The First Book of Samuel - SAREJESS (chrysanthemum read aloud TXT) 📗

now amounted to several million dollars was safely deposited in a Swiss bank account building up interest how ever the final part of his plan was to arm himself with the latest knowledge on up market continental cooking. This had brought him to Nazi Germany, having no fear of death he was able accumulate all the knowledge on the subject he needed.

He had been told that once he had finished preparing the food he must retire to his room on the floor reserved for hotel staff. While the other hotel staff would be serving the great man and his influential guests he would be excluded for the simple fact that he was a Jew and no Jew was allowed into the presence of the Reich’s Minster.

Finishing with the last truffle Samuel placed the tray of truffles on a shelf in the cold room. Leaving the kitchen he climbed the stairs to the 8th floor of the hotel being a Jew he was not permitted to ride the elevator. Opening the door to the small room he lived in he crossed to the bed and sat down. The room was small and dank, the paint peeling from the walls. In the corner an old crystal radio sat gathering dust. Later tonight he would warm up the set and tune into the BBC overseas broadcast. He could hear in his mind’s ear the voice of the announcer saying. “This is London calling, here is the news” wearily he lay down on the bed the sound of the traffic in the street lulling him to sleep, the sound of a modern German city drifting skyward. Samuel drifted off to sleep.

He was woken by a rough hand shaking him “Up Samuel up. Herr Gobbles wants to see you quickly man. Dress yourself and hurry man the Minster is not to be kept waiting.” Splashing some water in his face, Samuel shook the tiredness from his eyes, dressing in a clean white hotel chef’s uniform combing his hair he closed the door and followed the junior waiter who had been sent to fetch him.

A short while later Samuel entered the main dining room of the hotel all eyes and attention seemed to be focused on one particular table a man of over generous proportions seemed to be the center of the crowd’s attention. He was speaking to the gathered staff members in a most animated way. The black Nazi uniform seemed to be having a hard time covering the large expanse of his belly. The conversation faltered as Samuel approached the table, the head chef said “Herr Rieghs Minster may I be allowed to introduce the man responsible for the truffles.”


Auschwitz 1944
They had come in the night. Samuel had long thought himself safe from the powers of the Gestapo. His special pass as the chef of Herman Gobbles had saved him on a number of occasions previously.

This time they did not ask for his pass, they simply kicked in the hotel room door and roused him. When he had protested he had received a rifle butt in the face. They had hurried him out into the cold night air to the waiting truck, a number of others were already in the truck all wore the yellow star of David; all except Samuel. Shnell Juden shouted a man smoking a cigarette standing near the back of the truck “You are Samuel Ferreira Jew?” “Yes I am” said Samuel. “but” “silence Jew said the man striking him with a riding whip. Up you get Jew and hurry you have a journey to make,” said the Gestapo officer.

In the truck children wept, their parents trying to comfort them. For a long time now these people had hidden in Berlin until now when they had been betrayed. Samuel could not believe it, he had thought himself safe. Gobbles had assured him that the pass would save him, now he did not know what to believe. The truck made its way to the central station; a train with cattle cars was standing at the siding.

Hurriedly the occupants of the trucks were marched into the waiting cattle cars “Hurry, Hurry, the train must leave on time you are going to your new home in the east you don't want to miss this train” the Gestapo men shouted. When the last person was forced into the car the door was slammed shut. At first the car had been cold but the bodies of the people in the car in close proximity caused the temperature of the car to rise and with the heat came the thirst. Children cried, women tried to quell the children but it was impossible. The train was moving eastward. Occasionally the train would stop and a hosepipe would be passed into the car as people scrambled to get a little water.

The journey seemed as if it would never end ever eastward the train moved passing many railway sidings as it went. Finally it stopped and after a while the doors were opened. Half blind from being in the car for so long, the people stumbled out onto the platform, the sound of German Shepherd dogs barking and the shouted commands of men in uniform warned the people climbing out of the cattle cars that they had better watch out. A youth of about 16 made a break for it and ran, a shot rang out and he fell. “Right the next one who runs will get a taste of the same.,” said a man who seemed to be in charge. “Line up now and get ready for your shower” said the man, the Jews from the train stumbled into untidy lines.

Nearby an orchestra began to play some music from the Vienna woods. The camp commander walked down the line of men and woman stopping occasionally as men and woman were picked out from the crowd and separated. Children were automatically separated. Some parents tried to hide their children they were brutally separated. Men and women were also separated, Samuel found himself with in a group of men who were separated, waiting for what would happen next. “You there what is your name” shouted a man in a white chefs uniform “Samuel Ferreira” said Samuel. “Good you are the man I have been looking for” said the man “Follow me. Quickly man, don't waste time” said the man. Samuel followed the man as they walked away Samuel had a chance to look round. Nearby were a number of chimney stacks from which a foul colored smoke belched. The smell was almost unbearable. Samuel had smelt death before, many times, but this was overpowering, nauseating. Samuel had heard rumors of places like this but he just did not want to believe them.

He was taken to a shed where he was told he would sleep. Issued with one thin blanket, he was told to take care of it as he would be beaten should it disappear or be stolen. There after he was taken to a white kitchen where he was set to work peeling potatoes. After about six hours of peeling potatoes he was told to wash up as he was going to serve the camp commandant his evening meal. Samuel washed up and was issued with a white chef’s suit. He was told to follow and learn. The man who had originally called him was named Helmut and it was he who now led the way into the large dining room used for the camp commander and the military staff of the camp. Samuel helped to prepare the food which would be served. He worked quickly and professionally, as he had been taught at the Berlin Hilton. Helmut was a pedantic man who wanted every thing perfectly set for dinner. It was not unknown for him to send a chef to the gas chamber for a fault or an imagined wrong. It was just before eight in the evening when the commander and his staff entered the dining hall to have their meal served to them on hot plates.

Auschwitz 1944 reflections
Samuel woke. It was the middle of the night. It was bitterly cold, he had been dreaming. It was a strange dream; he had been serving Herman Gobbles the truffles of which the fat German interior Minister was so fond, but they had not been in the hotel they had been in the camp kitchen. “Strange” thought Samuel as he stood up and made his way towards the window of the shed. The bars over the window were a stark reminder of where he was. In the distance he could see a smoke stack belching smoke an unearthly red glow filled the air around the stack.

“How” wondered Samuel “could a great nation like Germany have sunk so low as to murder innocent millions, and indeed he knew it was millions, he was convinced of it.” Jews had been deported to the east from before the war. Occasionally a card from one of those gone to the east would arrive “We have homes and we are happy they would say” Now Samuel knew where the cards originated.

And how did he feel about it? He was inclined at first to believe that countless Jews had been resettled in the east now he knew different. He had wanted to believe the lie but faced with the truth. He knew that all those who had gone before had ended up in the gas chamber. It sickened him. He wished he could die. He felt defiled that he was serving the perpetrators of this crime their hot meals every day.

He wondered if he could use his blanket to hang himself. He thought about this for a while then rejected the plan as cowardice, better to try and run he thought and hope that an alert guard would end his misery. The more he thought about it the better the plan sounded.

He would have to wait for the right opportunity but he was sure that it would not be long before it happened. “Maybe after breakfast” he thought, “When he would have to empty the dustbins, “then he would make a break for it and hope for a shout to halt, and wait for the shot as he ran. “Hope, hope, hope how could any one have hope after seeing this place. Did not the banner over the gate say ‘Abandon all hope those who enter here?’”

Yes who ever had put those words over the gate knew the despondency and terror this place held. But he knew that it would not be long before he died and was away from this living hell. Samuel determined that wherever he awoke he would join the allies and fight until this place had been destroyed for to long he had been blind to what these terrible men had been doing, now he would fight back. When he thought of the time he had spent working in the Berlin Hilton since 1936 he had thought only of himself. His ability to adapt had saved him many times before it was not that he was scared of dieing again although it had been a while since he had died a physical death. He remembered all the good Germans he had known over the centuries. Were all those memories to be wiped out by one generation of evil men? “No” thought Samuel I will not allow the memory of men like J.S. Bach and Count Gunther to be soiled by men like Hitler and Gobbles and Goring.

Returning to bed Samuel thought no more on the subject of his forth coming death, he had decided and that was enough.

He was working in the kitchen. The breakfast was almost over; the