Chapter Twenty-Seven 1945 Aletta
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Aletta
Aletta swayed on her feet and prayed that she wouldn’t fall over in front of the guards.
They’d been standing out in the cold for much longer than usual, and now it was starting to rain as they waited for roll call to be completed.
She’d spent so many mornings like this now that she should have been used to it, but she wondered if anyone could get used to anything so brutal.
Five years of roll calls and punishment, starvation and pain.
She wrapped her bone-thin arms around herself and closed her eyes, thinking about some of the children she’d been teaching as recently as a few weeks ago.
So many of them were gone – their little lives extinguished far too soon – but as hard as it had been to keep going, she’d refused to give in.
The children who were left needed her as much as she needed them, and even if she did only have Sundays with them, it was her favourite day of the week, and likely theirs, too.
The day that gave her something to look forward to.
But today was harder than most, and when she opened her eyes, it was to glance over at two of the boys who’d now turned twelve.
She’d been certain that today they would be sent to the men’s camp, had presumed that was the reason for the constant re-counting and the guards pacing up and down. But now, she wasn’t so sure.
She looked around then, when the guards had turned away and were standing huddled over their lists, first at her mother, and then at Chloe.
They were like her – almost doubled over from the cold, even though they wore more clothing than many.
She’d sometimes wondered if that was what had saved them, why so many others had perished but somehow, miraculously, they were still alive after all this time.
But maybe it was the food from Herr Weber, the extra mouthfuls that he’d provided, that had sustained them.
Today, for reasons that still weren’t known, they’d had to make the walk down to the main camp, where they were standing now.
And finally, after what felt like forever, names and numbers began to be called out.
As Aletta stood, fighting the urge to reach for her mother and Chloe so they weren’t separated, women were sectioned off and made to form new groups.
She found herself frantically searching the crowd of women for Else and her aunt, but try as she might, she couldn’t see them.
The smallest group were Scandinavian women, and Aletta listened carefully as they were told to wait by the fence. Then a much larger group, hundreds by her estimation, were told to wait further away, and before Aletta and the others had even been released, they were marched off.
‘What do you think is happening?’ she whispered to her mother as fear rose like a snake inside her.
‘Nothing good,’ she whispered back, and Aletta watched as her mother’s eyes followed the women who were being taken away.
Aletta reached for Chloe’s hand then, but Chloe pulled away.
‘Don’t,’ she murmured. ‘They’ll only split us up to spite us if they see how close we are.’
And so, Aletta stood with her hands fisted at her side, almost falling to her knees with relief when they were told to go back to work, and she realised they weren’t to be parted.
Women muttered and whispered all around them, but Chloe and her mother stayed silent as they began the walk back to the Siemens factory. That they were still together wasn’t something she’d take for granted. She just hoped that the fate of the other women wasn’t what she imagined.
But as they began to walk, a piece of paper fluttered from Chloe’s coat, darting away on the wind.
‘No!’ Aletta gasped, knowing what would happen if the guards saw it, if they read it. They’d interrogate them all, or worse.
But a woman a few steps ahead snatched out a hand and caught it mid-air, quickly tucking it into her clothing, as Chloe folded her arms around herself, clearly terrified that another page might fall from her body.
‘You need to distribute them among us,’ Aletta whispered. ‘When we stop, let some of us take them.’
A few other women were glancing at them, and they all nodded. One of them murmured that she would take some, and Aletta realised just how important Chloe was to so many of them. She was holding their memories, and of course they wanted to help her.
The next day, Aletta had that unsettled feeling in her stomach again when the guards came through the factory once more, this time going down the rows and ordering some of the women to go outside for roll call. She saw Chloe freeze ahead of her.
Please not her. Please not her.
But Aletta quickly realised that they were looking for older women, which meant they walked straight past Chloe and her. She’d never been so grateful that her mother had been moved into the office, and hoped that guards didn’t go looking in there.
‘What do you think they’re doing with them?’ asked one of the women near her.
Aletta kept her fingers working, threading the steel, not wanting to be caught being idle. She didn’t want to think about their fate.
‘I don’t know,’ she said, even though in her heart she imagined they were being taken to their death.
‘I heard the ones yesterday were marched straight out of the gates,’ another woman said. ‘And that the Scandinavian ones were loaded on to buses.’
‘Buses?’ Aletta repeated, thinking she’d misheard.
‘Let’s just hope they were taken far away from here,’ Chloe said. ‘If they’ve been released, then there’s hope for the rest of us.’
Aletta sighed, wishing it were as simple as that but not believing it for a second. If there was any hope of being released from this place, wouldn’t they have been let go by now? Were they transferring some of the women to a different camp?
There was a shout then from a guard, telling them that the factory was closing for the day and that they were to return immediately to their barracks.
‘Something strange is going on,’ Chloe muttered as she turned and waited for Aletta to fall into line behind her. ‘There’s nothing normal about any of this.’
‘Where do you think those women were being taken?’ Aletta asked.
Chloe leaned in closer to her, not saying anything. And Aletta knew what she was thinking. In her heart, she knew, too.
‘Do you think all of the women yesterday . . .’ Her voice trailed off.
‘I think that something has happened that has them panicking, and they’re trying to reduce the number of prisoners,’ Chloe said, and Aletta watched as she touched her breast pocket, the place she knew she kept some of her papers.
Aletta touched Chloe’s shoulder as they walked.
‘You’ve done more than most,’ she whispered. ‘But you need to let the rest of us help you.’
‘If something happens to me, if I’m taken, if—’
‘Stop it,’ Aletta felt as if she couldn’t breathe at the thought of Chloe being removed.
‘If they take me, you have to promise that you’ll share my work with the authorities. When everyone tries to forget what they did to us, they need to know there were real women here, mothers and aunts and sisters. If you survive and I don’t . . .’
Aletta quickly wiped away her tears as Chloe turned to her.
‘If something happens, I’ll find a way to share it. I promise,’ Aletta said. ‘But can we please not talk about that again?’
‘Something awful is happening,’ Chloe said. ‘It’s like they’re trying to get rid of as many of us as possible, and quickly.’
Aletta didn’t know what to say to that, but she had a feeling that Chloe was right. Being up at the factory usually kept them shielded from the worst that happened down at the main camp.
The crowd shuffled forward then, and she saw her mother, making her forget everything else.
‘Mama?’ She pushed through the other women until she reached her, noticing how white her mother’s skin had turned.
‘I overhead them,’ she whispered, her face falling as she said the words.
‘They were taking them all to the gas. They came for me too, they wanted all the older women, but Herr Weber told them he couldn’t do without me.
’ She gasped. ‘He saved me, Aletta. Herr Weber is the only reason I’m still alive. ’
Aletta felt as if her heart had stopped beating, and she didn’t move even when someone walked into her from behind as she stared at her mother, digesting what she was telling her.
‘He saved your life,’ she whispered, wondering what they’d done to have a man like Herr Weber look out for them among the blanket of cruelty that otherwise surrounded them.
Her mother was shaking and Aletta moved closer to guide her back to the bunkrooms, keeping her arm around her and refusing to let go even when she was shoved in the back by their ?lteste.
One comment from a manager had saved her mother this time, but next time?
Aletta swallowed what felt like a rock in her throat.
Next time, they might not be so lucky.