Page 71 of The Watchmaker of Dachau

‘You’re right, yes, you’re right.’ Max climbed aboard the cart and guided the horses back down the hill, leaving Katharina and me to say our final farewells to Papa.

We were placing the last clod of earth over him when it happened. Katharina was ready to say the prayer, tears streaming down her face, when a car turned in the valley below, its headlights now shining up the hill.

We backed our way into the wood, the spades dropping from our hands as we stepped further and further into the darkness.

‘It’ll just go past,’ I whispered, feeling my heart beating in my throat, my temples.

She gripped my hand tightly and I hers, hearing the engine strain as it reached the crest of the hill and then it slowed, the gears quieter.

It did drive past – slowly, ever so slowly, and I exhaled with relief, but it was too soon. The car stopped, the red beams of the rear lights shining like menacing eyes through the branches.

‘We should run.’ Katharina began to move, but I pulled her to me.

‘It’s safer if we just stay still, just stay still and be quiet.’

Someone got out of the car and began to whistle. I could not see them completely, but I could hear them as they pissed on the dank earth of the wood, hitting twigs and leaves.

‘How much further?’ the voice rang out.

Another car door opened, then slammed shut. The smell of cigarette smoke. ‘Not far. An hour.’

‘Did you eat before we left?’ the first man asked. ‘I’m starving.’

‘No time. You know what it’s like when we get a fresh batch of them in – you don’t have a minute to think, let alone eat.’

‘Did you get anything good at least?’

‘One rat fell off the train, half dead he was. Had a pocket full of rare gold coins though. They spilled out and I got them before anyone else saw.’

‘Good work. Bastard Jews don’t deserve all that money.’

‘Well, it’s back where it belongs now.’ The man laughed.

‘You need to piss?’

‘Take the rest of my cigarette, I’ll try.’

The other man began to urinate, the stream slower.

Katharina sneezed.

That’s all it was. A sneeze. A stupid sneeze.

The man stopped pissing. They went quiet. Katharina began to cry.

‘Shhh,’ I told her. If she would just stay quiet, then perhaps they would leave.

But she could not. She sobbed louder, her hand still gripping mine.

‘Run!’ I told her.

We ran, tripping on fallen logs, our hands flailing through the air, pushing ourselves back up again. There was a shot in the darkness, then shouting for us to stop.

I felt as though I was in a dream where I was trying to run but my legs would not work. I knew they could, must, go faster.

‘Oh God, oh God!’ I said aloud. It was over. I knew it was over.

They reached Katharina first, and I think perhaps I could have got away, but I could hear her screaming and crying, and I had to go back for her – I could not leave her alone.