Chapter Summary: Quatre recalls how he went into hiding as he looks for a way to move the others to a more permanent hiding area.

Misanagi: Yes, I am working on my writing style. I got your attention in two lines? Wow, new record.

Dark Vampire: Hugs back I'm glad you like it. But I'm not in a kissing mood right now, sorry.

Relwarc: You request. I give. Aren't we all much happier now?

Author's notes: Really did my homework for this one. These dates and places were carefully researched and I even went over a few maps. I'm trying my best to make the imagery vivid while not sanitizing what people went through at that time. I had to learn such a sterile version of WWII in history class, it sucked. I think you need to read veteran's and survivor's experiences to really understand what was going on. Oddly, wasn't that hard for me to fit all the guys in and I will do my best to put them as much in character as possible.

Chapter 1: In the Beginning

I quickly cleaned the Major's office and by the time I had finished, I already had a plan. I went over it one more time and quietly assured myself that it would work. I calmed my nagging fear that I would be discovered by letting my thoughts wander for a bit. I gazed out the window of the office and noticed the flowers that someone had planted there. They reminded me of the ones Iria and I had once planted outside the front of our house and I fell to thinking of my old life.


I was born in Kozolowa Gora, Poland in the spring of 1929. I was the youngest and the only boy in a large family of 29 sisters. My parents had wanted a son and with the last of her strength, my mother had me after numerous tries and several sets of twins and triplets. My eldest sister, Iria, looked on as my mother left this world so I could enter it. She became the mother I never had.

My father's watch and jewelry shop did not make us wealthy, but it did keep us in comfortable surroundings. He always encouraged us to help others and be kind to everyone. Many of my older sisters became nurses and a couple began working for the Red Cross. Iria was very clever and taught me different languages. I think my father dreamed I would become a doctor one day, but the truth was that I wanted to be a gardener. Iria would let me help her in the garden and I would watch with wonder as seeds placed in the ground and gently watered sprouted into beautiful plants with some care. But when I was 9, I became aware of what would slowly lead up to the invasion of Poland.

Rumors were spreading that Hitler was threatening to take over our country. My father did his best to shelter us from what he feared would be he worst, but like falling snow, the troubling signs slowly began to appear. Since our town was so close to the Poland-Germany border, many of our Polish neighbors began to declare themselves Germans.

I started to see posters plastered everywhere. Signs saying things like "A Poland Free of Jews is a Free Poland", "No Dogs, No Jews" and others with caricatures that portrayed Jews as hideous, deformed troll-like thieves and misers who spread disease. Father began to see fewer people at the shop. I went from a friend on a Friday, to a 'Dirty Jew' on a Monday and got into fights with other children at school. We were quite secular, really, hardly ever practiced our faith and I couldn't understand why people would want to pick on us just because of our religion.

I came home late from school one day, nursing a black eye and a sore ear. I had won a fight with a boy at school, but his older brother hit much harder. The teacher had scolded me and kept me back after class, even though he had started it. I made it home to see my tenth youngest sister, Soonya, vigorously scrubbing the wall of the house. She told me to go inside and get ready for dinner, but I still saw the blood red swastika.

Dinner was usually a pleasant event, where we all talked and laughed about the day. But tonight, there wasn't much we wished to talk about and we mostly just sat there and quietly ate our food. I looked around, everyone was so unhappy. I finally couldn't take it any more and I blurted out:

"It's not fair! If people didn't know that we were Jewish, they wouldn't treat us like this!"

Some of my sisters gasped. My third eldest sister Anna reprimanded me, saying "Hush, Quatre. We are Jewish, be proud of who you are."

"I know, but I was just saying-"

"If you spend your whole life wishing you were someone else, you will never realize how special you are. Now eat your dinner."

That was about the most conversation we had that night. Iria had been silent the whole time. But I think my words had an effect on her, because a few days later she and my father presented a stack of papers and distributed several to each of us.

"What are these?" asked Soonya. Father explained a plan he and Iria had come up with in the event of an emergency.

"Children." He began. He hadn't called us that in a long time. "You're all that I have in the world and I don't think I could ever forgive myself if anything happened to you. Iria and I found a document forger and I had him make up names for all of us. Memorize your other names, then give me your papers and I will bury them in the corner of the garden nearest to the chimney. If anything bad happens, I want you to find as many of your siblings as you can, dig up your fake papers and run. Don't tell anyone about this."

I asked Iria about the papers. She explained to me how she heard on the radio that Germany and the Soviet Union had signed something called a Nonaggression Treaty.

"What's that?" I asked.

"It's where they agree not to attack each other."

"If they're not going to fight, then why is Papa so worried?"

"He's worried because they probably agreed not to fight so they can take over our country. Don't worry, if anything happens, I will keep you safe."


I didn't think about those papers for a few more weeks until I experienced my first air raid on September 1, 1939, when I was 10 years old. As I walked along the street, I heard an odd droning noise and looked up to see German Bombers. It was the first time I had ever seen a plane that wasn't a toy or in a book. Buildings just a few blocks away tumbled to the ground and fires began right before my eyes. I stood there, stunned as people ran past me, until a man grabbed me by the arm and I began running too, not knowing where I was going to go.

"Run faster, boy! You want to end up in the hospital?" The man barked. Those words sent a jolt through me as if I had been hit.

The Hospital! My Sisters!

By the time I made it there, the hospital was in chaos, but at least it was intact. My older sisters hurried about to help as many of the injured, but they just kept coming in. I did my best to calm my younger sisters, who had been walking towards the family shop when the bombs hit. Injured soldiers started coming in after a few hours with horrible stories about the fighting. The German's bombers and strong tanks, along with their advantage of surprise had overwhelmed the lightly armored tanks of our troops. A few days later, we learned that the Germans and Soviets were closing in. My father had gone missing and my older sisters planned to go help treat soldiers on the front lines. After digging up the false papers and burying some of our most valued personal affects, my 8 youngest sisters and I were put on a train that was going east to Radom, where our aunt and uncle lived. At the end of that month, I had become Thomas Moremor and Poland ceased to be a country.

Our aunt and uncle had taken Germans aliases and moved to a small apartment. It was quite crowded and we didn't have a lot of money. Things got so bad that we were reduced to begging on the street for the winter. When spring came, we wandered the streets looking for work because the schools were all closed. My aunt and uncle became quite thin since we had depleted their stores of food over the winter and whenever they were able to buy food, they always fed us first. But we were still better off then most since no one knew we were Jewish; others were being rounded up without warning and many people in our area had disappeared altogether. Rumors spread about a sealed off area in Glinice and of Jews being herded into the nearby countryside and shot. Soldiers stood on every street.

As much as I missed my father and my older sisters, there was one spot that I did enjoy in Radom; the gardens of an old hotel where the soldiers were quartered. Whenever I had time, I would go and admire the vines that crept up the wall and the lovely flowers in their beds. People who about the hotel paid little attention to the flowers, but to me they meant so much. One day I ran into the gardener, a kindly old man who had noticed me admiring his work. He had been developing a back problem and asked if I would like to help him for a part of his wages. All through the summer, I worked hard pulling up weeds from the grass, loosening up the soil, pruning hedges and dead branches, watering the flowers. I didn't earn very much money and went home late in the evening, covered in dirt and exhausted, but the money I earned helped my family to survive. When winter came again, I begged the cook, who the gardener had introduced me to, for scraps to take home.

One warm day in spring of 1941, Iria came back. She looked pale, sick and tired, but she was alive. Everyone came out to greet her, it were as though she had come back from the dead. It was a bit odd at first when I had to become accustomed to her calling me Quatre, it had been a while since I had answered to my real name. After a while Iria and I simply began calling each other by our assumed names. She called me Thomas and I called her Jana, just to be safe. She told me of how she had treated soldiers off in East Prussia, then eventually left under the cover of darkness, hiding from soldiers and searching for us. She had gotten separated from the rest of my sisters and had no idea where they were.

A number of months after my sister reunited with us, I was about to leave the hotel with scraps from the cook when I first met the Major. No matter how much scraps I took or how much I worked with the gardener, there never seemed to be enough food to feed my relatives and my sisters. It was the middle of a bitter winter and I was quite weak that day, the only thing I had had that mourning was a bit of thin broth. As I walked out the gate, I went by a soldier and as I looked up I realized from his style of uniform and his medals that he was of high rank. He suddenly turned his head and looked back at me with a harsh glare from blue eyes that gleamed like ice and I froze.

"What are you looking at?" He demanded in a harsh voice like a growl from a bear.

For a moment I just stared back at him, then all of the overworking of my body and not eating nearly enough to sustain it finally caught up with me and I felt myself falling into the darkness.

I came to on a bed inside the hotel. I sat up and saw another man in the room. He was of high rank as well, but he wasn't the officer that I had fainted in front of earlier. He was quite young for an officer, with reddish brown hair and handsome features and high cheekbones, though his eyebrows were a little scattered at the ends where they should have tapered and he carried himself with great dignity.

"What happened?" I asked, careful to speak in German.

"I happened to glance out from the lobby and saw my Commander Zechs, speaking to a young boy just before he fainted. I came out and commented that he must have frightened the boy to death. He simply replied that he thought he was faking it and walked off. No one else seemed to care so I brought him upstairs to recover. How are you feeling?"

"Much better now, thank you, Herr-"

"Major Treize Kushrenada."

I gave the Major my false name of Thomas Moremor and he seemed rather concerned about my health. I explained my large family and our situation, being careful not to reveal too much. He seemed genuinely concerned about my well being.

"Thomas, I am to be stationed in Ternopol soon and I was looking an aide. Perhaps, if you if you wish to travel with me-"

"Certainly, Herr Major!"


I leapt at the chance to earn more money to help my family and even convinced him to bring Iria as well, though he knew her only as Jana, of course. The Nazis wanted to move troops closer to the Soviet border, intent on wresting from the Soviet Union the very land they had once handed over to them. Everything was arranged and starting in April of 1942 Iria began to manage the slave workers in the laundry who had been rounded up by the SS. I helped her out in between cleaning offices and clearing away meals. After a while, Iria and I tried to speak to the workers, but our German was quite good and with our blonde hair and blue eyes, we looked very much like what the Nazis held up as the ideal, Aryan race.

Most didn't trust us, they thought we were trying to watch for any signs of rebellion, but I did manage to gain the trust of a few workers. A young gypsy named Trowa managed to convince his friends, Heero, Duo and Wufei that I could be trusted after I passed along messages that I overheard in the mess hall as I cleaned up tables and took away dirty dishes. The word would then spread among the other workers about when to expect raids and other trouble and the few people who were able to visit their families in the nearby ghetto were able to pass the information along despite the heavy security.

Just over a year into this routine, Treize informed me that he had bought a villa just outside of Ternopol and requested the Iria and I move his things there before going there ourselves to maintain it. We acted pleased and for some reasons we were but for other reasons I was quite upset about this turn of events. What would become of my friends?

But when I saw the villa, I came up with a daring plan that I didn't tell anyone, not even Iria. The villa was quite large and I was to stay in the upper room at the end of the hall. Treize had given Iria the basement, which was big enough to hold several people. I proposed the idea of sneaking them out of the back door of the army complex. They could then make their way through the forest and to the villa, where Iria would let them in and we could hide them in the basement; they readily agreed.

That morning, after most of the soldiers were gone, I had taken a large laundry cart and pretended to take the dirty bedding from the cots. But in between this, I managed to sneak the others into Treize's office, hiding them under the sheets. I had nearly completed my plan before the SS soldier had surprised me.

I checked the back door that I wanted to sneak my friends out of. I found it locked and quickly decided to steal the Major's keys, let them out and then put the keys back before he noticed they were gone. This seemed easier said then done at first. But then Treize suddenly stumbled into his office, looking quite upset. He had just learned that a close friend of his had been killed on the front lines. He began drinking some brandy he usually kept locked in a cupboard.

He continued to drink and ask me to pour more brandy for him. As I poured more and more, he began a slurred conversation of sorts with me, rambling on about the time he had spent with has friend and how handsome I was and reminded him of his daughter who he hadn't seen in some time, then mumbled something inaudible about some secret he simply hoped that his wife would never learn about before passing out on the couch. I arranged him so he was lying on his side before taking the keys from his desk. I helped my friends out of the duct and let them out to the back.

Telling them my sister's real name so she would let them in, I wished them luck and safe passage before they disappeared into the night.

Some more stuff to note: The treaty between the Soviet Union and Germany was signed on August 23, 1939. Poland had Germany to the west and the Soviet Union to the east, so they didn't have much of a chance. Britian and France didn't help them even though they declared war 2 days after the attacks at the start of September. Poland was completely taken over and divided on October 5. The Nazis intended to kill the people of Poland along with the Jews and started rounding up Polish Jews around November 1939.

Radom is a large city that was in the middle of Poland during the war and it still exists today, but it's nearer to the east end of Poland since the borders were shifted west after the war. The Soviet Union originally occupied it starting September 9, 1939, until the Germans turned on them near the end of 1939 and took over the rest of Poland around the summer of 1941.

I'm also picking chapter names from the few things I've read and seen that have Jewish characters, and if you chase most of these readings down, you'll probably see that most of them don't usually portray Jewish people in a particularly nice way. To read about the biggest prick you could ever imagine, I suggest Mordechai Rischler's 'The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravtiz' (He's a great author, but if you ask me, this novel just plain sucked). I took this chapter's title from the first words of Genesis in the sacred Jewish text, The Torah (The Old Testament for Christians).

Damn, this chapter was a lot longer. I'm sure someone out there isn't going to like me writing this, but so what? I put as much effort into this as almost any professional writer, and is about taking risks, challenging convention and being creative. At least, that's what it should be about.