Remembering the Ghost of You

April 9th, 1945

It was just before sunrise and we were still marching. We were closing in on one of the camps they said. It was called Mittelbau. I wasn’t ready for this. I also couldn’t believe it was already my birthday. I could barely remember the celebration a year ago. It had been just before I left. Times were happier back then.
“Stop looking so sad. It’s your birthday!” Frank said for the third time. He held Fighter in my face trying to make me smile. The dog licked my face and I couldn’t help but smile. I pushed the dog away and smiled at him.
“It’s just that so much has changed,” I said sadly.
“Things change every day,” he reminded me and I shrugged.
The sun was just breaking the horizon when we were ordered to halt. Scouts had said the camp seemed deserted of all soldiers, so at full day break we were going in. I didn’t know what to expect. We’d been shown images from a death camp and the people there didn’t even look human. They looked like walking skeletons with sunken in eyes and rags for clothes. I didn’t understand how another person could treat people like that.
As we prepared medical supplies was dispensed to all soldiers. We were given instructions to round up those who were still alive and give them immediate medical attention. Other soldiers were preparing a watery soup to feed those we found alive. I hoped there were people alive behind the gates.
“I’m scared,” Frank whispered as the gates were open.
“Don’t be Frankie,” I murmured and Ray squeezed his shoulder.
“We all are, but we are here to help these people and for once people aren’t going to be shooting at us,” Ray said and we stepped inside the gates.
Barren ground with empty guard towers and wooden barracks were all we saw at first. Then people started to emerge. They didn’t look human though. They stared at us with grey eyes as we approached. Walking bones was the best way to describe them. It didn’t seem real. I couldn’t even comprehend how they were still alive.
“We’re American soldiers,” someone said and a rise of murmurs rose from the skeletons.
I dragged Frank forward towards the second barracks and that’s when we saw the bodies. Some of them were rotting and some were still frozen from the late frost. They looked just like the people alive though. “Don’t think about it,” I murmured to Frank and pulled him forward.
The door was locked but after shoving against it I got it open. Fearful eyes stared at me. The air inside smelt of decay and rotting wood. “We’re American’s here to set you free,” I said to hopefully calm them. They started speaking in German as they came forward. They reached out hands to touch us. Frank helped them outside. They were crowding around us and the other soldiers. It was getting to be overwhelming and I was glad to finally be able to step away.
Frank was smoking near the gates. “I just want to fucking cry. This makes me sick,” he said while staring out into the land beyond. I’d seen him, and plenty other soldiers, throwing up at some point or another. I was glad that he wasn’t on duty to bury the dead. I rubbed the back of his neck for a moment before taking out a cigarette. I had mostly numbed my mind. That was the only way I could get through this. “And we’re going to another aren’t we?” he asked and I could only nod. He pulled Fighter out of his bag and held the dog tightly to his chest and buried his face in the dark fur. “How can people treat others like this?” he mumbled into the fur.
“I don’t know Frankie,” I said softly and rubbed the back of his neck again. “But it’s okay. We are here to set them free.”
“But they’ve lost everything and just I can’t understand it. How can they still be alive?” he asked and I could hear his voice cracking.
“Those questions will remain unanswered. I don’t think most people can understand it,” I told him. “It’ll be okay though I promise,” I said and hugged him tightly. He set Fighter down and sighed. The dog ran around us happy to be free.
“It’s like being in a never ending nightmare. I can only imagine what it’s like to be them,” he said quietly and we started heading back to where the people from the camp sat huddled under blankets.
A lot of them were sick on top of being extremely malnourished. Most of us didn’t even know where to begin when treating them. I was crouched in front of a woman examining broken fingers on her hand. We’d come to learn that this was a labor camp and the people here were worked until they dropped dead.
“Kommen Sie heir,” the woman said suddenly and pointed towards the second bunker.
“What?” I asked and she pointed at the barracks again and stood.
“Ein Madchen,” she told me. I think that meant a girl.
“What is it?” I asked and she motioned me forward. Others watched us go.
“Es gibt ein Madchen in die Kaserne,” she told me and tugged at my sleeve. “Wir versteckten sie zu ihrem Leben zu halten,” she continued to tell me.
“I don’t know German,” I tried to tell her but she babbled on. There was no one inside though. The barracks were empty. She went to a back corner and started pushing at one of the bunks. “What are you doing?!” I exclaimed afraid she’d hurt herself.
“Das Madchen ist dort unten,” she told me. I could hear the urgency in her voice and when I looked at the floor I saw that there was a place in the floorboards where they could be moved. I knelt down and pulled the boards away. I did not expect to see what I saw.
“Ich bin tot?” the eyes asked me. I didn’t know what to say so I just reached down to remove the child from the hole. Even Frank’s puppy weighed more then she did. She shivered as I carried her to the door. She was the youngest person I’d seen in this camp. The woman spoke to her in German as I walked to get the child a blanket.
“So you are American?” she asked with a heavy accent. I was surprised that she spoke English.
“Yes. I’m Gerard Way and I’m from America,” I told her as I wrapped her in a thick blanket and then wrapped my coat around her as well. She went into a fit of coughing and her hands came away bloody when she finally stopped.
“I know I am dying,” she told me. “I am glad I will die free through,” she told me and I was at a loss for words. Her eyes started drifting shut and I laid her on my lap. She was so unnaturally thin and weighed nothing. “I am Greta. I am eleven,” she told me.
“Why do you know English?” I finally managed to ask.
“My vati taught it to me while we were in hiding,” she murmured before coughing again. She fell asleep after that and I sat there.
“You’ve got a knack for saving children,” Ray commented as he sat next to me. I shrugged.
“I don’t mean to,” I said and smoothed Greta’s hair. “She doesn’t have much time left though,” I told him sadly.
“Make her smile then. You’re good at doing that,” Ray said and I smiled sadly.
“I already planned on it,” I said. The moment I lifted her out of that hole in the ground I knew I’d take special care of her.
“Happy birthday too man,” Ray said and clapped me on the back.
“Thanks,” I said and he nodded before lighting a cigarette. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I was determined to make Greta’s last moments happy. It was the least that I could do. She didn’t deserve to die so young, but I couldn’t stop that. So I could only do whatever I could to make her smile until the end.