Even in Darkness by Barbara Stark-Nemon

Author:Barbara Stark-Nemon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: She Writes Press
Published: 2015-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

20 1942

Kläre lost count of the trains, the days, the schedule of her hunger. She knew from the path of the sun that she occasionally glimpsed through a crack in a door that they were headed east. Where they were going they’d not been told, nor did they dare to ask. What they’d left had become immediately unspeakable between her and Jakob; they were both devoted to a frozen watchfulness for what lay ahead.

On the night they were taken, they had been dropped by truck at a station on the outskirts of Dortmund, then moved in a freight train to this country station where they had now been standing for more than an hour, waiting to board the next train, their valises between them. Without speaking, each knew that the other was cold and afraid, still in shock. The conviction that the less reaction shown the better lay between them like a vapor. They breathed the danger—felt it pass before their eyes in sickening waves, chilling them more than the cold—but they neither moved nor spoke.

By now there were hundreds of people standing in the mud and snow. Soldiers shouted, beat with their fists, and stabbed with their rifles to move the silent crowd ahead. As the point of convergence came into view, it became apparent that a selection was taking place. Jakob looked at Kläre, and his eyes spoke urgently of his fear and then of his plan. She had none—she could not think any longer of plans or options. But Jakob held her gaze and slowly moved it first to one officer, and then, with a minor sweep of his eyes, to another. Study! his eyes said.

Many families with children and older people were directed toward a distant car on the train, while a few men and even fewer women were sent to a closer one. These fewer chosen ones looked younger, stronger, more confident. Jakob had already placed one hand behind his back, the other weighted by the valise. He had decided that they would be younger and stronger, and he stood with his strongest posture as they arrived at the front. He handed the paperwork to Kläre and took her valise to place in front of himself.

Kläre understood. She was to hand the papers to the officer; she was not to talk first.

“Next! Move it forward, assholes.” The foulness of the man’s language belied his mechanical delivery, and Kläre carefully emptied her expression without dropping her eyes.

“Papers,” the officer demanded.

She handed their passports and a special paper Jakob had gotten to the soldier, careful not to meet his eyes. His vacant face did not fool her. As he read the letter and looked Jakob over from top to bottom, a sly smile snaked onto his face that alarmed Kläre more than his cursing.

“Well, we’ll see about your usefulness, then, won’t we Herr DOKTOR Kohler. I certainly hope you’re of some use to your Jew wife.”

The comment stung Kläre deeply, but she said nothing and moved slowly toward the closer car with Jakob.

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