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.Only a week later there were further trains arriving at the barracks and another ten people joined the room.Wilma and the single mother, Erika, each had to take one of the children into their bed at night.Four women slept in the empty bunk unit and four had to crowd themselves on blankets on the floor.It was impossible to move without standing on anyone's bed.The four women on the bunk unit were Sudetengermans from Brno and Greta immediately asked them lots of questions about the situation there, trying to find out anything she could that might give her an idea about the fate of her father.The women could only tell her what she already knew: There had been so called wild expulsions of Germans towards the border and the march had cost a lot of people their lives.As nurses, the four of them originally had been kept behind to help out in the hospital but the hatred towards them was too much for them to bear and they decided to leave of their own free will.The women who had to sleep on the floor were fairly old and had refused the offer to sleep in the bunk beds.They were arrogant and nasty and did not only complain about everything, they wanted to dictate.The eldest of them, and clearly the ring leader, continuously told the children off for being too noisy and too lively.With nowhere to play to get rid of their energy, the poor little ones became very agitated and frustrated.Added grief from those women about their behaviour made everyone miserable.Evka was the only one with the guts to talk to these women and occasionally she succeeded in putting them in their place.She thought it was outrageous that the children should be kept quiet only so that all day long the entire room would have to listen to their sorrow about their lost homes and fortunes.When Evka pointed out to them that they were lucky to be alive and what horrors had been happening in the death camps, the women responded in two different ways: Either they laughed it off as unconfirmed and made up gossip or – on days when they felt particularly confident – they declared that no one had been put into those camps who had not belonged there anyway.Ever since they first made remarks of that kind, the room split into the four of them in one group and the rest of them in another.It was bad enough to have those old ladies in their midst but because they were inhabiting most of the floor space that everyone had to use when getting in or out of their bunk, there was continuous moaning about the traffic over their beds.“If Hitler had managed to get the venom out of your tongues he would have won the war!” said Evka to the ringleader.“You are evil through and through!”“You can’t talk to me like that, you dirty Jew whore.You make me sick!” the ringleader spat at her.“He is not a Jew and even if he were he would still be ten times more of a human being than you will ever be!” Evka shouted back.“Not a Jew? How did he get into the camps then? Is he a communist? Well, take him to the Soviets then, they will be glad to have him!” the old woman said hatefully.“If you were a communist, even then the Soviets would not take you,” Evka replied angrily.“Stop it!” Greta told her friend.“She is not worth your anger.Leave her be.”Evka agreed but it was hard to ignore the four women who never missed the slightest opportunity to nag and start a row.Far too often Evka got angry and replied, which in Greta's view was exactly what the four women had wanted.They needed a vent for their anger and had found in Evka a willing victim that would fight back and give them a battling opponent.Since every move annoyed the four mean spirited women on the floor, the daily routine of the room revolved around a regime that minimised movement.The nurses volunteered to help in the camp health tent and were usually outside of the dorm all day, giving the rest of the inhabitants extra beds to stretch out a little, but the atmosphere was subdued and depressing.After a few weeks of what Evka called 'The reign of evil' things took a short change for the better, at least for some of Greta’s group.The nasty ringleader slipped on an icy patch outside and broke her hip.Unable to move by herself, she had to be transferred to a small hospital and care tent.The remaining 'three witches' felt suddenly much less confident and from then on kept quiet.Evka used the situation and suggested to the guards that the extra space in their hut should be made available to someone else.This was followed by an unpleasant row with the three women and the officers, and as a result, not only did the three witches have to move, Joschka had to move as well [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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