The Bear Jew

Julie carried an empty basket outside to pull the blankets in from the line. The skies looked like it would rain any minute now and she did not want her father to scold her for not taking care of her chores when he got back from town. She pulled the pins from both sides of one large white blanket and proceeded to pull it from the line. She folded it tightly and set it in the basket. She straightened up and took a few steps to the next sheet. Pulling the sheet from the line, she jumped back in fright when she realized she was face to face with a strange man that she’d never seen before.

His face wasn’t quite pleasant to look at but it wore a pleasant expression. Still, Julie was not as dimwitted as her father liked to believe. Her head may be in the clouds more often than not but she knew not to trust strangers. She turned to run back to the house but she bumped into another strange man. She turned to the left but there was another one.

The unpleasant looking man approached the scared girl. “Look darlin’ we’re not here to hurt ya.”

Julie frowned. Not only did he have an awful scar across his neck but he was American. She looked around at the other two men. There was one that caught her eye in particular. He was bigger than the others and he held a well-worn baseball bat over his shoulder and a smirk on his lips.

“W-What do you want?” Julie asked, using her nearly perfect English.

“Well, I’m not sure if you can tell but we’ve run out of rations and we’s hoping you could help us out.”

Julie blinked. “I’m sorry sir. I can’t just let strangers into m-my house…”

“Well I’m Lieutenant Aldo Raine,” the man with the scar said. “That’s Sergeant Hugo Stiglitz.”

The other unpleasant looking man adjusted his hold on his rifle and nodded his head.

“And that’s Sergeant Donny Donowitz.”

“Look here,” Donny said swinging his bat until he leaned on it like a cane. “We’re just hungry. Whip us up a few sandwiches or something and we’ll be outta your hair sweetheart.”

“My name is Julie,” the girl said, tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear.

“And now that we’re not strangers, you can invite us in,” Lt. Raine said.

Julie sighed and looked up the dirt road both ways. She didn’t know how long her father would be but she ushered the unwashed men into her house. They all sat around the small wooden table and Julie realized just how small the place was. Shuffling through the cupboards Julie got some bread, butter, and cheese. There was a little bit of steak left and she put it over the fire before setting the food on the table. She grabbed three apples and added it to the mélange.

She took a seat across from Sgt. Donowitz once everything was ready. “May I ask exactly where you are coming from?”

“Where we’re from isn’t really the important part Julie. It’s where we’re headed and we’re headed to kick some Nazi ass!” He high-fived Sgt. Donowitz.

Sgt. Stiglitz was done with his food first and went to stand by the window over the sink.

“You know,” Sgt. Donowitz said leaning over the table towards Julie. “They call me the Bear Jew…”

Julie’s eyes widened. She’d heard that name before when the Germans had come through their town looking for Jews. These guys were the first real threat to the Nazi force in France and here they were in her kitchen, eating her food.

Sgt. Stiglitz whistles lowly and nodded outside of the window. Lt. Aldo Raine got up from the table and looked outside the window.

“Oh boy,” he said happily. “Here we go!”

Julie watched as the two men practically skipped out of her house. She looked at Sgt. Donowitz who was decimating one of the apples.

“Where are they going?” she asked.

“All this time I’ve been here it’s been work, work, work,” he said casually. “Why don’t we talk about something else? Do you like baseball Julie?”

His gleeful demeanor caused Julie to smile. “Baseball?”

“Yeah, well it’s an American sport so I don’t guess you’d know. Your English is pretty good too.”

“In a place like this, there’s not much else to occupy my time,” Julie said with a small chuckle.

“What’s such a gorgeous dame like you doing on a farm like this anyway?”

Julie shrugged. “This is my father’s farm. He’s all the family I have left. I can’t leave him.”

“Donny!” Lt. Raine’s voice yelled from outside. “We’ve got another German that wants to die for his country! Oblige him!”

Sgt. Donowitz banged his hands on the table and stood up. “Hold that thought for one second Julie. I’ll be right back.”

She stood up as well as he picked up his bat and walked out of the house. She followed slowly and watched the scene unfold. Sgt. Stiglitz was scalping a dead Nazi soldier and there were two other ones waiting for their own drastic haircut. Two more soldiers were on their knees in front of Lt. Raine.

“Last chance boys,” he said with his American drawl. It was very different from the way Sgt. Donowitz spoke. “You can either tell me what that damn Colonel Landa is planning for his next move or you can have you brains pummeled into mush.”

Neither of the men spoke so Sgt. Donowitz strolled over to the one on the right and smiled.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” he announced as he took a baseball stance. “Please witness history as Sergeant Donny Donowitz is about to bat his sixteenth Nazi head in one day, beating his own personal score!”

Julie remained in the doorway and watched as Sgt. Donowitz took aim and swung against the soldier’s head. The crunch of broken bones caused Julie to flinch. She knew it was horrible to watch but she couldn’t take her eyes away. The soldier’s body lay still on the grass as Sgt. Donowitz continued to beat him to a pulp. The other soldier stared helplessly and scrambled to his feet in an attempt to run. Lt. Raine smoothly pulled out his pistol and shot the other soldier in the back. He fell to the ground.

Lt. Raine put his gun away and looked at Julie. “Don’t worry your sweet little head. We’ll have these bodies of your property before we leave.”

Sgt. Donowitz stopped wacking at the body of the Nazi soldier and wiped sweat from his brow before proceeding to scalp him. He stuffed the scrap of flesh into a bag with the ones Stiglitz had cut off. Julie had never seen such emotionless killing before. Granted, she was cheering them on because her best friend had been carted away months ago in the invasion.

Slowly she stepped onto the grass and approached Sgt. Donowitz. He had caught his breath and looked down at her with a proud smile.

“We didn’t scare ya did we?” he asked.

Julie shook her head. “I think what you do is justice.”

Sgt. Donowitz shrugged. “All in a day’s work.”

“D-Do you think maybe, you could show me how you do that? With the bat?”

“Well fuck a duck! Of course! It’s really easy Julie.”

“Uh,” Lt. Raine scratched the back of his head. “I don’t think we’re going to have time for a lesson right now Donny.”

Julie looked in the direction Lt. Raine was staring. Her father was coming down the road in their rusty truck. She sighed and cursed in French.

“I take it that’s your dad.”

“Sgt. Donowitz,” Julie said. “I’m most likely to never forget you.”

“I’ll be back Julie. I promise you that lesson alright?”

She smiled and nodded as they began piling the bodies up and dragging them away. She turned to watch her father come closer and closer. He wouldn’t be happy that all the bread was gone.

“Oh, and one more thing.”

Julie turned around and saw Sgt. Donowitz hoisting one of the bodies onto his shoulder.

“Call me Donny.”

“Au revoir Donny,” she said.