Chapter 57 Section fifty-seven

Soon, dusk fell, and the strange haze over the camp made the curtain fall earlier.The generator rumbled, and the spotlights on the guard tower divided the entire camp into bright white areas, with deep black shadows in sharp contrast at the edges. I knew the time had come. I gathered the children around me, reminded them again of absolute silence and high vigilance, and then led them to the outer edge of the house, stopped, hesitated, and the little ones waited for my instructions. I had no direction, no plan, just to find a safer hiding place and play by ear.We groped into the shadows, moved little by little, without daring to breathe, until we came to the end of the hut in order to better observe the terrain of the entire camp.

It was obvious that we should leave the border gate, but it was dangerous with barbed wire all around and heavily armed sentries patrolling past.The guards near the fence were even stricter. Soldiers patrolled with ferocious military dogs, and searchlights swept across the outer area from time to time. The security in the inner courtyard of the camp is obviously more relaxed, and I know that is where we are going.I can't see the passage through the fence, but I know it must be there.I dared to move forward with the children, terrified that at any moment a hand would be on my shoulder, or even—despite my efforts to stifle the thought—even a bullet in my back. back.

But in the end, luck favored us, and we slipped quietly from one shadow to the next without revealing our tracks, each time trembling with fear, letting ourselves catch our breath, recover our composure, and move on.In this way, after several hours, we came to the deeper part of the camp. At night, the workers were kept in barracks, which made our movement much easier, and the few sentries we encountered were distracted, not interested in searching for intruders in the dark.All precautions are for the opposite purpose, which is to prevent anyone from escaping here.This discovery unsettled me, and made me more certain that whatever danger we were in, there was no turning back.

I can only guess how far we have explored, and what the buildings used to hide in are for, but gradually, I realized that the scale of Auschwitz-Birkenau is amazing, and the entire camp is facing It stretches on all sides, although I don't realize at the moment how big it is and the evils it has committed. Many of the buildings are raised off the ground, which provided us with safe hiding places, and when we ducked under the buildings, we could occasionally hear the voices of Germans, talking and laughing as they ate their dinner.The aroma of hot food penetrated all obstacles and penetrated into our noses—even if the surrounding air was foul and stale, obscuring the sky and blurring the new moon in the sky.

Nicholas' hunger was unavoidably aroused again. Fortunately, Yiluo always had a way to divert his attention, and I was thankful again for that. While hiding under one of the houses, I noticed a strange light on the horizon, which I assumed was a large furnace, perhaps an ironworks or something of the sort. While it's hard to imagine mom working in a place like this, it's the first chance you might find laborers.And now it seems that it is also operating at night, which is even better. We may be able to approach it under the cover of night, ask someone, and at least find out where the women's barracks are.

So the illuminated sky became our goal, and we slowly groped around there.Whenever the children felt exhausted and Nicholas' confidence weakened, Ilo always used his strong spirit to comfort him. We were nearly exposed a few times, often crossing sweeping open ground without a single shade, and sometimes having to slip through sentinel-guarded entrances from one compound to another.Fortunately, the sentinels seemed more interested in huddling and sharing cigars than in doing their duty, as they assumed no one, much less three children, would sneak across the camp. We continued to sneak, and the illuminated sky was getting closer and closer, and we saw the chimneys in the light, emitting foul-smelling smoke and foul white mist, spreading in all directions, enveloping everything, and penetrating us Clothes stick to our skin.

We patronize approaching those stoves, unaware of the passage of time.As dawn broke, we ducked under the last bunker of the night.I whispered to the children that we must stay here all day until dark. Yiluo accepted the matter bravely, but Nicholas couldn't take it anymore and began to sob, unable to suppress his emotions any longer, and couldn't bear the physical torture anymore.He, and we, too, were tired, hungry, and mentally drained, and I knew that if I didn't make up for those needs soon, the moment we fell into burnout, it would mean death.However, all I can do now is to comfort him silently. Just when I wanted to do this, I found that Yiluo took on this responsibility again. I finally realized that this young girl, although not related to us by blood, For my younger brother, he has become a more competent parent. He has passed on his dependence on me to her. Obviously, he now prefers Yiluo's comfort than me.

At that moment, I felt intense jealousy, but I tried to suppress it. I knew that I could not play the role of Nikolai's mother and lead them out of danger and redemption. I put my arms around two kids, kissed them, and said with a certainty, "We'll be fine, little ones, I promise you."