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12-05-2014, 08:29 PM
Aalina
Aalina Dohm woke with a start, as the train rattled over the points. She shivered drew her coat closer around her and adjusted the scarf that had slipped while she slept. She had chosen her seat with care, in the semi darkness of a missing light bulb she felt safe
The drizzle of misty rain in the short November twilight restricted her view but not long now surely she had seen the odd American soldier on the passing stations which told her she was in the American zone of her conquered country.
Aalina allowed her eyes to close again and smiled at the memory of Bayreuth so beautiful in that spring of ’36. The Linden trees on the Konigsallee were dressed in baby green leaves. Wagner at the Festspielhaus, young and fever eyed, lost in the towering finale of the Parsifal and so proud in her uniform of the Jungmadelbund;
Now it was over; the past buried in the rubble of Berlin and the fire storms of Hamburg. No, she would not join the ranks of the deluded with their fantasy dreams of a fourth Reich.
The train was slowing; she looked again out of the window at the sign Banhnhof Bayreuth. She stood up and reached for the suitcase on the rack above her steadied herself as the final brakes were applied, made her way down the centre aisle and out to the platform.
Following the memorised instructions, she found the small hotel a short distance from the Banhnhof. Booked in for a single night, refused the evening meal and climbed the stairs to her room and locked the door.
Aalina rose early, washed in the small sink, packed her clothes and carried her suitcase down to the dinning room. She chose a table for one and ordered coffee and rolls. Later at the reception desk she had to wait while a travelling salesman argued loudly over his bill with the unimpressed clerk. After he left Aalina paid her bill without question and went out to the thin sunshine of the Tuesday morning.
The house lay in a side street off the Fursetzer Strasser, its faded barouche facia was in keeping with the rest of the houses in the small street which by some miracle had entirely escaped the carpet bombing during the final months of the war.
She climbed the three steps and rang the bell.
“Aalina Dohm, I believe I’m expected” she told the uniformed maid who nodded and held the door open for her.
She was shown into a large study where, from behind a walnut writing desk a man rose to meet her and held out his hand in welcome.
“Fraulein Dohm?”
“Yes” she smiled.
Aalina judged him to be in his middle forties, a handsome man whose features were those which seemed to improve with age. He ushered her to a chair in front of the imposing desk
“Please”
He resumed his seat, opened a drawer and took out a folder.
“A few questions, but first may I have your papers”
Aalina reached in her bag and handed them to him.
“Ah, their very good, excellent in fact, the work of our Willie in Hamburg I think. Well now Aalina, or would you prefer Gerta?”
“Aalina”
“As you wish, Aalina Dohm or Gerta Hienz, just a name”
She didn’t answer.
He opened the folder
“I see you were born in Berlin on March the third 1921”
“March the sixth” Aalina corrected him.
“Of course” he smiled. “You were trained at Ravensbruck with Irma Grese?”
“No, I had left before Irma arrived. She is---was, two years younger than me”
“But you knew her at Auschwitz Birkenau?
Aalina nodded.
“You helped her with the selection process?
“No, my duties were confined to the medical compound. Is all this really necessary?” she asked.
“We have to be convinced you are who you claim to be but I am reasonably sure you are. Just a few more questions; what was your relationship with Dr. Josef Mengele”?
“I was his medical assistant”
“You assisted him in the medical experiments?
“Yes”
“Carried out without anesthetic I understand”
“They were only Jews”
“Quite; well Aalina everything is ready for you, I must say it seems a pity to change such a beautiful face”
Aalina smiled at the compliment.
“If I am to survive, it is necessary”
In the upstairs room she undressed and put on the gown that was provided for her. A young woman wearing a nurse’s uniform entered carrying a steel kidney bowl.
“If you will lie down please, I will give you your pre-med”
The injection was fast acting; she felt heaviness in her limbs after only a few minutes.
Lifted onto a stretcher trolley she was wheeled through the white swing doors at the end of the corridor.
Aalina lay on the operating table under the intense overhead lighting, a small man with his back to her, busied himself at a small table. He turned and leant over her, his lower face was masked but the eyes were smiling. She read the name tag on the white coat, Dr. Joshua Aaron Cohen.
“You’re a Jew” the words were uttered in a shocked slur
“Yes Aalina we are all Jews here, we took over the house from your comrades three weeks ago and you are our first patient, welcome”
Aalina tried to move her arms and failed.
“There now, no need to be afraid, I am here to give you what you came for, to change your features and with the benefit of anaesthetic something that you denied to the children, but then of course they were only Jews. Let me see”
His gloved finger traced the line of her lips.
“A little wider here I think, the ears and nose will have to go of course and we originally intended to remove the eyes but then that would have denied you the pleasure of gazing at your new face in the mirror”
He turned, picked up the hypodermic tapping the glass. He lifted her arm.
“Now sleep my liebling, Tomorrow you will be a new woman.”
Aalina Dohm woke with a start, as the train rattled over the points. She shivered drew her coat closer around her and adjusted the scarf that had slipped while she slept. She had chosen her seat with care, in the semi darkness of a missing light bulb she felt safe
The drizzle of misty rain in the short November twilight restricted her view but not long now surely she had seen the odd American soldier on the passing stations which told her she was in the American zone of her conquered country.
Aalina allowed her eyes to close again and smiled at the memory of Bayreuth so beautiful in that spring of ’36. The Linden trees on the Konigsallee were dressed in baby green leaves. Wagner at the Festspielhaus, young and fever eyed, lost in the towering finale of the Parsifal and so proud in her uniform of the Jungmadelbund;
Now it was over; the past buried in the rubble of Berlin and the fire storms of Hamburg. No, she would not join the ranks of the deluded with their fantasy dreams of a fourth Reich.
The train was slowing; she looked again out of the window at the sign Banhnhof Bayreuth. She stood up and reached for the suitcase on the rack above her steadied herself as the final brakes were applied, made her way down the centre aisle and out to the platform.
Following the memorised instructions, she found the small hotel a short distance from the Banhnhof. Booked in for a single night, refused the evening meal and climbed the stairs to her room and locked the door.
Aalina rose early, washed in the small sink, packed her clothes and carried her suitcase down to the dinning room. She chose a table for one and ordered coffee and rolls. Later at the reception desk she had to wait while a travelling salesman argued loudly over his bill with the unimpressed clerk. After he left Aalina paid her bill without question and went out to the thin sunshine of the Tuesday morning.
The house lay in a side street off the Fursetzer Strasser, its faded barouche facia was in keeping with the rest of the houses in the small street which by some miracle had entirely escaped the carpet bombing during the final months of the war.
She climbed the three steps and rang the bell.
“Aalina Dohm, I believe I’m expected” she told the uniformed maid who nodded and held the door open for her.
She was shown into a large study where, from behind a walnut writing desk a man rose to meet her and held out his hand in welcome.
“Fraulein Dohm?”
“Yes” she smiled.
Aalina judged him to be in his middle forties, a handsome man whose features were those which seemed to improve with age. He ushered her to a chair in front of the imposing desk
“Please”
He resumed his seat, opened a drawer and took out a folder.
“A few questions, but first may I have your papers”
Aalina reached in her bag and handed them to him.
“Ah, their very good, excellent in fact, the work of our Willie in Hamburg I think. Well now Aalina, or would you prefer Gerta?”
“Aalina”
“As you wish, Aalina Dohm or Gerta Hienz, just a name”
She didn’t answer.
He opened the folder
“I see you were born in Berlin on March the third 1921”
“March the sixth” Aalina corrected him.
“Of course” he smiled. “You were trained at Ravensbruck with Irma Grese?”
“No, I had left before Irma arrived. She is---was, two years younger than me”
“But you knew her at Auschwitz Birkenau?
Aalina nodded.
“You helped her with the selection process?
“No, my duties were confined to the medical compound. Is all this really necessary?” she asked.
“We have to be convinced you are who you claim to be but I am reasonably sure you are. Just a few more questions; what was your relationship with Dr. Josef Mengele”?
“I was his medical assistant”
“You assisted him in the medical experiments?
“Yes”
“Carried out without anesthetic I understand”
“They were only Jews”
“Quite; well Aalina everything is ready for you, I must say it seems a pity to change such a beautiful face”
Aalina smiled at the compliment.
“If I am to survive, it is necessary”
In the upstairs room she undressed and put on the gown that was provided for her. A young woman wearing a nurse’s uniform entered carrying a steel kidney bowl.
“If you will lie down please, I will give you your pre-med”
The injection was fast acting; she felt heaviness in her limbs after only a few minutes.
Lifted onto a stretcher trolley she was wheeled through the white swing doors at the end of the corridor.
Aalina lay on the operating table under the intense overhead lighting, a small man with his back to her, busied himself at a small table. He turned and leant over her, his lower face was masked but the eyes were smiling. She read the name tag on the white coat, Dr. Joshua Aaron Cohen.
“You’re a Jew” the words were uttered in a shocked slur
“Yes Aalina we are all Jews here, we took over the house from your comrades three weeks ago and you are our first patient, welcome”
Aalina tried to move her arms and failed.
“There now, no need to be afraid, I am here to give you what you came for, to change your features and with the benefit of anaesthetic something that you denied to the children, but then of course they were only Jews. Let me see”
His gloved finger traced the line of her lips.
“A little wider here I think, the ears and nose will have to go of course and we originally intended to remove the eyes but then that would have denied you the pleasure of gazing at your new face in the mirror”
He turned, picked up the hypodermic tapping the glass. He lifted her arm.
“Now sleep my liebling, Tomorrow you will be a new woman.”