PROLOUGE

The Empire of Prussia, a nation of immense supremacy and its capital, Königsberg. Throughout history the Germans and the Prussians are prominent figures with their strength and enormity. Dreaded by some, but then approached the World War. Germany was sent spiraling into insufficiency and inflation. German and Prussian dignity was diminished. Shortly after came the Second World War, for some interval these Germanic countries reclaimed their power and once more came to be feared and loathed.

Königsberg was such a phenomenal city and Gilbert Beilschmidt had the displeasure to reside there with his younger brother, Ludwig. The Beilschmidt family was a reputable one, not the richest of Prussia but they had a resilient German essence. With the birth of their first son, Gilbert, they lost their reverence. Gilbert brought humiliation to the household. He was born healthy and without difficulty but in appearances he frustrated the household. A son born with snowy hair and gory red eyes to parents of straw-colored hair and sapphire eyes was an atrocious occurrence to the Beilschmidt name.

Gilbert's father was swayed to believe his mother had been sleeping around. "Du Schlampe! Ich bin eine Hure heiraten! You bitch! I am married to a whore!" shouted his father day and night.

"Deine Mutter ist eine Hure und du bist ein Bastard bist! Your mother is a whore and you are a bastard son!" verses Gilbert received from both his father and from children he grew up around. No true German parent desired for their child to play with the bastard albino son of a whore so Gilbert grew up unaccompanied. His parents never divorced even if they clashed constantly and from time to time Gilbert laid witness to his mother's thrashing by his father and soon received his personal abuse when he reached the age of four. By then his mother was pregnant once more and soon came a baby brother.

The child was given the name, Ludwig. A true German name for a true German son of blond hair and blue eyes. Amidst his birth, his mother fell from this lifespan. Two brothers, one pure German and precious to his father and the other despised by his own father and considered a disgrace to the Beilschmidt name. They grew up together and Gilbert truly valued Ludwig and Ludwig admired his older brother.

Gilbert grew to be a troublesome adolescent and at the age of 12 his life would change.

CHAPTER ONE: THE KOENIGSBERG BOMBING (Gilbert's point of view)

I never really understood why appearances signified so much, "A true German has eyes of blue and hair of blond!" That is all I ever heard from my father as well as the fact that I failed to meet those requirements.

I was eating an apple I'd stolen from the market by stuffing it inside my jacket like always, I was sleight of hand and displayed astonishing dexterity. I seldom was caught and the only time I did, was when Ludwig was following me everywhere like a misplaced puppy. He was eight years old, for Christ's sake, why couldn't he just leave me alone and go play with someone else. I'm twelve, practically a man, and I don't need my kid brother following me around and getting me in trouble all the time.

"You should wipe your mouth from that apple juice running down your chin," I heard some prudish voice behind me to see, you guessed it, a prudish girl in my school class. Her stupid face has that I'm-better-than-everyone-and-especially-you face.

"Shut up," I stated and dabbed my chin with the back of my hand. Her small hands were placed on her hips and her lips were compressed.

"You can't tell a woman to shut up!" the prudish girl howled.

"Woman, where? I don't see a woman. All is see is swine." I chuckled at my joke and hurled the apple core at her feet. I could have guess her shoes would be leather and newly shined unlike my leather boots, dull with grime and dust.

"I'm telling my mamma on you!"

"Go ahead. What's she going to do? Send me to a ghetto?" by the abrupt widening of her eyes and saddening brows I immediately knew she was Jewish.

The girl quickly ran off, she was crying. I could hear her sobbing. What was she doing her? All the Jewish people were taken out of school and put in a ghetto or a camp. I thought about telling my father, that's what I was supposed to do. Tell a Nazi, like my father, that there was a Jew who wasn't wearing a Star of David and was freestanding of her ghetto. After four seconds of intense debate, I was on my way to inform my father. I knew he was going to be proud of me, I was conducting my obligation as a German!

A smile grew on my face as I jogged down the Königsberg streets in my gray tweed trousers rolled up an inch above my tan leather boots that touched my ankles. I was wearing a button up, crisp white shirt with the short sleeves rolled up enough to only cover my shoulders. My feet hit the stone paths as I dashed through crowds of blond hair. Through the masses I saw the towering figure of my father, his slicked back blond hair and swastika arm band. "Vater! Vater! Ein Jude! Sie trug keinen Stern!"

A Jew! She swore no star! That is what I told him as I ran towards him through the city mass. He didn't hear me I went to repeat myself as I was only a yard from him. "Ich sah ein Jude ohne Ster-"

My voice was cut off by the sound of air raid sirens. My eyes shot to the cobalt German sky in terror. People shrieked and disseminated in all directions looking to protect their lives. Women picked up their desperate children as the men observed the skies, eleven Pe-8 bombers speckled the sky like vultures. My father bellowed for people to hide in their cellars, he saw me and ordered me to get Ludwig. He pointed his gloved hand to the streets.

Ludwig stood in the interior of the street crying with snot dripping from his nose, he was holding an old ball bleached white by the sun his minuscule hands. I swooped him up in my arms like the mothers did with their children. Ludwig firmly wrapped his arms around my neck as he cried for our father as I ran in the opposed direction.

I bolted to take cover inside a structure but my feet felt dense like they were made of metal and the ground was a magnet. I couldn't move fast enough.

The shrilling sound of Soviet bombs overcame the sound of sirens and human shrieks. It was the last sound I heard before Ludwig was pulled from me and my body was thrust to the ground like a child's rag doll they grew weary of playing with. My skin felt scorched by fire and my ears rang. Blurry eyes that could not focus on the world as it turned to wreckage and embers around me. Blood from my forehead mixed with the hue of my eyes.

Another explosion, and then another. Ludwig lay motionless on the street. Tranquil and tainted with blood and filth. My body felt numb and my I strained to yell for Ludwig to awaken.

Wake up!

Wake up!

No noise fled my lips and if it did, the buzzing and blood in my ears disguised my voice.

Edifices were reduced to hollow shells. Everything expired to gloomy obscurity.