that he too is despised for the role he plays at the camp. Unable to express in any way his solidarity with these men, he walks on.
They are led to a large steel door. In front of it stands a guard.
‘It’s all right, all the gas has gone. We need to send them to the ovens, but can’t until you identify the correct numbers.’
The guard opens the door for Lale and Baretski. Pulling himself up to his full height, Lale looks Baretski in the eye and sweeps his hand from left to right.
‘After you.’
Baretski bursts out laughing and slaps Lale on the back, ‘No, after you.’
‘No, after you,’ Lale repeats.
‘I insist, Tätowierer.’
The SS officer opens the doors wide and they step into a cavernous room. Bodies, hundreds of naked bodies, fill the room. They are piled up on each other, their limbs distorted. Dead eyes stare. Men, young and old; children at the bottom. Blood, vomit, urine and faeces. The smell of death pervades the entire space. Lale tries to holds his breath. His lungs burn. His legs threaten to give way beneath him. Behind him Baretski says, ‘Shit.’
That one word from a sadist only deepens the well of inhumanity that Lale is drowning in.
‘Over here,’ an officer indicates, and they follow him to a side of the room where two male bodies are laid out together. The officer starts talking to Baretski. For once words fail him, and he indicates that Lale can understand German.
‘They both have the same number. How could that be?’ he asks.
Lale can only shake his head and shrug his shoulders. How the hell should I know?
‘Look at them. Which one is correct?’ the officer snaps.
Lale leans down and takes hold of one of the arms. He is grateful for a reason to kneel and hopes it will stabilise him. He looks closely at the numbers tattooed on the arm he holds.
‘The other?’ he asks.
Roughly, the other man’s arm is thrust at him. He looks closely at both numbers.
‘See here. This is not a three, it’s an eight. Part of it is faded, but it’s an eight.’
The guard scribbles on each cold arm the correct numbers. Without asking for permission, Lale gets up and leaves the building. Baretski catches up with him outside, where he is doubled over and breathing deeply.
Baretski waits a moment or two.
‘Are you all right?’
‘No, I’m not fucking all right. You bastards. How many more of us must you kill?’
‘You’re upset. I can see that.’
Baretski is just a kid, an uneducated kid. But Lale can’t help wondering how he can feel nothing for the people they have just seen, the agony of death inscribed on their faces and twisted bodies.
‘Come on, let’s go,’ says Baretski.
Lale pulls himself up to walk beside him, though he cannot look at him.
‘You know something, Tätowierer? I bet you’re the only Jew who ever walked into an oven and then walked back out of it.’
He laughs loudly, slaps Lale on the back and strides off ahead.
Chapter 15
Lale walks determinedly from his block and across the compound. Two SS officers approach him, rifles at the ready. Without breaking step, he holds up his bag.
‘Politische Abteilung!’
The rifles lower and he passes without another word. Lale enters the women’s camp and heads immediately to Block 29, where he is met by the kapo, who leans against the building, looking bored. Her charges are away working. She doesn’t bother to move as he approaches her and takes from his bag a large block of chocolate. Having been warned by Baretski not to interfere in the relationship between the Tätowierer and prisoner 34902, she accepts the bribe.
‘Please bring Gita to me. I’ll wait inside.’
Stuffing the chocolate down her ample bosom and shrugging her shoulders, the kapo sets off to the administration building. Lale goes inside the barracks block, shutting the door behind him. He doesn’t have to wait long. A flash of sunlight – the door opens – tells him she has arrived. Gita sees him standing in the semi-dark, his head bowed.
‘You!’
Lale takes a step towards her. She steps back, hard up against the shut door, clearly distressed.
‘Are you all right? Gita, it’s me.’
He takes one step closer, and is shocked by her visible trembling.
‘Say something, Gita.’
‘You … you …’ she repeats.
‘Yes, it’s me, Lale.’ He takes hold of her two wrists and tries to hold them tightly.
‘Have you any idea what goes through your head when the SS come for you? Any idea at all?’
‘Gita …’
‘How could you?