War Girls Complete Collection Chapter 82

Chapter 27

T

he next day Anna paid a visit to Mutter and Ursula. She caught one of the infrequent busses, and crossed the devastated city. Since she lived in the staff housing, she rarely left the Charité grounds and had forgotten how god-awful the situation in Berlin was.

At long last the incessant air raids had stopped, as if the Allies had decided there was nothing left worth bombing in the capital. According to the radio, the Allies were now focusing their air raids over France. Speculation had it the Allies were planning an invasion somewhere on the French Atlantic coast. Damaging infrastructure was their preparation for crippling the German defenses.

Anna had never spent much time thinking about what would happen when the war ended. Despite the constant rallying to persist, most of her colleagues doubted that Germany would win this war. Not after the Americans poured millions and millions of dollars, material, and soldiers into this craziness. And even the Russians, who had been one step from defeat when Hitler’s army stormed Moscow in the fall of 1941, had recovered and regrouped and were now annihilating division after division of the German Wehrmacht.

Most everyone wanted the war to end, but looking at the devastation the bus passed, it dawned on Anna that it wouldn’t be the magical return to glory that everyone expected. Not for a long time. The winners would be so full of hatred and repulsion for the German people – more so when they found out about the things happening in the camps – that Anna feared they might kill all of them, like they had razed the cities and towns across Germany.

Raw with emotion she trudged up the stairs to Mutter’s apartment. Mid-flight, she met her neighbor walking downwards.

“Frau Weber, how are you today?” Anna plastered on a polite smile.

“I’m fine. But I’m worried about your sister Ursula.” Frau Weber blocked the stairs, obviously on the hunt for gossip.

Anna feigned ignorance, saying, “I’m sure she’s fine.”

“Well, there’s something going on. She rarely leaves the apartment these days. Is she still grieving about Lotte’s death? Poor girl. So young. But also with a tongue that couldn’t be tamed. Your mother never explained what happened.” Frau Weber gave her a curious look.

“She contracted typhus and couldn’t be saved,” Anna said, hoping this would be enough to get Frau Weber out of her hair.

“Poor girl…it’s been, how long? Three months? And there still hasn’t been a memorial service for her. And where’s her grave?”

You stupid snitcher. There won’t be a memorial service because she isn’t really dead

. Anna tried her best to make a sad face. “Yes, it’s such a tragedy. We never received her body. Quarantine restrictions, you know? The authorities were afraid the corpse might spread the disease to our family and even to our neighbors.” Anna had to bite on her cheeks to prevent herself from laughing at Frau Weber’s horrified face.

“Oh,” the woman said and backed away from Anna.

“The authorities were right,” Anna added with a devilish joy, and then continued, “I care for patients with typhus, tuberculosis, dysentery, and cholera on a daily basis and I know how easy it is to contract such a deadly disease.” She took a step towards her harping neighbor.

“I…I am in a hurry,” Frau Weber said and fled down the stairs.

Anna grinned and knocked on the door. Not having to put up with Frau Weber was a definite advantage of having moved out. She remembered all too well the time Frau Weber had called the Gestapo on them while they were hiding the British pilot – the father of Ursula’s baby.

“Anna, darling, how are you?” Mutter asked as she opened the door.

“I’m fine.” Anna entered the apartment and left her coat on the rack, noticing three coats already hanging on the hooks. “You’re having guests?”

“So I wish,” Mutter said with a tired sigh. “The housing office has assigned a bombed-out person to live with us. Sabine is staying in your room and Ursula has moved her things into my room. We were lucky they didn’t assign us another person to take up quarters in the living room.”

“Is she here?” Anna glanced around and then followed her mother into the kitchen.

“No, she’s working at the ammunition factory.” Mutter heated water for tea. “Sabine is Ursula’s age and thankfully she’s a tidy person. Her husband is dead, and given the decay of moral standards amongst your generation,” Mutter said, pausing only long enough to give a pointed look at Ursula, who shoved her big belly into the room, “I have told her that no men are allowed in this house under any circumstances.”

“Hello, sister.” Anna ignored her mother’s comment and hugged Ursula. “How are you?”

“Much better since I went to the ration office and registered my pregnancy. You won’t believe the kind of extra food we’re getting now,” Ursula said.

“You need it.” Anna flopped onto the chair and took the cup of steaming tea Mutter handed her.

“Maybe you can talk some sense into your sister,” Mutter said to Anna.

“What’s she talking about?”

“Mutter thinks I should go to the country. To Aunt Lydia’s,” Ursula answered as she received a cup of tea as well.

“It’s not the worst idea I’ve heard of,” Anna said slowly.

“I don’t want to leave Berlin. Pfarrer Bernau needs my help. Now more than ever.” Ursula grimaced at them.

Mutter shook her head, saying, “You have a baby to think about now. This…work you’re doing is endangering both of you. With my sister you’ll be safe, get better food and more sleep.”

Anna could see a fight brewing and changed the subject. “Have you heard from Richard again?”

Mutter sent her a scowl. “Richard! Don’t even get me started on your brother! That reckless boy has sent me a letter that he requested a return to combat in lieu of staying wherever he was safely tucked behind a desk. Can you believe this?”

Anna couldn’t. Richard had always been the bookworm of the family, a shy, quiet, and thin boy, who was happy to leave the limelight to his three sisters. One year older than wildcat Lotte, people had often mentioned that she behaved more like a boy than he did. It was beyond Anna’s comprehension that even her withdrawn brother suddenly showed heroic qualities while she still peed in her pants over Doctor Tretter’s threats.

“Mutter, you don’t know what kind of things he had to do at his desk job,” Ursula said, putting a calming hand on her mother’s arm and sending Anna a glance that said

I’ll bet he prefers dying on the battlefield to being responsible for some of the things we know are happening

.

“When will this war end?” Mutter asked the rhetorical question with a desolate tone in her voice.

“Hopefully soon,” Anna answered and then added, “Lotte called me a while ago to remind me of the fact that she has turned eighteen.”

“My little one. I hope the nuns can instill some obedience in her,” Muter said.

“She’s not in the convent anymore,” Anna blurted out and then clasped a hand in front of her mouth.

“What do you mean? Where is she?” Mutter squinted her eyes at Anna, who blushed furiously as she realized her mistake.

“I don’t know, but she called me because she needed a letter of reference. To be accepted as

Wehrmachtshelferin

and start radio operator training,” Anna murmured.

Mutter’s face became ashen and for long moments one could have heard a pin drop.

“A radio operator? What is that girl thinking?” Mutter finally asked.

“That’s a hell of a dangerous position–” Ursula said, interrupted by the tsking sound her mother made at the use of this inappropriate word.

“I’m sorry, Mutter, but radio operators follow the front line to report back to headquarters. Since it is so dangerous, they’ve been desperately looking for volunteers,” Ursula explained.

Mutter closed her eyes and said, “I don’t know what’s come over my children lately. Nobody heeds my advice anymore.”

Much later, Ursula accompanied her sister to the bus station and used the time alone with her to ask, “What made Lotte change her mind and work for the Nazis?”

“Not for the Nazis, against them. She’s put her mind to working for the Allies as a spy.” Anna hugged her sister tight, seeing that her bus was nearing the stop.

“Jesus. She’ll get caught and then? She’ll wish herself back in Ravensbrück.” A shudder racked Ursula’s body. “I’ve seen what the Gestapo does with their prisoners. The ones who arrive at our prison seldom look like human beings anymore.”

“We have to trust that she won’t get caught. We both know that short of shackling her to a pole, there’s not much to keep her from pursuing her plan,” Anna said, taking a step back from Ursula and hopping on the bus. “Take care!”