It is early evening when the nurse returns. Livi has fallen asleep despite the stench. The nurse’s voice hisses at her to wake up. Without a word she is led, limping, back to hospital.
Now, Livi gazes around the empty ward. ‘Where have they gone?’
‘Block 25,’ the nurse replies, through pursed lips.
‘Block 25?’ The truth is slowly dawning on the young girl. She meets the nurse’s teary eyes. ‘You saved me?’ Block 25, where you spend your last night on earth before you are taken to the gas chamber, emptied every afternoon and filled every morning. Livi knew it was Death’s waiting room. And she has escaped its clutches.
‘I promised your sister I would take care of you, didn’t I? When Mala told me a selection was taking place, I saved who I could, and that was you.’
It was clear now, that that was what they had been talking about earlier; Mala, enjoying certain advantages as a translator, was privy to the knowledge of forthcoming selections.
A tear splashes down the nurse’s cheek. She gazes around the empty room. ‘I would have saved more if I could.’
Livi reaches for the nurse’s hand, but she is already turning away, heading back to her tiny room full of medicine.
When it’s dark, Livi gets out of bed and, wrapping herself in a blanket, slowly shuffles out of the hospital and back to her block. She has escaped with her life, today she is lucky; how many more times will luck decide if she lives or dies?
Livi’s strength returns and on Sunday she decides she needs some fresh air. She and Cibi find their preferred spot on the grass and, sharing a blanket, they raise their faces to the winter sun.
‘Rita’s coming,’ whispers Livi suddenly, as the kapo approaches the sisters. The girls get to their feet.
‘I have a new job for you, Livi,’ Rita says, without preamble. ‘And you start tomorrow.’
‘A new job?’ Cibi says. This is the worst news. They cannot be apart.
‘I’ve put your name down to be one of the couriers delivering messages for the SS. Don’t look so worried – it isn’t a hard job.’
‘What will I have to do?’ asks Livi. She looks at Cibi for the answer, but Cibi is staring at Rita.
‘Tomorrow morning, after everyone has left, I’ll take you to the front gates where you will wait to be given messages. You will then deliver these to the officers all over the camp. It couldn’t be simpler.’
When Livi doesn’t respond, Rita raises her voice. ‘Do you understand?’
‘Will she be safe?’ asks Cibi. ‘I mean, the SS .?.?.’ She trails off.
Rita raises an eyebrow, but smiles. ‘No one working as a messenger has ever been hurt. They are lazy bastards, these men. If they can get away with sitting around on their arses all day, then that’s what they’ll do.’
‘It’s OK, Cibi, I can do it,’ says Livi.
‘Mostly, you’ll just be standing around and waiting. It’s boring work. But it’s safe.’ With that, Rita turns on her heel, leaving Livi to wonder if this woman has any understanding of the word safe.
*
Rita is right: Livi’s new role as a messenger is easy work. Together with a couple of girls, she stands at the entrance to Birkenau, beside the small office where the Nazis are on duty, monitoring the comings and goings of all who enter. The girls grow bold, risking a chat now and then, as they wait to be sent hither and thither with messages around the camp.
When Livi returns to the gates one afternoon after distributing the mail, she finds herself alone, the other girls still busy with their own deliveries. It is almost the end of the day and the men working outside the camp are returning. Some of them are hefting between them the bodies of prisoners who died that day. With bullet wounds, cracked skulls and broken limbs, these men didn’t drop dead of exhaustion. Livi watches them numbly. When did she become so immune to brutality on this scale?
Two SS officers are standing either side of the gates watching the men stagger into the compound. A male kapo is pacing up and down, screaming at the men to keep moving, to hurry up.
‘Give me your stick,’ the kapo says to an SS officer. ‘This is the only way to get them inside.’
The officers exchange a smile before one pulls a baton from his belt and hands it to him. Livi knows she should leave – nothing good is about to happen here and she doesn’t need to see anymore – but she finds she can’t move.
The kapo raises the baton and launches himself at the incoming prisoners, beating them about the head, the torso, laughing all the while, cursing the men for being so stupid, so lazy, so weak. Those who collapse under his blows are quickly pulled to their feet and dragged away. Two prisoners, however, are not fast enough to catch the proffered hands, and they remain on the ground, struggling to get to their feet, failing.