Blood daisies

She ran through a field of dreams where no one could touch her. Her mind was free now and she never felt so happy in her whole short life. She was running through a field of flowers, she was running through a field of blood daisies…

1942, August
The war had been in process for about 3 years now, Heydrich had seen some of its most repelling creations. He had been transferred a bit everywhere over the years and so he had had a glimpse of about every territory. Never did he sleep soundly at night, the memories of blood, flesh and bullets kept haunting his dreams, just as well as the screams of the dying soldiers kept driving him mad. Who knows where his next assignment might take him, he hoped it would be liberation from this nightmare, he hoped it was to death…

1942, November
It was a cold day in the camp. Tension was rising as the prisoners got off the train wagons and into one single file they headed up to Heydrich’s post. His job was to separate them in 2 groups : Those who were apt to work were heading for the right, and those who were weak and dying, headed for the left. The Jew prisoners weren’t too sure where they had been taken, but one thing was sure, they knew they wouldn’t get out of this place. Heinrich Himmler had ordered the construction of this place with pride as project after project were being conceived by the Nazi. Workers worked 16 hours a day, had very small rations and slept in barracks with no heating , no bathrooms and no space. Those who died where disposed of, yet the Jews knew not how. There were 2 visible parts to this camp, the lodges, for the prisoners who would work, and the chambers, which were told to be just working places. At its entrance there was a banner saying « Working makes you free »…But the smell of death was all over : this was Auschwitz ,Birkenau.

1942, December
Heydrich had been assigned a new job that month, he was now in charge of the gas chambers. He had to make sure all prisoners were stripped and thrown in the right chamber. Then he had to take out the bodies and guide the workers to where they would dump the bodies. Some were buried, others were cremated. Most of the time the Nazi’s were too lazy and would just dump the deformed bodies into a hole. They were all naked, women, men and children, all cramped together, left there to be buried without any decency. Heydrich did not enjoy this task as he could always hear the screams of terrified and suffering souls through the concrete walls. Souls that owned no other fate then to die here, from the hands of a race that was thought to be supreme. Decaying bodies matched the hatred that had grown so frivolously here, no flowers grew, no life even approached the camp of the doomed. Skinny, underfed, overworked, tired, terrified, petrified, dying… There lied the only fate that awaited the prisoners of Auschwitz.

1943, February
Heydrich had once more been assigned a different task. He was now working at the Struthof camp. This camp was conceived for the experimenting mostly and those who had to suffer this experimenting never made it out alive. This was the darkest most cynical camp of all, the scientists had gone mad with procedures that gave them absolutely nothing, yet they persisted. Heydrich had been a witness to many of the tests made here, none of them were easy to bare and they all contributed to his unstable mental situation. Prisoners, were laid down naked, injected with an enormous amount of oxygen which would make most of their brain cells explode. Scientist found this amusing. Women, were done sex changes, their hormones were tempered with, some were even burnt so that the madmen could see how long they would survive. Brain surgery, removal of body parts, of organs, incisions, etc. New bio chemicals were developed and tested on the prisoners. It was either a violent and fast death, then again a slow and agonising death that awaited them all. All for one conclusion : these experiences were only to amuse the crazy and the cynical…Heydrich wanted no part of this…

1943, May
The ultimate release was now here, Heydrich had been thrown back into the combat zone. He was in Koursk where the battle had been on for a while now. He couldn’t quite remember for he was numb now, he couldn’t feel the bullet wounds or smell his rotting friends lying beside him. The enemy was everywhere, they occupied this part of the city, the Germans were more or less trapped. He didn’t care, he only wanted to die. Madness had taken him into its arms, grasping his mind, his love everything he had cherished. He was now but a zombie. He was only physically living. All the massacres he had witnessed had been too much, far too much…

1943, July, the last chapter…
Heydrich’s troupe had made it out alive. They were now in the outskirts of the city. Koursk had not been kind to them, many men died. Heydrich regretted not being one of them. He was now hiding with the remnants of the soldiers in a field, awaiting the enemy’s arrival. Silence came in abundance as everyone was either dying or suffering tremendously. As for Heydrich, he had no more strength to even bother to think. Deep inside him darkness had taken over, the horrors were eating him alive, he was now but a body repenting for his crimes, the crimes of the Gestapo, crimes of Himmler, the bloody crimes of the Führer. He remembered a time when he was innocent, he was a child back then. He missed the sound of laughter, he could hear it as if it was yesterday…But it wasn’t from his memories that this laughter came from, no, this laughter was real, it was nearby. He awoke of his daze and had a look out of his hiding place. A young girl was running through the field, as if there was no war, no blood no death in the world. She was happy. She was running through a field of daisies. Heydrich remembered that his men had set up a few mines in the field, but it was already too late. The girl had stepped on a murderous daisy, that abruptly ended her short life. That was the last thing Heydrich could take. He cried over her dismembered body, he was covered in the blood of innocence. He was covered by his own passed hate, he lost his mind and at that instant he pulled out his gun, aimed at his head, and ended it all…He joined the little girl, and the blood daisies…