Panzerfaust

Chapter 28 - En route

March 31th, 1945, near Brest-Litovsk, German occupied Belorusia

The whirring never stopped. 

Clicketty clack. 

Sophia Skorzeny never thought that metal can make a wet sound. She was wrong. 

Clicketty clack. 

Kampfgruppe Peiper had been struggling through the slough for a week now, endless steppes swimming by the Kampfwagen, en route home.

Home? 

Home was Budapest, Vati and the grand Edelsheim Palace, Lily's home on Dohány Street across the synagogue, the taste of flódni in her mouth after Sabbath school, the warmth of the sun on her skin reflected by the tall stained glass windows...

But home was also Berlin, the cozy little apartment on Lenné Strasse, a purring Macskacicó and Otto, her husband. She was not the first woman to leave her home, and her country to get married - and certainly not the last one. 

Sighing loudly, she eyed the little boy wrapped to her chest and then to the blond head resting on her shoulder; she was trapped once again. This wasn't the first time Obersturmbannführer Peiper fell asleep leaning on her and probably not the last. There wasn't much space to sleep for them comfortably anyways. 

A faint cramp travelled down from her sides to the lower stomach, dull and aching; a gentle reminder of womanhood. Her blood was ten days late... could it be? Can she dare to hope? 

A sudden bump stirs the officer awake, locking grey eyes with her green ones before tilting his head away for her shoulder.

'Entschuldigung, Frau Skorzeny.' She swears she can she a faint blush on his cheeks, but it can be a trick of the limited light.

'Ja, macht nichts. I'm the intruder in your space after all.' 

'Intruding? You are not intruding at all. I'm glad you are here with me - I, I, I mean - I am glad you are not outside, alone. In danger.' 

Stammering, the blush on the young officer's cheeks deepen into a shade of crimson. He must be solely the most nervous high ranking officer she ever met. 

They arrive in Brest-Litovsk before sundown; this ancient slavic town was the first to get invaded during German and Soviet occupation of Poland, then handed over to Stalin as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, sealing the fate of this old Yiddish town. Lili had connections here, she recalled; the Jewish community of Brisk was used to take up roughly half of the town's population - this wasn't the case now. It's not likely that this uptight german Panzer commander will even let her take a look at the ghetto, let alone enter it. 

Obersturmmbanführer Peiper occupied the grandest home in the city, inside the Fortress and insisted Sophia and the boy stay with him. The home of a wealthy merchant, who took it was a honour to house such a high ranking German officer in his home - up until Peiper ordered her to tell the family they need to find another place to sleep for the night.

Baby Boris was more and more fussy and his cerulean eyes seemed to become increasingly red around the lids, sometimes even matted together. The field medic shrugged his shoulders when Sophie asked about it and said war is not a playground for children. 

As if any child chose to be born in a warzone. 

'Herr Peiper, I wish to see a doctor, I am worried about Bo... the baby's eyes.' And I need to come up with a german name for him soon. Otto was right - he did not needed to say it outright how his Polish name was a liability - still when he was one - if not  - the most successful commander in the Third Reich.