Death Comes A'knock'n

All the air seemed to have been sucked out of the room. Hogan's announcement the Gestapo was outside filled Karl's heart with stark terror. Unable to think, he could move only due to Hogan's terse instructions. Now he stood hiding in the bedroom, shaking like a leaf and waiting for the instrument of their doom to come bursting through the door. He watched as Hogan locked the bedroom door and checked the window for a possible means of escape. His return to his position by the door told Karl that they were trapped. He worried about Suzette. She was left alone to deal with those men, while the men hid in the bedroom. That felt wrong to him. He should be out there running interference, not her.

Karl remembered the last time he was trapped in a bedroom. It was the summer before University and he was dating a young woman named Beatrix Gärtner. Her papa came home unexpectedly and Karl ended up climbing out the window while trying to put his pants on. In his haste to get out, he lost his balance and landed on his head. As he tried to regain his bearings, his shoes flew out and smacked him in the face. He was laying in her mother's rose bushes, with painful scratches covering his body, a bloody nose and his pants somewhere near his knees, when Herr Gärtner found him. The man swore if he ever saw Karl near his daughter again, he would change him from a stallion to a gelding with a flick of his wrist. Karl never doubted the man's word or his ability to carry out the threat. He limped home and told his mother some wild story about a dog but the twinkle in his father's eyes said he was well aware of his youngest son's activities.

Karl tried to listen to the muffled voices on the other side of the door without much success. Then one of the Gestapo men attempted to open the locked door. He heard him demand the key from Suzette. Karl looked at Hogan in hope that he was working on a solution. He would not have believed what happened next except he was standing there while it happened.

Without saying a word to anyone, Schultz unlocked the door and stepped out into the main part of the apartment.

"What is going on here darling?"

"Nothing….darling," replied Suzette.

"Who are these…..oh I see, the bully boys," Schultz said as he closed the bedroom door.

Is he crazy? Those are remorseless killers and he just called them Bully Boys?

"What are you doing here?"

"Just a routine check Herr General," replied a now shaky voice.

" Achtung! That's what they always say. Angriff! Angriff! How dare you come here and disturb a general of the Third Reich?"

Karl noticed the voice has gotten even shakier. "We're only doing our duty sir. We had not idea you were…."

"Oh you had no idea," Schultz purred, interrupting the voice. "You didn't know that a general might want to spend an afternoon with his..uh… his..uh…"

"Niece," replied Suzette.

"Niece; thank you darling."

"I assure you General; we had no intention of intruding upon your privacy."

"No you didn't. I tell you something. If it should ever happen again I will report you to your superior officer and then to his superior officer and then even to his superior officer. I will report you all the way up until it comes back to me. And if I ever report it to myself, oh boy, are you ever going to be in trouble."

Karl was relieved to hear rapid footsteps and the sound of a door opening and closing quickly.

"They are gone," replied Suzette.

"They did? Why did you let them go?"

Everyone rushed out of the bedroom now that the coast was clear, with Hogan being the first one to get to Schultz.

"Schultz, you were fantastic."

"You saved us," gushed Varlaine.

LeBeau appeared to be unable to contain his enthusiasm. "How did you ever manage to do it?"

"Lucky for you," replied Schultz, "I was loaded."

Karl took a step back from the group and just watched in amazement as they congratulated his Feldwebel. He had always like Schultz. Would do whatever he asked. But until now he never knew what an amazing man he was. If Karl was honest with himself, he had dismissed Schultz as a likable buffoon, much like the Kommandant and the prisoners. But now he could see the man more clearly. Here was a man who had nothing after the Great War. He came home to a defeated and demoralized country. Without an advanced education, this man built his toy factory into the biggest and most prosperous in all of Germany. Schultz would have had to work with unions, accountants, and a host of various bureaucrats. A buffoon could not have done that. Karl felt humbled and resolved never to take his friend for granted again. Everyone has something to teach if one is open to the lesson.

As the days pasted, being cooped up in the tiny apartment for most of the day grew stifling. Karl tried cleaning but the place was so small, it took very little time. So he volunteered to do the daily shopping and cooking. Something LeBeau was grateful for. Suzette had started teaching him some of her favorite recipes. Karl liked her, a lot. But he knew she had only eyes for Hogan. He'd watch her moon over the Oberst and felt somewhat frustrated. He knew he could commit to someone as sweet and kind as Suzette, just as he knew Hogan could not. The domestic life was not in Hogan's cards. He would always be looking for the next adventure. Such things did not bode well for a happy marriage.

Karl liked visiting the various shops in the neighborhood. Each one had its own special personality. Loaded with today's supplies, he started back toward the small apartment. His mind, absorbed in what he was going to prepare today, missed his turn and he found himself on Rue des Deux Ponts. He noticed a commotion up ahead and walked quickly towards it. The rational part of his brain told him to walk as far away from whatever was happening as possible but his curiosity spurred him on.

There were several buses parked in front of an apartment building. The French police accompanied by the two Gestapo men who had shown up at Suzette's apartment were loading people into the buses. Many were crying, both men and women. Karl turned to the woman next to him and asked, "Excusez-moi, qu'est-ce qui se passe?" (Excuse me, what's going on?)

"Ils ont finalement eu le temps de nettoyer la saleté qui y vivaient." (They finally got around to cleaning out the filth that lived there.)

"Je ne comprends pas." (I don't understand.)

"Juifs!" (Jews!)

Karl thought he was going to be sick. He could hear the bystanders screaming horrible curses at the people being forced from their home. People were laughing and throwing rotten food. They had not an ounce of compassion on the plight of these poor people. Karl thought back to the Kristallnacht and the American treatment of the Japanese. He supposed people were the same everywhere. There were the good like Hogan, Schultz and LeBeau but it always seemed the evil ones far outweighed the good.

He watched as the last person neared the bus. He was a boy about twelve, Karl guessed. The sadness in his eyes ripped and tore into Karl's soul. He felt himself moving forward, toward the boy with the ethereal dark eyes. Reaching out he touched the boy's shoulder.

"Quel est votre nom?" (What is your name?)

"Robert."

"Je ne peux pas arrêter, mais je ne t'oublierai jamais. Vous allez vivre, si pour aucune autre raison que de les malgré. Promettez-moi, Robert. Promesse vous faire tout ce que vous devez afin de survivre." (I can't stop this but I will always remember you. You will live, if for no other reason than to spite them. Promise me, Robert. Promise you will do whatever you need to in order to survive.)

"Je le promets." (I promise.)

And with that, the boy got on the bus and took him and his family to their destiny. Karl walked home in silence. His thoughts were no longer of food, music and paintings. Several hours later LeBeau found him on the landing. Karl poured his heart out to the Frenchman. LeBeau said nothing but put his arm around Karl's shoulder in a small token of comfort. After all what can one say? Things like what Karl witnessed didn't go on? They both knew better. He would always remember Paris but it would never be as shining and bright as it once had been.

A/n:

Angriff: Attack. It took me the longest to figure out what he is saying but this is the closest, most logical word I could find.

10 Rue des Deux Ponts is the address of the apartment building where Robert Max Widerman (Robert Clary) lived. He and his family, along with all the building residents, were arrested on September 23, 1942 at 9:30 in the evening. Three of his siblings escaped, two because they were not home and one because she hid in the water closet. Of the family that was arrested, only Mr. Clary survived. I know the story takes place close to Christmas so I am fudging a little with the date and time of the arrest. Mr. Clary was small even as a child and often mistaken for being younger than sixteen.

Kristallnacht: The Night of the Broken Glass was a series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on November 9–10, 1938. Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and villages, as SA stormtroopers and civilians destroyed buildings with sledgehammers. Around 1,668 synagogues were ransacked, and 267 set on fire. In Vienna alone 95 synagogues or houses of prayer were destroyed.