Lycanthropos Read Free Page A

Europe , stealing and polluting. Some of you must speak our language." He noticed that a few of the captive Gypsies were glancing furtively at one of the three who had been found lurking at the edge of the camp, and so the commander turned to him. "You! Do you speak German?" Janos Kaldy looked at the S.S. officer with what seemed to be disinterest, a fact which the commander found extremely irritating. "Answer me, pig, if you can. Do you speak German?"
    Kaldy emitted an almost inaudible sigh and then replied in German, in an unusual and somehow antique accent, "I have some knowledge of the tongue."
    "Good," the commander said sternly. "Then you will serve as translator for the time being. Tell your people that they are to be relocated, by order of S.S. Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler. Tell them that their days of wandering and stealing and spreading disease are over. Tell them that they will cooperate and do what they are told. Tell them that any resistance will lead to their immediate execution. Tell them that this applies to women and children as well as men, to the old as well as to the young."
    Kaldy sighed once again and then muttered a translation of the German’s words. A babble of frightened voices arose at once from the Gypsies, but silence was restored when the commander nodded curtly at one of his men and the latter released a few rounds of machine gun fire over the heads of the captives. "Tell them that no questions will be answered and no protests will be tolerated," he said to Kaldy." Tell them that they will come with us to the trucks on the road at the edge of this forest and..."
    "They ask no questions and they make no protests," Kaldy interrupted him. "They have a request."
    The commander frowned. "Indeed! What is it?"
    "They want you to bind me with chains, and they want you to leave me here."
    A stern look from the commander silenced the muffled laughter of his men. He turned back to Kaldy and, ignoring his words, said, "Because you can speak German, I shall speak to this rabble through you. You are responsible for their behavior. If any resistance is shown, you will pay for it. Do you understand me?" Kaldy did not reply. He returned the commander’s haughty gaze with an impassive one of his own, and the commander felt slightly unnerved. He was accustomed to prisoners being frightened and obsequious, at times rebellious and violent; but this Gypsy seemed unimpressed, unconcerned about his plight, not so much brave as bored. Making a promise to himself that he would make this scum pay for his arrogance, the commander barked a few orders to his troops, and the captives and their captors began to move from the clearing onto the narrow pathway through the woods.
    The S.S. troops organized themselves without instruction from their commander, for they had a great deal of experience in the transportation of prisoners. A single line of people moved through the forest, Germans in back and front and interspersed through the line. Guns were drawn and held at the ready. Any Gypsy who attempted to break out of the line and flee into the woods would have been cut down in a matter of seconds. They moved in terrified silence, and the only sounds that broke the stillness of the darkening forest were the voices of the soldiers as they urged their captives to move along more quickly.
    A half-hour passed before they reached the paved road that ran along the tree line. The dirt pathway that had afforded the Gypsies and their wagons entrance into the presumed safety of the woods ended at the place where the transport trucks stood waiting by the roadside. As the captives approached, they heard soft, frightened voices coming from five of the seven trucks, and they realized that the Germans had been arresting others that night. One of the trucks was only partially filled, and the small group of new prisoners was ushered into it. Kaldy, Blasko and the old woman everyone called Mother were at the end of the line of people,