Under The German Occupation Reflection

The infamous Hans Krueger

   
     This chapter was so incredibly horrid that I debated putting down the book many times. It pains me to see the depths of man's wickedness. The scene that stood out to me the most by far was when a man named Krueger, infamous for his cruelty, killed a woman for absolutely no reason. Of course being shot is terrible, being beaten with the buts of gins to death is terrible, starving to death is terrible but the experience of this woman was one of the worst I've heard. She was ahead of William in a line to be assigned work somewhere so that she would be exempt form the many Aktionen (This refers to the brutal roundup of Jews for forced labour, forcible resettlement, mass murder by shooting or deportation to death camps) that were taking place. She was literally just standing there; not speaking, not bothering anyone or anything. Krueger goes up to her on his horse slowly, speaks to her a bit and pats her head. She released her beautiful long hair and he patted the top of her head. A moment of mercy for this young beautiful woman on Krueger's part, you think? Think again. A second later he wraps her hair around his hand and commanded his horse to take off in ild gallop, dragging the woman behind over a layer of sharp broken rocks on a road that was under construction. Then, as if it was no big deal, he returns and drops her dead body in front of a couple Jewish officers to put in one of the mass graves.

     This is absolutely crazy! How can one man be so nefarious? Although not all deaths to take place were this gruesome the Jews also had to live in fear of the random killings, of being taken off to an Aktion simply for looking at someone the wrong way. I seriously could not even image what such intense fear would feel like. Not to mention knowing that although you are susceptible to such treatment, so is your starved and beloved wife. Although I knew that Willian, Charlotte and Renate/Tuscia were going to survive in the end, that didn't stop might heart from jumping every time William was spotted by an officer, or when Charlotte caught him about to commit suicide.

     It is also interesting to see that William said that he though he was losing his mind, saying that he was hearing things. The constant fear coupled with severe dehydration and malnutrition was taking a heavy toll on him. This reminds me of a book I read call The Book Of Negroes *spoilers*. In it, there was a character named Fanta and she was a wife of the chief in the village she lived in when all of a sudden she was robbed of all of her possessions and forced onto a slave ship living in absolutely horrible conditions including severe dehydration and malnutrition. Fanta seemingly out of nowhere decided to throw a baby that against all odds had survived birth over board and then proceeded to kill herself also. When I read the Book Of Negroes I was only about twelve and seeing this thought that she was just a selfish and terrible person killing an innocent child. But now I see things differently, scientific studied have proved time and time again what lack of nutrients can do to our brain and I see that the reason she was able to do such a thing was because she was not able to think rationally, and I couldn't say that I would handle such a fate very eloquently myself. This makes me have even greater respect for William who, even though his mind was playing tricks on him, was able to survive with his wife and daughter through such a dark time.