The Officer of Dachau: A gripping and unputdownable WW2 historical novel by Dorit Journo

Author:Dorit Journo [Journo, Dorit]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

The chaos on the streets continued. The marauders’ shouts, interweaving with the victims’ cries of pain and mingling with the sounds of shattering glass as the windows of Jewish businesses and synagogues were smashed, alongside the heavy smell of smoke rising from the fires set in Jewish buildings, had already reached every ear and nostril throughout the city and the country. Those were horrendous hours of rioting, looting, vandalism, cruelty, brutality, carnage, and arrests. Obeying instructions from their higher-ups, the police avoided obstructing the marauders or reinstating order. The raging fires were put out only in areas where they threatened to spread to the homes and property of non-Jews. Hundreds of Jews and other political suspects were arrested based on lists prepared in advance, and taken to several assembly points.

Johan found himself somewhat distracted. He and his partner walked the two stumbling detainees toward the assembly spot. The last thing Johan had expected was to meet Ilse on this occasion and act the way he had in front of her. It was now certain that this would be the last image she would retain from their encounter, which did not play out in his favor, and definitely would not help his future plans. It’s ironic, he thought. We came to arrest the husband and his father, and it all took place before the eyes of the wife and the child. A terrible rage suddenly surged within Johan. Because of that despicable Jew, he had humiliated himself in front of Ilse, and not only humiliated himself, but was portrayed as a downright monster which, if he was being honest with himself, he was often forced to be.

Abe walked alongside his father, with the two SS officers behind them. His whole body was in pain. The pounding from Johan’s truncheon had wreaked havoc on him. He glanced at his father, who tried to direct a consoling look at him. They reached a street where many other people had been forcibly assembled. Most of them had been arrested on similar charges. They couldn’t talk to each other; the guards patrolling among them didn’t allow it. All the detainees—“government dissidents,” as they were called—were then ordered to march in line toward an abandoned structure, where they were randomly divided into three groups.

After waiting for many hours, Abe and Isadore’s group was loaded onto a truck and driven to the Berlin-Charlottenburg train station. They were roughly crammed into one of the cars, and the train took off. Hours went by and no one knew where the train was headed. The car was crowded, humid, and cold. Everyone was tired, thirsty, and hungry, and some were also bruised and wounded, but most of all they were terrified. They were quite sure their grueling conditions were of no interest to their captors. The detainees felt like cattle that could be endlessly abused, as if they were no longer flesh-and-blood human beings.

After being jostled in the musty train car for what seemed like an eternity, when most of the detainees had lost any sense of time or connection with it, the train came to a stop.

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