with this black eye. My teeth chatter from the chill of fear, the fear of death itself. Liberation is so close, and now this. Danka will be alone in the world after the camp elder gets through with me. We do not sleep at all.
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Danka and I line up in the very back of the rows. The camp elder stalks across the front rows, screaming and cursing us.
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"Anyone who knows who stole the potatoes last night should turn the prisoner in immediately. If I find out you are withholding information from me I will kill you instead. Who knows who stole the potatoes?" No one moves, no one makes a sound. The SS women walk up and down the rows counting each prisoner, looking for me. Surely the camp elder saw my face and recognized me as the one from the leichenkommando. She'll see me and kill me. I stand in the back trying not to tremble, trying to be brave.
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"You'd better turn yourself in! You'd better come out!" the SS yell. No one says a word, no one lets them know where I am. An SS woman comes down our row, counting us, inspecting us, looking for me.
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Suddenly I feel very calm and warm. There is the slightest tingle on my cheek as if someone has touched my face.
Mama?
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She is just a few prisoners away. I am warm and comforted.
Remember how you escaped Mengele
. I rememberI told Danka we were invisible and we were. All of my fear drains through the heels of my feet into the earth and I stand confident that I am imperceptible.
Mama is here, standing next to me, holding her hand over my eye
. The SS woman looks at me, counts me, and turns away. Danka sighs.
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Protect me through the gate, Mama
, I pray. I still have to march out with the bodies, and the camp elder is always standing there, counting the bodies, checking our numbers. I pretend to be rearranging the bodies in the back of the cart, making sure there is an arm obscuring my eye so she can't see my face and won't recognize me.
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