Brothers Beyond Blood by Don Kafrissen

over him.” He squinted at us, “Why? Was he a friend of your’n? Did you guys know he was comin’? Maybe to break you fellas out?”
    “Oh, no, sir. We just hoped it was not an air strike.”
    My new friend said his name was Josef Kreisher. Karl, Heinrich and I introduced ourselves and we moved off to a corner of the compound where we squatted in the dirt while Josef explained to us what the guard had said.
    Behind my back I heard one of the other prisoners say, “I wish it had been an air strike and obliterated that nest of vermin across the road.” He spat in the dust. I looked at him, a sergeant major. “What are you looking at, young swine? Do you know what they are going to do to us, all of us?” He stuck his tongue out and tilted his head to the side, holding a hand over his head. “They are going to hang us.” He spat again and walked off with two other sergeants.
    I gulped and looked from Karl to Josef.
    “Do you really think they will hang us, Hans?” asked Heinrich.
    I shrugged. “I do not know.” I contemplated this for a long moment, and then said, “Would you, if you knew what was done in our camps?”
    Everyone fell silent after that comment.
    After looking around furtively, Josef whispered, “You must be very careful with what you say around some of the older guards, my friends. Remember, they are very committed to the Fatherland and to the Fuehrer. Being captured is a blow to their pride and they look down at any of us who were just, um, there?”
    “But the war is over, or nearly so. What good does it do to continue to support the party?” I asked, befuddled. That some men would like to continue to obliterate Jews was something that had not occurred to me.
    Josef leaned forward again and spoke slowly, “There is a faction, at least in our camp, who took an oath to continue to uphold the Reich after the war is over. These men swore that they would infiltrate the postwar government, if the Allies even let us form a government, and keep the spirit of the Third Reich alive.”
    Karl just shook his head, “But to what end? They have rid Germany of the Jews, the Gypsies, the homosexuals. Who is left to attract their anger?”
    Josef just shrugged, “Do not worry. They will find some new group to blame for all our troubles. If it could only be the Gestapo or the SS or even the military.”
    I sighed. Would this foolishness never stop? Millions and millions dead from this insane war and some want it to continue. I have to get away from this place, away from Germany. I looked at the tall fence and the guards patrolling the perimeter. Impossible. I guess that is why none of our prisoners have escaped.
    Oh Herschel, where are you now? If they are going to hang me soon, now is when I need you most.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 14 - Herschel’s Story         
     
    I opened my eyes and looked up at raw wood rafters. Was I still at Kefferstadt? My head ached and the rafters blurred. I tried moving my extremities. My left toes were all right, but my leg wouldn’t bend. All my fingers wiggled and my arm muscles tensed but my right arm ached. What had happened? Where was I?
    A face hove into view. A woman looked at me and smiled. “Finally awake, sleepyhead?” she asked in curiously accented German.
    “What happened? Who are you?”
    She smiled warmly. “I am Sofie, a nurse here. And you are going to be up in no time.” She patted my hand and sat on the edge of the narrow bed. Her fine brow furrowed, and I saw small flecks of gold in her hazel eyes.
    “What happened to me, Miss Sophie?”
    “You knocked a grenade out of a crazy man’s hand. Unfortunately, you were too close to it when it exploded.”
    “What is the extent of my injuries? Will I be disabled?” I was in a panic. Sixteen years old and my life was over.
    “Oh, nein,” she chuckled. “You are a strong young man and will heal rapidly, and of course, we need the bed for much more seriously injured patients,