Three Sisters (The Tattooist of Auschwitz #3)(43)

Cibi feels faint. There is no difference now between her and that man, apart from the clothes she stands in. It is while she is lost in this dark memory that the door to the mail room opens and an SS guard enters. His lips are moving, but Cibi has missed his first sentence entirely. She stares at him stupidly.

‘I said, come with me!’ he barks. Letting the sardine tin drop, Cibi follows him outside to where a truck is waiting. ‘Get in!’

Cibi runs to the passenger side and climbs into the truck, fully present now. She is in an SS truck with an SS guard. There is only way this is going to end. She thinks of Livi, who may never find out what has happened to her. She thinks of Magda, of her mother and Grandfather.

The SS guard glances at her, noticing the trembling fingers that cover her mouth. ‘I’m not going to hurt you,’ he tells her. There is a matter-of-factness in his voice. Cibi releases the breath she has been holding, and tentatively meets his eyes. ‘I need you to pick up some parcels at the front gate and take them back to the post room where they should have been delivered in the first place. When I find out who was too lazy to walk them round I will have them shot.’

Cibi is still trying to steady her breathing. It is cold outside, but she needs the fresh air. ‘Do you mind if I wind the window down?’ she asks, and the soldier gives a curt nod.

Cibi leans into the wind, gasps in the cold air and feels calmer.

A large open truck is driving towards them. As it sails past she is blasted by the voices of men roaring in song. She turns in her seat to catch sight of naked male prisoners in the back. They stand tall and chant the song she herself has sung so many times at synagogue.

Her heart may have slowed down, but the shock Cibi received when the SS guard ordered her into the truck has weakened her grip on herself. An icy fear flushes through her now, and she clutches her chest as she feels she is starting to fall apart. What little hope she has of surviving this place flies out of the open window, chasing the men destined for imminent death.

How soon before the SS come for her, strip her naked and drive her to the gas chamber?

*

Livi can’t understand why Cibi is avoiding her. These days, her sister stays later and later at the post office, often sneaking back into the block once the lights have gone out. As they lie in bed at night, she seldom responds to Livi’s whispered questions. Livi resolves to talk to Cibi on Sunday, their day off, but when Sunday rolls around, Cibi mutters she has work to do at the post office, and slips away.

Livi wanders around the camp, stopping now and then to talk to the other girls, but she doesn’t hang around for very long. She’s worried about Cibi. Maybe, she wonders, Cibi has witnessed one or two unsettling episodes herself, and been struck mute by them. But Cibi is her rock, Livi reasons, she can’t just disappear.

Livi heads for the gates which divide the two women’s camps. They’re open today, as they are every Sunday, allowing family and friends to reunite for short periods.

Livi’s blood runs cold when senior SS officer Mandel appears on her magnificent black horse, and rides over when she sees Livi. Mandel is universally feared: cold-eyed and vicious, she wears her long red hair in a high ponytail, even though she’s too old for such a girlish hairstyle. Never one to use her words when a baton will do, Mandel is famous for lashing out during rollcall. She is known as ‘The Beast’. It is rumoured that if you look her directly in the eye, she will have you shot or sent to the gas chamber. No one is in a hurry to find out if it’s true.

‘Do you know why these gates are open?’ Mandel demands of Livi.

Struggling to stay calm and to avoid the woman’s eyes, Livi explains that Sundays are visiting days, and that the women are allowed to mingle with friends who live in the opposite camp.

The officer tosses a large key at Livi and tells her to lock both sets of gates: everyone is to remain where they are and if they’re not where they should be when the gates are shut, they will be punished. Striking her heels into the horse’s flanks, Mandel rides off.

Livi begins to warn the women they must return to their camps, that they must pass on the message, and hurry. She starts to make a great show of pulling the gates closed as women streak past her to their rightful blocks. They are screaming at Livi not to lock them in as Mandel gallops up once more.

‘Hurry,’ shouts Livi to the stragglers. ‘Hurry!’

Livi is locking the gate as Mandel jumps down from her horse and strides up to her. ‘I told you to lock the gates immediately,’ she screams into Livi’s face.

From the corner of her eye, Livi sees Rita approach, but she can’t save her from the fist swinging into Livi’s face. Knocked off her feet, Livi lies stunned on the ground. Her bladder releases and she feels hot urine puddle beneath her. Mandel, her work done for the moment, climbs back onto her horse, and issues her final blow: ‘Send her to the hole!’ she screeches at Rita, before riding off.

Rita offers Livi a hand and hauls her to her feet. ‘I can’t get you out of this.’ she says, but the young girl can’t speak: she knows that she is lucky to be alive.

Livi follows Rita to the back of the women’s camp. There, a girl is standing, up to her shoulders, in a hole in the ground. There is no way Livi can drop down into it, it’s too narrow. Instead, she must climb through a short dirt tunnel and come up into the hole. It is only once she is fully upright that Livi understands the torture of this punishment. Back to back, their arms trapped by their sides, neither girl can move – they can barely breath – and they must stay like this all night.