War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 345

Chapter 12

Voronezh, June 1947

T

he awful winter passed, but this time spring didn’t bring the desperately awaited relief. A horrible famine held Russia in its grip. Locals starved and the

plenni

died like flies.

“Every day they’re giving us less food and making us work more!” Johann grumbled, looking at the bowl of soup in his hand. Soup was a euphemistic expression for the hot water in the bowl. Not nearly enough to take the edge off his gnawing hunger, even after adding dandelions and moss he’d picked on the way to work.

“It’s a small sacrifice to pay for the glorious days ahead once communism takes hold,” one of the informers chastised him.

Johann glowered at the soup bowl, but remembering the harsh lesson for dissent, he schooled his voice and answered, “You’re right. But it’s still hard.”

“Nobody said it would be child’s play. We have to transform an entire country and educate millions of people. Naturally, there will be some hiccups.”

Johann didn’t consider the worst famine in a decade a hiccup, but serious mismanagement on the part of the communists. Wise from experience, he didn’t voice his thoughts.

“Any idea how long until we’re privy to a new and better world?” Reiner muttered.

The informer glowered at him and said, “Not long until our sacrifices will be rewarded plentifully.”

Once the informer left, and only Johann, Reiner and Helmut sat around, Johann said, “Sounds a lot like the Bible. Repent now for an uncertain better future that is far, far away.”

Helmut sighed. “Even though you might not see the difference, because your heart is bitter, there is a huge difference between God’s message and communism. For one, God is benign and wants us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, whereas the communists want you to denounce him.”

“Don’t let the communists hear your blasphemy against their God, Stalin.”

“I always wonder whether the newly converted antifa-boys really believe this shit,” Reiner said. “Or do they simply play by the rulebook?”

Johann gave a bitter grimace. “Given that the Soviet interpretation of communism is nothing but a badly disguised copy of National Socialism, I tend to believe the former believers found a new religion.”

“And since when are you the expert on communism?” Helmut asked.

“Since I read all twenty books in the camp library about that topic.”

“You did? Why on earth?” Reiner said.

Johann scoffed. “Because those were the only books our wonderful library owns. And I was bored… not having to work while classified four is a blessing and a curse. You lie in bed all day and while your body recovers, your brain idles along going down very unpleasant lanes… so reading communist trash was better than thinking of the ways those bastards are going to kill me without even lifting a finger.”

“Shush. If they hear you…” Reiner hushed him.

“See? We can’t even speak our mind. Isn’t that exactly the same as under Nazi rule? The same retaliation for dissent? Letting people starve and working them to death in camps? The only thing the Soviets are not doing are the mass shootings, and do you know why?”

His friends had become paler with each word, but he ignored their frightened faces.

“I’ll tell you why! Because they need our manpower to rebuild their rotten country. They could get so much more work done, if they treated us well! But that’s not their intent. They want us dead, all of us. And while they do away with us, they first suck out every last drop of blood from our bodies like those damn mosquitoes do.”

“You’re upset…” Helmut tried to appease him, but Johann couldn’t hold back any longer. The anger, the pain, the disappointed hopes, it had been boiling inside for much too long and needed an outlet.

“I’m upset and rightly so! What they’re doing are war crimes.”

“We’re not at war anymore…” Reiner said.

“See? The bloody war stopped two years ago and we’re still here. And you know what? I’m ashamed.”

“Ashamed of what?” A man who’d joined the antifa-brigade had entered the room.

Johann didn’t care. He glowered at him, “Ashamed that I once believed in Hitler and his idea of making Germany great again. How could I not see how this would end? How could I not make out the first signs of warning? How could I let all those horrible things happen and not stand up to stop them? Why was I so stupid?”

The antifa-man gave a puzzled look and said, “So why don’t you join the antifa-brigade if this is how you think?”

Yes, why

? Johann was too afraid to tell the man that communism was just another form of fascism, and he hated himself for being so cowardly – again. “Because I’m afraid to make another mistake.”

“So you don’t believe anti-fascism is good?”

“I certainly believe fascism is bad.” Johann didn’t want to get into hot water again and tried to appease the man.

Thankfully the call to head into the barracks for the night cut the conversation short.