Chapter 8: Resettlement
A/N: Hi guys! I am back and I am so sorry that it has been so long for me to update this story. This chapter is a Rachel chapter that is a little dark, but nothing graphic, so it is up to you whether you want to read it or not. Please follow, fav, and review!
December 1943 - Theresienstadt
BANG! BANG! A harsh knocking on the door of Rachel's barracks that she shared with the other women woke her up. Knocking that hard could only mean one thing: Nazis.
No one wanted to be the one to open the door, but someone had to. Rachel scrambled out of bed and opened it, even though she was trembling in fear. Outside stood five Germans and several ghetto policeman. The guards roughly knocked her against the door as they stomped into the barracks. "Achtung!", one of them, probably the leader, called. "Attention!"
"Jewesses, all of you are being resettled today and will have a half hour to gather your possessions," the leader barked. "If you do not comply, you and your loved ones will be shot on the spot."
Resettled. That single word floated around in the dank air of the barracks. No one was quite sure of what "resettlement" actually meant, but they knew it had something to do with death.No! Rachel thought. I don't want to die yet! Her life was too good, she was too young. She finally was dating Jesse, and genuinely cared for him.
What to bring, though? Thirty minutes was not a large amount of time to gather all of your treasured possessions. Her fraying suitcase couldn't hold too much. Rachel didn't know if she should bring practical things like woolen coats and heavy dresses or impractical things like sheet music and the gold music note locket with the rhinestone star on it that Shelby had gotten her for her last birthday in Prague. In the end, she decided on the locket, sheet music, a pretty silk shawl, and one woolen dress and coat. If she died today, she wanted to be remembered with the things that meant more to her than survival. Maybe she was foolish, but the war had come when she was fourteen. She wanted to be frivolous again, just for once in her life.
As the women were marched down to the train station, Rachel and Tina clung to each other. Rachel wondered if her father, Artie, and Jesse were being deported that day as well. But at least she had Tina, her closest - and sometimes only- friend.
The Germans ushered the women into a small train car that looked as if it was fit more for cattle than humans. Rachel recoiled at the disgusting smell of human waste as she was shoved into the car, thankfully by the one tiny window. The car began to move as the Germans laughed in their faces. Rachel spotted Karofsky, who had killed Shelby, and wished she would have been able to get her revenge on him at Terezin. Now it was too late.
The women and children screamed when they realized they were locked in. "Shut up!", Rachel cried. "There is nothing you can do now! I personally would like to save my voice so I can sing again if I ever get out of here." "And who are we to listen to you, a girl of eighteen? Why, you're barely more than a child!", one young woman mocked.
Rachel seethed at that. She had gone through so much more in eighteen years than most people would in their lives. Instead of shouting, she sang a Yiddish lullaby to calm the babies, the same one she had sung when Shelby had died.
"Durme, durme ijiko de madre
Durme, durme sin ansia i dolor
Durme, durme sin ansia i dolor."
"Sleep, sleep; mother's little boy
Free from worry and from pain,
Free from worry and from pain."
The lullaby had the same soothing effect on the women as it did on the babies. Soon, everyone fell into their own thoughts…whatever those were. Rachel thought of Jesse and everything they had gone through together. He had kept her alive in the ghetto by keeping her creative mind satisfied: the two had organized operas and plays for the young children to perform. The Germans had even attended one of their plays, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and had loved it! Now, in the cold, smelly train car, Rachel wondered if she would ever see him again.
—
The train went on for at least a day, and the Nazis didn't give their prisoners food or water. The women had to use the restroom in a shared bucket. It was disgusting: Rachel was pretty sure even cattle and pigs were treated better than this! She was fortunate enough to be next to the window so she was able to breathe some air and drink the melted December snow.
After some time, the train pulled into a station. "What does the sign say?", someone asked. Rachel was the closest to the window, so she read it. "Auschwitz," she said.
Nobody knew what that word meant.
—
1943 -1944 - Auschwitz, Poland
After the five dead bodies were discarded from the cattle car, the women and children were harshly escorted from the train onto the platform and the Nazis demanded they hand over their personal possessions and any jewelry or they would be killed. Rachel was horrified. She couldn't hand over her locket, her last reminder of Shelby! But she knew even more that she didn't want to die, so she did what the Germans ordered.
The guards ushered the women into a line with a bunch of other new arrivals to the place, which looked to be some sort of camp. Up ahead, an officer flicked each woman to the right or the left. What does that mean, what is the difference between left and right? Rachel thought. She grabbed Tina's sleeve so the two friends could stay together in the chaos.
Rachel's turn approached, and her heart filled with anxiety. Whatever the lines meant, it couldn't be good, since these people shot Shelby for no reason. Then it was her turn! Her heart raced a million miles per hour.
"State your name, age, occupation, and your state of health," the Nazi official asked, looking at her as if she was less than human. Rachel tried to speak but stuttered. Pull yourself together, Rachel," Rachel thought. You need to survive this - for Jesse, and Papa, and Tina and Artie!
"My name is Rachel Berrich," Rachel stated confidently. "I am eighteen years old, and I am a -" I know I can't just say I'm a student. Is singer a good, useful occupation? Maybe the Nazis would like pretty voices to entertain them, like in Terezin, Rachel thought. "-singer," she continued. The man's eyebrows rose and he took note of her name. Was that a good thing? "My health is good," Rachel finished, feeling as if her legs couldn't carry her anymore.
The Nazi officer motioned to the right, where the other healthy women were. The elderly, sickly, and children, were on the left, which led Rachel to believe she might be safe! Tina soon followed her, and the two girls hugged each other in relief.
The Czech girls were then herded into a room for showering. The water was freezing, but it was better than it was for the women who were sent to the left, where gas came out of the shower heads instead. Rachel drank the cold water to satisfy her thirst.
The most dehumanizing thing done to the girls was when their hair was completely shaved off by other prisoners. Rachel almost cried as her beautiful, thick chocolate-brown hair was roughly clipped off, but then she remembered her promise to Shelby: not to cry in front of the Nazis, ever. Rachel didn't recognize Tina or any of the other women. They all just looked like scrawny, bald alien creatures.
And then on top of that, the girls were each tattooed with a prison number like common criminals or animals. No one would have been able to guess that Rachel had once attended operas and parties clad in velvet in the latest styles from Paris. Now she looked like…well, she didn't even know what she looked like because there were no mirrors, but she knew she didn't look good.
The Nazis threw the Theresienstadt girls at a pile of clothing. "Wählen sie, schmutzige schlampen!", the guards yelled. "Choose, filthy bitches!" Rachel knew better than to object to the abuse and swiftly selected a shapeless long-sleeved brown dress and a pair of red leather shoes that were falling apart. She missed the silk dresses she had worn to parties in Prague, the beautiful curls she'd worn her hair in, the warm cloaks. She wished she hadn't taken those items for granted now.
That night, in the freezing, cramped barracks, the surviving girls found out from the other prisoners that the women sent to the left died in the Nazi's gas chambers that were disguised as showers and then cremated in chimneys. What happened to Jesse, to Papa, to Rachel didn't understand how the country that produced most of her favorite music could be so evil to the innocent Jews. I'm in a nightmare, Rachel decided. A nightmare that's almost been five years long. She hoped the Americans would hurry up and win the war so she could find Jesse, return to Prague, and start her career as a professional singer and actress and live happily ever after.
—
One day at the regular morning roll call where Rachel and the others had to stand outside for hours in the freezing winter weather, something strange happened to Rachel. The overseer of her hut was summoned to confer with a Nazi officer, and then he called her prison number. "Prisoner A125899!" Rachel snapped to attention before the overseer beat her and she came over to him. "You are to accompany the officer to headquarters. "Why, sir?", Rachel asked curiously and nervously. The overseer lost his temper and slapped her across her face. "Stupid Jewess! No one questions anything here! Just do what I say!"
Rachel's face stung from pain and humiliation as she followed the Nazi officer to the camp commandant's house, a pretty white building with checkered curtains and flowers in window boxes. The camp commandant, a handsome, clean-shaven uniformed man, met her outside. "Are you a singer, Fraulein?", he asked in a surprisingly kind tone. Rachel relaxed a little. "Yes, sir," she answered in German, figuring that he'd read over her documents from when she'd told the officer that her profession was a singer.
The commandant nodded. "That is good," he said. "Because the men here want some entertainment for Christmas morning."
It was Christmas already! That meant that Hanukkah had already come and gone. Rachel felt terrible for not celebrating the Jewish holiday. She had so many good memories of celebrating it at home with Shelby and Hiram and eating the fried potato pancakes and playing dreidel with her cousins…but that was all gone now, a distant, faded memory of better times.
"What would you like me to sing, sir?", Rachel asked tentatively. The commandant shrugged. "Maybe some Christmas songs. My men are awfully lonely, you know. They miss their families and homes back in Germany." What about us? Rachel thought. Don't you ever consider that we, your prisoners, might miss our homes, our families, our old lives before you decided to start killing us off one by one? But of course, the Nazis hadn't thought of that. They preferred to terrorize the prisoners rather than sympathize with them. Instead of expressing kind words to Rachel, they called her filthy names and gave her slaps and kicks rather than a helping hand.
Rather than expressing her thoughts, Rachel murmured her agreement with the commandant and followed him inside his home to his parlor. There were about ten Nazis gathered there, plus the commandant's family. His wife and children looked horrified at the sight of her, and she couldn't blame them - she knew she looked like a skeleton or a demon now. Rachel seethed when she heard some of the men make bawdy jokes and comments about her body and looks, but held her tongue. She wished she had her rape whistle just in case. The parlor was tastefully and richly decorated, and there were some ham, sausages, fried potatoes, sauerkraut, and apple strudel on the table. Everything looked so tasty that Rachel could have eaten all of it in two bites, even the non-kosher stuff!
The commandant grabbed her roughly and led her toward the front of the room. "Gentlemen, this is Fraulein Rachel Berrich, a singer from Prague. She's going to sing for you." Rachel knew some Christmas songs from her Christian friends, so she decided to just sing one of those, called "O Tannenbaum", a song about a Christmas tree that reminded her a bit of gathering with her own family. It was perfect because there was a beautifully lit Christmas tree right in the commandant's parlor!
"O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur
zur Sommerzeit,
Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!"
"O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
How lovely are thy branches
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
How lovely are thy branches
Your boughs so green in summertime
Stay bravely green in wintertime
O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
How lovely are thy branches."
Much to Rachel's surprise, the men clapped for her. "Keep going!", several of them yelled. It felt good to receive applause - Rachel had always thought that she needed applause to live! The next song she chose was "Stille Nacht", a song that had always been very moving and emotional even for a Jewish girl. It was such a beautiful song, almost too beautiful for her to sing in front of monsters like the Nazis.
"Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht
Lieb' aus deinem göttlichen Mund,
Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund'.
Christ, in deiner Geburt!
Christ, in deiner Geburt!"
"Silent night, holy night
All is calm all is bright
'Round yon virgin Mother and Child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love's pure light.
Radiant beams from Thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth."
Rachel began to tear up a little as she sang the song, and noticed that even the most hardened, cruelest officers were doing the same. They must have been homesick, too. Maybe they didn't want to do their jobs at Auschwitz, but were too scared of Hitler and his cronies to do anything about it… Rachel felt a little bad for them, but then thought of everything they put her and her friends through and shrugged any empathy she had towards the officers off.
As she finished, the officers and the commandant's family all stood up and gave her a standing ovation. "You have a beautiful voice, Fraulein," one of the officers said. "Yes, you do," the commandant's wife agreed. "Arthur, you should have this girl come sing for us again!", she said to her husband. Rachel thanked all of them, and then the officer who'd brought her there escorted her back out the door of the house.
Rachel didn't want to leave the warmth of the commandant's house and go back to Auschwitz, but she knew she had to. As she walked back to her barracks, the officer called to her. "Wait!", he yelled. Rachel scurried back to him, hoping she wasn't about to get a beating or anything. "Yes?" "You were truly amazing, you have a great voice," the man said, and wordlessly slipped her something before walking away.
Rachel looked at what the officer had given her, a piece of sausage and a couple of pieces of fried potato. Oh my God!, she thought. The sausage wasn't kosher, but at that moment she didn't care. She was just happy to have any food and was astonished that a Nazi had treated her with kindness.
Maybe even the worst Nazis were human too. Just not Karofsky, who'd killed Shelby in Terezin - he was pure monster.
—
1944-1945 - Hamburg, Germany
After living for two months in constant fear of being gassed or shot and in horrible conditions that made the women appreciate Terezin, Rachel, Tina, and the other girls who had survived were transported to a factory in Hamburg, Germany where they worked producing bullets and arms for the Nazi war effort. The conditions were so much better than Auschwitz and there were no gas chambers. The girls, however, couldn't venture outside because the Nazis were afraid that the German citizens would see what was being done to the "filthy" Jews. And they were still starved there and lived off of thin, watery bowls of beet soup and rye bread.
Rachel couldn't have known this, but 4,000 miles across the ocean, a young blonde mother named Quinn was also manufacturing bullets, but for a very different reason and for the opposite side of the war. Neither woman could have known that in about half a year, they would be fighting over the same young man: a handsome, kind American soldier named Finn Hudson.
A/N: I hope you liked it! Please follow, fav, and review! Also check out my other story, Wishing, Hoping, which also is about Quick, Finchel, and Fuinn but is a much more lighthearted fic than this one. The next chapter will be alternating the POV of Finn and Puck and the POV of Quinn as the events of D-Day unfold for our characters. Until next time,
-cxe128