Chapter Six

Life in Auschwitz wasn't very nice and Ardeth was going to find out just how bad. Every thing in the camp was made to break the prisoners, in mind and body. They were starved, beaten and some died of disease and if that did not kill them then 15 hours work a day would. By that time they would be glad to go to the gas chambers.
The huts were called blocks and housed about 2000 with four or five to a bunk, laying on filthy straw with no blankets to speak of. At 4am they had roll call and if one was missing, they were made to stand there for three – twenty-four hours. Many passed out from lack of food or illness. The food was a watery saltless soup made of rotten vegetables and bad meat, a few ounces of dry bread and tea.
The next day Ardeth and the others were taken to the commandant so he could decide what he was going to do with them. He was quite surprised and pleased when he saw the men and he spent quite a while walking round them and inspecting them, making notes. Then he went and sat at his desk while they stood there wondering what their fate was going to be.

"Right I have decided that you will live for a while at least" he said "I have some special jobs for you. You will have heard that I have plans for anyone that has tattoos. You will die eventually but I have not decided when and then your skin will be used for decoration so that people for many generations will admire the work. That sounds good doesn't it?"

The men swallowed hard and nodded but were poked in the back by the guard with his rifle.

"You will answer the commandant, do you understand?" he shouted.

"Yes sir" they all said.

"Guard, you will take them to have an additional tattoo added but tell the man that on this man, to put it somewhere that will not mar the ones he already has. Also take them to have their hair cut and then I will take them to their assigned jobs myself"

"Yes Heir Commandant" said the guard saluting.

The men were taken into a room where they were each tattooed with a number. With the exception of Ardeth, the numbers were put on their left arms but on him, they found a place on his wrist that would be far enough away from the other tattoos. Then they were taken to have their hair cut very short. Alex had never seen Ardeth with short hair and he looked very different.
The commandant came out and marched them across the courtyard to a place called Canada, the heart of Auschwitz if you like where lots of other prisoners sorted and listed all clothing, valuables and food from those who had arrived. There was an oblong yard with a tower at each corner with barbed wire all round it. Huge storerooms with a sort of office at one end dominated the area.
In them were huge mountains of blankets, cases and bags, thousands of them and no-one asked where the owners were, it wasn't allowed. On one side were prams and another of pots and pans. Then Alex nudged Ardeth as he spotted a pile that turned his stomach.
It was hair, human hair, tons of it which they were using for mattresses and linings of submarines. For each kilo the commandant would receive half a German mark.
They were each assigned a table and it was Ardeth and Alex's job to sort out the gold teeth and diamonds from the jewellery that had been taken from the people. A man who wore a pink star showed them what they had to do.

"What does the stars mean?" asked Alex.

"They are for different races and groups of people. The yellow star is for the Jews, I am homosexual so I wear the pink star, you will learn what they are soon" the man whispered.

Ardeth looked at him and the man put his hand on his shoulder and assured him that he had no worries while in there, they were all too ill and weak to be a threat to anyone. Ardeth smiled weakly and the man showed them what they had to do.
He glanced over at Alex and saw tears running down his face but before he could say anything the man, whose name was Karl, had bent over him pretending to show him something and whispered to him.

"Don't let the guards see you cry, they will take you from here and beat you and worse. If you have to cry, do it at night when you are in your bunk, it is safer my friend"

Alex wiped his eyes quickly and carried on with what he was trying to do, he prayed for the first time in ages that somehow they would get out of this terrible place but he feared that this was the end for al of them. His thoughts turned to his parents and he wondered what they were doing and was thankful that they didn't know where he was.

Father Shandor and Samuel had made it into Poland and had enlisted the help of the resistance there. They were heading for a place called Nysa where they could then find out if it was possible to get Ardeth and the others out.

"You realize that they could be dead already" said Ezra "We could be wasting our time"

"If you believe that then why are you helping us" shouted Samuel "None of this is a waste of time to us, they are our friends and it is because of us that they are there in the first place"

"Okay, okay, but we need to find out definitely if they are there. We have people who can get that information out for us. They are guards who have helped us before. But they have to be careful, they can be murdered just as easily as anyone else if they are found out"

The men were in a cellar underneath an old café that was used by the Germans when they were off duty so they had to be very careful that no-one saw them go in or out. Most things were done at night to arouse the least suspicion.
Poland was a very dangerous place, even more so than the other parts of the new Germany and it would take them a long time to get to Auchwitz and the longer Ardeth and the others were there, the more chance they had of being killed.

"What are you going to do when and if, we get them out of there, which I don't think we will" said Karl.

"We take them to Poland and then back to Egypt" replied Samuel.

"Look the longer they are in that place the worse they are going to be. We rescued some men from the camp at Treblinka a few months ago, out of the ten that we got out only two have survived. They were so ill and had been beaten so many times that their will to live had gone and there was nothing we could do to help them"

"Then we had better pray that we get there in time" said Father Shandor.

For two months Ardeth and Alex had worked in Canada sorting the gold and although it was a bad job in itself, the long hours and lack of food were taking there toil as was the cold. It was now the end of January and winter was at it's height. It was freezing most of the time and even more so at night. They didn't have blankets to keep them warm and only had the body heat of the person that they shared the bunk with. Luckily Ardeth had managed to persuade someone to let Alex stay with him and that way at least they got some comfort from each other.
The commandant was pleased with their work and they did get a few more privileges that the others did not get albeit not much. When most of the others were ill they had to continue to work regardless but there were instructions that Ardeth and the other five men were to be treated in the so called hospital if they were ill.
Anyway he was keeping his investments in good condition as he had put it, he wanted no blemishes or anything to spoil the tattoos of these men. Typhoid and other diseases would mark the skin if left untreated and he could not risk that. This worked out well one day while the commandant was inspecting Canada.
Ardeth had been feeling ill for a few days and Alex had pleaded with him to go and see the commandant. But he had refused. The younger man wasn't sure what it was, but he had been shivering at night and it wasn't just from the cold. He felt hot and he wasn't eating even the garbage that they were being given.
As the commandant was talking to one of the guards, Ardeth had picked up the box of gold that he had sorted and was taking it to the guard at the end of the room for him to replace it with more to be done. Just as he took the second box, he felt the world tip and he hit the floor, the teeth spilling everywhere. The commandant heard the commotion and ran over to see what was going on.

"Get back to your work" he shouted and then he saw who it was. "Get him to the hospital room, now. The rest of you work"

Alex was about to jump up and run to Ardeth when Karl stopped him.

"Leave it, he will be seen too, if you go over there, they will shoot you and ask questions later"

The man sat back down, knowing Karl was right, he had seen it happen on several occasions. He would find out about Ardeth later, he had no choice. The guards took Ardeth to the hospital and he was examined by the doctor there just as the commandant came in.

"What is wrong with him, don't damage that skin whatever you do"

"He has a high fever but it is not typhoid. Do I send him back to work?"

"No, he will stay here for twenty-four hours and then we shall see. Bring me a drawing pad, I want to make some sketches while he is here"

The man also saw how thin he had become and it was affecting the tattoos, so he sent for some food and was going to make sure he was fed at least for a day.
Ardeth actually stayed there for nearer forty-eight hours when he was told to go back to work. He was still feeling ill but not as bad as before. While he got dressed, he noticed the drawing pad on the table and he looked at it quickly before the man came back in but not quick enough.

"They are good are they not" said the man walking in the door and seeing Ardeth looking at his work.

"Yes Sir, they are…but why did you bring me here, why didn't you let me die"

"Is that what you want…I don't think so…you are not like the others, you were a warrior in your country, yes. If that is true they don't give up that easily. You will work until I am ready for you, if that means another week or month or even six months, you will work the same as the rest of them. Guard take him back to work and make sure he has extra rations for the next three days, I don't want him dead yet"

Alex was pleased to see him, he had been able to find out nothing about how he was or even if he was still alive or not. He had been worried that he was there on his own, very selfish but that was how the place was making him.

"Thank God, you are still alive" he said.

"Just yes, I feel lousy but better then the other day. The commandant has been making drawings of my tattoos, with ideas underneath of what he wants to use them for"

"God, he is sick and he left them there so you could see them?"

"Be quiet, you will get us all in trouble" said another man who had only been there a few days "I don't want to die even if you do"

Karl spoke to him and brought some jewelry for Ardeth to sort through, he had been told of the extra rations and that Ardeth was to have them in the office at the end of the room.

"Don't let any of the others know that you are having these or your life will not be worth living" said Karl "By the way, I heard this morning that Rudi is dead, he was gassed three days ago, I am sorry"

The men said nothing until they were in their bunks that night and then they spoke of Rudi and this really scared Alex, someone he knew well was dead and it brought home the reality of the whole situation that they were in. All Ardeth could do was try and comfort the young man and made a solemn vow that somehow they were going to get out of that place. He didn't know how if even if it was possible but they couldn't just sit there and do nothing.
It was going to be hard because he felt that he wouldn't be able to survive till the next day, he was so exhausted and felt so ill and hungry and wished he could just throw himself at the electric fence that so many others had done since he had been there. But he knew he couldn't, he was the only one that could take care of Alex. He owed that much to Rick and Evy, he had agreed to let Alex come with him. He should have known better after what happened last time.
They fell into a restless sleep, woken every so often by someone either crying or coughing but for the moment they had each other, it would be so much worse if either of them were there alone. Ardeth was determined to speak to Karl the next day about the possibility of escape.