Jáchym Topol - City, Sister, Silver

Look, Mr. … sir, said Micka. Whoever you are, whatever you want with us, where we come from every little kid knows that Poláček died in Terezín an he definitely never put anyone … any Jews, uhh, any people down for the transports, just the opposite, he saved em … for Chrissake, Micka, cheeks flushing, turned to Bohler, he was a writer! An Hanuš Bonn never left Terezín either! Sharky chimed in, tears rolling down his cheeks like peas. Yeah, I said, that’s where he wrote: Flamin crosses up in the sky an days undone with salty anguish … I suddenly remembered the song that She-Dog had told me. And Josef Novák the skeleton, seeming a little embarrassed, shuffled the bones of his feet in the sea of other bones, and said: Oh yeah, boyz, plenty a gentlemen lose their tempers durin the tours cause things’re a little diffrent out our way … than what ya got in those arkives an paypers an facts a yers, yep … An besides, there were no transports from here, this was a Death Camp! Sharky said furiously through his tears. Suddenly Novák the skeleton was next to him, patting him on the shoulder with that bone. I saw Sharky shudder, but he kept right on bawling and, O my brothers and chiefs, I was shaken because I’d never seen the tough, cruel Sharky sob with grief … like some helpless little kid … I was afraid we’d lost him … he wept and wept, and that normally razor-sharp face turned blurry … and the horror began to creep into my heart, I was scared … Novák the skeleton soothingly patted him on the shoulder, and said: Oh yeah, it’s a lot ta take for the Israelite gentlemen … but look at it this way, pardner, that in spite a what they had planned for alla ya, you grew up ta be a strong, good-lookin Jewish fella … an there’s lotsa you … an gorgeous Jewish girls … all over … An they failed … an you can kick their asses! Micka roared at Sharky … an we’ll help! he added, menacingly waving a bone … Amen! Bohler said in a resounding lion’s voice, and Sure, whatever it takes, I said somewhat unconvincingly. All right, scouts, we get these kina cases an outbursts all the time here, yes sir, now movin along … apropos, gents, this lager here wadn’t all that big … transports ran oudda here roun the clock … now yer genuwin lagers … yer death factories, those were unnerground … an don’t think there wasn’t lotsa heftlinks happy da be here, I mean I’m tellin ya! Right here in Auschwitz! But yer genuwin lagers the ess-ess kept hidden unnerground … in Russia … an those kindsa places … no one knows a hoot about them yet … all those paypers an rekerds an facts a yers! … Pff … Auschwitz wadn’t diddly! Baloney, roared the freshly outraged Sharky, why else would Jehovah have sent us here? What Jehovah, Bohler cried, tearing up what was left of his cassock, what Jehovah I ask! … it was Starry Bog … Whoever it was, pardners, guess he just felt like it … said Novák the skeleton, I dunno, I’m a little man, all this sendin stuff … yer here, yer here … and he added to himself: These edjumucated gentlemen, graddyates … awways pickin arguments … never stop stickin their two cents in …

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 …