Disclaimer: I do not claim to be or know QT, or anyone remotely associated with him or the movie Inglourious Basterds. But a girl can wish.
Dedication: To Frau -- (my German teacher), leo(dot)org, and my trusty German/English dictionary. What would I do without you guys? Well, not speak German very well, that's for sure.
A Short Note from the Author: I did include some German words and phrases in this (mostly to prove to myself that even though I've graduated I can still use the five and a half years of German I took at school), but it's really easy to tell what they mean since the translation comes right after them (and honestly I didn't even use that much). I did this mostly for emphasis. The only exception is the phrase "trotzige Augen," which translates into the title of this story (and if you want to hear the story about how I came up with that you'll have to message me... it's pretty weird).
I'm also in the middle of writing a short companion piece to this that is more of Aldo's point of view. So after you read this story drop a note as to whether you'd be interested in reading that too.
Thanks for your time! And without further ado...
Defiant Eyes
(Trotzige Augen)
an Inglourious Basterds Oneshot.
X
The stars somehow seemed brighter that night.
Sie sind schimmern. They are glimmering.
The thought passed through Hugo Stiglitz's mind but, what did he care about the stars? So he turned his face back toward the mud covered road that lay before him.
A storm was coming. Yet somehow through the darkening clouds the stars still stubbornly shone. The stars were trotzige Augen, defiant eyes, searching through the mist for the bastards below them.
And yes, they were indeed bastards. The word seemed the only one truly befitting of this group, this little Nazi killing troupe Hugo had joined.
It had been a while since Hugo, the infamous Hugo Stiglitz, had been invited to go pro with his Eigenshaft, his talent. But was it a talent if it was something that came so naturally to him only now? Only in a time of great necessity? (If one could call insanity a necessity – but nowadays... who knows?)
It hadn't always been so easy for him to kill people. Before he found his passion for killing Nazis. His reason. Well, of course he had had a reason before, but not enough of a a reason to take action and risk his life.
Every single day he was with the Basterds, he regretted not taking action sooner.
X
Soon the rain was too much to hike through, and Aldo went searching ahead for some kind of shelter. Hugo felt confident that out of all of them, Aldo would be the one to find something. The man had amazing Glück, simply incredible luck. In only a little while he came back with news that there was a barn they could stay in – the owners apparently weren't very fond of the Nazis (as a lot of people in France) and were more than glad to welcome some Americans into their home. Well, barn, but at least it had a roof. That's all the Basterds really cared about at this point.
A roof over their heads was a small comfort, but small comforts are what keeps a man going in times like these. Hugo's kleiner Trosten could be counted on one hand. The power of his gun, the bloody scalps of Nazis on his belt, lukewarm food in his belly (sometimes), the persistence of his anger, and the reliability of Aldo Raine. Aldo was the reason Hugo was still alive; he saved Hugo from being an example to the German army not to defy the Nazi government. In fact, if it weren't for Aldo, Hugo wouldn't have been anything close to resembling a human being.
And now Hugo took a small comfort in this barn. But it wasn't just another barn...
At first glance they're just a normal bunch of Jews hiding in a barn.
That wasn't really a surprise. And Lord knows the Basterds didn't mind at all.
When Hugo took a second look he saw what he thought, for a foolish second, were two stars, but that he quickly realized were eyes.
They were her eyes. Trotzige Augen.
X
The first thing he had noticed about her was also the most obvious thing about her: the golden star adorning her dull brown jacket. He didn't care about that. He wasn't like those other Nazi Schwein.
The second and most important thing he noticed about her were her trotzige Augen. Defiant eyes.
Those eyes were glaring at him. Glaring at his uniform, just daring him to go ahead and hate me. Go ahead and blame me for your problems.
Go ahead and just try to destroy me.
When he didn't do anything to her, she frowned curiously and muttered an obstinate, 'Arshloch.'
He just smiled at her, amused, and continued on his way.
They met like that every day for two more weeks. Same place, same time, same glare. Every time she would dare him with her eyes to rough her up, insult her, anything. And he would always do nothing but smile.
Once every day quickly turned into twice a day, and then more. Soon enough he was seeing her everywhere. At the bakery, on street corners...he started looking for her, spotting her in crowds of people. Purposely going places he knew she would be.
And then one day, just like that, it all stopped. Hugo couldn't find her anywhere. He would look for the star but the few Jews who still went out now were not her. She just... verschwinden. Vanished into thin air.
Hugo didn't even know her name.
X
Hugo sees her again when he's registering Jews.
She's not in his line but he wants to yell, to call out to her. To warn her not to give the Feldwebel her name. The only reason the Nazis had for registering Jews was to keep track of them. For what... the before-Hugo did not want to wrap his mind around it.
Later, when he sees what's happening with his own two eyes he can give voice to the thought. Für schlachten. For slaughter. They're keeping track of them so it will be easier to find them and kill them. To make them numbers instead of names. Numbers with lives hiding behind them.
But Hugo is a selfish man, even then, and so he does not warn the girl with the star on her breast, even when she looks at him with her trotzige Augen.
When his work is done Hugo looks up her name and address. Deciding to leave it at that, he tries to put his curiosity and obsession out of his mind. He heads towards his home, only to find himself at her front steps. Wondering how he got there, Hugo is stuck between knocking and leaving when the door opens.
Warum sind Sie hier, Herr Soldat? Why are you here? she asks him. Hugo doesn't quite know how to reply, so he gives her his name instead.
Ich bin einer Jude. I am a Jew, is all she says. The implications of this statement do not need to be voiced.
Ich weiß. I know, Hugo says.
They both understand perfectly.
X
When Hugo takes her out (to the movies, to dinner – everywhere a normal couple would go), he refuses to let her wear the yellow star on her coat. What would be more odd, more unusual than a German soldier sympathizing with – and dating – a Jew? Hugo supposed there were at least a few more men like him out there, but it wasn't something a man would freely talk about these days.
She's anxious at first. What if they get caught? Hugo only has to mention to his uniform to remind her that no one would question the girl hanging off of a enlisted German soldier's arm.
She relaxes, and they finally have that little bit of Friede; peace that they've been waiting for for what seems like their whole lives.
X
It doesn't last long. Things like that never do.
She has a run in with the Gestapo and Hugo has to hide her.
Things are tense for three weeks. Every day she's afraid they'll find her. Hugo isn't held in the highest of regards among his colleagues and she's fearful that he'll be punished too. She doesn't want Hugo to get himself killed but he knows that if he had to, he would die in her place.
So when the opportunity arises for her to escape out of the Nazi's control with a group of other Jews, she jumps at the chance while Hugo is just worried for her safety.
Hugo ist nervös, but she needs to prove something. Prove that she doesn't have to cower in hiding to survive.
She leaves that night after a drawn out Auf Wiedersehen.
X
The next morning Hugo is feeling less anxious than he had been. He convinced himself that she was fine. But that same morning is when he sees it.
He hears it first. Hears the laughter and the celebration. Then the low hum of the truck's engine. He asks his fellow Gestapo officers what the cause is. In passing they answer that they had caught some Jews escaping last night.
Hugo's face does not completely pale until he sees the back of the truck. In one terrific moment of fate the wind gently, almost teasingly, lifts part of the tarp up and seductively flashes a glimpse of white, tender flesh.
Later, when he's brutally murdering his commanding Gestapo Officers in their beds and smiling as he does it, he thinks of those bodies. Der Leichnam, The corpses that were now probably rotten and burned, mingling with each others decay in a mass grave somewhere far away. Far away from him.
Her eyes would never be defiant again.
And it was in that moment that he became his own kind of Basterd – hardened, vicious. He came to have trotzige Augen, just like his Mädchen had had, once upon a time.
Those bodies caused his tipping point. He couldn't stand back and let them do this. He had to do something when before he had settled for just being quietly angry. Those bodies made him explodieren. Explode into a thousand pieces, a thousand feelings all ripping and tearing and shoving at each other.
X
Then, in early 1944, in a barn, after they both realize who the other is, they embrace.
Hugo doesn't say anything. He doesn't need to. He just holds onto her a little tighter.
And the Basterds look on, not quite sure about this. Whatever it is.
Aldo looks away.
X
Their time together was short, but still she could tell that he was not the same Hugo anymore. He had been broken; broken by the Nazi Schwein that they both hated so much, and put back together the wrong way.
He didn't even smell the same way anymore.
She remembered the Hugo who had kind, laughing eyes, and was sad. She would never get her Hugo back. But at the same time he was still Hugo and she still loved him. She supposed she would always love him; would always do anything for him.
So when he asked her to leave, get away from the Nazis that would find her and kill her, she didn't question him. She knew that traveling with the Basterds was not where a woman should or ever could be.
So although she hated to leave him again, she did.
X
And then she waited.
She traveled to America, where she learned more English in a month than she ever had at school. She did odd jobs until she was offered a steady income working at a quiet shop that sold clothing that was ugly but cheap.
She didn't talk much or make many friends, but she listened to all she could. She muttered to herself in German to help herself concentrate on where she was, on the now. Because otherwise her mind would drift off to Europe, to Hugo, and her chest and throat would tighten until she couldn't breathe.
She forced herself to keep waiting.
X
Her last thoughts were of Hugo.
She got the news of the Nazis first. That Hitler, Goebbels, Bormann, Göring, everyone was dead. She laughed. They had gotten what they deserved. She could finally take back the trotzige Augen that they had stolen from her.
For a second she hoped that Hugo had seen it, but then quickly took the thought back.
Aldo was the one to tell her. As is should have been. She knew it really couldn't be anyone else.
She knew right when he came to her door that Hugo was dead. Aldo calmly and slowly told her everything, sitting there next to her on the threadbare couch that doubled as her bed.
He talked about her sometimes, Aldo said. That is, the times when he talked. Aldo told her that Hugo had loved her, and she thanked Aldo for saving him from execution, for being there for Hugo, and most of all for just being his friend. Aldo got a sad look on his face when she said that word.
He grieved with her. He stayed with her until she stopped crying. She hadn't even realized she was.
Aldo was the last person to ever see her.