redamancy

III.

In the weeks that followed this momentous event, the United Nations began aiding the survivors of the camp and sending some of them back to their homes. Most of the Jewish people had no homes to go back to so they stayed in rehabilitation camps set up by the allied forces. Some of the survivors wouldn't even go home due to antisemitism or fear they would be persecuted for collaborating with the Nazis or the Jews. The allied forces stationed in various parts of Europe had to step in and care for the survivors, but most were inexperienced.

I stayed in Dachau to help direct the survivors home or to direct them to other rehabilitation camps inside Germany. In nineteen forty-six; after three years of living in Dachau I was transferred to a rehabilitation camp in Milan, Italy and Nathaniel was transferred with me.

He spent his days counseling Jews and other survivors, or just patrolling the camp while I spent my days running the camp with my fellow Soviet and British comrades. It was important that everyone in the camp had close to enough food for each amount of days and good living conditions, well as best as they could be.

Sometimes I would go down and patrol the camp when another soldier went on break just to talk to Nathaniel. I even made some friends; Mina and Sarah. Under the circumstances the girls were in they seemed to be nice and cheery most of the time. They particularly took an interest in American soldiers and anything American.

Mina and Sarah would come stand at the gate and talk to us about their day and we'd talk to them about ours. Though they weren't very good at speaking English they improved at it with time since they would listen in on school lessons given by American Jews to younger Jewish children.

After I finished my work for the day I'd frequently sneak down to the camp and visit with them, occasionally Nathaniel would be on break when I came down nonetheless he would still hang around to chat with the rest of us.

During the summer nights Nathaniel and I would even climb out of bed to "take the next patrol shifts," but that isn't what we really did. Nathaniel and I actually went inside the camp and spent some time with both girls, by the end of nineteen forty-six Nathaniel and Sarah had started seeing each other in a very secret relationship.

In the middle of nineteen forty-seven Sarah and Nathaniel got married. He had to become Jewish first and follow all the rules in order to be accepted into the religion, but somehow he made it. Mina and I were the only ones allowed to attend besides the Rabbi who held the union because Nathaniel didn't want anyone to know he had been fraternizing with a refugee, so it was kept a secret.

In the cold winter of 'forty-seven, Nathaniel had received news that he would be transferred back to a base in Tallahassee, Florida because the Cold War was heating up and they needed more soldiers to equip just incase our friend turned foe decided they wanted to wage war against us, but I didn't believe that was the reason they sent him away. I was sure, almost positive someone told Callahan that Nathaniel was associating with a refugee and not doing his job which was unfortunate for Sarah because she was pregnant.

_   _   _

"Do you think they'll ever see each other again?" Mina peered over at me with a dour expression spread across her face.

"I'm not sure, maybe." I shrugged taking a large bite of my apple, as Mina took a sip from her water canteen.

Mina and I watched in agony, as Nathaniel gave his beloved a kiss on her forehead and wiped away her tears. They hadn't had much time to be together in the past week, so Nathaniel made it up to her by spending the whole night with her before he left for Florida in the morning. He told her if she ever got the chance to move away from here to do it and if he got out of the military one day they could be together.

"Take this. For safekeeping." Sarah sniffled taking off the Star of David necklace that her father had given to her before he was transported to Auschwitz.

"And you this," he smiled handing her his lucky sock which he believed allowed him to meet her, "I love you Sarah. I want you to know that this isn't goodbye this is 'see you later' because I will see you later. You and our son."

Nathaniel gave her one last hug and one soft kiss on her lips before I took him back to our barrack. It was nearly sunrise when we got back and I hadn't gotten much rest since I had been with Mina and the rest of group all night. I was aware that I wouldn't be getting any shut-eye for the rest of the day either considering I was seeing the group of transfers off.

When we reached the air base I said my last goodbye's to Nathaniel and wished him luck. I also promised him that I would watch out for Sarah, as best as I could.

It was sad to see him go because he was my best friend that I never thought I would have. When I watched him leave for the United States it broke my heart.

It was a dreadful feeling to let someone you've known a good portion of your life go, I just wasn't aware that it would hurt as much as it did.

//

So in this chapter you were introduced to two new characters who are girls, Mina and Sarah. Sarah is Ashley Tisdale which is a little surprising, but Ash is actually Jewish in real life so that's why I used her and I love Ness, Ness and Ash are friendship goals tbh. Any predictions on them so far? Comment down your thoughts if so, I like reading them.