City, Sister, Silver, page 14
Then it was Micka’s turn to vomit, and Bohler wept, and David knelt down and crossed himself, and Sharky had his tough razor face back on, and I didn’t want to but I heard Novák the skeleton … wull an here’s where we tossed um inda the ovens, even if they screamed an fought back, Broněk knew how da handle um, he was this boxer, a sorta Jewish Goliath, wull an I hauled in the ole Jews, an they didn’t fight back cause right up till the last minute they’d be hopin an prayin the Messiyah might turn up … somethin wrong, pardners? said Novák the skeleton as we all screamed in horror … an put out the fire. Those ole Jews believed it, sure as can be! Wull, he never made it. Me an Broněk worked together on the sondercommando, an it was ess-ess Wagner came up wid burnin um alive, got bored one day … we’ll get ridda those lice for um, boys … an he’d awways arrange for the canteen da bring us over some bread an a couple cups a melta, an salami too! Yep, dee-licious, wull nowadays I’m above it all, right.
I’ll kill him! cried Sharky, leaping at the skeleton … but he froze in mid-leap and dropped on his back in the field of bones, whimpering … it doesn’t work! Wull there ya go, the bag of bones rattled on, doesn’t work, I mean I’m already dead, wull, I mean I told ja! Boys! An whadda alla you do by the way, you damnatious boys … shtudents? on hollydays … yeh?
Bohler fell to his knees and clasped his hands: Sir … Mr. Novák, whoever you are, an especially if you’re … if you used to be Czech, I beg you … tell us what all this means, why we’re here, what happened … why us … what Starry Bog intends for us … standing on one leg bone, Novák the skeleton stuck an index-finger bone into his skull where the ear used to be, and wiggled it fiercely … we fell to our knees and Micka groveled in the ashes, jabbering … c’mon, we’re just byznysmen … why us, for Chrissake, whadda you want from us … and I chipped in: We don’t get it … we wanna live decently, within limits … an anyway, how’re we sposta understand when you just keep rattlin on nonstop … Sharky stubbornly held his tongue. This is insane here, said David, people, what’s become of you … Mr. Novák … you went through all that hellishness … so what the fuck for? said David, spitting out the ash that was stuck to his tongue just like ours.
Wull there ya go, boyz, said Novák the skeleton, stirring the ashes around with the bone, finally the right question, yeh-yeh, alla those back there were wrong questions, why’re you here an all, question is, what about us, the ole heftlinks, an how come we got so brutally slaughtered an how come this whole camp thing happened, wull, least that’s what I was advised, never mind me, I’m jus a little man, an I told ja before! I’m jus a little Czech, course nowadays I laugh right at it, nowadays things’re diffrent … nowadays, hm, anyway … things’re diffrent here …
Mr. Novák sir! Bohler howled … don’t digress, tell us: Why?
Wull, pardners, said Novák the skeleton, see I was advised … like special for ya … seein as how ya troubled yerselves da come all the way out here, young gentlemen from the little mother … I was advised back at the gate ta tell ya, yes siree … how come there was Auschwitz … an alla that hellishness … but a big apology, pardners, beggin yer pardon, I jus plain forgot. Wull you curious little scouts’ll hafta figger that out for yerselfs. Guesser guesser guess away guess, with all the strength that you possess!
And the skeleton headed off again, flapping his jaws nonstop … So right over here, boyos … Micka tugged at what was left of my sleeve, hey man, I thought a somethin … What? … What if he’s God … y’know, Bog … Who? … Him, the skeleton. What if he’s Bog an he’s playin a joke on us. And suddenly, O brothers and skippers, I was terrified. You think? I said to Micka … well, could be. We decided we’d rather not think about it, and hurried off to catch up with the others, because if you lingered too long in that sea of bones, and got left alone, pardners and Indian chiefs, it brought on some mighty unpleasant feelings.
Josef Novák the skeleton walked on in front of us, rattling away and pointing to the sea of bones, and I admit, O my brothers and free wolf cubs, from that point on all I did was try not to see or hear. And I think the rest of you felt the same. Still, now and then I’d prick up my ears and try real hard … to listen, because we hadn’t ended up where we were for nothing, there had to be a clue, some hidden meaning … but Novák the skeleton just babbled on, and what he said didn’t make any sense.
Heh, boyz, get a gander here! the skeleton’s raspy voice interrupted my thoughts. Right over here ya had jer bunkers an this is where Oberst Prochaska had his kommando an I tell ya that fella was one s-o-b. When he gave those Jew boyz a shapin up, you could hear um holler all over the lager! Took um down in the bunker an locked imself up wid um! Had it all figgered out … he was Czech! Yes sir … from Jičín. Time they kicked me in there … wull I’d done some misbehavin too … stole a carrot … the jitters I had! All kindsa talk went round about im … yeh yeh, pardners … but us Czechs awways manage da straighten things out wid each other, I like said da myself, not out loud, I mean that goes without sayin! … So there we are alone … in the bunker … jus this funny little bulb flickerin … wull I’m above it all now … an he’s all over me wid that German gibberish … an I’m still kein deutsch, yah? So I tell im … I dunno German! An he kina like screws up his eyes, had this look … yes sir … a regular devil! None a that goody-goody stuff! One look at him an it was obvious he was evil! Not just goin through the paces like some a those young German boyz! Those fellas, when they came in an saw what was goin on here at Auschwitz, they lost their lunch! Almost felt sorry for um! But this Prochaska fella … he was a downright animal! An I’m lookin da see if he’s got the hammer … Broněk tipped me off … whole lager was eatin offa that one! That was obvious, yeh! Soon as the oberst goes for his hammer, that means he’s hot to trot an bingo! It’ll be a long long time till yer comin oudda that bunker … till he fells ya … wull that’s somethin you damnatious boyz don’t get in those scout sayins a yers … this fellin … it’s not like cuttin um down, yeh? … it’s like he’d cut away at cha piece by piece, an I’m talkin itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny pieces … yeh? Ess-ess sometimes’d make bets … how long the oberst could drag it on wid this or that heftlink … picked out the real strong types for im … fattened um up even, some a those numbers … an made bets … cause Prochaska was the champ when it came da that, yes sir, knocked those ess-ess flat on their cans … too sharp for um! Golden Czech hands* that butcher had … that cutthroat … a pro! … tops in his field … greetins an please, right this way, valued customers, an pull up a seat, heh heh … an those Jew boyz’d be prayin for their turn not to come, for im not to pick up that hammer … or whip, or whatever … prayin for the pistol … that woulda suited um … bang! an that’s it … an this butcher he figgered it out! oh yeah, snitches pricked up their ears … an Prochaska, when word got back to im, he switched techniques … an just when some Jew boy’d be blessin his Lord cause the oberst had a gun … or a plank … he’d just smile an put it down on the chair … an reach for the hammer … or the other way round! nobody ever knew wid him … so I’m scared he’s gonna fell me … an he says … Eh, a Praque Chew zat dussn’t spik Cherman, vot iss diss, vot iss goink on? That’s the way he talked, boyos, like some kina pig … an I trot out the whole mixup thing an connect up all the dots an da wrap it all up I yap: Commander sir, I’m a big anti-Semite … picked that one up from Broněk, he awways useda say that bout imself … An while I’m standin there sayin this, Prochaska he sits down … stretches out his legs … an says: Interresstink, ant vot in yorr opinyon duss it mean, zis anti-Semite? An I say: Means I can’t stand negroz! An he starts laughin an says: Mann, you musst be a total idiot! An gets up an walks out, found out afterwards sent a yardbird down da the gate for my file, yeah over where Poláček was, I mean I told ja! Wull an when he found out it was all true bout me an the mixup, he kept me in the bunker as a kapo, heh! An that was a jumbo jackpot, my golden boyz, cause what was in there? Wull, golden soup, heh-heh! An when I was down there in the cellar cleanin out those battered wrecks that the oberst called by their first name, did I tell ya that, my boyz, how he’d start out callin the heftlinks mister an then bingo! he’d switch on um? … soon as he knew he’d felled um … those were some cases down there … some of um I’d hafda examine afterwards … an feed … an he’d act nice to um … let um go walk aroun in the sun, I’d take um out … an talk um oudda their sinful thoughts a suicide, an when they’d start bawlin for their mommies I’d tell um: there there … an the oberst’d talk all nice to um, like how they’d been reformed an they were goin home … an some of um he’d tell the war was over … an they were goin back to Amsterdam, or Pest, or Košice, or whatever place it was … an then it’d start all over again … the torture an the screamin … till he’d felled em … had a few favorite characters … felled em lotsa times … an the ess-ess’d be grinnin ear da ear … yeh that was some number, that Prochaska, yes siree! What’s a matter, boyz? Not pukin again on me, are ya, big boy? What cha all blubberin for, blubberheads! Nothin’s happnin ta you! Us ole heftlinks is the ones it happened ta … we’re the ones got brutally slaughtered … an ja never saw us blubberin about it … couldn’t! Wasn’t anythin left ta blubber, ya whiners! They don’t give two shits about that bleatin a yers, the ole heftlinks, all them’re in heaven, case ya wanned da know … hey you there, shakin like a gorilla … whadda they call you? Potok, Mr. Novák sir. Well hullo there an how’s it hangin, aren’t you related da some Chaim Potok from Odessa that croaked out on the wires here? Croaked an croaked till he was all croaked out, heh, that’s right, idn it, sokol?* … We don’t have any relatives by that name, I donno … Wull a course ya don’t now, how could ja … an don’t gimme none a yer lip, scoutie, all of um’re related! Wull an I mean I gotta tell ya, heh heh, scouties, I got my spot at the water hole, yes siree! See cause sometimes the oberst got sad how all the boyz here in the camp went an croaked on im so soon … turned weak on im, all of um … no kiddin … they didn’t have that golden soup … and right then, O my brothers and skippers, I could’ve sworn the skeleton went: glug glug … course I earned it, too, but chou wanna hear bout that fix now, don’t cha, boyz, heh? Wull sometimes Oberst Prochaska he’d come round the train, the transports like, an he had this handshake with Mengele that he could haul off some a the healthy ones … yer suspect ones though, careful now, boyz! Yer healthy ones went straight da work, yes sir! Wull but Mengele he was innarested in what Prochaska did wid em … kept tables on alla those exercises an innerviews … like what an how much each type could take, yeah? So they made a deal! … an I got a whip, an when the oberst made his pick I’d herd that Jew boy oudda line an lock im up … some of um were gals too, my boyz, wull we’ll get to that, all in good time, as Aladdin useda say …
NO! we roared in unison, and we turned to make a run for it, why didn’t we think of that sooner, I wondered in those first moments of elation as we pulled away from that raspy needling voice, just run off an hide somewhere, that’s what I thought, pardners and chiefs, but as you surely realize by now, that was naive of us … because the only place to hide in that sea of skeletons … was underneath them … and we weren’t about to do that … and the second we got out of range of that voice we started breaking through an getting speared again … an I was crawlin along next to Bohler an he turned his sooty face to me an the ashes looked like mud … with trickles runnin through it … from tears … an maybe vomit … but my face looked the same, I guess, an Bohler said to me: Brother, I fear that that skeleton is none other than the Devil himself. An I too felt great fear, O skippers an slingsmen, but I just started cacklin away like some scary old witch, cause, as I told Bohler … anything’s possible an possibly we’re already damned. An so we kept crawlin an fallin through an lookin for wedged-in bones … an we ended up crawlin right back to Josef Novák the skeleton.
He spread his jaws wide in a smile an started rattling on again, an at last we could get back on our feet like human beings.
Wull then, my spooked little laddies, I’ll leave the gals for another time, seein as yer such nosewipes, touchy types, heh, just start snifflin again, wouldn’t cha? Wull then about that fix, pardners, see the pieces I herded in straight from the station, those fellas … an gals, now easy there, creampuffs, an kids too, see the oberst started fellin them too later on, yeh? Kapisch? An those kids can take a lot, you gents’d be surprised … an they got diffrent responses, yeh? Oberst Prochaska an Dochtor Mengele were fascinated, yes siree … an the oberst was a bit of a perv, like, yeh? Kina sweet on the red stuff, if ya know what I mean … heh? Pardners? No time for alla the happenstances, let’s jus say the oberst duhveloped a taste … sometimes he’d treat um like they did somethin wrong, like reeeeal reeeal nasty, an sometimes he’d treat um reeeal reeeal nice, heh. Like rewards an punishments, yeh? An when an who, he knew that, but never the tots, yeh? Kina like a big Parent, kapisch? See, down there in that cellar, gentlemen, down there in that bunker, he thought he was God! Yep, that was the thing … that was it, that’s what he loved. Lived for it! An whenever I’d bring some fresh nipper in for his first innerview, Prochaska’s peepers’d be like saucers … he’d be tremblin! Wull an the nippers were tremblin too! An Prochaska says: Vot are you starink at, you idiot! Couldn’t stand it when anyone else was aroun. An I’d clear out da go sweep the roll call square or whatever, I mean I was a kapo! An that, boyos, right there, direkly in fronna ya, the skeleton waved toward the sea of bones … now those’re storees, boyz, heh. Stiffs galore! Wull an these pieces here that didn’t make it through the gate, ess-ess called em Prochaska’s kindergarten, heh, an they weren’t even tattooed, yeh? Kapisch? An if they weren’t tattooed, they weren’t what? On the list, yeh? An if they weren’t on the list, they didn’t exist, gentlemen. Meanin they didn’t get marked down till they were dead! Heh? An so what’d this lil noggin right here come up with? The skeleton tapped his skull with what once had been a finger.
Wull, even if they aren’t marked down, they still got what … teeth, right! An some of um’re gold! Get it, pardners? An those aren’t marked down in the paypers either! Kapisch? Wull an then it was paradise. An sometimes, sokols, it boggled me alla the gold teeth those nippers had! The oberst he picked out the healthiest ones, goes without sayin! An most a them were what? From the finest rollin-in-dough famblies, right? I tell ya, pardners, it jus boggled my mind, bustin my buns for ole Rouba at my age … playing escort ta nasty ole biddies … workin like a dog … for a couple a peanuts! An here were these nippers wid gold teeth! An Broněk … he hadda box like hell … an when they ran oudda fellas for im da knock down … he hadda work in the slaughterhouse … bust his balls! An these nippers here … they had it all … till they got to Prochaska, that’s right. Whimperin … bleatin … alla those Moisheles an Itziksheles an Paisheles an Basheles … an I’d take their teeth … heh! … but before they went to the innerview wid the oberst! He’da noticed, yes sir! He knew bedder n anyone what he did to em! I covered my butt! But when he’d see a piece for the first time an he’d notice the nipper was missin a chomper, wull, it was a milk tooth, kapisch? Or an accident on the ramp, yeh? The shovin, the pushin, the hubbub, got it, pardners? Smart thinkin, right? An the teeth’d go da Broněk an he’d plug um to the Polaks … an we got … pardners … one day we got meat! Honest-to-goodness dog meat! An it was dee-licious, I mean I’m tellin ya! How da ya think you’d measure up, pardners, you edjumucated scouties, heh?
I didn’t know, O brothers and skippers, because I’d been trying to lose consciousness, but unfortunately, O bosses and entrepreneurs, it was working just like the horror, all at once it was like independent … like there was something just forcing my consciousness to be … and take it all in. That skeleton’s voice and that sea of skeletons and those skulls watching us … maybe they were just lying there, but my consciousness told me: Nope, they’re lookin at you.
Mr. Novák sir, David spoke up, excuse me, but how come you’re in heaven now if …
Ya mean like, what I did da those nippers, yeh? Wull I got tortured too, so what. It was … pardners, this life a mine, even wid that golden soup it was … it was hard, don’t go thinkin it wasn’t! Hell, boyz! When they brought Broněk inda the oberst … an he was still a strong fella … a boxer, I mean I told ja, fellas, goddammit! Wull Broněk didn’t know what he was in for yet! No sir! I knew … an those dead folks that went inda the oven … they knew, elsewise though nobody else in the lager … an Prochaska, that goes without sayin! An I’m takin Broněk oudda his first innerview … he’s on all fours, boyz! He’s crawlin! So I get im back ta the cell an I’m goin lockity lockity lock! an he says: Kill me, Josef! Kill me … I beg you! … but I knew he still wasn’t brutalized enough … ta die … an Prochaska could tell! I mean he was an expert … in pain … yes sir, I mean it’s like I told ja, boyz! An I says: Broněk, pardner, stick it out another round or two … an then I’ll kill ya … an he starts sobbin an says: It’s no good, Josef … I can’t take it … it’s too awful … do it now or I’ll turn you in. Wull an what was I sposda do, pardners? Figgered if I strangled im maybe the oberst wouldn’t be able da tell, but he was a real strong fella … I mean he couldn’t stand up … but he was thrashin all over … an I was a boy! An I don’t ever wanna be a boy again! I mean I’m tellin ya straight! So I stuck im … an I’m thinkin I’ll talk my way oudda it … like he put up a fight or somethin … an I go da Prochaska an there’s these two other ess-ess in there besides, Wagner … an Bauch … jus my luck! I mean my nerves were totally jimjammed … I was up shit creek, gents! An instead a askin me bout the little mother like the oberst awways did … he was fond a her … an he’d smile an say … vot about Praque! Zat stepmuzza hass some clawss! An … finish op zis shtroodle, I kent stant zat hunkry look uf yours, you idiot … awways treated me good, yes sir! I gotta tell ya! An I told ja! An he’d speak Czech wid me, that way a his, he’d say: Uf course vee are Cheks, Herr Novák, bot nobotty hass to know! Herr, that’s how the krauts say Mister, Oberst Prochaska called me Mister! an he didn’t hafda, I mean I was a heftlink … an there were milliyons a them, I don’t hafda tell ya! Wull an when I see he’s got company … a meetin … I back on oudda there, but Bauch gets a load a me … an next thing I know he’s got ahold a me … an slap! slap! Boyz, an me wid my nerves in a tizzy … from back there wid Broněk … my pocket rips open an sparklin in there … two gold teeth! An when my oberst sees it, my Oberst Prochaska, who I betrayed, don’t think I don’t know it, pardners! Wull he stood up … an then it started … the whimperin an the bleatin … the tortures … an the ess-ess makin bets … wull nowadays I’m above it all, my sokolites.
