635798

I watched in horror as Yitzchak held 635798 against the fence. Her arms and legs flailed in all directions as if she was having a seizure. I couldn’t see her pupils; they were rolled to the back of her head. She wasn’t screaming. She wasn’t making any noise at all.

“STOP!” I exclaimed, jumping out of my hiding spot. I pointed my rifle at Yitzchak’s head.

He turned around and his eyes widened at the sight of me. 635798’s body dropped to the ground when Yitzchak pulled away from her. It lied lifeless and she didn’t seem to be breathing.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” I yelled.

“I was just following orders.” Yitzchak held his hands up in surrender.

“Kapos can’t do the work you’re doing,” I spat, obviously lying.

Yitzchak believed it, though. “I-I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. I promise.”

“Go get a doctor,” I said, motioning my head towards the clinic.

Yitzchak didn’t move. Instead, he stared at me with his wide brown eyes.

“GO!” I shot the rifle and purposely had it aimed towards his right foot.

When the bullet landed in the ground, Yitzchak jumped. He sprinted off towards the direction of the clinic, leaving his club behind him.

I dropped my rifle and ran to 635798. I checked her pulse as I bent down next to her. It was there, but faint. The electricity burned off spots of her hair. 635798’s uniform was burnt through in certain areas, too. Bloody wounds covered the parts of her back the electricity went through. I turned her over so she was on her back. Her eyes were closed, but I had a feeling the left one would stay like that for a while judging by the rate it was swelling. Her lip had stopped bleeding, but that was swelling as well. I didn’t have the guts to look at her ankle. I slapped 635798’s face to see if it would wake her up. I thought I heard a soft moan, but other than that: nothing.

Someone was panting behind me. Yitzchak. I looked over my shoulder and saw that he had a male doctor running alongside him. I sucked in a breath. The Angel of Death.

“He was walking around so I just asked him.” Yitzchak bent over, putting his hands on his knees. His breathing was horrendously rigid.

The Angel of Death’s wasn’t. He bent down on the other side of 635798. 635798’s pulse was checked once again.

“Still alive,” Arzt Mengele said.

He looked over the rest of her body before slapping her a few times across the face. It took nine slaps for 635798 to come back into semi-consciousness. Her left eye stayed closed as predicted, and her right eye didn’t even open half-mast.

“Can you hear me?” Arzt Mengele asked.

He got a groan as a response.

“I’ll take her to Block Ten with me,” Arzt Mengele said, getting up.

“But-” His clinic wasn’t my ideal one.

“No need to worry, Wolfgang. She’ll be fine. When I feel she’s strong enough, I’ll transfer her to the clinic on this side of the camp.” Arzt Mengele picked up 635798’s body carefully. I watched the two of them disappear into the eerie night.

Yitzchak looked at me, wondering what he was to do next.

“Go,” I said sternly.

He wasted no time in turning away.

As he walked away, I noticed he left his club on the ground. I picked it up. I rolled it around in my hands, contemplating what to do with it. Intrigued, I looked up. Yitzchak wasn’t that far away from me yet. I quietly crept up behind him.

Then I smacked Yitzchak in the head with his own club.



I haven’t seen or heard of 635798 for a week.

The blazing August sun was beating down on the Buna workers. Same things that were happening today always happened whenever I was guarding here. Children carried rocks to one place to another without a sole purpose. Women dug up holes. Soldiers shot them dead. Others dropped dead on their own.

Chaya was part of the crew hauling rocks. She was getting worse by the day. The sunburn wasn’t healing and her eyes were drooping more and more. Every day she worked a little slower. It was obvious she didn’t have much time left here.

I whistled and pointed at Chaya. “You! Come here!” Hopefully I sounded threatening to the other soldiers that were here.

Chaya sulked over to me. Some women gave her a little push to make it seem like she was better than she really was. My eyes didn’t deceive me, though.

Chaya made it over to me. She kept her head low.

“What happened to my friend?” she asked quietly.

“At the clinic. I was hoping you heard something from her, but I guess not,” I said.

Chaya shrugged weakly.

I made sure no one was looking at me. I took out an orange from my pocket and peeled it.

“Eat these,” I whispered, handing Chaya two slices.

When she was done eating them, I gave her some water from my canteen. After telling her to be careful, I sent her back to work.

It didn’t take long for me to lay my eyes on a new person. The man was about my age, and he was entering the Buna camp. He wore the Nazi uniform that was tight against his broad chest and shoulders and held a rifle. I noticed a few badges on his top. His dark brown hair was slicked back under his cap. I squinted the sun rays away to get a better look.

“Who’s the new guy?” a soldier asked me.

My face lit up.

“Lenz!” I exclaimed.

My long-time friend looked in my direction and he, too, smiled, his naturally angry eyes lighting up. “Wolfgang!”

The two of us ran up to each other and after moving our rifles aside, hugged. We patted each other’s backs before pulling away.

Lenz smacked my chest and smiled. “Look at you, all fancied up!”

I laughed. “What are you doing at Auschwitz?”

“Got transferred here from Treblinka,” Lenz said. “Glad. I was getting tired of the scenery over there. Some ol’, same ol’.”

Even though Lenz and I were friends, we were different. I was forced to enlist; he chose to do it on his own. He was a big fan of Hitler’s. Too much of a fan Mutter and Aalyshah thought. He perfected the salute and bragged about what he would do to prisoners before he was even drafted. I knew he was going to be a lot tougher here than I was. We might’ve been friends, but I had to keep 635798 a secret from him.

“Ey.” Lenz pushed my chest again. “There’s a secret on how I got here.”

“Really?” I asked, surprisingly unimpressed. Usually I was always interested in the shenanigans Lenz got himself into.

“Yup. I’ll tell you about it later tonight.” Lenz smiled and bopped his eyebrows up and down.

At dinner time, Vater, Lenz, and I were in the dining quarters for Nazis. Of course Jonji lied by Vater’s side. Vater and Lenz discussed the happenings at Treblinka while I picked at my chicken. I listened to the orchestra made up of Kapos to drown voices out.

“So about that secret, Wolfgang,” Lenz said, already smiling.

I looked up from my food.

“How I got here? My girl got me here. She recommended me,” Lenz said proudly.

“Your girl?” Vater asked, stunned.

“Mhm. She’s an Aufseherin. She told me she was going to stop by. In fact, she’ll be here any minute now.”

It only took a little over a minute for the doors of the dining quarters to open. An Aryan inmate took my empty water glass as I looked at the lady who just walked in. Sure enough, she was wearing the gray Aufseherin uniform. She looked straight at this table and smiled. That was when I noticed the striking blonde hair and deep brown eyes.

Gretel.