The Heart Of A Gypsy (32 page)

“It was terrible at the soldier house… I was so afraid… But I knew…somehow I knew that you would come,” she whispered into his ear.

“I could not rest until I found you. I was so petrified that I might be too late. If they had hurt you, or worse, I don’t know what I would have done. I was like a wild man until I saw you and I knew you were all right.” Christian ran his fingers through her hair.

“Oh, Christian, in a way you were…too late, I mean.” Her tears fell onto his naked chest and he reached down to her face to wipe them away.

“Too late? You’re here now and that’s all that matters to me,” he said as he hugged her.

“I was pregnant,” she said. “I was going to tell you when you returned. They killed the baby…and Christian, forgive me please, but they did something to me so that I cannot have any more children. The doctor at Auschwitz made me sterile.”

His blood boiled. Could the doctor have been his father? “
Oh God, Nadya,” Christian said.
“ I am so very sorry,” Nadya whispered, not meeting his eyes. “I will understand if you don’t love me or don’t want me now… I know I am no longer worthy of being your wife... If you want to find someone else, someone who can give you children, I must respect your wishes…”

“Nadya,” he kissed her forehead. “Sweetheart, my darling, my love, there is no one else in this world for me…no one. I will never stop loving you, and no matter what happens, I will always want you.
You
, and only you, are my life, the reason I can go on living, no matter what this world throws at me, is because I have you. You see, Sweetheart, I just look at you and I say that there is good in this world because my wife lives, and all around her is joy and light.” He gently lifted her chin so that his eyes could meet hers. “I have a feeling that when this war is over there will be many orphaned children. We will find one and we will raise it as our own, the same way that you once found Hanzi.” He saw the pain in her face. “I am sorry for everything that has happened to you. All I ever wanted to do was to protect you and help to build a better world for you.” His eyes were moist with tears. “I am so sorry about the baby, and what happened to Hanzi. My darling, I know how much you have suffered,  but please  realize that we are blessed because we still have each other… and together you and I  must go forward from here. If we let this setback defeat us, then the Nazis have won. Please,” he begged, “Please, let me love you, and let my love make you strong and complete again. I know you have lost a great deal, but my love for you is powerful, more powerful than the whole Third Reich. You’ll see, just give me a chance.  Let me heal you. Let me help you to forget,” he said.

As he took her into his arms, she released her pain and sorrow as she surrendered to his undying love.

Author’s Note

Very little is ever discussed of the plight of the Romany, or the
Roma
, under the Nazi rule. That is why I chose to write this story.

Bands of Freedom Fighters, many of them Romany, escaped from the tyranny of the Third Reich into the forests of Eastern Europe, where they hid until the end of the war.

However millions of
Roma
were caught and killed or taken to the gypsy camps.

On the June 6, 1944, the Allies invaded Normandy. The Nazis, determined to rid the world of what they considered unsavory elements, sped up the extermination process at the concentration camps. The two crematoriums at Auschwitz were running day and night in an effort to complete this task. Jews were brought in by the trainload, and sent immediately to the gas chambers, then cremated. In the background, a band of prisoners was forced to play; often they were a group of gypsy violinists. The music was played not only to entertain the guards, but also to help keep the prisoners calm on their march to their death.

Heinrich Himmler was invited to visit the gypsy camp at Auschwitz. As the gypsies were considered Aryans, and not Jews, they were treated differently, although they were still considered to be an inferior people. Because they were allowed to stay with their families, the gypsy camp at Auschwitz was filled with music and dancing, even though the people were starving and riddled with disease. Himmler knew that Hitler was planning a visit, and to insure he would be entertained, new musical instruments were ordered for the Romany Orchestra.

Dr. Mengele, who also worked at the camp, doing much of his sadistic experimentation on gypsy children, with a special interest in twins, also wanted to make a good impression on Hitler. He planned to show the Fuerher his successful use of human subjects as guinea pigs.

             
But when Himmler arrived to inspect the concentration camp before Hitler’s visit, he walked through the camp and found a huge number of people in the hospital. A disease called noma, or water cancer, was very prevalent among the prisoners, especially the Romany. This illness has repugnant symptoms:  sores filled with yellow pus form inside the mouth.  Then the disease rots the skin of the cheeks and jaw away. Noma is caused by lack of protein and unsanitary water conditions. When Himmler saw the gypsy prisoners inflicted with this horrific disease, he was repulsed, and decided to cancel Hitler’s visit and to exterminate everyone in the gypsy camp.

After the extermination of many Jewish men, women, and children, on August 1, 1944, a mass extermination of gypsies took place at Auschwitz. On Himmler’s orders, the Nazis killed every gypsy in the hospital, the kindergarten and all of the barracks. By the time that the night had passed, 4,000 gypsies had been murdered.

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