Investigating

Please excuse my seeming obsession with writing everything in probably not very good German. I've stopped that since I first wrote this story arc, which was actually quite a while ago. So no more of it. rolls eyes at self

Several minutes later, and seven decades earlier, a glowing portal opened in the darkness of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and Karl stepped out of it. He looked around him, a smile beneath his mask. The darkness around him felt comfortable, and there was a smell in the air that seemed right, and just breathing it in made some part of him feel more alive. He straightened his cap and set off into the night.

The problem was how to find Anne Frank. He could go to the administration department, and as likely as not they would give him whatever he asked for, but he felt that it wouldn't be a good idea to let anyone know he was here unless absolutely necessary.

It seemed that he would have to search each hut looking for her, and even then it was unlikely that he would recognize her; she would be much changed from her photograph. This was a concentration camp after all. Karl sighed. It looked like he might be here a while.

Karl stood at the edge of the Kommandant's quarters, a dark shade in the creeping shadows. He had looked for Anne Frank throughout the whole night, and now, with the revealing light of dawn looming on the horizon, he knew he would have to enter. Anne Frank would be listed here amongst the myriad others destined to die, and he would be able at least to find her. What to do then was a problem. He didn't know when the portal back to his own time would open again, and he had no idea as yet to ensure Anne's survival. In fact, he was loath to even think about it, saving this Jew.

Karl stepped slowly into the circle of light, slipping up silently to the open door and peering in. To his anger the Kommandant of Bergen-Belsen was sitting there at the desk, writing with a pen in an open book. Maybe he should just go in and ask where she was…but that could easily turn out badly…

What was he thinking? He was a master assassin, a virtually undefeatable fighter! What was he afraid of!

Karl strode confidently into the hut, the metal heels of his boots clicking on the cold stone floor. The officer at the desk looked up quickly at this disturbance, his face unreadable to anyone who was not at least a slight Empath. But to Karl he was an open book. Irritation at being interrupted warred with relief at getting away from the tedious paperwork.

I never liked it either, he thought wryly, thinking of the long nights spent filling in forms at SchloB Unterholz.

"Was willst du? What do you want? the man snapped, "Wer bist du? Ich habe dich nie bevor gesehen. Who are you? I have never seen you before. "

"Ich bin Obersturmbahnfuhrer Karl Kroenen.Ich bin nur gerade angekommen. Ich mochte das schriftlich von Juden fur das...Experimenten zu sehen. I am Obersturmbahfuhrer Karl Kroenen. I have only arrived very recently. I need to have a look at the records for the Jews you have here for my...experiments. "

"Welcher sort von Experimenten? What kind of experiments? "

"Ich mache Nachforschungen uber das Flechtfieber unt anderer Krankheiten. Ich verlange Untertanen. Als ich das esgibte der Ausbruch von Flechtfieber gehoren habe, komme ich sofort. Est is ein perfect Gelegunheit. I am researching typhus and other diseases. I require subjects. When I heard that there had been an outbreak of typhus here I came at once. It is a perfect opportunity. "

The officer frowned, his hand slipping below the desk. "Was meinst du der Ausbruch von Flechtfieber? In diesem Augenblick gibt es keine Krankheit in dem Kamp. What do you mean an outbreak of typhus? At the moment there are no diseases in the camp. "

Karl cursed silently. He must have come back too far. The outbreak that Anne Frank died of had not yet happened.

"Ah…vielleicht bin ich falsch, Ah...perhaps I was mistaken, " he stammered anxiously.

"Nein, No, " the other said slowly,"Ich denke das du ein verschiedene Tagesordnung hast. Sind Sie wirklich wer Sie zu sein behaupten ich mich wurdere, Herr Kroenen? I think you have a different agenda. Are you really who you claim to be I wonder, Herr Kroenen? "

His hand came up holding a Luger, and Karl leapt out of the way as the gun rang out. From beneath his trench coat he pulled out a couple of small spheres and threw them at the officer. As they hit they spewed a dark grey and green gas that swirled around the room. The Kommandant coughed several times and slumped to the ground, knocked out by the noxious chemical that continued to fill the room. Karl rose to his feet, shrouded in the smog, his mask filtering the smoke out of the air he was breathing. The dark circles of glass that served as the eyes of the mask glinted slightly as he examined the fallen body. No point in killing the man, as much as certain parts of him would like to; the Kommandant would be missed; else he would have pulled something more deadly from beneath his coat.

With the Kommandant out of his way there was no-one to stop Karl from searching every single record of every single prisoner in the concentration camp. He stopped to take a cursory glance at the documents on the desk before continuing on into the long dark room that held file after file packed onto hundreds of shelves. The Nazi began to pace slowly through the rows, tapping each of the files as he went. He pulled one out at random and began to read. It was a list of possessions taken from Jews who had been killed here. It was fascinating, but not what he wanted. Karl surveyed the folders with a sigh. He might be here a while.

Rows of skeleton thin prisoners stood in lines, waiting for the thin broth and maggot ridden bread that was their only sustenance. Karl watched them in the heat of the mid day sun from his hiding place in the guard's barracks. The S.S. Death's Head group who slept here were gone, overseeing the workers and those destined for death.

The Kommandant had regained consciousness and now remembered nothing; a useful side effect of the chemical agent that had been contained in the small spheres. He was strutting around outside now, shouting orders in angry German.

Anne Frank was standing in the line, not as thin as the others, but clothed in the same grayish rags. As soon as typhus broke and out and the first ravages of the disease touched her, he would make his move. Until then, he would watch and wait, seeing the concentration camps first hand.

I hope I get all the details right about Bergan Belsen. It should be OK, but if anyone spots anything, please to come and yell at me.

Please review!