Winfred

25

Official Report

British Intelligence

Code: 3986

Kathleen Winfred

A week after the last air raid, Von Steubon disappeared. No one seemed to know where he had gone, even Pirot. We asked Albert, who I had also been getting to know, slightly, but he knew nothing.

We soon learned that this disappearance was not as temporary as the others had been. 

High ranking German SS officials came to visit the prison, inspecting it from top to bottom and, at the end of their visit, promoting Heinrich Schwab to temporary acting head of the prison. 

Everyone became more subdued once this news was announced. 

New rules were instated.

Anyone caught even so much as speaking any sort of friendly word to a prisoner would be punished. Any act of insubordination by prisoners would result in fifty lashes with a whip. 

Virginia received fifty lashes by the end of the first week under Schwab's jurisdiction. He had been looking for something to get her for, angry at her for the shampoo incident. (His hair was still dark.) 

Torture was increased; it was worse than it had been when I had first arrived at the prison. I felt as though I could hardly stand at the end of that first week.

Food rations were decreased from two meals a day of two slices of bread and a tin mug of water to one small crust of bread and hardly four swallows of precious liquid. 

We were miserable. In his absence, it became truly clear to me how much Von Steubon had been managing things in a fine balance of giving us enough torture and hardship to call us prisoners, but making sure that we were not overwhelmed. 

The beginning of the second week found Schubert wandering into the prison area, only to be kicked at by one of the German guards, a man I had seen around Schwab before. 

He yelped, and hid at the end of the corridor until the guard departed. Then he slunk down the hall to my cell and squeezed through the bars, curling up with me. He had grown thinner and he looked at me forlornly. 

This bothered me, somewhat. Wherever Von Steubon went, Schubert went. The only exceptions had been when he had gone to report to his superiors, but that had been a much shorter time period than this. 

I curled up on my hard cot, with Schubert next to me. The dog licked carefully at the scrapes on my arms, trying his best, as a dog, to care for me. I kissed the top of his head and eventually managed to fall asleep, wondering about my future here at the prison.