Chapter Three
Unterscharfuhrer (sergeant) Rolfe motioned to the line of girls. "Here you are, Herr Ratigan. You can have any you like."
I shook my head. "I don't want any Jews. I want an Aryan."
"I cannot do that, Herr Ratigan. The Aryan inmates are only here for the duration of their sentences. If we started to send them to other countries or other camps..." He shrugged. "Too much paperwork."
I lit a cigarette. "Show me the Aryan inmates. I don't care about paperwork. My accountant will take care of that."
One half-hour later a group of five non-Jewish girls stood before me. I recognized Meg immediately from her dark chestnut hair and her Danish features. Her dress was starting to wear thin. Her hair hung about her haggard face. She was a picture of an empty shell.
I perceived almost immediately that she had recognized me. She could not hide behind the other girls, so she chose to bow her head down instead, hoping her hair would hide her face.
I pointed to her. "You!"
She pretended that she had not heard me. Rolfe stepped up to her. "Step forward!" he barked.
She reluctantly did as she was told, still looking down. I walked up to her. "What is your name?"
She was silent for a minute. Then she mumbled something. "Speak louder."
"Nada Knezovich," she whispered.
I turned to Rolfe. He referred to a clipboard in his hand. "Knezovich... Knezovich... ah, yes. Nada Knezovich, Danish, 21 years old, serving a sentence of five years for breaking Nuremburg Laws by giving aid to Jews and Gypsies."
I had not expected her to change her name, but I then reasoned that it would have been much worse for her if they had discovered that she was a British citizen. She must have had fake papers.
"Do you have any domestic skills, Fraulein?" I asked, deciding to play along with her little charade.
"No," she said, emphasizing the word as if it was an untruth.
"You better not be lying," Rolfe threatened.
"I meant, Herr Direktor, that I do not have many domestic skills," she said.
"Do you have any family, Fraulein?"
She looked up into my face for an instant, and then quickly looked down again. "No, Herr Direktor," she said softly.
I smiled and motioned Rolfe away from the group. "How can she be traced if she has no family, 'Oberscharfuhrer'?"
"Herr Ratigan, I am an Unterscharfuhrer," Rolfe corrected me.
"How can she be traced if she has no family, 'Oberscharfuhrer'?" I repeated. (An 'Oberscharfuhrer' is a 'senior noncommissioned rank; a.k.a. a step-up from Unterscharfuhrer).
Rolfe finally comprehended the meaning of my words. "Come with me, Fraulein Knezovich."
Ranks such as 'Unterscharfuhrer', 'Oberscharfuhrer', and 'Untersturmfuhrer' are SS army ranks. The SS was Hitler's own Secret Army. I am not positively sure what their role for the Nazis was. It is known that they fought in battles. But the SS was also a widely political organization. There were branches of the SS, but I won't get into all that.
