Finding Rebecca: A Novel of Love and the Holocaust (32 page)

“What are you talking about?”
Christopher asked, looking up at Schultz.

“Her parents, her brothers. She was
asking where they were.” Schultz’s words were slow and deliberate.

“What did you tell her?”

“I told her I didn’t know, that she
had to stay close to you, to keep quiet and we would try to find them.”
Christopher stared at him. “What was I meant to say?” Schultz said.

“Forget it. Does she know the danger
she’s in?”

“I don’t think she understands.”

“I don’t think any of us do,”
Christopher answered in English. Schultz looked at him, obviously unable to
understand what he was saying. “Never mind,” Christopher continued. Anka was
still crying and he took her in his arms, conscious of Schultz watching him.
“Can you look after her during the day? I can’t.”

“Can I take her into the crematorium?
No, I can’t. Have you seen what I do in there?” Schultz said, before he
remembered himself. Christopher felt ashamed as Schultz apologized for his
tone.

“I have meetings all day. I have to
attend to the currencies coming in this afternoon. There will be men in and out
of here all day. If she makes a sound…”

“Is there somewhere in the
warehouses?”

“No, there are guards all over the
place in there, and with the new Anti-Corruption Committee they’ve been told to
search through all warehouses twice daily.”

“So what options do we have?”

“We have to leave her in here. I’ll try
to get her out of the camp next Thursday.”

“Five days is a long time to stay
alive here.”

Christopher didn’t answer. Schultz
spoke to her once again in Czech and she hid under the desk. Christopher peeked
under and held his finger to his` mouth. Schultz left first, leaving
Christopher alone with her. Her coughing had almost cleared, the only sign that
she had survived the gas chamber almost gone. Christopher reached under the
table and she crawled out to him. He held her for a few seconds and kissed the
top of her head. “Stay safe Anka, I will be back as soon as I can.”

Christopher
thought of Anka, Rebecca, and little else during the morning’s meetings. The
information was laid out in the dossiers and most of the meetings consisted of
his placating the various officers, convincing them that morale would not be
destroyed among the troops and reassuring them, without words, that they would
not end up in jail themselves. The first searches were to be carried out that
afternoon by a unit brought in from another camp and would be of the SS men’s
quarters and their personal lockers. Then each prisoner working in Canada or
the Crematoria was to be searched after their work. Christopher just hoped that
Schultz and the others had managed to spread the word among the prisoners
themselves. For any guilty SS men, there would be a judge and jury but, for any
prisoners, only the executioner awaited. Friedrich had stayed quiet during the
meeting in Crematorium 4 and despite
Kommandoführer Strunz’s confident assertions and seeming
relish for the process, Christopher knew that they were all as guilty as one
another.

Christopher made it back to his
office just after midday, carrying with him the remnants of his own lunch to
share with Anka. He immediately locked the door behind him as he walked in. The
offices outside were empty, Flick, Muller and Breitner having obeyed the orders
he had left. She was asleep under the desk, just as Christopher hoped she would
be. She awoke with a jolt, but seemed to calm upon seeing him and attacked the
food he brought. He sat with her, holding her, his hand on her wrist. Her
heartbeat was strong and even, the coughing less. The clock on the wall dragged
him away from her. He began to work when she was hidden underneath the desk,
where he had given her some ledgers and pencils to keep herself amused.

It was barely two hours later that Christopher
stood behind the troops as they bustled into the SS men’s living quarters.
Flick stood beside him. Breitner was up front, directing the anti-corruption
task force, giving them needless orders as the SS men looked on. There were
about fifty men tasked with searching the SS quarters. It took almost three
hours. There were shouts every so often when one of them would find contraband
bank notes, jewelry, or even alcohol and come out of the room brandishing
whatever they had found like a trophy before it was boxed away as evidence.
Christopher wondered who would skim the evidence boxes once the court martials
were finished. Christopher tried to avoid the looks from the SS men as they
passed by. There were twenty-seven arrests. No one that Christopher knew, just
SS men that had been too greedy. One had a box of watches in his locker.
Another had eight gold teeth hidden in his clean socks. Most of the men had
heeded the warnings, all over the camp they had found jewelry in the trash,
gold coins thrown under barracks and banknotes strewn about the yard outside
the SS men’s quarters. But the take was still big enough to impress any
superior and it was a triumphant first day for the Anti-Corruption Committee.

The checks on the prisoners were done
during and after the day’s work. Prisoners were forced to strip naked in front
of the guards and deposit their clothes on a table while they were searched.
The prisoners’ quarters were almost destroyed in the searches, but nothing was
found. There were no executions.

The overall take of valuables and
currency that day was enormous, out of all proportion to the amount of
prisoners liquidated. It was obvious to anyone who looked closely what had
happened, but no one was asking questions, not Christopher nor the staff on the
Anti-Corruption Committee, not Friedrich or even Lagerkommandant Höss
himself. All the officers in Berlin would see would be the enormous influx of
wealth coming from Auschwitz. It would be Christopher’s job to maintain the
flow.

It was after five o’ clock and the anti-corruption
troops had ravaged the entire living quarters of most of the SS men and
prisoners stationed in Auschwitz. The piles of contraband were driven away in
trucks to be stored as evidence in the trials that would follow. Most of the
men could expect jail terms, some might be shipped off to the eastern front.
Christopher felt no satisfaction at this justice he had meted out. It was
disturbing, but somehow he felt the opposite. Somehow he felt like a traitor. He
lit a cigarette and walked away from the living quarters his thoughts focused
on Anka once more. He needed to get back to her. Breitner walked over to where
he was standing.

 
“Are you happy with the work done today,
Herr Obersturmführer?” Breitner asked.

“As happy as one can be, having
fellow SS men arrested.”

“Yes, no one likes a rat do they?”
Breitner looked at Christopher and moved away.

Christopher arrived back at the
office. It was empty, as it had been all day, but there was no way that he
could keep it so for the next four days. The smoke from the crematoria billowed
into the darkening sky outside. There was no escaping the death that surrounded
him like a cloak, tightening every day. Yet somehow she had survived. The others
had spoken of a miracle, as if God had come down, touched her, kept her alive
for some reason that only He knew about. But there was no God here. That was
the one thing Christopher was sure about.

She was in the corner, hidden under
the blankets, when he came in. Only when he spoke did she drop the blanket to
reveal herself. The phone rang, piercing the silence. Christopher looked at it
and then Anka. He was frozen, trying to listen for the sounds of the SS men
coming to take them both away. But there was nothing, only the shrill sound of
the telephone. His hand was shaking as he picked up the receiver.

“Obersturmführer Seeler?” came the voice on the other end of the line. It was
Liebermann.

“Hello, Herr
Hauptsturmführer.”

“I have
news for you. Come immediately.” He hung up.

Christopher
felt the ice inside him and reached up to rub some nonexistent sweat from his
face. He held his hands out to the little girl who was still in the corner.
“You stay there. Understand?” His breathing was quickening again. “I will be
back as soon as I can. I will bring food, and some water. We can wash you.” She
looked completely perplexed and whispered some words in Czech. “I will come
back,” he said once more as he closed the door behind him. The key turned as he
locked the door and he was almost outside before he realized he had left it in
the keyhole. He walked back, and picked it out, trying to compose himself.

Darkness
was descending, the light of the day fading into the gritty blackness of night
in the camp. The electric lights and searchlights that ran along the wire were
flickering to life. He rubbed the condensation off the seat of his bicycle and
climbed onto the saddle, almost tripping over his own feet in his haste.
Christopher was sweating as he reached the first checkpoint, to leave Birkenau.
The guard made a comment, which Christopher acknowledged with a smile, although
he had not heard it. If Rebecca was arriving, he could get her and Anka out
together somehow. There had to be some way of smuggling them out in the car, or,
at worst, getting Rebecca into Canada where he knew she would be safe. Anka was
small enough to fit in the trunk. The car was never checked. The guards all
knew him, all trusted him. Why couldn’t he do this?

Christopher
threw down the bike outside the administration building in Auschwitz, his legs still
burning from the ride. He took a few seconds to pick up the bicycle and to try
to compose himself, smoothing down his hair and taking a few deep breaths
before he walked up to the entrance. The guard nodded to him as he went past.
Christopher knocked on Liebermann’s door, waiting for a reply before he pushed
it open. Liebermann motioned for him to sit down.

“You’re
the talk of the camp today, Seeler,” Liebermann said, looking past his
spectacles at Christopher. “A young Obersturmführer, only here two months and already
heading up an Anti-Corruption Committee? Your progress has been quite
astounding.”

“I’m
just doing my best to serve the Reich and the Führer himself.”

“Oh yes,
I forgot about that, the Führer himself, of course, of course,” he said looking
down at the papers in front of his desk.

“So you
have news for me?”

“Oh yes,
the reason I called you down here. You’ll forgive me Seeler; I am old man, not
a young firebrand like yourself.” Christopher was about ready to reach across
the table and strangle him when he began to speak again. “I received a phone
call from an old colleague of mine, working in a camp called
Ilag V-B Biberach. It seems he has
your Ms. Cassin.” Liebermann sat back in his chair, waiting for Christopher’s
reaction.

Christopher felt the acids burning in
his stomach and his heart was on fire, but he didn’t show it. He took a deep
breath and leaned forward. “So she’s alive?”

“It does seem so.”

Christopher could barely hold back
the questions as they came to him. “And when can we get her transferred here?
That was the deal.”

“I’m very much aware of what the deal
was Herr Obersturmführer,” he said and moved forward, clasping his hands
together. “She’ll be arriving on the last train on Wednesday.”

“This Wednesday? In three days time?”

Liebermann nodded.

Christopher bit down on his lip,
trying to hold in the smile. “Where’s she coming in from?”

“Does it matter?”

“No I don’t suppose it does. She’s
getting here on Wednesday evening, not Thursday, because I am going to Berlin
on Thursday morning, first thing. I’ll be gone all day.”

“What is it? You need to be here, to
welcome her?”

“Just stick to the details please,
Herr Liebermann.”

“I’d watch my tone if I were you,
young man,” Liebermann said pointing at Christopher across the table. “How would
it look if the new golden boy, the head of the new Anti-Corruption Committee,
was seen to be giving bribes to a senior officer?”

“How would it look for a senior officer
to be seen taking bribes?” Christopher snapped. “Listen
, I’ve already told you, I don’t give bribes. What time
is that train getting in on Wednesday,
Herr
Hauptsturmführer?”

“Five
thirty. I’ve had Ms. Cassin put onto the list to be transferred directly to the
facility in the Economic Agency for sorting through the goods to be repatriated
to the Reich.”

“Excellent.
That concludes our business here, Herr Liebermann. Let me commend you on the
good work you’ve done here. If you ever need anything from me…..”

“Oh
don’t you worry, Seeler. I won’t be shy about asking.”