A Flicker of Light (36 page)

The Forest
Outside
Munich

W

hen Aaron came upon the soldier, he sat in a field, eating a block of cheese from his knapsack.

Aaron drew his gun, but when he fired, the bullets did not discharge. He tried again, but once again
,
the gun failed to shoot.

The soldier drew a long, sharp knife, and at once, he threw himself upon Aaron. He placed his left forearm over Aaron’s throat, disabling him. Then the soldier raised his knife in an attempt to stab Aaron in the chest. The knife came down but Aaron struggled away. With all of his strength, the soldier grabbed Aaron’s foot and pulled him back. Then, taking the knife, he plunged it again.

Near Munich

S

iegland held baby Hope and rocked her as the infant’s eyes gently closed. Petra reached for the white wicker basket above the kitchen table.

“I’m going out to pick the strawberries Mama. They are ripe now.”

“Yes, good idea. I will watch the baby. Tonight maybe we will make a pie and bring it to the neighbors.”

The strawberry patch now in season appeared as a blanket of green spotted with
the succulent ruby-
r
ed fruit
. Petra knelt as her skirt fanned out around her. She broke the berries from the vine and placed them in the basket. Soon her hands became stained with juice. The warm sun illuminated her hair
,
giving
it
the appearance of
liquid gold. She looked up at the sky and could not fight off the memory of a time she and Aaron had made love in the hot sunshine. She spoke to him.

“Aaron, I miss you every day. Hope is getting so big. I wish you could see her, although maybe you can see her
from where you are now. She keeps
Siegland
and me busy. When I look at her face, I see you. Her expressions are so much like yours.  So is her smile. Oh Aaron, she has your dimples. And she is kind like you too.
Siegland
plays a game with her; she pretends to be crying and Hope immediately takes her little hand to dry her grandma’s tears. She is all I have left of you, my darling…”

From behind her she heard a voice. For a momen
t she thought she imagined it; t
hen she turned her head.

“How about a glass of water for a weary traveler?”
h
e said as his face broke into a smile.

“Oh my God, Aaron, it’s you!”

Aaron had rece
ived a minor
wound in his battle with the drifter who had killed Lil. After several blows
,
Aaron had defeated his attacker
,
who had tripped and fallen
upon his own knife
,
and died.  While walking through the forests on his way back to Munich, Aaron had me
t up with some Allied troops;
they had transported him to a makeshift hospital. Once he was treated and released, the Americans had offered him a ride back home. And now, here he stood, as if in a dream.

Petra ran thorough the strawberry patch into his arms. Her bare feet were spotted with sticky red juice as he lifted her high in the air.

“My sweet Petra, my darling; how I have missed you.”

“I thought of you every day. I talked to you every night. Oh
Aaron, I thought you were dead!
”

He touched her hair and her face.
“
I love you - God, how I love you.”

Their lips met and their hearts sang in harmony as their souls joined together and became one.

“Marry me?’

“Yes, did you really have to ask?” Petra said, tears of joy covering her cheeks.

He laughed.

“I have a surpri
se for you. Come…” s
he said, taking his hand. It felt big and powerful as it held hers.

Inside the house,
Siegland
sat looking out the window rocking the baby.

“Mama, Aaron is here.”

“Oh! Oh, my God,
Aaron! Thank God, you are alive!
”

His eyes went to the tiny bundle in
Siegland’s
arms. He looked at Petra.

“Could it be? Do we have a child?’

“Yes, a little girl. Her name is Hope.”

He walked slowly over to the baby, and gently took her into his arms. Holding her he pressed her to his heart. ‘Oh, Petra, we are blessed - truly blessed.”

The Holocaust, also known as t
he
Shoah
,
which is the Hebrew word for calamity
,
proved to be one of the darkest periods known to man. The Third Reich claimed the lives of between eleven and s
eventeen million people. Among
those murdered were Jews, Romany, Soviet prisoners
of
war, Soviet citizens, Poles
,
c
ivilians from other
occupied countries, Jehovah’s W
itnesses, homosexuals, those with mental and physical handicaps, and all religious and politica
l opponents of the Nazi regime
.

During Hitler’s reign, fifteen hundred concentration camps were in operation. The children born in the
Lebensborn
program suffered humiliation and rejection by society after the war. Many spent time in mental hospitals or grew up in orphanages, and many never reconnected with their birth parents.

Dr
.
Rascher
, well known for his cruel experimentation
at Dachau, met his own dire
fate when executed there under the direction of Himmler, just a short time before the camp’s liberation.
Rascher
had
deceived the Nazi Party by claiming that his wife had given birth to four children after
the age of forty-eight. When Himmler established
that the children had not been born to
Rasher
and his wife
, but
had been
adopt
ed
, he became enraged. Rasher’s fraud caused Himmler to have both the doctor and his wife condemned to death.

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