Righteous Fury: Sequel to The Mistress of Auschwitz (Book 2 of 3) Read online

  “They arrested me under the charge of falsifying documents and took me to Auschwitz under this pretense, and packed me into a stock car on a train brimming with prisoners.”

  “Stock car?” Hanns looked up from the paper.

  “It was hell,” Eleonore began to shake as she recalled the horrific experience. “There was no room to lie down or even to sit. They packed us in like cattle, and we had to stand amongst our own waste. The man beside me died standing upright.”

  Eleonore paused as she waited for Hanns to finish writing. The trembling in his hand made it difficult for him to maintain the same speed he was able to employ previously. She could perceive how difficult it was for him to accept her story. Not from the sense of fabrication, but from disbelief that such a tragedy could occur. It was one thing to comprehend that death happened on a mass scale, but to uncover the details of how it was carried out, and the conditions that he himself had barely escaped, was disturbing.

  “What happened when you arrived at the camp? Were you aware of the gas chambers?” Hanns dabbed the sweat from his forehead.

  “Not at first,” Eleonore squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to remember. Such dreadful images were not something she was anxious to recall. “I saw the crematoriums, but I didn’t understand their purpose until it was revealed to me some time later.”

  “Did you ever witness anyone taken to the gas chambers?”

  “I saw those who were selected,” Eleonore recalled the poor souls doomed to death in such a terrible manner, “but initially I wasn’t aware as to why they were selected.”

  “And who was selected?” Hanns sat back and took a quick breath as he tried to steady his anger.

  “The weak, the young, the elderly, anyone who was ‘useless’ in their eyes.”

  Hanns paused after he had written down her last sentence, and Eleonore watched as he tried to comprehend what she was telling him. She assumed that if he was asking her about the gas chambers, then he was aware of their purpose, but to hear her describe who was taken was difficult for him to process.

  “What were the conditions like at Auschwitz?” Hanns asked after he had gathered himself, but his eyes remained fixed on the paper. Eleonore understood that he needed to document her statement and these horrible facts with as little emotion as possible, as difficult as that was for him.

  “Shocking,” Eleonore stared at the ceiling as she recalled. “Similar to what you’ve seen at this camp. They shaved our heads, humiliated us, and herded us into bunkers without insulation or heat. Many died of sickness or exhaustion or starvation. If you didn’t work, then you died, but some of the inmates were worked to death. Death was everywhere. Death was more common than breathing.”

  “What were your responsibilities in the camp?” Hanns asked as he looked at her with rising sympathy.

  Eleonore paused as she looked back at Hanns. There was a denial lingering over him. She could see it in his eyes. The enormity, the unrepentant malice, and the brutality of these camps were not easily understood. Eleonore wondered if she herself fully understood what had happened.

  “I worked in the hospital, under a cruel Kapo. My responsibility was to change the bedpans.”

  “Why…” Hanns scratched his head as he took a moment to think, “why didn’t anyone fight back?”

  “We tried,” Eleonore shook her head slightly as she recalled the bravery of her sweet Ella, “but we had to be careful. I tried to help the resistance movement, but I was caught in a place where I shouldn’t have been and the Kapo who ran the hospital sent me to die in the standing cells.”

  “A standing cell?” Hanns looked at Eleonore as though he wished her not to answer.

  “It’s a cell about the size of this chair,” Eleonore shifted in her seat and began to shake. She closed her eyes and clenched her hands into fists as she recalled the clanking of metal against metal and the groans of starvation from the other inmates that were with her. She could still hear their screams for even just a drop of water.

  “How did you get out?”

  “Chance?” Eleonore shrugged as she opened her eyes and took a deep breath. “Perhaps it was fate? Rudolph’s wife, Hedwig, was searching for a seamstress to work at the Villa. A certain lieutenant thought he could raise his standing with the Commandant by providing what Hedwig was looking for.”

  “That was kind of him,” Hanns narrowed his gaze, sensing there was more to the story.

  “The lieutenant,” Eleonore cleared her throat as she recalled Jung, “he discovered my talents when I restored his uniform. I bartered my release from the standing cell in exchange for the repairs.”

  “So, you worked at the Villa?”

  “For a brief spell,” Eleonore scratched the back of her neck to ease some of the awkwardness.

  “Why brief?”

  “Rudolph Hoess took notice of me and began to pursue what he hoped would be a mutual relationship. Hedwig put a quick end to this and terminated my employment,” Eleonore cleared her throat.

  “So, you engaged in relations with the Commandant at the Villa?” Hanns frowned.

  “No,” Eleonore shook her head and swallowed, “but Rudolph wasn’t deterred by my removal from the Villa. He provided me with a private cell back in the camp where he could visit me at night.”

  “I was under the impression that relations between an officer and an inmate were prohibited. How did he visit you?”

  “Not without risk,” Eleonore tilted her head. “He was almost caught on one occasion. He would come late at night after sending the guards away.”

  “Then your relationship was sexual?”

  “I’d like to discuss as little of this as possible,” Eleonore glanced away, displeased with the casualness of his tone.

  “I don’t mean to be indelicate,” Hanns put the pen down, “but you must understand that anything and everything we can use against this man will help bring him to justice. If his relationship with you was sexual, then we can build a case around that mistreatment.”

  “There is no justice,” Eleonore spoke bitterly as she stamped her cigarette out.

  “Not fully,” Hanns stared into the table. “Yet, I’m certain that we can both agree that this man needs to be placed into custody.”

  “Yes, the relationship was sexual,” Eleonore became agitated as she grabbed another cigarette, “but not by choice. He threatened to kill another inmate, one of the leaders of the resistance and a dear friend of mine, if I didn’t sleep with him. Once it was discovered that I was pregnant, he must’ve panicked as I never saw him again. He sent me to the standing cell and ordered that I be starved to death.”

  “You were sent to the standing cells twice?” Hanns began but was interrupted by an engine roaring to life outside the building.

  Eleonore clasped her hand to her chest in fright as the windows began to rattle. The Allied guards outside the room abandoned the documents and exited the building with weapons at the ready. Even Hanns stood quickly and placed his hand to his pistol, further terrifying Eleonore’s nerves that something sinister was transpiring.

  Hanns tried to speak to Eleonore but he was drowned out by the noise. Seeing that communication was useless, he gathered his belongings into his satchel and motioned for Eleonore to follow him.

  Trembling as she left the interview room, Eleonore walked closely behind Hanns as they sped towards the exit. The earth beneath their feet began to rumble and Eleonore imagined that the Nazis were launching a counter assault. She was so close to being freed from this hell, but Eleonore feared that she had hoped too soon.

  They left the building quickly but were met immediately by a wall of soldiers with their backs to them, watching something that was just beyond Eleonore’s view. They held their weapons down by their sides which was a relief to Eleonore that there was no threat, but the source of the noise was still curious. Passing through the group, Hanns moved to get a glimpse of what was happening, and Eleonore followed closely behind him.

  Pushing the
ir way to the front, Hanns and Eleonore stopped abruptly when they realized the cause of the commotion. Holding her hand over her eyes to block out the sun, Eleonore witnessed a sight that, although she had lived in the camps, she still could not believe.

  A bulldozer had been brought into the camp and it was digging into the earth, creating a large pit. Beside this pit were bodies that had been piled into a heap. Malnourished, pitiful corpses awaited their final resting place in this mass grave. Men and women were nearly indistinguishable from each other with nothing but skin clinging to their skeletons.

  The sight was gut-wrenching, and Eleonore held a hand over her mouth as tears began to form. Even after all the time she had spent in Auschwitz, she could never be desensitized to such horrors. Soldiers wept as they carried out the terrible business of hauling the bodies to the pile, prisoners watched vacantly with some being days away from death themselves, and commanders shouted orders while concealing their emotions to complete the awful task at hand.

  Eleonore and Hanns and the soldiers with them stood in silence as they watched. There were no words to dispel the terror, no comforts to be spoken which could eradicate the shock. The earth shook underneath their feet, the divine seemed absent, and the weight impressed on everyone’s heart was irreversible.

  In the face of such overwhelming malevolence, Eleonore was unable to articulate what she was experiencing. Even her ability to think clearly had been stripped away and all she was left with was the capacity to react.

  Glancing at Hanns, Eleonore spotted tears in his eyes. But these were not the tears of sorrow. These were the tears of unbridled hatred and the unrestricted desire for revenge. She recalled the same yearning in Ella and remembered how desperately she sought retribution for what the Nazis did to her husband. Eleonore had cautioned Ella against resentment, but now, when she looked at the faces of those gathered, she understood that their honorable vengeance would not be impeded.

  “I’ll take you to the American camp,” Hanns spoke softly after the roar of the engine had been cut.

  “Now?” Eleonore looked at him curiously.

  “I don’t want to be here any longer than necessary,” Hanns spoke with seething resentment as he remained fixated on the bodies. “We need to continue your statement so that I can catch the devil who is responsible for all this.”

  Eleonore nodded as a desperation arose within her to escape. She wished that she carried the tenacity and courage to remain and help those who were less fortunate than herself. She had spent months in the camp witnessing the horrors of Auschwitz, but still, some had lost more than their dignity.

  She remembered Em who had lost her son, and Ella who had lost her husband. Perspective, she understood, was fatal to self-pity. Her trials were greater than she could’ve imagined facing in her lifetime, but they failed in comparison to the loss of loved ones, especially the most precious amongst them.

  Signaling for her to follow him, Hanns led Eleonore back to the camp gates. They walked past American soldiers who were shouting orders to one another, but Eleonore could only make out a word or two of English. Yet what she could comprehend disturbed her greatly: disease, pestilence, quarantine. An emptiness grew in Eleonore’s stomach with the sense that the release from her trials may not be as close at hand as she perceived.

  “Stay here,” Hanns paused just before they reached the gates. “I’ll speak with the guards and explain the importance of having you released immediately.”

  In agreement, Eleonore stood at a respectful distance, feeling the pains of her exhaustion. She tried to listen to their conversation, but her fatigue was dominating her mental capacities and she eventually gave up trying to translate. They seemed, however, to be deliberating brashly and Hanns’ voice was growing louder and louder as he pointed wildly at Eleonore.

  Then, out of the corner of her eye, Eleonore spotted a horror that she wished to forget. A woman and her child, who was no older than ten, were sitting upright against the wall near the gate. Both were naked and dead, and both were skin and bones. The child had tragically died some days ago, but the mother had kept him near her breast which, Eleonore spotted, had a recent wound from a bullet. She had been shot maybe only hours ago and Eleonore fumed at the cruelty of the Nazis who had killed her within moments of liberation.

  Moved with pity, Eleonore went over to the lady and knelt in front of her. I wonder what your name was, Eleonore reached up and brushed the dirt away from the woman’s cheek. What a shame that they killed you hours before your release, but at least you’re with your child.

  Yet, Eleonore found it odd that the woman didn’t look sorrowful, but rather, resilient. Despite the loss of her child, this woman carried a strength that, even in death, Eleonore could only dream of.

  Then Eleonore noticed a faint line on her ring finger which, she assumed, once carried her wedding band. Running her hand along the line on her finger, Eleonore thought that she heard a groan. Studying the woman for a moment, Eleonore held her breath as she waited for another noise, but then the woman twitched her finger and Eleonore nearly fell backwards in surprise.

  “H-Help!” Eleonore shouted towards Hanns who was still arguing with the guards. “She’s alive!”

  “Hey!” Eleonore shouted again, forgetting his name in her panic. “Hey!”

  Finally, Hanns took notice of her alarm and rushed over to help. Picking up the woman with little effort, Hanns scanned the camp, desperate for anyone that could assist.

  “Her child!” Eleonore looked at the boy.

  “Leave him! He’s riddled with disease!” Hanns shouted over his shoulder as he darted for the makeshift medical tent which was being hastily erected in the corner of the camp.

  Ignoring Hanns, Eleonore picked up the boy, despite the strain on her stomach, and followed as briskly as she was able. Her famished state and recent ‘surgery’ were taxing under his weight, but Eleonore would not part a mother from her son.

  “Help!” Hanns shouted in English when he arrived at the tent where he was swiftly met by the medical staff who pointed to a cot where he could place the woman.

  A doctor ran over to Eleonore where he took the boy in his arms. But by the weight of the child, and the limpness of his limbs, the doctor understood that the boy was deceased, and he froze in place. The doctor looked down at the boy as if he was gazing upon his own son, and a tear rolled down his cheek.

  Clumsily, the doctor turned and entered the tent. He shook as he placed the boy beside his mother. He was terrified but wanted to fulfill his duty, yet the shock had rendered him incapable of decisiveness. An anxious nurse shouted at him to provide direction, breaking him from his trance, and he replied with orders that might save the mother.

  “We need to have you assessed,” Hanns pulled Eleonore into the tent and showed her to a cot.

  “You mentioned the American camp,” Eleonore looked up at Hanns. “Can we not go there instead?”

  “Well,” Hanns sighed, “we might have a problem with that.”

  “What do you mean?” Eleonore began to panic.

  “Your release has not been permitted,” Hanns looked at her sternly, but with a hint of compassion.

  “I don’t understand,” Eleonore watched him intently and started to believe that she would never leave.

  “The camp is overwhelmed with typhoid,” Hanns glanced back out at the pile of bodies, “and we need you to be quarantined until it’s safe for you to leave.”

  “Sounds familiar,” Eleonore spoke bitterly and rubbed her eyes in exhaustion. “I’m still a prisoner.”

  “No, I-“

  “Then can I leave?” Eleonore interrupted.

  “No,” Hanns shook his head and glanced down at his feet. “But we need to rebuild Germany. Releasing a pandemic of typhoid would be detrimental.”

  “I can’t stay here,” Eleonore shook her head as the tears formed. She sat on the edge of the cot and began to rock back and forth as the dread overwhelmed her.

  “They are bringi
ng food and water and supplies. You’ll be taken care of.”

  “No,” Eleonore clenched her jaw and began to raise her voice. “I need out!”

  “It’s not possible,” Hanns raised his hands to shed off the responsibility.

  “You can get me out,” Eleonore looked at Hanns intently.

  “How?” Hanns shrugged.

  “You’ll think of something,” Eleonore nodded.

  “I’m going to help with the bodies,” Hanns removed his satchel and set it down by Eleonore. “We’ll talk later. You’re safe now. I promise.”

  Chapter Two:

  Lest We Forget

  Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.

  Primo Levi

  Privacy was absent in the medical tent as it swelled with a growing number of patients that were malnourished or diseased. Makeshift cots had been arranged when the ones supplied had run out, and some patients even slept on blankets on the ground.

  The chaos within the tent reminded Eleonore of her time in the hospital at Auschwitz, yet here, in contrast, the medical staff cared for the well-being of their patients. Nurses urged calmness to some of those who were in shock and didn’t trust anyone wearing a doctor’s lab coat. To these poor souls who were delirious, the physicians reminded them of the cruelty that they had experienced and believed that they were about to be the subjects of another wicked experiment.

  “Sir, sir, you can’t eat that quickly,” a nurse beside Eleonore begged a patient. “You need to take your time.”

  The patient ignored the warning and turned his back to her as he ate the food like a ravenous beast protecting its kill. He spilled the contents of the rations everywhere as he shoveled the food into his mouth, desperate for relief.