Eric Jurgens - Nazi joy camp

Ruth sat for some minutes lifeless-like, immobile, her thoughts bouncing around her head without taking firm shape. She had never felt so helpless in her life. She was shocked out of her silence by a loud knock on the door. She expected to find a soldier but instead the Direktor was there. She smirked at Ruth and said, "I forgot to tell you. You are not to engage in… 'work'… for the next week. You must prepare yourself for the SS. You are not supposed to be a 'used' girl. I have brought you food coupons for a week." She held out the bits of yellow paper to Ruth, then turned on her heels and left. Ruth slammed the door after her and said her first swear word, "Bitch!" She murmured.

Before Ruth left for the SS Kamp she was given new clothes. She could hardly believe it. She had not worn anything but the regulation dress, which was not at all becoming to her, since arriving at Kamp East. Upon receiving the dress she fondled it for a long time. It felt to her like silk, which it wasn't. She was also given a pair of high heel shoes, the first pair she had ever possessed. She practiced walking in them in the seclusion of her own cabin. The most unbelievable thing to Ruth however, was that she was allowed to apply make-up to her face.

The Frau Direktor, Hilde, instructed the girls in the use of the cosmetics. That would have been distressing enough to Ruth but the idea of the new clothes, new high heel shoes and make-up was almost disabling to her. She was quick of mind, however, and she knew enough to know instantly that Nurse Hilde was trying to make her look like a clown rather than a woman of the world. She did as the nurse told her, however, and decided that once out of the range of her supervision, she would change it all.

Ruth was cautioned again and again that she was not to reveal the fact that she was Jewish. Each time Ruth would look coldly at Nurse Hilde feeling as though she wanted to kill her. But she held her tongue and let herself be instructed. She knew that she would one day be able to even the score between herself and Nurse Direktor Hilde. She wasn't sure how, but she was determined that she would never miss a chance nor an opportunity that should present itself.

Ruth was extremely nervous as the day of departure came. She had on her new clothes and she was able to walk somewhat sedately in her new heels; she planned to change the make-up during the journey. She did just that as she thought over the myriad instructions, which sometimes had been nervously given them by Hilde. They were under no condition to let the knowledge of their present employment slip out. They were, they had been told, catering to the most exclusive bunch of soldiers of the German Fatherland. The SS did not expect to have prostitutes and would be driven to no one knew what if they should find out that the four girls were plain Kamp Frauleins.

Hilde had told them over and over, "It is a sickness that you Jewish sluts should be passed off on the SS as genuine and pure German womanhood. But we are at war! War! We all must make sacrifices and so must they. Do not forget that you are to be with the cream of the Aryan race!"

Ruth had heard the words so many times that she knew them by heart. She let off thinking and reviewing them in her mind and permitted herself to enjoy the ride in the car. The country side slipped by easily. She enjoyed the fresh air and the scenery since it was uncluttered by the uniforms of the soldiers. She glanced out the window and caught a quick view of a meadow full of fog. For some reason, it reminded her of Elizabeth.

She had made friends with another girl and made her promise to look after Elizabeth. She had also told the girl what she did about earning extra food coupons. Her mind was at ease about Elizabeth and she couldn't figure out just why she had suddenly thought of her. Then it came to her. The fog in the meadow reminded her of Elizabeth's mind. There were clear patches in the meadow where the wind had blown the fog away; there were, at rare times, clear thoughts that Elizabeth managed to speak. The fog obscured all that lay under it; so did the conscious thoughts of Elizabeth obscure her inner thoughts.

Ruth smiled at her analogy and sank back into the softness of the car seat and decided that she had done all that was humanly possible for her to do for the girl. She was certain that she would be all right. She smiled, pleased with herself, then folded her hands in her lap as she had been taught to do, at school.

Ruth's reverie was interrupted by the slowing of the automobile. She peered out the window and saw that they were approaching something that looked like a castle. The chauffeur directed the car through a heavily guarded gate onto a driveway that curved up to the door of the large house. Ruth breathed deeply and heavily to calm her agitated nerves. She wanted to make an entrance that would stay in the memory of whomever might be watching.

The driver stopped the car in front of the formidable door and a soldier sprang to attention. He jerked open the car door. He reached out his hand to help Ruth out of the car. She drew back automatically from the outstretched hand then giggled at her own fears. She placed her hand on his arm, at the wrist, and stepped lightly out of the car. She breathed deeply of the pine-scented air then started up the steps.

The door was jerked upon abruptly and she was ushered inside as though she were a queen. She looked in wide-eyed astonishment at the beauty of the place. It certainly didn't seem to her to be a camp for soldiers in any sense of the word. She loved the feel of the almost forgotten softness of rugs under her feet, the elaborate furnishings of the long corridor and even the carving of the door leading into the main salon. She decided before she was through the door that her time spent would not be a total waste. At least she might live in human surroundings again, even if she did have to work for it.

Once inside the main salon she was introduced to the other people there as Anna, the name she had had to select in preference to her Jewish one. She was handed a glass of champagne before the introductions were finished. It was her first taste of the bubbling stuff. She liked it. She drank it down in two swallows and was rewarded by a dizziness that she might have really enjoyed under different circumstances. But she forced herself to remember her purpose for being there. The thought did not delete from her enjoyment of just sitting and enjoying a drink like a civilized human being.

A soldier-servant came with a bottle of champagne and refilled Ruth's glass. She permitted him to do so. Then she got up and walked about the room, glass in hand, taking small sips from it. She marveled at the paintings, the tapestries, the heavy furniture and the ornaments of past-pleasures of long dead people. She knew enough about painting to know that they were for the most part French. She realized that the ivory-eggs and snuff boxes which were in such abundance on the table tops, had to have come from Russia. She placed her small hand on the surface of a snuff box and enjoyed the coolness of it.

She picked up a small ivory egg and held it in her hand, dazed at the minute detail of it. Some one spoke to her. She jumped, almost dropping the small treasure. "Please, Fraulein, do not break it. Many men have died to have that here for your pleasure." He laughed, taking the egg from her and placing it back on the table. "Do you like it?"

"Oh, yes. Very much. It is very lovely," Ruth replied, trying to smile.

"Your name, Fraulein?"

"Uh… Anna."

"You are beautiful, Fraulein Anna. So much more beautiful than the egg." He laughed easily. "You are what all German girls should be. It is you and others like you that must bear and rear the children of the future. You are truly lovely."