In a Heartbeat
Echoes of Yesterday

Disclaimer: I do not own IAHB…

A/N: Someone wasn't sure what Aryan meant. It was the race of people Hitler wanted to create. Blond hair, blue eyes. Since Brooke has blond hair and blue eyes… In Poland during WWII many children were taken from their homes, forced to pass "Germanization" tests. If they didn't pass they were killed.

If you liked Tyler's and Val's parts read :ALL BUT MY LIFE by: Gerda Wessiman Klein .

* * *

Val Part II~ Poland 1944

They were herded onto a car for four days when it came to a halt. As Val stepped out she saw the same sign Tyler had seen only two years before. AUSCHWITZ.

Hundreds of thousands of people stepped out of cattle cars and onto the platform. Scared, lost, angry, afraid- always afraid. Val was no different.

"Everyone stand on line! By fives!" Val heard the officer call. "Men over there! Women and children over here!"

In a way Val was glad she didn't know where Brooke and her father were. They wouldn't have to separated. She felt her mother grab her arm as the line of women and children began to move. A officer stood facing the lines. Right. One hand pointed. Left. The other.

"You are Polish, yes?" he asked Val.

"Yes,"

"How old?"

"Eighteen."

"You go right."

Val turned to go looking back to see which way he told her mother to go. Right. She let out a breath. Behind them Val heard a mother desperately pleading for her little son to go with her. "

"Move on! Los!" the officer called. Val tried to drown out the mother and child's sob's as they were parted forever.
* * *

"Sih auskleiden! Alles herunter!" (Everyone undress! Everything off!) a new officer barked.

Val stood unmoving. "How can we take our clothes off? In the middle of everyone?" she asked her mother.

"Strip fast! You'll all be shot if anyone still has clothes on in five minutes!"
She looked at her mother and she nodded. "Do as he says."

She felt embarrassed and frightened..
"Los! Schneller blöde Lupen!" (Move fast, you idiotic whores) he called. They were lined up. Then several young women approached them. Val squeezed her eyes shut as blond strands fell to the floor. Where was Papa and Brooke now? She wondered. Where they dead? Had Tyler made the first selection? Would she ever see him again?
She felt as if her dignity and identity had been shaven off too. She looked around the room. Individuals were gone. Blank, naked people stood in place of people she had known all her life.

Then they were herded into the next room. Val heard herself scream as water came out of the nuzzle .She grabbed her mother's hand as they were pushed into yet another hall. Dresses were thrown at them, then shoes.

Val was marched into the barracks. The past? It was gone. Families, clothes, hair, the homes they had left behind were no longer important. Had they been real?

The sun was hot. Constantly bearing down on her. Val wanted nothing more than a drink.
She found one later on. A puddle, a large hollow in the ground filled with water. Val let her mother go first, then her, trying to ignore the smell. Then the bread ration. She threw it all up.

* * *

"March!" he S.S. officer called. It was time for Zählappell (roll call).
Val and her mother stood there for three hours. From three a.m. to six p.m. cold; tired, but still they stood.
She got used to the work. The blows of pain, even if you did nothing wrong. In time you even quieted you sobs. The bruises turned to calluses. Her back got used to bending without pain. Digging, shoveling and wheel barrowing. She even got used got used to the worms that sometimes lay in her soup. She did all this to survive.

* * *

"Where are you taking me?" Val asked. He kept his hands over her eyes.

"It's a surprise." she laughed.

"Come on Tyler, just tell me."
He kept silent and then muttered, "Here we are." dramatically taking his hands off her eyes. She looked around. " Where are we?"

"You don't remember where we first met?"

'We met at the hospital. You and I were both volunteering, "

"Yes, but this Is where we went on out first date." he smiled, she loved that smile and he led her to the dance floor. They danced for hours, like they were the only ones there. Then he had proposed to her.-- Val woke with tears on her pillow. She wished she was still in that world. She wished she was with him.

* * *

Val watched as line after line headed towards the smoke. They were newcomers chosen for the selection. Women with hair, men, all dressed in colorful clothes, and children. One even held a doll.

The older inmates had told her about the smoke. The gas chambers. Where strong adults tramped the children trying to reached the air pockets high up. Over and over the inmate told her. So that she ould believe.

* * *

"Valerie?" she turned around, surprised to be called by a name instead of a number.

"Mr. Stein?"

"William. There's no need for formalities here." he spoke threw the fence that separated the men from the women. He had hoped she would be spared . That Hitler wouldn't go after the Poles.

"How are you? Where is Tyler?"

William couldn't tell her the truth, that Tyler had been sent to the gas chambers. News like that would cause one to stop caring, stop living. He lied. "He is fine. Though he was sent to another part of the camp. I don't know where. Have you seem my wife? We left her at home the day we were taken."

Val knew the rules too. " I didn't see her. But I heard she escaped." She lied also.

"Then she is safe?"

"Yes, she is safe."

"I have to go. I will try and see you again."

"Goodbye William."

* * *

~1945~

Val and her mother were assigned to the kitchen. They worked from early in the morning to late at night. As peelers they were allowed to eat from the potatoes. No food was to be taken from the kitchen. A couple of days before a girl had been found taking a carrot and was hanged.

"The Americans are coming." her mother whispered.

"What?"

* * *
Val remembered the march that followed that day. The long terrifying march to death. Everywhere around her people fell. If you fell you were shot. Or froze in the snow.

What happened to our liberation? She had wondered. Was it a cruel game? So many died, losing the game for freedom. Or was it them- the ones who lived who lost?

But, the Americans came.

"Are you really Americans?" they asked.

"Yes, the Germans surrendered. We arrested your guards. Who are all of you? Are you men or women?" he asked.

" We are Polish women from AUSCHWITZ." Val heard herself say.
"You must be hungry."
Val didn't understand. If this was freedom why didn't she feel it?

* * *

Val and her mother were making their way home. "repatriation", the Americans called it. They climbed on military transports, back home.

They got there and found their house gone and most of the town. She walked the familiar path to Tyler's town. Praying he was there.

She only found William.

"He's not coming back is he?" she questioned.

"No. I didn't want to tell you before. Before they sent him to the gas chamber he wanted me to tell you he loved you.."

"Thank you." her heart broke. "I lied to you about your -"

"My wife?" He interrupted. " I know. She was killed. In Treblinka. Did anyone in you family survive?"

"Mama did. They killed Papa the night we were taken. We know Brooke passed the "Germanization" test but we don't know where they sent her."

"I hope you find her."

* * *

There was nothing keeping her there anymore. She thought of the time before the war. Brooke and Papa, the restaurant Tyler had proposed to her in. How they had danced. She often dreamed about it. But it always ended with her dancing alone in the dark.

She didn't understand why this had all happened. What had they done wrong? How could people be so cruel and cold? It was a question she would always ask.
Why?

* * *

a/n. I hope you weren't in a good mood when you read this. It's kind of a downer. However I hope you enjoyed Val's part. To Momo Claus , yes the next chapter will explain everything.

Many people don't know that 3 million Polish non-Jews fell victim to the Holocaust. Three million Polish Jews died as well. Making up half of all the Jews to die in the Holocaust.