Lotte had thought her barracks was bad, but this one couldn’t be real. The stench of disease and death stung in her nose. Most of the sick women had diarrhea and were already too weak to get up from the bunks they shared with five other women.
Rumor was that everyone infected with the dreaded disease would be left to die. The chances of recovering in these conditions were zero.
God, Anna, I do hope you have a plan.
It couldn’t be her sister’s scheme to let her perish in the quarantine barracks. Or could it? Her tired mind circled endlessly about Anna, the camp, the typhus epidemic, and her imminent death. But in one last effort, she climbed one of the top tier bunks and decided to trust her sister with her life and her future. If Anna thought this was a good idea, then Lotte wouldn’t argue with her.
Soon, Lotte fell into an exhausted sleep, haunted by nightmares. Several times she woke and blinked against the bright light streaming through the shutters on the windows. My goodness! I’ll be late for work! She was scrambling over bodies – asleep or dead – and down towards the exit of the barrack before remembering that she didn’t have to work today.
Throughout the day, more and more women succumbed to the disease, and the air became thick with the putrid stench of rotting flesh. Lotte choked, but her stomach had been empty for so long, not even the bile rose.
Undertaker prisoners were sent inside with the task of clearing out the corpses and dumping them into the mass grave outside the barbed wire. They worked at their vile job way into the night. Usually, the corpses were cremated, but the Nazis were fearful that the diseases would spread through the ashes used as fertilizer on the fields, and buried those who died of typhus outside the prison wall.
Several kitchen aids brought buckets of water. Dinnertime. Lotte climbed down to drink the smelly liquid and then sat on the floor to wait for food. But nothing happened. At long last, she heard tired and forced footsteps. The kitchen aids. Finally.
“Why should we waste this precious food on them? They’ll all be dead by tomorrow anyway,” a voice said.
“You’re right,” another voice answered, “let’s bring that food to our barracks. We need it more.”
Lotte gave a howling sound, but it went unnoticed amid the groaning and moaning of the sick women. She leaned against the wall and must have dozed off, because she woke to a shrill sound, the evening roll call alarm.
Out of habit, Lotte stumbled to her feet and hurried to take her assigned place in the assembly yard. But she found the entrance door to the barrack locked.
“Let me out, or I’ll be late,” she screamed, jolting the door until a hoarse voice reached her ears. “No more roll call for us. Not in this life.”
Lotte’s head snapped around to look into the bloodshot eyes of a bald woman with greenish-yellow skin. “What do you mean?”
“It’s over. We’re as good as dead.”
Lotte struggled to return to her bunk and closed her eyes, wondering if Anna’s plan had been such a good idea. It was only a matter of time before they found out she wasn’t really sick, and then both she and Anna would be in dire straits.
Chapter 24
Lotte was shivering in the cold when the wake-up alarm echoed across the camp at four a.m. She started up, but then fell back on her bunk when she remembered that she didn’t have to attend roll call or work. She hoped there would at least be food.
About half an hour later, the doors opened, signaling the arrival of someone with their morning rations. Lotte climbed from the bunk and got in line with the other women, weak from sickness, hunger, and cold.
When it was her turn in line, she glanced at the kitchen aid distributing the meager rations and saw a guard and a nurse standing a few steps away. Anna. A sudden rush of excitement coursed through Lotte’s veins, but she didn’t dare look at her sister, who dutifully jotted down on a clipboard which prisoners had made it through the night.
She didn’t have much to write.
Lotte took her bowl of soup and retreated to gulp it down. It tasted even more rancid than usual. She cupped her hands around the tin, trying to draw some warmth into her stiff, frozen fingers, but there was little to draw from.
“You. Come here,” the Aufseherin barked, pointing at Lotte and sending the other women scurrying backward. Lotte stood up and approached the guard, not sure what was expected of her.
Anna examined her briefly and then ordered the Aufseherin, “Bring this one to the doctor’s office.” Anna turned on her heel and walked away, leaving the guard to manhandle Lotte across the compound and into the medical barracks.
The guard knocked her baton into Lotte’s back, and she fell across the threshold into the examination room.
“Thank you, that will be all for now,” Anna told the guard and closed the door.
Lotte scrambled to her feet and stood in the middle of the room waiting. When Anna turned to face her, she whispered with a sad smile on her face, “Lotte, baby. I promise to get you out of here.”
“How? How are you here?”
“To come and save you. Isn’t that what sisters are for?”
Lotte couldn’t believe her ears. Was she already delirious and imagined this conversation? “But how did you come to work here? Anna…the horrible things that happen here.”
Anna pressed her lips together and nodded. “I befriended a nurse at my old hospital. Elisabeth previously worked here but had asked for a transfer because she couldn’t stand the cruelties any longer. Since they were still looking for her replacement and with her recommendation, I got her old job. Ursula and I came up with a plan to get you out of here. The typhus epidemic was the opportunity I’ve been waiting for. This disease terrifies the Nazis because it spreads so quickly and there’s no known remedy. The sick are quarantined rather than exterminated out of fear of contagion.”
"I don’t understand,” Lotte mumbled. Her brain was so malnourished it couldn’t follow the meaning of her sister’s words.
“Since you’re already in quarantine, the only thing I need is the doctor’s signature on your death certificate. Then you’ll be dumped outside the wall with the other corpses.”
“In the mass grave?” Lotte blanched at the idea.
Anna put a hand on Lotte’s arm, and Lotte felt her sister’s strength jumping over into her body.
“You are crazy, you know?” Lotte tried to smile, but her face muscles refused the unusual expression.
“I’m sorry, sweetie, but the only way to leave this camp is with your feet first,” Anna said.
The thought sent chills into her bones, and Lotte wondered whether she could pull it off without screaming in terror. But what alternative did she have? She took a deep breath and then nodded. “I’ll do it. I don’t want to die here.”
“I don’t want you to die here either. It will work. I promise.” Anna smiled tenderly and hugged her.
With all the energy left inside her, Lotte hugged her sister back.
Chapter 25
“I knew it.”
Anna and Lotte broke apart to see the doctor standing just inside the door, growling at them.
“Doctor Tretter, it’s not what it looks like,” Anna hurried to explain.
“Shut up. It’s exactly what it looks like. You see, I’m not as dumb as you suppose me to be. The way you seemed to randomly select this prisoner was more than a little suspicious, and I did some research. She’s your sister.”
Anna blanched, and Lotte trembled.
He slammed the door behind him and walked towards them, rubbing his hands as if he was already enjoying whatever he was planning. Lotte had seen the evil glint in his eye many times before.
The perverted monster took a step toward Lotte, but not enough that he would actually be able to reach for her. After glancing at Lotte’s dirty prisoner dress, emaciated figure, and limp hair, he sneered, “At one point in time, I’m sure all the boys were eager to sink into your body, but this place has a way of making most women undesirable. Worthless.”
Anna gasped, but he shot her a look, and she pressed her lips together.
He walked around the table, making Anna back up to give him room, and continued his appraisal of Lotte. “You tested positive for typhus, so I’m sure you won’t be with us much longer. Pity.”
Leaning forward, he sniffed delicately and then reared back. “God, the stench of death is all over you. Filthy piece of trash, covered in lice.”
Then he turned his attention to Anna. Lotte’s eyes followed his gaze, and she saw not her sister, but a beautiful young woman, having just turned twenty-one on her last birthday, with shiny blonde hair, full lips, and a flawless complexion. She exhibited curves in all the places where Lotte had nothing but protruding bones covered with wrinkled skin.
“Now, you, on the other hand, Schwester Anna, I’ve had my eye on since you arrived. Young. Fresh. Meat on your bones a man can grab ahold of. And I’ll bet you’re a virgin to boot. Just what this doctor requires in payment for my silence.” He stalked Anna across the room, and Lotte watched as her sister backed up and put up her hands to keep the doctor at bay. He removed his coat, tossing it onto the cabinet and then rolled up his sleeves.
Lotte gasped and intended to come to her sister’s aid, but Anna shook her head. “Don’t!”
“If you don’t want me to summon the guards and have you both executed on the spot, you’ll listen to your sister.” The doctor gave a dirty laugh.
“Doctor Tretter, please, let my sister go,” Anna begged.
His eyes swept down her body, lingering on her breasts. “I might…I might…but there will be a price to pay.”
“Anything you want,” Anna answered through thinned lips.
“I see we understand each other.” He licked his lips. “I’ll see to it that you will have some fun, too.”
“Anna, please don’t do this. Not for me,” Lotte begged her.
“I have to. I promised Mutter,” Anna answered with tears in her eyes. “Trust me.”
Those words again! A horrible feeling washed over Lotte, and she wished she could do something. Anything. But she was powerless.
“If I let you do this…” Anna’s voice broke off as the awful man reached out and slid his hand down the front of her body.
“Oh, you’re going to let me do this. Make no mistake.”
Lotte could see the effort it cost her sister to stand still and not cry. She couldn’t take the spectacle any longer and closed her eyes.
“If I don’t fight you, will you sign my sister’s death certificate and let her go?” Anna bartered with the perverted man.
“Why do I care if I sign it now or tomorrow? She has typhus and will die anyway.” Lotte cracked open her eyes just in time to see the man unbuttoning his pants. “But since you seem so attached to that piece of trash, I’ll offer you a deal to show you my goodwill.”
What goodwill, you bloody bastard? Lotte thought but kept her mouth shut, while she retreated to huddle against the wall with her eyes closed tight.
“If you become my willing mistress, Schwester Anna, I’ll sign her death certificate. If not, I’ll rape you anyway and then have you both executed. What’s it going to be?”
Big, fat tears rolled down Lotte’s cheeks as she shook her head, but Anna was already agreeing. “Fine. I’ll be your mistress.”
“Good girl.” The doctor gave a satisfied chuckle, a sound that made her neck hair stand on end. “You and I will have plenty of fun. Now strip and look into my eyes.”
Lotte pressed her hands over her ears and buried her head between her bony knees to block out any sound. Once started, her tears burst through an ever-widening breach in the dike of her resistance, bawling for every injustice she’d witnessed during the last four months. She wasn’t sure how long she sat like this when Anna’s voice caught her attention.
“The death certificate?”
“Since you were so compliant, it’ll be my pleasure.” The sound of a scratching plume emboldened Lotte to open her eyes again. The doctor was bent over the desk, writing something. “Here it is.” He waved the paper in the air.
How fitting. The women were right. Cry today, you die tomorrow. Except, I’m already dead.
Anna didn’t flinch when the doctor sauntered towards her. She held her head high and her shoulders straight, staring at him with hate-filled eyes. Lotte was amazed at the mental strength her sister possessed. I was once like that. Before arriving in this hellish place.
“I’ll see you again real soon,” Doctor Tretter said to Anna and gave her one last slap on her behind before he finally left.
“Anna, are you hurt?” Lotte scrambled to her feet, weeping for the sacrifice her sister had made.
“I will be fine,” Anna answered and smoothed her hands down her nurse’s uniform. She didn’t cry, but Lotte knew her well enough to find the truth in her eyes. They hugged each other tight, both drawing comfort from each other. After several long moments, Anna pulled back and said, “It’s time.”
“Time for what?”
“To leave this place.”
The silence was only filled by the mad beating of Lotte’s heart as Anna led her baby sister to the wagon used to haul the corpses away. “What’s going to happen?”
Anna placed her hands on her little sister’s shoulders. “I’m afraid you have to get undressed first. Lie here very still and quiet. I’ll cover you with a blanket to make things a little more bearable, but you have to pretend to be dead until the church bells chime midnight. Then you climb from the pit and escape via the far side. Ursula will be waiting for you.”
Lotte looked at the wagon while she took off the detested blue-and-white striped dress. Then she glanced at her feet.
“The plimsolls you gave me for my birthday have served me well.”
Anna looked up, a single tear sliding from an eye. “I wish you could keep them, but you know the drill. Ursula will have a dress and shoes for you on the other side.”
Again, Lotte’s eyes filled with tears, and she embraced her sister one last time before climbing onto the wagon. “Thank you so much, Anna. I couldn’t have wished for two better sisters.”
Chapter 26
Lotte lost track of time as the wagon rattled and bumped over the ground. She clenched her teeth, digging her nails into her palms to keep from struggling as she was dumped into the pit.
She heard the undertakers say a quick prayer over the dead bodies of their fellow prisoners, and the sound of the wagon being wheeled back inside the camp. Lotte lay there, a dead body draped across her legs, another splayed on her back. Somehow, she’d managed to turn as the wagon was dumped and had landed on her stomach, protecting her face and airway. The air was fetid, the smell causing her to gag, but her survival depended upon pretending to be dead.
She feared she would go mad as the hours crawled by, but she remained perfectly still until she could safely crawl out of the immense grave. After eleven o’clock, when all the prisoners had returned from their forced labor, the guards no longer patrolled the outside of the camp. She knew that was why Anna had arranged for her to flee the burial pit at midnight. Like a ghost, rising from the dead at the witching hour.
Lotte gave a dry laugh and counted the chimes of the church bell. One short one for every quarter of the hour. One longer one for every hour. One, two, three…nine, ten. Two more hours and she would make her move.
She lay among the dead, feeling as if she belonged, so weak and sick was she. But the hope of seeing Ursula and Mutter again instilled an inner strength she didn’t know she still possessed. Lotte closed her eyes, allowing the vision of her mother and sisters to fill her mind. This would keep her awake because if she fell asleep, she’d miss the stroke of midnight – and her second chance at life.
Eleven.
Twelve.
It was time.
Lotte gathered her last ounce of strength and crawled, pushed, pulled, and climbed. Once she was on top of the pile of corpses, she faced a high earthen wall. She traveled in
time back to Aunt Lydia’s farm and how she’d raced her cousins Jörg and Helmut up the trees.
I can do this. I can. I must.
She sent up a prayer of forgiveness for stepping on the dead bodies nearest the wall and then used their corpses to give herself a boost up, digging her toes into the soft earth, kicking and clawing her way out of the pit.
Her nails were bleeding by the time she made it out, and she collapsed on the snow-covered ground, but only for a moment.
Anna had told her, “You have fifteen minutes, twenty at most. Ursula will arrive at a quarter past midnight, but she can’t wait for long.”
Lotte half walked, half crawled toward the metal fence surrounding the mass grave. Since nobody expected the dead to escape, it wasn’t topped with barbed wire like the prison wall. It was almost too easy to traverse the fence, falling to the other side.
Her breath coming in spurts, she sensed her strength beginning to fail her. Without proper muscles to do the heavy work, every exercise became an almost insurmountable task. At least I don’t weigh much anymore. When her pulse finally slowed down enough to make another move, she heard the damned church bell chime one time. A quarter past midnight.
“Hide in the copse of trees just ahead,” Anna had explained.
It wasn’t far, maybe a few hundred yards, but putting one foot in front of the other was one of the most challenging things she’d ever done. Every three or four steps, she had to catch her breath, but she never stopped, never faltered.
I must reach the copse. I will not give up. I will…
Lotte reached the trees and fell to the ground when a woman on a bicycle stopped in front of her.
“Here, take this and get on.” Ursula handed her a woolen cape and pointed at the luggage rack on the back.
Lotte slipped the warm cape over her naked body and collapsed on the luggage rack, holding tight onto Ursula’s hips as her sister quickly pedaled away. The ride passed in a blur, complete exhaustion taking over. Finally, Ursula stopped on the outskirts of town, and Lotte felt herself being carried to a small house where an older woman answered the door.
War Girl Lotte Page 11