In the Shadow of His Wings

Chapter 22

– You –

Weeks passed. You slowly got used to being a respected citizen of the Reich again and the wound on your left underarm had healed by now. Almost nothing of the tattoo was visible anymore, though the salt treatment had left a little scar.

It was still kind of weird that the people you had feared for so long were your "friends" now. Suddenly all the guards were nice to you, nobody treated you like shit or ignored you anymore. All because they knew now that you were Aryan... and because Mengele was by your side.

Still, you felt kind of bad for all the people living in misery out there. You had deserted Esther, your best friend in this camp... You hadn't seen her in a long time, she probably thought you were dead. If she was still alive herself, of course.

Josef's wife had sent him the divorce papers by now and he had accepted. They could skip the year of separation since they had been living apart for more than a year already. Now he was waiting for the maintenance settlement papers, and then the court would set the divorce date. He had said that it would take some more months until they were officially divorced.

The situation was coming to a head. Most of the people in Auschwitz were really, really troubled by now and many had already left. And, as you had found out, there were no inmates gassed anymore. Both crematories had been taken down – of course, nobody wanted the Russians to know about that after all. You and Josef were still here because he just didn't want to stop his research until the last minute. But you wouldn't be able to stay much longer, you could feel it.

Today was the 17th of January, 1945, around 11 AM. A cold winter day, but there was some sun shining through the grey clouds. You were sitting in Josef's office again, doing your usual work: Filling out the forms for him. Everyday routine. However, you didn't know yet that this day would take an unexpected turn. Exactly... now.

You heard heavy footsteps coming towards the office door and you looked up. A split second later, the door was thrown open and Josef stormed into the room. He was carrying two briefcases with him and he looked like he was in a big rush.

"(Y/N)? You're here, good... Listen, we have to pack up all of that stuff real quick and then leave. Hurry up, we don't have much time!"

So the day had come. The day you had to leave. You became terrified, but you had no time. So you just jumped up from the chair and started to hastily gather up all of the forms and papers on his desk. Meanwhile, Josef threw one of his open briefcases on the desk and told you to put it in there before pulling open all the drawers to look for more sensitive material. Whatever he could find, he just crammed it into the briefcase.

"Anything else in here?" He paced over to his other desk and gathered more papers. He also searched through the cabinet and pulled out entire boxes of documents. There were also some spare lab coats hanging in the cabinet. He looked at them for a second, apparently thinking about whether or not he should take them along. However, he shook his head and mumbled "Fuck it, they can stay here."

He kicked the cabinet doors shut and walked over to you, placing the boxes on the now-empty desk. "Take them," he commanded. His briefcases were so full, they didn't even close anymore. He hefted them, you stacked up the boxes and tried to balance them in your arms somehow.

Josef looked around one last time. "...Alright. Now let's go." He went forward to the door, you followed him as fast as you could. After you had both left Block 10 forever, he led you to a black car standing in the middle of the yard.

"I have already packed all of your things," he called to you. Good.

Looking around, you noticed how empty the camp suddenly was. There were not many prisoners walking around and just some SS guards straying. Finally this horrible place is put to an end...

"Just put it somewhere on the backseat," Josef said as he opened one of the back doors of the car. You went to the other side, but then you realized that you had no free hand. After throwing his briefcases onto the already packed stuff in the car, Josef saw your struggle and came to help you. He opened the door for you and you placed the boxes on some piles of documents.

"Good luck to you! Don't let them catch you!" you heard someone call. You turned around to see that it was one of the guards.

"Danke!" you both called back.

"Now get in, we have to go." Josef rushed to the driver's door and you got in on the passenger side, putting the seatbelt on. He jumped in next to you and quickly started up the car.

You cruised around the camp in haste, heading for the exit. "Alright, (Y/N)... listen... From now on, we are on the run. Wherever we go, you never leave my side, understood? We will drive to Groß-Rosen now, as planned. If we get pulled over somewhere, I'm not Josef Mengele. You can tell them your real name if you want... but I'm... Fritz Hollmann. I'm pretty sure nobody will identify me because I'm not carrying any identification papers and I also don't have a SS blood group tattoo. Just don't tell them my real name, under no circumstances. If you slip up, we're in big, big trouble. You understand that?"

"Ja."

That was the start of your journey. Your journey to freedom.