My Sister's Betrayal by Roberta Kagan

Author:Roberta Kagan [Kagan, Roberta]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-18T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Bernie kept her promise to Moriah. Although she was exhausted, she did her own work, and then she did as much of Moriah’s work as she could possibly do. They ate together each day, and Moriah tried to give Bernie half of her bread to thank her for the help.

“I don’t need as much as you do. I am small, and I don’t work nearly as hard.”

“I’m all right. Eat your food. You need your strength,” Bernie said.

There weren’t many male guards, but as it was, one of them became attracted to Moriah. His name was Unterscharführer Maynard Graf, and he lorded over the kitchen workers as if he were the king of the kitchen, the giver of life, and the taker of it as well. And perhaps he was. After all, he had control of the food, and the inmates would starve to death without enough food. Many of them did. Often, he would walk by when Bernie and Moriah were eating their meager meal and hand Moriah a bit of extra bread. If he saw her in line, when the girl was ladling the single serving of soup into her bowl, he’d stop what he was doing and walk over to ensure that Moriah was given an extra piece of potato. And when these small blessings were bestowed upon Moriah, she always shared every bit of extra food with Bernie.

As winter pressed on, Bernie began to feel like the blood was freezing in her veins. Many of the women Bernie knew who had worked with her on the roads died. As she worked, she saw their bodies, which were left to rot in the snow. Moriah was so small and skinny and shivered so hard that Bernie was afraid her friend might drop dead, too. But then, one evening, as Moriah and Bernie were eating their soup, the Unterscharführer came out from the kitchen and walked over to Moriah. He was tall and handsome and wore a warm wool coat that Bernie wished she had. He smiled at Moriah. Bernie saw her try to return the smile, but her teeth were chattering. Then he said, “How would you like to come to work for me in the kitchen? It’s warm there, and I might give you a little extra food.”

Moriah looked at Bernie, who nodded her head. “Go,” she said.

“What about you?”

“I’ll be all right.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. It will be easier on me if you are not working on the roads. I won’t have to help you. You know that it slows me down sometimes,” Bernie said. And it was true. But that wasn’t the reason she wanted Moriah to leave the roads and go to work in the kitchen. She wanted Moriah to survive, and working inside would give her a much better chance.

Moriah looked at the Nazi. Her face showed that she was puzzled by his offer. But Bernie was certain that she knew what he wanted from Moriah. She hated to sanction something like this.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.