فصل 61

alfred

“Beeil dich!”

Hurry, hurry. Always hurry. Hurrying made my hands itch.

I had been assigned to the Gustloff ’s enclosed sundeck for the day. It was being outfitted as a maternity ward. How inconvenient for women to become pregnant during a war. Quite thoughtless of them. My Mutter certainly would not have done such a thing. I thought of Mutter’s bedroom, separate from my father’s. But then I dismissed the thought. I preferred not to think of my father at all.

“Which cabins will the doctors stay in?” I asked as I hauled wooden cots into a line.

“You say ‘doctors’ as if there will be many,” replied the soldier. “I think there will be one doctor who tends to both the women and the injured soldiers.”

One doctor for all the patients? But then I realized my error. “So the nurses will do most of the work. Oh, yes, that’s much better.”

“Nurses? It won’t be easy to find nurses. There’s a war going on, man. If someone has a baby, you’ll be the midwife.”

Revolting. If women were so careless to become pregnant at such a time, let women sort it out. It was not a job for one of the Führer’s finest.

“Well, they’ll need more medical personnel. We’re already worn too thin,” I complained.

“Sure.” The other soldier smirked. “Folding tablecloths and laying mattress pads. That really wears you thin. I’d rather be at the front, killing Russians, but I destroyed my knee, so I’m here”—he looked at me—“with guys like you.”

“This is a most important assignment,” I corrected him. “We’re going to be commanding two thousand people.”

“Two thousand?” He laughed. “You think this tub’s going to carry only two thousand people? Who told you that?”