After a long hard day of laboring in the laundry room, Damon trudges through the snow to get back to his barracks. It's Christmas day around the world, well except for this hell and other places like it. He knows that there are some Christians here too but the Nazi demons won't allow for any types of religion. Still, Damon knows they can't stop people from praying silently in their innermost hearts and minds. He's guilty of it himself, hoping, begging, sometimes pleading to be freed from this, the most horrible place on earth.
The sky is dark and ominous looking. Snow is beginning to come down harder now. The wind is roaring, gusting so hard that it sends him sprawling to the ground. Years ago when he was a robust young man, he would have been strong enough to withstand it. Dragging himself to his feet, he wipes the snow off of his face and paper thin clothing. He's now wet and even more cold than he was before. As thin as a rail, Damon feels cold all of the time, even in the heat of summer, he feels chilled when the rain cools the air. They don't get enough food to generate any body heat it seems. As weak as he is, he tries to run, finally reaching his barracks. Once inside, he goes to his bunk and tries to warm up but it's impossible. There's no heat in the barracks, all they can do is huddle together to try to stay warm.
The pain of losing Rik is still so fresh and raw that even his thoughts of Elena can't ease it. Many nights he's laid awake, feeling empty because Rik's back isn't pressed against his on the bunk that they shared. He was the only one who made this snake pit even remotely bearable. Tears start to tug at his eyes. He realizes the chances of seeing his friend again are too slim to even contemplate. What's the point in delaying the inevitable? He's not ashamed of shedding tears for Rik so he just lets them trail down his face.
He should have been on that train too.
1945
Christmas passes and January comes. It's still bitter cold, many of the inmates are dying of pneumonia and dysentery among other things. Newcomers arrive from the East, bringing with them confirmation of what exactly the Nazi's are doing at the death camps. Not everyone in the ghetto is aware, some still disbelieving that they would try to eradicate an entire race of people. However, Damon knows that they are that evil. It's the prisoners that were originally sent to Auschwitz that pique Damon's interest. Maybe the Nazi's are not that strong or their strength is faltering if they had to deflect some transports that could lose or damage their positions.
Although he's had brief moments where his body, mind and heart hurt so much that he wished for death to free him, he refuses to give up. If he does, they win and he will not allow that. Not only that but he owes it to Elena and to Rik to survive even if it's for another hour, another day or even another week. With them on his mind and using what Rik taught him, he starts to pay more attention to small, seemingly inconspicuous things. Damon is not alone in keeping his ears to the ground. Other ghetto residents are also starting to pay attention. Many are no longer blinded by what's been right in front of them nearly the entirety of their confinement.
Maybe the allied forces are making advances causing the Nazis to retreat? Maybe they have some sort of sinister back up plan set in motion? One day the world will know what they've done, that Damon is certain of. But he's also certain that the Nazis won't leave witnesses alive to give testimony to an event never before contemplated in human history, the genocide of a race.
Theresienstadt is not supposed to outlive the entirety of the war. Yet Damon knows that it's been some time since they ordered construction of any new gas chambers. The work suddenly stops when the prisoners start rebelling. Unfortunately though, they devise another method of extermination, the so called "duck pond." It's a reservoir built to be airtight. They drown or shoot the prisoners. The extent of cruelty that they're prepared to use stuns even Damon. He doesn't know why, he's witnessed it every day since he arrived. The methods they choose are so cruel in fact that he never would have imagined such things even in his nightmares. Yet they still surprise him with their ingenuity to come up with new and more heinous ways to kill.
The guards are more jumpy and people die everyday, either from exhaustion and hunger or sickness and disease. The winter is bitter cold this year, several times he's already watched men being cut down by a bullet, shot by a nervous guard. They're stepping up executions now too, people are being murdered every day. Damon keeps a low profile, trying to be invisible. The fact Commandant Gruber spared him once certainly doesn't guarantee him any immunity.
What if he regrets it?
He curls up in as tight a ball as he can to try to keep warm. The hypothermia makes him tired and soon his body surrenders to the overwhelming fatigue.
"Damon...," Elena whispers to him in his dream. "I love you."
She never said it, not out loud but Damon believes it's true. He holds onto this hope that somewhere, sometime, they will be together.
Jan! Elena puts her hands on her hips. Although no sound escapes, her mouth is drawn in a big smile as she laughs inside when he tries to make a snowball. The snow storm finally let up last night. The sun is shining in the clear blue sky but it's warming up so the snow sticks together well enough for them to build a snowman. Although Jan tries to help, more often than not, he ends up knocking it down so they have to start all over again. After a few hours, they finally get a snow man built. She takes his little hand and they walk to the side of the road to find some stones to make his face. When they return to their creation, Elena lifts him up while he presses the stones to form a face, haphazard and misshapen but it's still cute.
After being outside for a couple of hours, Elena picks him up and carries him into the house. With a smile on her face, Jarmila shakes her head then takes him from Elena. She quickly strips him out of his wet clothes and sets him in front of the stove to warm up while Elena changes into something warm and comfortable before coming back downstairs to help with dinner. Later she wanders over to the window. Pulling the curtain aside, she blindly stares through it. Clouds quickly move in shrouding the moon and bringing more snow. It's pretty, the way it wafts down form the sky above. The bare branches of the trees are covered, making it look so pristine and beautiful outside. Elena can't help but remember that Christmas, three long years ago already, with Damon.
Now it hurts to go along with Milos to work. Her heart constricts suddenly and painfully with melancholy. Her fingers absently find the ring on her neck until Jan starts to tug onto her skirt. She smiles through her sadness and sits down, letting him climb onto her lap. He grabs at the ring with his fingers. Gently she loosens his grip so he won't break the chain but smiles at him while doing so. He snuggles up against her chest and yawns widely. Milos laughs and then stands up to take his boy to bed.
He's enjoying his days off and very much enjoys spending evenings at home with his family. Elena kisses him goodnight, helps Jarka with the dishes and follows them upstairs and into her own room to settle for the night. It's been a few months since she spoke Damon's name. It still remains a secret between Jan and herself. She doesn't know why, she can't understand it herself but it just isn't right.
She doesn't feel like talking. Although she knows it really makes no sense, to her it still feels like if she speaks.. somehow it will push her even farther away from Damon. She doesn't want to tell others about him, his memory is precious and it's hers. And if she's to be honest with herself, she's also afraid. She's been silent, communicating without words for many years now. Talking again requires courage. Someday she promises herself. Until that day comes, she's okay keeping the secret between herself and her little brother.
Damon cannot believe that they're being forced to clean up the camp once again. He suspects that there's going to be another inspection or something like it again. They have to make the place appear to be a model prison camp, the envy of the world he thinks sarcastically. His suspicions are confirmed when an officer starts yelling at them to come out of their barracks.
The Red Cross needs to make sure they are alive and well.
He looks around and wonders where the officers manage to find presentable looking inmates. Nearly all of them, himself included, look half dead, pale, ribs and hip bones prominent through their vertical striped prison garb. Food is even more scarce, people are sick, coughing, wheezing and hardly moving. He's sure many of them will be casualties by the time Spring arrives. But God as his witness, he will not be one of them. I need to see you one more time, Elena.
Maybe if he can work for the Red Cross again, he'll get some extra food and some warmer clothes. Not only does he want to see her again, he also needs to see the end of them.
He doesn't know why, where it's coming from but he feels it, he's confident that the end is coming. He's not blind, he sees the uncertainty, the worry, the nervousness they now wear on their faces. Determined to survive, he starts working with a reinvigorated resolve, Elena on the forefront of his mind.
Elena and Jan say goodbye to Rebeka and Elias then start for home. It's the middle of February, the 14th to be exact. The day is cloudy but the temperature is tolerable. They went to the Michalek's to help Rebeka do some more baking for the neighborhood families. Jan played with Elias and then came to the kitchen to help when Elias had to tend to a sick person. Elena was mortified when he pulled a cup of flour all over the floor. Thank goodness it was only a small cup. It's a hard commodity to come by in these trying times.
As they're walking down the sidewalk towards home, the air raid siren starts to blare. It's nothing, they've been hearing quite a lot of them lately. Nothing indicates that there's any real danger behind it. There has been only one real air attack in Prague. It damaged a factory on the other side of the river. Still Elena picks up Jan and starts to hurry home. They could go to one of the bomb shelters that are scattered around the city but Milos thinks that's unnecessary. They'll just go into the basement which he believes is safer than running out in the open for a good distance. As soon as they reach their yard, Milos runs outside and grabs Jan.
"Katerina," he yells. "Take the basket and blankets to the kitchen!" Elena nods and hurries to do as she's told then runs towards the basement to follow her family. They're quick but not quick enough on this day. Just before she reaches the stairs, they hear the first deafening blasts. They're too close.
Terrified, Elena can feel the floor begin to shift and shake as blast concussion causes it to reverberate on its foundation. She reaches up and clutches her necklace tightly in her hand. I love you, Damon.
Just as Milos is about to shut the door behind her, they're hit with another calamitous explosion. The thunderous wave is so strong that it knocks Elena's feet out from under her and sends her tumbling head first down the stairs just as the house collapses on top of them.
The beginning of April brings another visit from the Red Cross. It isn't that glorious, the Commandant doesn't go overboard with subterfuge this time. They can sense they're done here, Damon observes, watching from outside of his barracks as the dignitaries get into their vehicles and depart.
By the end of the month the officers' families leave Theresienstadt, which makes for an unusual transport. Damon almost begins to feel hopeful that maybe something big is going to happen. But then prisoners from the East start arriving in waves as the German Army moves backwards. In the space of just a few days, the head count at Terezín inmates doubles. What's even worse, the new prisoners bring with them a new wave of the Typhus epidemic. It spreads like wildfire through the ghetto. The camp turns into a place of disease and death almost overnight, much more so than ever before.
Laying on the floor as he's become accustomed to since Rik's departure, sleep is elusive tonight. No matter what he does, he can't seem to turn off his mind enough to rest. The cries of the dying and the feverish blabbering and gibberish of his fellow inmates makes him feel sick to his stomach. It's churning with anxiety and feelings of helplessness. The place is so overcrowded that there's nowhere to move them, to separate the 'healthy' from the sick. Several barracks are quickly turned into makeshift hospitals. They're already so packed full of people that the newly ill have nowhere to go, they lay where they are or get pulled to one side or a corner of the room.
Having barely just dozed off for a few minutes, Damon is suddenly awakened by both the sounds of car engines and yelling outside. He carefully gets up and steps to the window. The rats are leaving a sinking ship...
Determined, he tip toes over to the door and dares to open it just wide enough for him to see what all the commotion is about. He breathes a huge sigh of relief when he doesn't see any guards around for if they saw him, he'd surely be punished. He notices something peculiar though, he's not the only one peeking outside, there are others in barracks across the plaza from his. Rather than tempt fate, Damon closes the door and doesn't venture out again until it's light outside. When he and the others eventually go outside, there are no officers or guards and even the commandants vehicle is gone.
It all begins to make sense when people coming to help out bring news about the Führer's death. Damon is disgusted, for all of his pontificating about the superiority of Germany and the Aryan race, the coward kills himself. As much as Damon would have liked to be able to tear him limb from limb, he's not a monster and will not behave as such.
On May 4, Czech doctors and medical staff arrive bringing with them medicine and equipment. A field hospital is hurriedly put together but most of the work taking care of the sick and dying is done by the Jewish doctors with the assistance of Damon and other people who inhabit the ghetto. He does everything he can to help. Since he's well acquainted with the laundry room, he manages it, working long hours, pushing himself beyond the limits of his own endurance, to make sure the doctors and patients have clean linens, rags and other necessities. He also helps to distribute food and when he has time, he talks to people, helping them communicate with his linguistic skills.
Most of the newcomers look for their lost relatives but Damon witnesses very few happy reunions. It makes him think of his own hopes and dreams. He wonders about his father. Is he alive? Will he come back and what will he do when he finds out about his mother and her parents? And most importantly, Elena. Is she alright?
He's been gone for almost two and half years, did she survive? Did she move on? He wonders himself if he'll survive his last days in the camp? Is there any way that he can avoid getting sick? War only takes, it never gives. He's more worried than ever. It was always easy to tell himself that she was alright when he believed he had no hope of ever seeing her again.
But now that Hitler's dead and the hope of freedom is at hand, he has to face the truth.. There's always going to be another threat. The Wehrmacht and SS units running from the Soviets still pose a very real danger to the camp. Everywhere he looks, death surrounds him. He could still die and the thought scares him. He wants to be able to walk through the Theresienstadt gates a free man before he leaves this world.
During these hopeless and yet hopeful days, he finds solace in his imagination. Other than the constant stench of death, his strongest sensation is that of the lilac bushes that grow wild and bloom around the camp's perimeter. He doesn't remember any other time in his life that he is so aware of something as simple and as beautiful as a lilac blossom. Their fragrance helps to muffle the smell of rotting flesh. When he closes his eyes, he can almost isolate their scent from the others. He basks in the warm spring breeze and the hues of lavender and white and dark purple flowers. He wonders if this is what heaven will be like.
Exhausted after another daybreak to dusk day, Damon finds his way over to another group of healthy men. He laughs at the word 'healthy'. They're all still skin and bones but this group hasn't contracted Typhus yet. Thankfully the weather is good so he and a few others like him don't have to share a small space in the sick wards. Instead they sleep outside with the blankets brought into the camp by the Doctors and their staff.
As it nears evening on May 8, the first units of the Red Army bound for Prague enter the camp. Damon's there to watch and can't quite grasp the fact that the war is almost over. Following behind the soldiers however are many vehicles carrying survivors from already liberated camps. A lot of them are sick too. Damon and others run to help so they can get them to the doctors.
Damon ventures from cot to cot to take care of the most ill people first. He stares in shock when one man catches his sleeve and in a raspy voice with an irresistible Austrian accent chides him, "I told you to go and find your Elena. What the fuck are you still doing here?"
Death of Hitler:
On April 20, Hitler made preparations for his death. 200 liters of benzene were delivered to the bunker. Hitler insisted that his body be burnt, not wanting his corpse to end up in Soviet hands like an "exhibit in a cabinet of curiosities". He also ordered the testing of a newly-arrived batch of cyanide capsules. The chosen victim was Hitler's beloved Alsatian dog, Blondi.
On April 30, with the Soviets only 300 meters away, Goebbels tried one last time to convince the Fuhrer to leave Berlin but Hitler had already made it plain a week earlier, bellowing at his generals, "If you gentlemen think I'm going to leave Berlin you are very much mistaken. I'd rather blow my brains out."
Near four o'clock, after a round of farewells, Hitler and wife of forty hours retired to his study. Hitler wore upon his tunic, his Iron Cross and his Wounded Badge of the First World War. His entourage waited nervously outside. A shot was heard. Hitler had shot himself through the right temple. Braun was also dead, she had swallowed the cyanide.
The bodies, covered in blankets, were carried out into the Chancellery garden. There, with artillery exploding around them and with neighboring buildings ablaze, Hitler's wishes were honored. Benzene was poured on the corpses and set aflame. With the bodies blazing, the entourage gave one final Hitler salute before scampering back into the bunker. The official announcement the following day stated that "Hitler had fallen at his command post, fighting till his last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany". He had come to power as German Chancellor in January 1933. With the death of Hitler, the Third Reich, which was meant to last a thousand years, had come to an end after just twelve.
On May 7, 1945, Germany officially surrendered to the Allies, bringing an end to the European conflict in WW2. General Alfred Jodl, representing the German High Command, signed the unconditional surrender of both east and west forces in Reims, France which would take effect the following day.
The Bombing of Prague:
On February 14, 1945, Forty B-17 Flying Fortresses of the 8th American Air Force dropped about 152 tons of bombs on many populated areas of Prague. Due to a navigational error, they mistook Prague for Dresden, Germany. The carpet-bombing resulted in the deaths of 701 people and the wounding of 1,184. About one hundred houses and historical sites were totally destroyed and another two hundred were heavily damaged. All the casualties were civilians. Not one of the city's factories, which might have been of use to the Wehrmacht, were damaged.
And the War is over...
Huge thanks to all of you for the reviews, follows, favorites, encouraging words, unending support and friendship. I can't say it enough, YOU ARE ALL THE BEST.
Huge thanks to Eva. You are brilliant and insightful and so generous with your time. I often keep her up into the wee hours of her mornings, plotting, planning, writing in our effort to hopefully deliver entertaining stories for all of you.
Chapter title: 'Raven Wing' by Iced Earth.
I did post a few pictures of the Prague bombing on my scarlett2112 facebook page. Address is in my profile, you just have to copy and paste.
Please check the works of my good friends, Florencia7, Salvatoreboys4ever, Mariah April May, Zaewrites, VitsAsh, Deepwater1978, and MovingOnIsNeverEasy. The magic of Damon and Elena live on through this wonderful group of people.
I hope you all have a fabulous day. Thank you all again, we'll see you again next week.