Chambers

Werner woke up with a bad feeling in his gut. It might have been the feeling that had woken him up before the alarm clock rang at four in the morning, or it might have been insomnia. He'd overheard a conversation between two high-ranking officials the day before and they'd said that it was scheduled for today. 

Breakfast was the same as always. To Werner's relief Nikolai managed to sit next to him. He was in a good mood, joking around with the other soldiers, making the whole table laugh. 

"How'd you sleep?" Nikolai asked him caringly. 

"I slept fine." Werner answered drily. He cracked a weak smile at his friend, but it didn't reach his eyes and a second later, it dropped from his lips altogether. Nikolai's hand shot out, he snatched up the air just below Werner's chin and smiled triumphantly. 

"You dropped your smile Werner, but don't worry, I've caught it!" The sweet and cheery way he'd delivered his line made Werner truely smile, and this time the smile reached his green eyes. The man across from them had to smile too. There was something incredibly charming about Nikolai. Nikolai gently touched Werner's arm, then went back to eating his sausages and chatting with the other officials. 

As they headed out towards the barracks Werner overheard a snippet of a conversation he'd wished had never taken place. "...barracks sixteen and seventeen...otherwise there's no room for the newcomers...there's quite a few women and children among them, I've been told...yes, it makes sense to do it today and not tomorrow..."

Werner knew what they were talking about. He prayed that he wouldn't be the one to herd the inhabitants of barracks sixteen and seventeen into the chambers. 

At around 9am Werner spotted a large crowd of people be led into the camp. He was a little ways away, overseeing a group of workers who were building a new barrack, one that wouldn't be up in time to make the necessary space that could save the lives of barracks sixteen and seventeen...

He watched the officers start to sort the mass of people. They went down the lines, gesturing some people to go to the right and others to stand on the left. He could faintly hear the shouting from where he was. It didn't take him long to realize that the left was going to join numbers sixteen and seventeen in the chambers. All the older, crippled or bent folks, all the small children and most of the wives and mothers stood to the left.

After a long hour or so, the men on the right were marched away and the people on the left were herded in the opposite direction. Transfixed by the sight, Werner didn't notice the man approach him from behind so he jumped a little when the stranger addressed him.

"Sie, Sie kommen mit mir mit. (you're coming with me)." He said. Werner nodded and followed the man who'd already turned and started to march away from the construction sight. Werner was relieved that he was spared watching the men work. It looked so painful how they carried long stems of wood, heaving them onto each other to make the walls. 

His spell of relief was cut short: the man was marching him in the direction of barracks sixteen and seventeen. 

Werner felt the itchy feeling of anxiety start under his skin. He felt the cells in his lungs refuse to suck up the oxygen. He felt his knees become weak and threaten to fold beneath him. But he kept walking, blindly following the officer. A feeling of dread mixed itself with the panic that had risen in him. 

On his way to the barracks he saw Nikolai, or at least he thought he did, and as always Nikolai was joking around. Nikolai made eye-contact with his young friend for a split second, and in that second he saw the panic and dread in his green iris. Nikolai stopped joking around with the man he'd been talking too and watched Werner march past behind the SS-Officer. He sent a prayer to God that his friend would somehow be alright, somehow find the strengh to cope with the consequences of his actions. 

The men gathered outside the barracks sixteen and seventeen looked around confusedly. The officer who'd lead Werner there went to talk to one of the lieutenants and in under a minute the whole crowd began to move. 

Werner was positioned near the back, he had to make sure that nobody broke free and that everyone walked fast enough. The march to the chambers couldn't have taken more than a quarter of an hour but it felt like forever to Werner. Twice he made eye-contact with a confused prisoner who'd looked back, and the dead look in the man's eyes almost made Werner's heart stop beating. How could someone who was so dead still be alive? 

It was overwhelming for Werner. He didn't understand anything that the other men said to him, he didn't feel his body, even though he saw his limbs move and carry him upright. He couldn't tell if they'd just started walking or if they were going to stop. He felt trapped in a moment; all he did was walk, walk and walk and there seemed to be no end. 

The mass halted in front of him. He stopped too, almost running into the person in front of him. And then he saw the big metal doors way up front open. The old and exhausted men filed inside the chamber, the children squeezed tightly against their legs, the women looking around confusedly with anxious eyes. He assisted his comrades in herding them into the chambers from behind. It took forever for all of the inhabitants of barracks sixteen and seventeen and the newcomers from the train to be grouped up and locked into the chamber. From the history books he'd read he knew what they were going to be told; take all your clothes off, leave them in this room, go into the next, you'll be able to take a shower there. 

The big metal doors closed in front of him. No officers were left inside, only jews and other ethnicities, other problems that the Deustche Reich didn't want. 

He saw the men with the gas masks pass by him, holding caskets of bottled up gas. They were going to let it in, they were going to murder the entire crowd of people. Werner's eyes were frozen open, he couldn't blink. He started to step backwards, first slowly then ever faster, but a SS-Officer next to him grabbed him by the sleeve.

"Hey! Hau nicht ab, wir brauchen Sie noch beim Leichen tragen! (hey you don't leave, we still need you to help carry the corpses!)"