father - home

As soon as Ernst came in, he yelled at me, "What did Schenk bring him for? To see a doctor?"

"Yeah." I agreed absent-mindedly, but I haven't recovered yet.

"Did you give him medicine?"

"What medicine?" I suddenly came to my senses and asked Ernst back.

"Cough medicine."

"How do you know? By the way, you have seen him, how much do you know?"

I grabbed Ernst's arm.Because of too much force, he screamed loudly. "Ouch! It hurts, it hurts, let go! It's about to break!"

I let go, momentarily at a loss.

Ernst rubbed his arms and stared at me from a frown. "You're crazy! You hit so hard."

"I'm sorry, Ernie. But tell me what you know."

"Don't worry, you tell me first, did you give him medicine?"

"Give it, so what?"

"Just give it, it's okay." Ernst raised his eyebrows and waved his hand. "Okay, change clothes quickly, let's go eat." He walked to the door, took off my coat and military cap, opened the door and waited for me.

"Wait, tell me everything you know first."

"My grandfather, if you don't check what time it is, if you don't go, there will be no food to eat."

It seems that Ernst doesn't want to tell me, but if I don't figure it out, how can I eat.So I walked over and slammed the door shut with a bang. "I'm not in a hurry. I'll eat after I finish talking."

"God, don't worry, I'm starving to death." Ernst rolled his eyes upwards and begged. "Well, let's go to eat and talk while walking, shall we?"

I knew he was playing tricks, and if he wanted to tell me he would have done so.I continued to stare at him: "No! If you don't tell everything you know today, you won't be able to eat."

I stared at him, and he stared at me, and we stared at each other for a while, before Ernst finally spoke. "Okay, I've convinced you. I knew it would be like this. I see, if you don't let your wish come true today, not only will you not let me eat, you might even eat me first."

I hung up my overcoat and cap and poured two cups of coffee from the thermos.

Ernst returned to the desk, sat down on the chair, and habitually turned his legs up to the edge of the table.

I handed him the coffee and moved a chair myself.

Ernst took a sip of coffee, nodded and said with a smile: "It's not too bad, but it's agreed, if you can't have dinner, you have to treat me to supper."

"Where do you come from so much nonsense, hurry up!"

Seeing my eyes widen again, Ernst shrunk his neck subconsciously, and said, "Okay, okay, don't worry, I said yes. Marty, I said that you are good at everything, but you are too tempered." That's why I dare not tell you." Ernst drank the coffee in one gulp and cleared his throat. "Hmm, what should I say?"

"Schenk said he had pneumonia, you showed it, what's the matter?"

"No, no," Ernst shook his head and lit his cigarette. "Not here, just ahead. It was more than a month ago. One night, around ten o'clock, I was in the club when Corporal Hans Dietrich called me. It was the one on the train, playing the accordion. of."

Corporal Hans Dietrich, "accordion player".Ernst said it intentionally.I can remember it otherwise, and I will never forget how terribly this Corporal Hans Dietrich beat the Chinese that night on the train.

"Corporal Dietrich said that Schenk took a wounded prisoner to the hospital, and asked me to go and have a look. It's strange that Schenk cares so much about a prisoner. Unless the prisoner was injured by him at all. This is even more impressive. I don’t understand, I don’t know what the hell this guy Shen Ke is doing. He punishes the prisoner, why does he send him to the hospital? Usually, they either beat the prisoner to death directly, even if the life is relatively hard and they don’t die all at once, they will I will come to the last one quickly, and there has never been anyone who has finished beating someone before coming for treatment. I suddenly had a premonition, thinking??????"

I also thought, Ernst said "still ahead", then Shenk never let him go.I was so nervous that I could feel my heart beating.I grabbed Ernst's cigarette on the table and tried to smoke one, but with trembling hands, it took me a while to light it.

Ernst must have been watching me, not speaking as I shivered and lit my cigarette.After I smoked a cigarette, he continued: "When I arrived at the hospital, Shen Ke was already there, and the Chinese man was standing next to him. He didn't seem to have any injuries, but he was in a bad mood. There were two other One of the prisoners, I know, is Kabo , can beat and scold at will, punish prisoners, and even have the power of life and death.) I don’t know what his name is, but everyone calls him ‘Professor’. ‘Professor’ is a political prisoner. He used to teach philosophy at the University of Leipzig. It has been three years, and he is very upright and quite prestigious among the prisoners."

"He wasn't hurt, Shenk didn't hit him, who was that?" I asked.

"It's Fabian."

"Fabian?" I didn't remember for a moment.

"Yes, the boy on the train, an art student. His mother is French."

"Oh, it's him. How's he?"

"Fabian's injured badly. As usual, I told Schenk to have a good time. You know how we handle it."

Ernst's voice was hesitant and unreasonable.This is one of the jobs he is least willing to face but has to face every day.The leader of the SS, Himmler, believed that the country's resources should not be wasted for those worthless garbage.Therefore, if a prisoner is sick or injured, and the condition is relatively minor, he can recover after simple treatment, continue to participate in labor, and have use value, the doctor can give them limited treatment.But if the condition is serious and difficult to cure for a while, Ernst, the military doctor in his concentration camp, has the responsibility to give a complete solution - inject 15 ml of 30% phenol solution directly into his heart, and the patient will die within 1 minute .

"But Schenk disagreed, and uncharacteristically begged me to save Fabian. I agreed, and I didn't want to do that kind of thing. I asked all of them to go back first, but the Chinese refused to go. To my surprise It was Shenk who asked the two prisoners and the corporal to go back, while he stayed and waited with the Chinese. I went back to the treatment room, cleaned and checked Fabian. The result shocked me, Fabian was so hurt Seriously, a laparotomy must be done, or it will just be delayed for a few days. This is not something I can decide, and I can't do a laparotomy alone. So I opened the door to talk to Schenk. At this time, I saw Schenk kissing China people."

"What? Shenk in front of you?"

"No, no, there was no one in the corridor at the time, and Shenk let him go as soon as he saw me."

I understood it all at once. "Shenk was trying to force Fabian into submission."

"That's right. I told Shenk alone that if he really wanted to save the child, he would have to perform a laparotomy to repair the damaged organs, and he would be required to sign and be responsible. As expected, Shenk was not interested in saving people. Just asked: How long can Fabian live without surgery? I replied: No way, maybe a week. 'That's it, let him live as long as possible.' These are Shenk's original words. "

Ernst had put his legs down at some point.Now, he is leaning forward, with his elbows resting on his thighs, his head in his hands, and the cigarette is burning between the fingers of his right hand, curling up smoke.I know: this kind of posture and expression is rare for him, and it will only be like this when he is in extreme pain.

Then, Ernst started to smoke, lowered his head, and smoked desperately, one puff after another, until he could no longer pinch with his fingers, then he snuffed out the cigarette butt in the cigarette tray, and lit another one.

I wanted to urge him to continue, but I couldn't.Fortunately, he stopped focusing on smoking and raised his head.

Although she didn't cry, her eyes and nose were already red. "Marty, I'm a doctor, and I'm supposed to be a healer, whoever he is. But now, we're being told who should and shouldn't be saved... Well, as a soldier, I keep my oath, I obey orders, I can at least let them go less painful. But that time, I was forced to watch that innocent child, weakened and decomposed day by day, and watched him die in pain while I helped Schenk went to deceive the Chinese together. I told the Chinese that Fabian is fine and will be fine in a few days. I reassured the Chinese that I will take care of Fabian. Then...then...then Schenk Just take the Chinese away."

"Why are you..." I yelled and couldn't continue.I would have questioned Ernst, but what's the point?I used to ask myself the same question every day, when my mind was numb and I was bored, but there was no result.We used to be people with conscience, faith, and principles. What forced us to remain silent, submit, and eventually become accomplices?Is it Schenk?Just him, a little second lieutenant?No!No, is it the high-handed tyranny of the Nazis, the dictatorship of Hitler, or our own human weakness?

I patted Ernst on the shoulder, I don't know if it was comfort or apology, or neither, it was just an emotional exchange.