Chapter 2
Hey everyone! Here is chapter 2! Please review and let me know if I should continue. God Bless.
Warning: This chapter will contain content that may be disturbing. Viewer discretion advised.
-Vegter999
Rupert's POV:
The sun beat down on us as Father and I observed the long line of prisoners. It was his job to supervise the gas chambers though the soberkommando, filthy Jewish prisoners, naturally did the dirty work of cleaning out the bodies afterwards for him, while my job was to supervise the female officers of the women's camp from time to time.
Today however was an exception, as there was an unusually large number of prisoners that were coming in and Father had said they'd needed extra men to supervise the prisoners and make sure they did not rebel.
The crowd mostly consisted of women, children, the elderly and anyone else who had been deemed unfit to work by the SS doctor upon arrival at the camp and therefore had been put to the left.
A slight whine echoed from next to me and I looked down at my side to see my German Shepherd, Artur, gazing up at me.
"You will help me today my son" Father said to me.
I glanced over at him, slightly surprised.
"Who will remain behind to watch them?" I asked, nodding at the long line of naked prisoners.
"The extra guards will."
Father lowered his voice so the prisoners couldn't hear.
"We need to deliver the Zyklon B gas to the prisoners as fast as possible to get it all done today and an extra pair of hands will help to do just that. Besides your friend Wilhelm over there seems to be doing alright." Father indicated with his head Wilhelm Hoss who was slowly walking up and down the line, his eyes narrowed and daring anyone to step out of line. He carried with him a whip, holding it behind his back.
All of a sudden one of the prisoners dropped something. She scrambled to try to get it back but Wilhelm shoved her back into line, raising his whip and giving her a lashing.
She was then pushed forward by the others and Wilhelm picked the object up off the ground, making his way towards us.
He saluted us and then said "This was found sir."
Father took one look at it and then passed it to me. It was a small picture of three women and a man, one of which I recognized as the prisoner who'd dropped it and the other older woman in the photo, who I assumed to be the Mother, was currently clinging to the younger woman in line.
"After we're done here get rid of it Rupert."
"Yes Father" I replied, tucking the small photo into my pocket.
The prisoner who'd dropped the photo, along with the older woman, were shoved into the chamber and the door was shut and bolted.
"Come my son. We have work to do."
Father quickly headed away to the sides of the chamber and I followed.
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Lilla's POV:
I felt terrified as I lost sight of Papa.
I was led further and further away along with dozens of other fearful-looking women.
Finally we came to a section of the camp which had rows of barracks and were assigned to one of the buildings.
The barrack consisted of beds made from wood that looked as if it was about to collapse at any moment and each mattress was thin. I moved to one bed and pushed on the mattress with my fingers, finding it incredibly lumpy and it would no doubt be uncomfortable to sleep on.
A loud gong sounded from outside and several of my fellow prisoners rushed out into the yard, which was really just dirt covered earth.
I quickly followed their example as I scrambled outside. We lined up in rows of ten, each of us facing forward away from the barracks.
I heard a soft sound and looked behind me. There was a woman behind me silently sobbing as other prisoners stood stiffly and looked ahead, stone-faced.
Why was no one comforting her? I quickly left my line and moved toward her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She started slightly at the touch, gazing up at me with surprise.
I gave her a warm and soft smile.
"Everything will be alright, you'll see."
Her eyes suddenly filled with fear.
"There's no reason to be afraid of me. I only want to help." I then realized that she wasn't looking at me, but she was looking behind me.
I turned and came nearly nose to nose with a female SS officer. She had brown hair tied up at the back of her head and her cold green eyes were currently gazing at me like a hungry cat would look upon a mouse.
"What do you think your doing stupid Jew?" she sneered in German.
"I was just...I" I stumbled over my words, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the sobbing woman.
The SS officer grinned cruelly then called out to two of the female guards.
"Bring the two of them!" she gestured to me and the woman.
We were both dragged in front of all the prisoners. My heart pounded in fear and sweat began to fall from my forehead as we both faced the group.
The officer too stood gazing at the rest of the prisoners.
"There will be silence during roll call!" she shouted menacingly. "Yet, it seems these two feel they can break the rules" she continued, gesturing to us. "So we will show them what happens when such rules are broken." She turned to us.
"You" she pointed at me, "will be lashed 25 times. 10 for leaving your line, 10 for talking to another prisoner, and 5 because I feel like it."
She glanced at the woman beside me, who was practically trembling.
"You will be lashed 10 times for making noise."
She began to turn away when I said "Wait!"
She turned back around and punched me in the eye so hard I fell to the ground.
"You will speak when you are spoken to!" she spat.
"I will take her punishment!" I cried.
A surprised look graced the Officer's face for a moment before it was replaced with contempt.
"I do not care. 35 lashes it is then."
The other woman was sent back into her line while I was taken to a table where my feet were forced into a box, immobilizing me while I was forced to stretch out across the table. My dress was opened, exposing my back. Tears streamed down my face.
All of a sudden my face was gripped by a rough hand and tugged up so I was looking into the eyes of the officer.
"You will count out the lashes. If you get the number wrong, we will start over again."
She let go of my face and I let my head drop to the wood, closing my eyes and bracing for the inevitable.
'Please Lord please help me to survive this.' I thought.
"Begin!" the officer commanded and I cried out as the first lash struck my skin.
Rupert's POV:
When Father and I returned in the evening to our home we shared with my mother and nephew we found my mother waiting.
"Darling" she greeted me, kissing me on the cheek. She did not acknowledge my Father.
Before I could reply to her Father snapped sarcastically "Giving me the silent treatment again Elsa?!"
Recognizing the start of one of their frequent arguments that I had endured throughout childhood, I immediately excused myself and retreated to my office.
I closed the doors and locked them.
Even through the thick wood the sound of yelling could plainly be heard.
"You didn't give me the money!" Mother exclaimed.
"Oh shut up you stupid woman! What more do you want from me?!"
I heard the shattering of glass which probably meant they were now throwing things at each other again and then the sound of slapping and a struggle.
I sighed and moved away from the door, having learned a long time ago that there was nothing I could do to stop them.
The office was rather simple, with a large desk facing the right side of the room, and a bookshelf shoved up against the left side across from the doors, stacked almost to the brim with novels.
I moved to my desk, which currently had a typewriter sitting on top of it, and brushed away some papers that were strewn haphazardly across the oaken surface.
I opened one of the drawers, which had a small safe contained within it. I quickly turned the dial and a small click echoed before I pulled the handle down and the safe opened.
Inside lay a secret no one, not even my parents, knew about. I pulled out the finished pages of a book manuscript, which at the moment didn't even have a title.
As I was about to load a fresh page into the type writer a soft knock came at the door.
I sighed and quickly stuffed the manuscript pages back into the safe and closed the safe door, resigned to the fact that I probably would not get any further work done on it tonight.
I moved to the door and unlocked it. On the other side stood my six year old nephew, Peter. After his parents, my twin brother Otto and my sister in law Edith, had perished in a car accident six months ago, he had been sent to live with us. His eyes, blue like those of my brother and I, were currently gazing up at me imploringly, practically begging me not to scold him for being out of bed this late.
But tonight I would not accede to his silent request.
"You know the rules Peter. Your not to be up this late" I said sternly.
"I heard them arguing again. I don't like it" he said meekly, looking down.
"Yes well we have to learn to deal with a lot of things we don't like" I replied.
Tears started to pool in his eyes and I began to feel increasingly agitated and uncomfortable. Comforting crying people had never been my strong suit, especially when it came to children.
"I don't wanna listen to it! It's not fair!" he whined, stomping his foot.
I suddenly felt my temper rise within me, burning white hot like a furnace. Why I could not say. It could've been the stress of the day or my parents being constantly at each other's throats but something inside me suddenly snapped.
"Well life isn't fair and the sooner you learn that the better! Now go to bed!" I yelled, slamming the door in his face. I heard small sobs coming from the other side before the sound of little feet retreating down the hall echoed upon the floor.
I placed my forehead on the door and took deep calming breaths until I felt my temper recede like waves retreating from the shore.
It was then that I noticed something upon the floor. I made my way over to it and realized it was the photograph I had been told to get rid of earlier that day that had been retrieved from one of the prisoners. It must've fallen out of my pocket when I sat down.
I gazed at it for a moment, noticing now they held each other close and they're eyes were alight with obvious joy at being in one another's company. What a happy family they looked.
Then, for reasons that I could not quite yet explain, instead of simply tearing it to pieces and tossing it in the trash, I tucked it safely into one of the drawers of my desk.
Hey guys I know this chapter was really sad but, from here on it will mostly just focus on the relationship between the two main characters so I hope you will stick with me. Please REVIEW and let me know whether I should continue or not. God Bless.