Hammelburg Area, Farm of Friedrich Wagner
October 28, 1943, 2300 hours

The small group was sitting in the barn at the Wagner farm. Hans and Karl had gathered several of their friends together who all shared the same hatred of what had happened to their sister.

Ilse sat off to the side of the group, avoiding eye contact with everyone. She was ashamed. She was ashamed of what had happened to her, and ashamed that people outside of her family knew it. She was grateful that her brothers did spare her some dignity – they had only told the others that she was attacked. She had enough trouble facing her father's knowing what had happened to her, let alone having others who were not even close family friends in on the secret.

As uncomfortable as Ilse felt at the moment, she felt an overwhelming desire to see the monsters that attacked her pay for what they did to her. So when she had found out that her brothers had planned to assemble a group of people to make the Gestapo pay, she demanded to be part of it. At first they wouldn't hear of it, but she had begged and pleaded to be allowed to join them. Reluctantly, they relented.

"I think we are all here," Hans said to the group assembled. "Let's get started."

Heads nodded all around the group as the participants looked expectantly at Hans. His strong personality and even stronger hatred for what happened to his sister had elevated him to be leader of this small group.

"First, we all know why we are here, and what our goal is" he said. "If you do not wish to participate, now is the time to leave." He looked at each person in the barn in turn. All heads nodded. When Hans reached Ilse, his eyes pleaded with her to go, not wanting her to be a part of this. She met his eyes defiantly and nodded her head.

"Ilse, you do not have to do this," Hans said to her.

Ilse shook her head. "Hans, I have more of a reason to do this than you do," she replied. "You can't keep me out of this." Their eyes locked. Hans silently pleaded with his sister not to get involved. Again, she nodded her head.

Finally, Hans sighed and looked away. "Those bastards will pay," he muttered.

"How should we start?" Karl asked his brother.

For a moment, Hans was silent, contemplating the bits of straw strewn around the barn floor. Finally he looked up at his brother and said, "That's what we are here to decide, little brother."