and glared at the man. "When will my stomach be better?"
"Your tissue has to grow back together so it will take some time. And what are you so hyped about?"
"I have to get back to Ludwig. He's probably wondering where I am."
"You aren't going back to work for a while, kid. We still have tests to run."
The fear of the knife shut Gilbert up.
Gilbert was sitting in a tub of ice. He was shivering uncontrollably and his teeth chattered loudly. "W-W-What do-does t-t-t-t-this pr-prove?" Gilbert's lips were turning purple and he could feel his muscles clenching up.
The doctor looked at him and then at his assistant. The two men laughed. "A kid like you wouldn't understand so just shut up." Gilbert kept chattering away for almost an hour more.
The tests lasted almost a week and Gilbert was beginning to feel even worse than he ever had before. His stomach constantly hurt, his toes were cold, and he was worried for Ludwig.
The doctors told him they would be letting him go after one more test to go back to work. Something about his eyes.
He was lying on the same bed as usual and waiting for the doctor.
The man came in with his assistant and the two crowded around Gilbert. "We're going to be looking at your eyes today. And don't give me that look. There's no knife. I can't afford to hurt them."
Gilbert limped to the hut he had missed so dearly. The doctors hadn't lied when they said there would be no knife, but they had still poked and prodded them. His eyes were sore and he couldn't see correctly as he stumbled on.
When he got back to the familiar smell and surroundings, he collapsed on the nearest, clear bunk. He made sure not to bump his stomach and curled into a ball as best he could.
The sound of his name being called was the only thing that kept him from passing out again.
"Gilbert! East! Big Brother!"
Gilbert rolled over and looked toward the direction of the calling. Ludwig was running up, pushing past the crowd of people in the tight place.
"Hey Luddy," Gilbert said. He hated the way his voice cracked.
"W-What happened, East? You were gone the whole week!" Ludwig kneeled by his brother. "Are you okay?"
Gilbert smiled for his baby brother. "I'm fine. I just had to do a few tests, is all. But I'm tired right now and I want to sleep so just stay by the bunk while I'm sleeping, okay?"
"Okay. Sleep well."
When Gilbert woke up, his eyes weren't sore and he could see just as clear as he had before. His stomach wasn't throbbing and he felt better than he had since the past week. His sat up and stretched as much as he dared to.
Ludwig was curled up, sleeping, like most everyone else was, next to him on the bunk. Gilbert stroked his hair fondly and sighed. "We'll get out of here soon, Luddy. I promise."
The next day, Gilbert followed Ludwig to their new job site. The little blonde boy chatted away about their new job of building more huts as they made their way to the mostly empty field.
"And after the frame is up, we have to put the walls up."
"Is that so, Luddy? That sounds boring." Gilbert laughed when Ludwig gaped at him.
"It's not boring! It's good work! We're making more homes for the others."
Gilbert stopped walking. "They aren't homes, Ludwig," he said crossly. The other boy stopped too. "They aren't homes and they never will be, so don't call them that. Do you understand?"
Ludwig looked at him like a kicked puppy. "Y-Yes. Sorry."
Gilbert shook his head. "N-No. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I snapped at you. Let's just go finish our work."
"They didn't just give you a check-up… Did they?"
Gilbert sat up, staring at Ludwig through the moonlight. "W-What? Of course they did. Now get some sleep. We have room to stretch out tonight." And Gilbert laid back down and settled into their bunk.
"B-But… You were limping for a while afterwards, East… And you were squinting more than usual."
"I hurt my leg on my own and all they did was poke my eyes. It's nothing so go to sleep."
"The people in the hut next to us didn't come back, East."
"What?" Gilbert looked down past the group of eating men and looked at the empty hut. "Where'd they go to?"
"The soldiers took them somewhere last night when you were sleeping."
"They went to the showers, they did."
The boys looked at an older man next to them. "W-What?"
"Those Nazi's took 'em to the showers." He was frowning.
"What are the showers, sir?" Gilbert asked.
"It's no shower you're used to, lad. They put a group of people in the building and then gas 'em. They're all dead in a few minutes."
Gilbert set his bread down.
"Speaking 'o death, I see you're still here."
"W-What does that mean?" Ludwig looked between his brother and the man.
"Your brother here is different than the rest 'o us. The different ones get tested on and-"
"Stop."
"I hear Hitler's trying to figure out what causes 'em to be different an-"
"Stop it!"
"And when the tests are done… …They get killed."
"Shut up!" Gilbert stood up and shoved the man, but since he was only a child and a very skinny one at that, the man remained seated. "C'mon Luddy, let's get to work."
"That's why they took you, isn't it?"
Gilbert stopped. "Y-Yeah."
"When d'you think the Allies'll get here, Big Brother?"
"Not so loud, Luddy. And… I don't know. Soon, I hope."
"Some of the others are planning a resistance attack. Ludwig, you and I aren't going to be a part of it. If it looks like they'll fail, we will still be in the fields, working. But if it looks like they'll succeed… We'll go."
Ludwig nodded as he hammered a nail into a board. "What will happen if they fail?"
Gilbert thought a moment; he thought of the showers and the gas. "Let's not think like that."
As the two brothers walked through the camp towards their latest job, they noticed small groups of people everywhere. They were all talking casually, some whispering. The words, "Allies" and "D-Day" caught their attention.
Gilbert strained his ears to hear better.
"The American's are supposed to be coming in soon. They freed the people in another camp a few weeks ago with the Brits."
"They'll never make it here," another man said. "Auschwitz is too guarded."
Gilbert pulled Ludwig along.
The soldiers at key posts around the camp were supplied with three or even four other officers. The guard dogs were posted at the entrance and around the camp. Two more huts had been gassed and Gilbert was beginning to be on edge.
The soldiers had refused to feed them for a few days now. That was nothing unusual, but Gilbert was getting an uneasy feeling about it.
On a whim, he asked a soldier for a belt to keep his pants up and miraculously, they brought him one. One long, leather belt.
At night, Gilbert and Ludwig gnawed on it and Gilbert wore it during the day, the bite marks covered by his shirt.
No one in the camp had eaten in a little over a week. Ludwig was becoming skinny and Gilbert cringed every time he looked at his chest and was able to count each rib.
It was a rumor around the whole camp, prisoner and soldier, that the Allies were coming to liberate Auschwitz. That was why Gilbert was still on edge.
He was wary of what could happen before the Allies could get to the camp. What if the soldiers decided to just go on a mass killing spree? What if they killed off the Allie forces? What if the Allies were able to free them but then on the way out of harm, more Nazi soldiers came?
Gilbert's questions were answered one early morning when the soldiers called for a line-up.
Gilbert was still yawning as he and Ludwig got into line and tried to figure out what was happening.
"You will be marching!" a man shouted. "You will march to a new camp a few miles away!"
The marching never came. Out of what seemed like nowhere, a gun was fired and one of the Nazi's fell, dead.
Then all hell broke loose.
The men around Ludwig and Gilbert began running in every direction, the soldiers began shouting and firing rounds into the crowd. Gilbert took Ludwig's hand and they ran to find a safer place to stay.
They heard the guns firing and ducked whenever it sounded close. Gilbert had found a hiding spot behind one of the huts. There were two large boxes on the back wall and he had stuffed Ludwig and himself between them to where no one could see if they walked by.
Someone started cheering. Gilbert strained his ears to understand why. The person cheered more, but a few gun shots later, the cheering stopped.
Then a rumbling began. Ludwig held onto Gilbert when it got louder.
Gilbert peaked out from the boxes and saw a large metal mass moving through the gates, mowing down the barbed-wire. He crawled back to Ludwig and held him. "I-I think it's the Allies, Luddy."
Ludwig nodded and held Gilbert tighter.
After the first Soviet showed himself, the chaos seemed to end quickly. It was a blur, actually. The Nazi's gave up quickly, after a short fight for dominance. More tanks appeared and the Nazi's were quickly executed.
The Soviet's quickly started a fire and burned their bodies. And after the smoke cleared, they brought bread and water to the Jews.
A few Soviets were sent to search for more survivors around the camp and were ordered to bring them to the open to receive food and medical treatment.
Ivan Braginski was one of these men. He was tall with silvery hair and a childish smile. He roamed the camp with a grimace, though. Everywhere he went he only saw fear and sadness. The people he met were thin and could barely hold themselves. They were frightened and weary of the newcomers.
The large Russian had to be gentle when he touched them. He felt as if the people were an expensive egg and he had been entrusted to care for it.
It was a good hour into his search when he spotted on odd site of four feet peeking out from behind a box. He stepped up slowly so as not to scare whomever was behind the large box.
"Hello, friends," Ivan said in shaky German.
The feet disappeared.
"I am here to… bring you to food." Ivan tried to squeeze between the boxes to see whoever it was. "Could you come out?"
One snowy head popped out and scrutinized Ivan. Then a blonde one.
"Could you come out?" Both nodded.
"You're a Soviet, right?" Gilbert asked. He had never heard that accent before, but it had to have been Russian.
"Da. I am Russian. I am Ivan. And who are you?"
"I-I'm Gilbert and this is my little brother, Ludwig."
Ivan looked solemnly at Gilbert. He was very thin and was having trouble standing up straight. The over-sized clothes he had been given were even bigger now that he had not eaten in a while.
"How old are you two?"
"I-I'm twelve and Luddy's eight."
"Good. Gilbert, Ludwig, come with me. We have food for you and medicine." Ivan turned to lead the boys but turned back around when he heard a thud and Ludwig choke on a sob. Gilbert was on the ground, passed out. Ivan quickly picked him up, hiding his grimace from Ludwig when he only felt bone. "Let's get your brother back to the others, yeah?"
Ludwig nodded and quickly followed the man back to where a few tents had been set up for temporary medical care.
Ivan went into one and set Gilbert down on an open cot. Ludwig knelt down by his head, out of the way of the cramped space. Ivan got a doctor and he began checking Gilbert over.
The two men spoke in Russian as Ludwig tried to understand what was wrong with his brother. The men made many hand gestures and soon Ivan left. Ludwig glanced fearfully at the doctor when he came back to examine Gilbert again.
"I-Is Big Brother alright?"
The man nodded and answered in better German than Ivan. "He is malnourished and very weak. He needs food and water. Ivan is going to get some for you and your brother."
Ivan returned with half a loaf of bread and a canteen of water. He halved the loaf again and handed it to Ludwig. "Don't eat it all, little one. You will get sick." Ludwig nodded and slowly nibbled on the sweet tasting bread. He drank a bit of the water and waited for Gilbert to wake up, but fell asleep before he did.
When Ludwig came to, Gilbert was sitting up, eating the bread that Ivan had brought earlier. Ludwig watched him, really watching as his older brother ate the bread. He was paler than usual and boney.
"East?"
Gilbert jumped a little and turned around. "Mornin' West. Nice cot, huh? Wanna sit with me?" Gilbert scooted over to make room for his brother. Ludwig sat next to him and hugged him.
"Are you okay now, East?"
"The doc says that I have to eat more and then I'll be fine. You need to eat too." Gilbert broke off a piece of bread and gave it to Ludwig. "Ivan said that they're cooking meat and that he'll get some for us when it's done."