Trouble Brewing by Marion Kummerow

Author:Marion Kummerow [Kummerow, Marion]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Marion Kummerow

Chapter 15

When Richard woke before dawn, Katrina greeted him with dark shadows under her eyes from having stayed up all night to wash her brothers’ clothes. In contrast to their usual morning routine, he didn’t dare kiss her or even give her an embrace, as she finished stuffing their bags with food and extra clothing.

Instead he busied himself helping her set the table while she made breakfast. To celebrate the special day, she raided the weekly ration of eggs from the new hen and even took a piece of sausage from the hidden pantry beneath the kitchen floor.

Stan and Jarek came downstairs several minutes later, and, after giving mean side-glances at Richard, recounted the rumors about the upcoming closure of the Lodz Ghetto and the deportation of everyone living there.

“It’s true. The Wehrmacht has been tasked to secure transport to resettle everyone to the East,” Richard admitted.

“To death camps, you mean.” Stan sneered as he clipped out each word. “Resettlement means a gas chamber if you’re lucky or being worked to death at one of your camps, eh, Richard?”

Richard turned white as a sheet, not willing to believe that Stan was confirming his worst suspicions. “That can’t be true. Why would they do that?”

“Your good German is just like every one of those rats,” Stan said, facing Katrina, and then sneered at Richard again. “Are you really that dim-witted or are you merely protecting your sadistic compatriots?”

“No, no…” Richard shook his head, but Stan steamrolled over him. “Have you ever wondered how someone can survive on half the rations a Pole gets, which is less than a German gets? Have you ever asked yourself why nobody ever returns from one of the camps? Have you seen the skeletons clad in rags, doing the work of an ox?”

Richard felt the blood drain from his head as he listened to Stan explaining in vivid color the destiny of the Jews under the German occupation. The glimpses he’d seen suddenly all fell into place. Shame for his nation spread through his body and reddened his cheeks.

“I…I didn’t know.” He lumped back in his chair, pushing the half-eaten breakfast away.

“Now you do,” Jarek chimed in, “and what will you do about it? Sit here and feel sorry for yourself?”

“Let him be,” Katrina said, but her intervention only agitated her brothers even more.

“You’re not even man enough to stay with your army. You deserted to save your own skin, because you know that Germany will lose this war, and soon!” Jarek bellowed. “You are a filthy coward, that’s what you are!”

Richard didn’t think he was a coward. Naïve yes, stupid perhaps, but never a coward. He had volunteered for the front because he couldn’t stand witnessing more of the SS’s atrocities committed against civilians. But he chose not to mention this; it wouldn’t help to calm Stan’s and Jarek’s hate. In their vengeful eyes, his German heritage painted him a criminal without the benefit of judge or jury.

“Every single damn German is a cog in the machine bulldozing over Europe killing millions and millions.

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