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Title: Tragedy Story
Genre: Romance, Historical Fiction
Rating: PG
Summary: A Nazi soldier is forced to make a terrible choice in order to do what is right.
Like the sonnet I posted earlier, this was a story for my English class, and we had to make a tragedy since we were studying Romeo and Juliet.
I'd appreciate it if anyone could give me suggestions, constructive criticism, or any comments at all.
Note that I haven't researched World War II that well, so not everything is accurate.
Thanks!
"Be safe," Alice murmured, looking up at him with watery eyes. John smiled down at his wife and placed a tender kiss on her brow before he clambered into the back of the army vehicle that would take him to Berlin with the other troops. He watched the lonely figure of his wife fade into the distance and she waved at him until their truck screeched around the corner, and she retreated into the house that she, John, and their two children had shared for two years ever since their marriage.
Coming into the house, she found Abe and Adina sprawled on the floor together, drawing abstract pictures with stubby pencils that they had probably found at school. Abe, six years old, looked up at his mother and asked, “When is papa coming back?”
“He should be back soon, honey,” Alice answered, smoothing back Abe’s dark hair. However, the truth was that Alice didn’t know. Ever since Hitler became chancellor of Germany, Jewish families were at risk of being arrested, simply for being Jewish. But Abe, being five years old and trusting his mother completely, was satisfied with the answer and resumed scribbling on the rumpled paper. Alice collapsed back onto the couch and watched her kids play without a care in the world. But Alice’s mind was all the way in Berlin where her husband was sitting at a long table with several of Germany’s leaders.
“The rooting out of the Jewish peoples will begin today. You are to intercept all citizens who are said to be Jewish, and you will send them to the Dachau concentration camp,” the general addressed the table, gesturing to a point on a map that was plastered to the wall. The general began to say more, but John didn’t hear his words as his brain went blank and a rushing noise passed through his mind. Alice was Jewish. His kids were Jewish. This couldn’t be happening to them. He had to get home.
Alice let out a squeak of alarm as John stumbled through the doorway, face white, his eyes wide and wild. He rushed forward and held Alice by the shoulders while their kids watched in bewilderment as he stuttered and shook his head.
“You have to hide! Y-you’re Jewish! They’re coming, coming to take you away,” he sputtered, releasing Alice and grasping his head in his hands. Then he took Abe in one strong arm, and he grabbed Adina’s hand in the other and led them upstairs where he flung open the attic.
“John! What do you think you’re doing?!” Alice cried anxiously. John took the kids upstairs, ignoring their complaints. They poked their heads out of the opening, and he glared at them warningly before they withdrew into the darkness of the attic.
“Hitler’s ordered the mass arrest of Jews. Every Jew they find is going to be deported to Dachau, and who knows what’ll happen there. Please, just…just hide. I’ll bring you food and everything you need. But you can’t come out during the daytime,” John said in hushed tones, speaking quickly. His kids could probably hear every word, but at the moment, he was too scared to care.
“John…what’s happening?” Alice whispered, leaning into his chest. He circled his arms around her and held her close, pressing his lips into her black hair.
“I don’t know…but I promise you that everything will be fine.”
Alice, Abe, and Adina remained holed up in the attic for several months, and all around them Jewish families were abducted from the lives that they knew and being held captive in concentration camps throughout Germany. On John’s weekly visits, he brought the three fugitives food, water, and news. Concentration camps had emerged in several countries of Europe and Germany’s rule stretched throughout the continent, bringing despair and segregation as it went.
Then one day on one of John’s weekly visits, disaster happened.
The family was gathered in the attic, sitting at an old kitchen table while they laughed quietly together by candle light, for once forgetting why they were trapped in a musty attic. Then there was a bang, and to their horror, the attic door opened, and the Gestapo stormed into the attic. John stood, appalled as they seized his wife and kids harshly. Then he took action and he brought out a pistol from his trench coat and aimed it at the center of the group. But there was too much struggling, and one moment his wife would be at the receiving end of the barrel, then the Gestapo, then Adina…and he hesitated. A Gestapo broke away from the struggle and knocked the gun out of his hand. Then before John could act, the soldier smashed him in the side of the head, and the floor rushed up to meet him rather suddenly.
When he came to, John lifted his aching head slowly from his chest and stared blearily at the buzzing lamp above him. The door swung open, and a soldier slipped inside, holding back a yawn with his palm. Then he noticed that John was awake and dashed back outside, bringing another man with him as quickly as he had entered. The new man turned to face John, and John recognized the lined, eye patch adorned face of the general who had ordered the Jewish extermination in the first place.
“Well, let’s see. I think I remember you. You were one of the soldiers lucky enough to attend the meeting several months ago,” he said, his voice silky, but with a sinister edge to it. “And I think you also happen to be the man who was hiding the fugitives we just caught, aren’t you?”
John didn’t have to answer.
The general’s cheap grin broadened. “Well, I think they’ll be very happy to see you.”
John’s bonds were untied, and he was released into a courtyard, and a lump formed in his throat when he saw his wife and kids kneeling in front of a line of soldiers, hands bound behind their back, heads bowed. John reeled towards them, mouth dry as he turned to the soldier next to him to demand what was going on. Before he could ask, however, a pistol was shoved into his hand and the soldier gestured with his head towards his family.
“Kill them.”
John jerked his head up, mouth agape in disbelief. “What…? I can’t do that.”
“Kill them, or every single Jew in this camp will die for them, along with you and your family. Do you want that to happen?” the soldier said harshly, eyes hard.
John shook his head repeatedly, eyes boring holes into the dry earth beneath his feet. This can’t be happening…this can’t be happening…
The soldier turned to another and jerked his head. “Bring them out.”
A cluster of Jews were brought out into the courtyard, and the soldier immediately raised his gun and began firing. One by one, the prisoners crumpled to the ground, accompanied by echoing gun shots that made all but the most hardened of them cringe. The killing continued.
“Stop it! Stop! Please! I’ll do it!” John screamed, knees buckling.
“Best to let the father do it and have them die with love in their hearts,” the general sighed from the back of the crowd.
John shuffled in front of his wife, and with shaking hands, raised the pistol. He gazed at her, tears beginning to make tracks down his cheeks, lips trembling, mind sobbing for him to stop, that this was going against everything he had loved and known.
“I’m so sorry…I love you…so much,” He wept, before he pulled the trigger. The gun shot roared in his ears, and his wife slumped to the ground, blood seeping from beneath her clothes. Then, before his shocked mind could spur itself into action again, he lifted his numb arm and pulled the trigger twice. Abe fell with scarcely a whimper, but Adina’s scream pierced the fog in his mind, and he dropped to his knees, the pistol hanging on his index finger.
He crawled toward Alice, his unkempt hair falling around his face, sobs racking his body.
“Oh god…Alice…” He cradled Alice’s still body against his chest, blood soaking his uniform and his hands while the soldiers nearby watched sympathetically. Then before they could stop him, John put the gun to his temple, and took his own life.
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