Soul to the Rhine

Chapter 78 Concentration Camp

Desperate, in the end there was only one person left that she could think of.

Even though she didn't want to.

When I returned to Aunt Mesa's house, it was dark and quiet.Rosia fumbled to turn on the light, rummaged for a moment in a box in the corner of the room, and found an apartment key.

This was the key to Heinrich's apartment that Dick gave her on the day of moving. At that time, Dick said that if anything happened, he would go find someone in the apartment.

However, now is the peak of the war, and after such a long time of absence, the chance of Heinrich or Werner being here is almost zero.But there was nothing she could do.Pino had been captured for a day now. If the SS moved quickly enough, they might have sent him to a concentration camp.

And now she couldn't imagine life in a concentration camp, let alone how a five-year-old boy would survive without the protection of his parents.

There were many street lights on Dante Street, but not many passers-by. The curfew was coming, and she had to hurry up.

Rosia wrapped the scarf around her neck one more time, barely resisting the growing night wind.Patrolling soldiers walked past the roadside from time to time, and their gun barrels reflected cold light under the streetlights.Everyone was going home, but she was the only one going the wrong way, and soon she received a lot of suspicious and scrutinizing looks.

Rosia couldn't help shrinking her neck, lowered her head and quickened her pace.

We turned a corner and soon arrived at the address Dick mentioned.

Heinrich's apartment was very conspicuous and he recognized it immediately, but as expected, it was dark inside without any light.She was full of disappointment, but she also knew that this was natural.

Finally, she ran to the door without giving up and opened the apartment door with her key.

The living room is very clean and quiet, but you can tell at a glance that this is a place where no one has lived for a long, long time.

After giving up completely, Rosia didn't know what to do next or where to go.

Rushing back before the curfew, she lay down on the sofa in the living room and slept soundly. The next day before dawn, she ran to the police station in District [-].

As an ordinary citizen with no power, the only thing she knows is to call the police if something goes wrong. Although the French police are completely unreliable and have no credibility at all, in this desperate situation, she can only choose to go The police station.

After arriving at the police station, Rosia discovered that this place was very different from what she had imagined. It was very busy with people coming and going.

She looked at the door. There were people everywhere, there were no signs, and she didn't know which area was for what.She stood at the door for a long time, and no one cared about her. She could only stop a policeman: "Hello, may I ask..."

"I'm not from here. If you have anything to ask, go to the consultation desk." The policeman took a folder and left without looking back.

Rosia was furious. My sister, can you hide your lie a little? Wearing a police uniform and saying that you are not from here.

She had no choice but to go in and find the consultation office.There were three people sitting behind the information desk, two French policemen and a German soldier.

It was really strange to see German soldiers in the French police station, which made Rosia have to think more about whether German forces had taken control of the police station.As soon as she walked over, the three of them raised their heads at the same time and stared at her.

"I'm sorry, I want to know... what should the Gestapo do if they arrest the wrong person?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the two French policemen lowered their heads, and the German soldier looked directly at the paper in his hand.

"I'm sorry, I just want to know. Yesterday morning, my brother was arrested as a Jew. They made a mistake. I..."

"Sorry ma'am, your question is beyond the scope of our police department, and I don't know."

"But they arrested French citizens..."

"I don't know, madam, you should understand the situation now! We don't know anything." The policeman interrupted her impatiently again, without even raising his head to look at her, and still staring at the table.

This perfunctory attitude made Rosia angry.

"Hey, look at me!" Rosia slammed her hands on the table with a bang. The loud noise made the three of them look up at her at the same time: "Are you a French policeman? Are you wearing a French police uniform now? An unyielding Even if we are defeated, our nation will not bend its spine under the eyes of the enemy. So, are you using this attitude to deal with French citizens now, keeping your smile to warm the invaders' beds?"

The two French policemen were stunned on the spot!

The German soldier stood up, frowned, and said in German, "Ma'am, although I don't understand what you said, your behavior is enough for me to drive you out of here."

Rosia bit her lip. She once again deeply realized that the French police were useless. It was better to rely on them than on the Germans.She took a deep breath, managed to calm down her impulsive breath, calmed herself down, and suppressed a smile: "It's like this, yesterday morning in District [-], you seemed to have arrested the wrong person. He is my brother, from Germany and Hungary. Half-breed, but taken away as a Jew.”

This soldier was an SS, not a Gestapo.The moment he heard the German language, he softened his expression slightly, thought carefully, and said: "If he was arrested yesterday, he should still be in France now, and he would not be registered in the concentration camp so quickly, but I don't know his Where to go.”

"I'm sorry," Rosia smiled again and asked cautiously, "I'm sorry...where in France might he be sent?"

The German soldier is quite patient and has not shown any signs of boredom yet: "I can only suggest that you go to Studorf."

"Thank you!" Rosia bowed.

The German soldier nodded and sat down.

Things were better than she had imagined, she had already got the location, Rosia didn't stay any longer, turned around and left, there were people coming and going in the police department, and there were people who came to ask questions everywhere, but they couldn't get much useful information.When leaving, she also saw a Jewish woman asking the staff about something.

This made her startled, and she couldn't help thinking about what happened yesterday.

The Jews are all in and out of the police stations, so now is not the time to arrest people randomly without any reason.So why was Pino taken away?
Now the Germans have not touched French Jews, and they have arrested almost all Polish fugitives. Could it be that they not only know the identity of Pino, but also know that he was brought back from Poland?
This speculation made her feel cold and made her even more worried.

The Gestapo and the Skeleton Division treated the Jews in Poland with absolutely no mercy, and would kill anyone on the spot if they didn't like them.

Rosia remembered the scene when he lived in Heinrich's apartment in Poland. The officer next door stood on the balcony and killed Jews for fun. They have no heart at all, they are the devil.

Rosia didn't dare to delay any longer and ran to the train station immediately after leaving the police station.

Studdorf was a place she had never heard of. In fact, she didn't know many cities in France, so she could only ask people along the way to find the train.

The train station in Paris was overcrowded. Almost everywhere you could see was filled with people. As far as the eye could see, there were actually several couples of men and women hugging each other passionately on the platform, and everyone around them was looking at them with romantic eyes like "I understand." Watching them.Rosia was now full of anxiety and anger. She was so crowded in the crowd that she couldn't find the east, west, east, and west. She could not wait to rush to the platform and throw those couple of losers out.

After finally squeezing into the carriage, the air inside was simply filthy.At this moment, she extremely regretted not buying a ticket for the premium carriage in order to save the dozen francs.

During the more than ten hours of traveling on the train, there was almost constant suffering, worry, anxiety, uneasiness, and panic about the unknown future, which made her energy highly consumed and her whole body in extreme pain.

It was already dawn when the train arrived at its destination. Unexpectedly, Studorf turned out to be a mountainous area, and the weather was extremely cold. She caught a cold within 10 minutes of getting off the train.The heavy dew in the air made her clothes increasingly damp and cold.

When the sun rose, she walked farther into the mountains. Walking for more than an hour had almost exhausted her physical strength. Only then did she suddenly wonder whether the SS man in the police station had lied to her, no matter what. How could a concentration camp or a quarantine zone be built in a place like this?

But everyone has already arrived, and she still doesn't want to give up even if she's not completely sure.

She didn’t know how long she had been walking, but when her consciousness was already a little scattered, she finally saw a village-like building, but the high iron fence and the groups of patrolling soldiers on the outside told her what kind of place this place was. .

Concentration camp!
This is really news that I don’t know whether to be happy or sad.

Rosia suddenly lost all strength and collapsed on the ground. She closed her eyes for a long time and finally regained some strength. She took out a water bottle and cold medicine from the backpack behind her.

The best thing after taking the medicine is to rest, but she has no time now. Every minute and every second may determine Pino's life.

Struggling to stand up again, Rosia staggered forward and leaned over.

When she was in Poland, it was true that she had never seen a concentration camp, but it was only on the periphery. All she could see were high walls, dense iron mesh, and countless soldiers standing guard outside.To be honest, she didn't know what it looked like inside, but it was incredible that the Studorf concentration camp was built in a mountainous area.

She was very conspicuous walking alone in the mountains. She was soon blocked by several soldiers and faced a row of gunpoints.

"who are you?"

a soldier shouted sharply.

Rosia was already suffering from a cold, but when he yelled at him at this moment, his brain hurts like being drilled by something.She managed to pull herself together and smiled: "I'm sorry, I'm from Paris. Just the day before yesterday, you caught the wrong child in the eighth district. It was a German officer in the police station who told me to come here." .”

Several soldiers looked at each other, and one of them pushed his submachine gun forward: "You are mistaken, there is no person you are looking for here."

Rosia was startled and subconsciously took a step back. She was sick and weak and accidentally stepped on a stone behind her, and fell to the ground.

Several guns were instantly aimed at her head.

　I will leave France in the next chapter~
　　Wanting to save someone from the SS, well, it's a long process...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)