Cimmerian: A Novel of the Holocaust by Ronald Watkins

Author:Ronald Watkins [Watkins, Ronald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-04-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

In February, 1945, the war news was catastrophic. Krakow had fallen the previous month. Though the Russian offensive was not directed towards the KZ, the enemy was now only eighty kilometers away. The guards were restless and uncertain. Peter saw a glimmer of hope in the eyes of many of the trustees who had lasted all this time in hell. Everyone found it unsettling. It was as if the prisoners had risen in open revolt.

His mother wrote that his father's Volksstrum unit had been activated. Fortunately he was assigned duty not far from home and was able to be with her most nights.

In Peter’s fears of madness he increasingly dwelt on Eva. In that place her sympathies took on a disproportionate significance. In every part of his waking hours when he could he thought of her. When the day was especially terrible, and nearly all of each day was, he thought of her with passionate intensity. It seemed to him that if somehow he could find a way to spare her, if he could manage this single act of charity, all the rest of his doing would be undone.

Peter did not speak to her of this or of what he thought as he went about his duty. It would be a surprise. And she would be grateful. She would find a quiet place to wait these final weeks until the war at long last ended and then he would join her, her savior. .

He had never had a girlfriend, though he was nineteen. Conditions of the war and of his service had denied him the usual contacts a young man had with girls. The wave of emotion he experienced for Eva was overwhelming to him. Perhaps if there had been other sweethearts ... but there had been none.

The first plan that came to him was through Max. They went to the brothel together most nights now. He pulled him into a quiet corner where their conversation was masked by the music. “Tell me about your business with Sol,” he asked.

Max looked around quickly to see if anyone could overhear them. “What? You want to get us hung? You never cared about it before. Don’t tell me you want your cut now!”

“No, it is not that. But tell me what you do with Sol.”

Max shrugged. “All the men do it with someone or other. I'm just lucky to have access to the old Jew. I give him the gold. I use another source for the diamonds. The old yid melts the gold down for me and keeps a little for his trouble. I send the gold out in a certain way.”

''How much are you making?”

“Say--what is this? What are you after?”

“I want to buy someone out.”

“So that’s it!” Max slapped his thigh and bellowed. “It's that Jewess whore turned your head!” He laughed heartily. When the mirth was gone he said: “Forget her. You cannot buy her out.

“Why not? Others are bought out all the time. You see it the same as I do.

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