The Luck of the Weissensteiners (The Three Nations Trilogy) (49 page)

Joschka ignored
Wilma’s comments, got down on one knee and asked Evka to marry him. There was a lot of uproar about it in their hut. One of the women next to them had overheard the proposal and wasted no time spreading the news around. Within minutes there was a long line of people congratulating them and calling for a celebration. Evka was truly touched by the kindness with which the engaged couple were treated. She had written off everyone in the camp as selfish and untrustworthy. She announced to the onlookers that yes, of course, she had accepted him and without wasting any more time the two of them were on their way to find a priest.

Despite the marriage being one of mere convenience and the ceremony be
ing rushed, Evka did feel emotional on the day which naturally gave everyone the impression that their motive was pure love. They obtained their marriage certificate and only just managed to secure the army's permission for Joschka to join their train a few hours before the scheduled departure. Also just before their departure they received a post card from Luise and Freddie, who had made it to Genoa and were soon to board the  Hanna Senesh on their way to Israel. They referred to their boys Heinrich and Adolf as Chaim and Adam. Luise was also pregnant and they would soon have a child of their own.

Despite their general reluctance to leave the vicinity of the border to Czechoslovakia and Jonah
, the group was in an optimistic mood after hearing the good news about their Jewish friends. Mail delivery was mainly in military hands and not many private letters managed to get through these channels. Greta regarded this as a minor miracle and a good sign.

All morning
, the huts had been searched for people who were trying to hide and those who were to leave were gathered in little groups where they were identified again to make sure that they were eligible for a place on the train. When a Ukrainian man complained about not being permitted on the train, he was told that he was free to leave the camp and go wherever he liked to on foot but the military could not take responsibility for him; it was against the regulations and the International agreements. Naturally, leaving by himself would have been dangerous and difficult with some local citizens standing guard outside.

The soldiers even had to protect the refugees on their march to the station from groups of locals who
were worried about their own survival if the floods of refugees kept coming in the same steady way that they had been. Unable to feed themselves properly, they were unwilling to share the little they had with complete strangers. Greta wondered if that would be much different where they were going.

On the train platform she saw that their travels were not going to be easy. She had never seen so many people crammed into such a small area. The station was packed and there were long queues everywhere. Open
air freight cars were filled to the brim with 100 deportees each with no space to sit down. It was a mild day for January but the temperatures were still cold enough to add greatly to the inconvenience of the journey. The elderly and fragile people had to travel separately.

It took a long time before Greta and her family got their turn to step onto the train. Their names were crossed off a list and the soldiers waved them on to the next wagon. Evka and Wilma secured themselves a place in one of the corners. The frames of the carriages were so high that only the taller people could look over them and see something of the outside wo
rld. Joschka had to lift Ernst so that the little boy could get a good view of the orderly chaos that reigned on the platform. Filling up the train took a good while and their feet were already hurting from all the standing up. At last, the train departed and the journey towards the unknown west began. As they gathered speed, the refugees in the centre of the freight car often lost their balance and fell on to their fellow passengers. The draft from moving so fast bit into people's faces and few had the strength to keep their heads up and observe the landscape outside. What was most fascinating for those who did brave the wind was the contrast between beautiful unspoilt countryside and the extent of destruction that emerged when they passed villages or towns. Nuremberg was one of the worst damaged cities they saw. The train finally stopped for the first time and it was possible for the passengers to relieve themselves. Panic set in when soon after everyone had re-boarded the train was split. The first half was continuing its journey southbound to the nearby Ansbach, the latter half was to carry on for a few more hours to Aschaffenburg. Friends who had boarded at different ends of the train were now to be parted without the chance of ever saying goodbye to each other. Some tried to leave their wagons and join others but the soldiers refused to let them. The Allies had decided that the distribution of settlers to the various communities in occupied Germany should separate local groups to avoid forming enclaves who were unwilling to assimilate and blend in.

When Greta's wagon continued its journey towards Aschaffenburg there were still tears and pleas from people who felt they had been tricked and betrayed. Others complained about their hurting feet. Their mis
ery added to the melancholy about moving further away from their former home. Evka found herself annoyed with the self-pity and moaning. Of course, there was a lot of tragedy in people's stories and reasons for unhappiness. She had experienced a lot of the same dramas first hand. But everyone was still alive and they were cared for by the army of countries whose citizens had not been treated in the same humanitarian manner by German soldiers. The transport was relatively short and less claustrophobic than it could have been if closed train carriages had been used. There was a lot to be grateful for.

She found it also unbearable to utter sympathetic remarks to people who had had a comparatively easy fate when next to her stood a man who had sur
vived unimaginable horrors; a man who could laugh and smile and cheer up a young boy. They should take a leaf out of his book.

Greta was mainly concerned for Wilma and what yet another move and all the misery around them on the train would do to her condition. So far
, everything seemed fine. Her fragile sister had been leaning over the edge of the train and appeared completely taken in by the landscape that was rushing past them. Earlier she had joined Ernst and Joschka in their travel games and had clearly enjoyed herself.

At long last they arrived in Aschaffenburg and were allowed off the train. From here it was another
hour’s walk to reach a former German military ground with large barracks. The last two freight cars had been kept shut. For the passengers of those, separate accommodation had been set up in a former school building.

Space at the barracks was much more limited than in their previous camp. The bunks and rooms were much smaller, there was no playing area or any other recreational facilities for that m
atter and the guards made it quite clear that once the mass exodus from the Sudetenland was set in motion even these camps were not enough to shelter everyone. Anybody who had relatives or friends on the outside was greatly encouraged to give up their space for people with greater needs.

“Maybe we should go to Paris?” Wilma suggested. “Edith and Esther should be there by now. If father and Alma can't find us in the
camps, that is where they will go.”

“We better not mention any of this in front of other people,” warned Evka. “We might be thrown out to make place for someone else if there is a suspicion that we have alternatives to here.”

“But we have alternatives!” insisted Wilma.

“We don't really know that,
” contradicted Evka. “Do you think we could still cross the border to France? When you were making this plan of meeting up in Paris you were clearly not anticipating the amount of refugees swamping all of western Europe. We were as naïve as the brave soldier Sveijk: 'Let’s meet at six o clock after the war.' I wish it was that easy. I would be very surprised if the border was still open. “

“You are righ
t,” agreed Greta. “It has become a little bit more complicated than we thought. We should try and stick it out here until we find father and Egon. We have to get registered with that missing people’s organisation again and see if they can help us.”

Settling into their new environment was very difficult.
As a married couple, Evka and Joschka had access to only one single bed, Greta had to share with Ernst, and Wilma was the only one with a bunk of her own. Above her slept another single mother whose four children were sleeping two and two on a different set of bunks. There was one more set of bunks that currently was not occupied and for now it served as room for everyone's luggage, which was not more than a small backpack per person. One of the guards came to inspect the room and made a record of the available space. He wrote an eight at the door outside.

“What does that number mean?” asked Evka.

“Eight more spaces in here,” he replied curtly, clearly not in the mood to make explanations.

“But there are only two more bunks!” Evka pointed out.

“Yes, yes I know. This is no luxury hotel. Two spaces per bunk makes four, one bunk becomes free if two of the children share with their mother and then there is space for two more on the floor. I make this eight. You are lucky to have a roof over your head, so shut up and stop complaining.”

He stormed away before she could say anything. She had not meant to sound pushy. She was simply surprised at the harsh conditions she found herself in and was very sorry to have sounded so ungrateful to the soldier.

“It is a different regiment serving here,” explained the mother of the four children. “I have heard that we are not far from a concentration camp. The troops here have liberated the camps and they hate anyone who speaks German. I speak a little English and I have heard them complain that the aid organisations are even considering helping us. They think we should be left to starve and any money and food should go to the victims alone. It is nothing like our old place. We had a vacation there in comparison. Mark my words, we will be sorry to have moved.”

“We won't be staying here forever. We want to get out of here, find work and a place of our own,” declared Evka.

“Of course, we all do. But there are no jobs. There are also not many apartments or houses and the few that exist are already occupied. No one is waiting for us here. We are not only starting from square one, we also have to do that in a place where nobody welcomes us. You better get used to that idea,” said the mother, full of gloom.

“You are probably right, but the way I see it is that the people who already live here will need our help rebuilding the country. We will blend in eventually. Once the Russians take back their Soviet citizens there will be plenty of space and a lack of work force, that is what I hope for,” Evka said
, optimistically.

Only a week later there were further trains arriving at the barracks and another ten people joined the room. Wilma and the single mother, Erika, each had to take one of the children into their bed at night. Four women slept in the empty bunk unit and four had to crowd themselves on blankets on the floor. It was impossible to move without standing on anyone's bed. The four women on the bunk unit were Sudetengermans from Brno and Greta immediately asked
them lots of questions about the situation there, trying to find out anything she could that might give her an idea about the fate of her father. The women could only tell her what she already knew: There had been so called wild expulsions of Germans towards the border and the march had cost a lot of people their lives.

As nurses
, the four of them originally had been kept behind to help out in the hospital but the hatred towards them was too much for them to bear and they decided to leave of their own free will.

The women who had to sleep on the floor were fairly old and had refused the offer to sle
ep in the bunk beds. They were arrogant and nasty and did not only complain about everything, they wanted to dictate. The eldest of them, and clearly the ring leader, continuously told the children off for being too noisy and too lively. With nowhere to play to get rid of their energy, the poor little ones became very agitated and frustrated. Added grief from those women about their behaviour made everyone miserable. Evka was the only one with the guts to talk to these women and occasionally she succeeded in putting them in their place. She thought it was outrageous that the children should be kept quiet only so that all day long the entire room would have to listen to their sorrow about their lost homes and fortunes. When Evka pointed out to them that they were lucky to be alive and what horrors had been happening in the death camps, the women responded in two different ways: Either they laughed it off as unconfirmed and made up gossip or – on days when they felt particularly confident – they declared that no one had been put into those camps who had not belonged there anyway.

Ever since they first made remarks of that kind
, the room split into the four of them in one group and the rest of them in another. It was bad enough to have those old ladies in their midst but because they were inhabiting most of the floor space that everyone had to use when getting in or out of their bunk, there was continuous moaning about the traffic over their beds.

“If Hitler had managed to get the venom out of your tongues he would have won
the war!” said Evka to the ringleader. “You are evil through and through!”

“You can’t talk
to me like that, you dirty Jew whore. You make me sick!” the ringleader spat at her.