New prisoners arrived in Auschwitz on trains from all over occupied Europe every day. After a fast selection (first of all, the state of health, age, shape and then the personal data: family composition, education, profession) were taken into account, all newcomers were divided into four groups.The first group, which comprised about ¾ of all those brought in, went to the gas chambers within a few hours. This group included all those found unsuitable for work: first of all, the sick, those who are very old, the disabled, the children, the elderly women and men. The people who had weak health or who were shorter than the average height were also considered not effective.
The second group of prisoners was sent to slave work at industrial enterprises of various companies.
The third group, mostly twins and the little people, went to various medical experiments, in particular to Dr. Josef Mengele, known by his nickname "angel of death".
The fourth group, which was comprised by women, mostly, was selected for the group for personal use by the Germans as servants and personal slaves, as well as for sorting the personal belongings of prisoners arriving at the camp.
Lena got into the fourth group, and for half a year the girl has been getting up at five in the morning and working until late at night with almost no food or water. Such life conditions, of course, affected her outer look, but her health was strong enough. Even after six months of this slavish life, Lena looked much better than other prisoners of the camp.
Regardless of which group the prisoners were attached to, they could at any time be used for various medical experiments. The n.a.z.is could get their blood, could test different vaccines on them, infect the prisoners with diseases and monitor how their bodies would react to various infections.
The girl was had gone through various experiments on how her body reacts to cold and warmth. Among all the partic.i.p.ants in the experiment, she had the best results. Her body bravely endured the cold, and the girl could be kept in icy water for two hours in a row. It was h.e.l.lish pain, but Lena was tried to hold on with all her strength and was not going to give up.
In the camp, she met a girl from Poland. Once that girl used to be a famous ballerina who danced in many theaters in Europe, but since she was Jewish, the n.a.z.is considered her unworthy and sent to the camp.
While working, Lena tried not to look around, because the less she attracted unwanted attention to herself, the bigger was the chance to spend the next day alive.
On that day, Lena was sent to work in the soldiers" barracks. For women, this was one of the worst places, because soldiers could do anything with them without a twinge of conscience. Many women, after such work, were returning to their barracks disgraced or in the worst case scenario, they were not coming back at all.
Lena and three other women entered the barracks. It was great and there was a lot of work. The girls went into rooms, and each took up her duties.
Lena made beds and was going to start washing the floors. She leaned over to take a rag and at that moment felt that someone had come up behind her and pressed himself against her.
The girl immediately straightened up and wanted to step aside; her plan did not work out. The man firmly grabbed her around the waist and pulled her closer.
"What a delicious fraulein!" he said, and his eyes glittered with l.u.s.t. "My shift has just ended, and I would like to have some fun with you."
The man threw the girl on the nearest bed and began to pull off her clothes. Lena resisted as best she could, but the man was stronger. n.o.body paid attention to the girl"s cries for help. He pulled up her clothes and began to unb.u.t.ton his pants to begin the execution of his plan.
At this moment... bam! And the metal bucket rolled with a crash across the floor. The man grabbed his head and slowly slid off the bed to the floor.
Opposite Elena was a girl, all pale with fear and breathing heavily. It was that ballerina, who Lena met in the camp. The woman came to help the girl and raised her hand to the guard, which was equivalent to death.
"Oh, you rubbish!" The German swore loudly and took a pistol from his holster. Lena did not have time to figure out what was happening, as the man pulled the trigger and the girl opposite her fell to the floor dead.
"Berta!" Lena shouted and rushed to her friend. But it was too late, the girl was dead.
The man got up from the floor, grabbed Lena and threw her back onto the bed.
"Now n.o.body will help you! But don"t worry, you will follow your girlfriend after I"ve played enough with you," the man said and pressed her to the bed. His wet mouth began to lick the girl"s skin, and her whole body flinched from disgust.
Lena gathered all the strength that she had, pushed the man away from her and hit him between his legs.
He twisted in pain and groaned loudly. The girl jumped out of bed and rushed to the exit. "I"ll kill you, b.i.t.c.h!" he shouted and hurried after her.
Lena turned around and realized that these moments of life were her last. But as soon as she was distracted for a second, she immediately slammed into something.
She looked up and saw a pair of clear blue eyes staring at her. Lena wanted to move, but an unknown man firmly grabbed her and did not let go.
At this time, a soldier who wanted to insult the girl caught up with her and stopped two steps away from an unknown man.
Seeing the officer, he immediately straightened his clothes and saluted.
"Herr Steiner, thank you for your help. This prisoner disobeyed my order. She needs to be killed immediately."
"Are you talking about this girl now?" An unknown man asked and looked at Lena. His gaze was different from the gaze of all the soldiers who were present in the camp. There was no hatred and disgust in it, but there was something else that Lena could not understand yet.
"Take her to the office of the camp commander. Say that this is my order. I"ll be there in ten minutes. And yes, do not touch her on the way. I have got plans regarding this girl," an unknown man said, and the soldier immediately followed his order and took Lena to the head of the concentration camp.
Ten minutes later, this officer appeared in the chief"s office, as he had promised.
"Herr Steiner, what a surprise! What brought you here?" The head of the concentration camp addressed him politely.
"You see, Herr Höss, Himmler personally instructed me to start developing one project. I decided to look for suitable objects in your camp for its implementation," the man replied. "I am interested in the data about this girl," he said and pointed to Lena.
"Your number?" The head of the concentration camp, Rudolf Höss, sternly asked.
"280498," the girl replied.
The man opened a folder containing information about prisoners, ran his eyes over the numbers and found her number. "Herr Steiner, this object caused great interest of Dr. Mengele. According to the results of his research, this girl has a good susceptibility to physical stress. She also successfully suffered high electric shocks. Next week, he plans to sterilize her, and then do an autopsy to examine the condition of her organs," Höss reported as if Lena was an ordinary guinea pig, not a human.
Hearing the words of the camp commander, the girl"s face instantly turned pale. Steiner noticed this and smiled slyly.
"In my opinion, this prisoner is well aware of what you are talking about. Apparently, she is a worthy model for experiments, if the very "angel of death" Mengele himself shows such interest in her. I think he will not mind if I borrow his toy to solve the more serious goals of our Great Fuhrer," Steiner replied.
The camp leader smiled busily, "Of course, Herr Steiner. Do it your way, of course. We do not have any problems with the search for biomaterial so that we will find another body for our experiments. And you can take this number with you."
Steiner approached Höss and shook his hand, "Thank you for your cooperation. I need to go. Later I will send my subordinate who will pick up a few more prisoners. And I will take this one with me now."
"Of course, we are always happy to help the implementation of the Fuhrer"s great plans," Rudolf Höss replied and threw up his hand, "Heil Hitler!"
"Heil Hitler!" Steiner turned around and ordered the soldier to take Lena away with him.
The girl was taken to the gates of the concentration camp, where a car was already waiting for the man. He opened the back door, invited Lena to get in the car with the sign of the hand, "Please."
The girl was confused because such behavior was not typical of n.a.z.i officers towards such prisoners like her.
Lena obediently got into the car. The man slammed the door, walked around the car and sat down next to her on the other side.
"What is your name?" he asked.
"Lena," the girl replied quietly.
She tried to understand whether this was a salvation from the cruel future that was planned for her next week, or whether she fell into an even more terrible trap.
"I see you speak good German. This will greatly facilitate our task. My name is Richard. Richard Steiner. But you can just call me Richard. I count on fruitful cooperation on your part," the man answered and smiled foxily.
The girl said nothing. The driver started the car, and they left the territory of the concentration camp.