“Wir haben, was wir vom Spion brauchen. Bringen Sie sie sofort herein.” The phone rang as I stepped into my black heels and attached my faux pearl clip-on earrings. Hugo put his watch on and picked up the receiver; the muted voices on the other end spoke German. After putting the receiver back in the cradle, Hugo didn’t turn around but just said, “Lotte, we need to stop by the office before dinner.” “OK, but let’s be quic...
I shut my eyes as I swiped a blob of blood off of my forehead. The maddening roar of the German machine-guns was robbing me of my sanity as I sat there in the blood-soaked mud behind the truck, watching Viktor as he glanced about the battlefield. I could almost hear the voices of those dead men calling out to me, tempting me to gawk at their mangled remains and take it all in. To understand that this is fate, destiny, tha...
I ducked my head to my knees as four bullets pinged on the truck. More men screamed and wept as the machine-guns ruthlessly tore into their bodies. "God dammit!" Viktor shouted. "We need weapons!" "We can't get any weapons without getting shot!" I shouted back. "I know that!" More men kept screaming, the guns kept firing, and I vaguely remembered the Commissar's words. 'They have not enough ammunition for their soldiers,'...
I trembled as the barge set off, all of us soldiers were packed onto it, but not one of us had a rifle. Over on the other side of the Volga River - which we were coming so perilously close to - the Germans were pushing hard to reach the riverbank, and over the gunfire and explosions, we could hear, and see, that men were dying. Other soldiers who had made it across the river, were dying. I swallowed nervously, my stomach...
