I Did Nazi That Coming

Groan.  Crash.  Snap…

Damn.  I always liked Friederich…

The cold winter air lashed against my cold, naked body.  Frederick hung loosely under the tall, barren tree, gasping desperately for the air that would save his life.  He kicked and kicked, stifling grotesque noises of his guttural gasps.  For a few moments, he twitched helplessly, dangling from his rope burned neck over the ice cold snow.  After a minute he ceased motion, swinging lifelessly from side to side, making the tree branch above him groan from the excess weight.

Well, I thought, Frederick may be gone, but at least he’s nice and warm in hell…  I get to freeze my ass off here in the snow until it’s my turn.  Two gargantuan figures hobbled towards the next in line.

Standing here without clothes made me chuckle at first.  How ironic could it possibly get?  They’re warm and fat, probably from eating our leftover field rations.  And me?  You practically could’ve counted my ribs from 20 feet away.  I couldn’t tell if this was some sort of poetic justice between me and the big man, or if this is all just a big joke.

“Peter Spielman…”  A heavily accented voice called out, interrupting my train of thought.  “You are being charged with crimes against humanity and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  How do you plead?”  The man facing them stared directly into their eyes.  He was stoic, but his shaking body gave the impression that he was frozen in fear.  His teeth chattered as he began to speak.  Two words, just like all the other men, escaped his lips.

“…N-not g-g-guilty.”  The two men exchanged glances before the one on the right let out a small chuckle.

“Oh, that’s just too bad.  You should think better than to lie before you die.  I don’t think your savior has great opinion over non repentant sinners, does he?  Well, enjoy your afterlife Peter Spielman.  Have fun in the deepest trench of hell…”

With that, the man commenced to begin kicking at the tiny wooden chair underneath the Peter.  It took a few tries, but the now sobbing man hung limply from the tall, dead tree.  He was lucky.  The fall broke his neck.  His body, though, deemed it necessary to bump into me several times.  I almost wanted to yell for him to quit it, but then I remembered that he probably couldn’t hear me… wherever he was.  The two men continued their path toward the end of the tree limb, stopping directly in front of me.

“…Took you long enough,” I spat.  The two men exchanged glances before returning to their duty.  The one who had been doing all the speaking checked a small piece of paper in his coat.

“…Hmmm.  This one doesn’t have a name recorded.”

“Does it really matter?”  I deadpanned.

He gave another curious glance, an eyebrow raised high.  If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I was scaring him, almost.  “I guess not…  So, Mr…”

“Paul.”  I stated.

“Paul…  You have been charged with crimes against humanity and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  How do you plead?”  Both men looked interested in what I had to say.  For a moment, I hesitated.  Even if I knew I was innocent, would that really change anything?  What would I gain by telling the truth on my death-branch?

“…Guilty,” I said.

His face was cocked in disbelief.  “The truth for once!  Who would have known you ‘perfect race’ could have be so humble?  You know what?  I kind of like you.”  He smiled.  “In fact, if I wasn’t told I had to do this… well I probably still would, but I like you more than your friend hanging right there.  Hey, how about this.  I usually don’t do this sort of thing, but I’m willing to humor you.  Go ahead.  What’s your final request?”

I looked down toward the snow covered ground.  Should I ask for my freedom?  Should I ask for a second chance to prove that I didn’t do it?  Should I ask to eat one last meal?  I glanced back at the man who was impatiently waiting for a response.

“Pull the rope tighter, please…  I want my neck to snap faster.”

He gave me a light smile.  “Now that…I can do.”  He tenderly walked behind me and reached his hands up to the rope that hung loosely around my neck.  He gave it a quick tug and it clung tightly against my throat.  My heart was racing and I could feel my eyes becoming moist.  All too long I had joked that I would die before all this was over.  Frederick, Peter, Heinrich…  All of them gone.  They had joked too…

I cleared my throat as the Russian who had not been speaking raised a leg toward me.  With one feeble kick, he tore the chair out from underneath me.  The chilly air seemed to blow harder than before and my stomach churned from the unusual feeling of weightlessness.  The rope tightened.

My neck ached and burned with a feeling that I had never imagined.  It was as if I was being choked by two men, each reaching around my entire neck and refusing to let go.  I thrashed my legs as hard as I could, desperately trying to get some sort of hold.  My lungs ached for more breath, violently screaming at my brain to offer the one thing that would save their lives.  My eyes grew wide and my face beat red.  I could only see the two coated men turn, walking away as I struggled to break free from the course, chafing grasp.

This is it, I thought.  This is how I die.

My vision started to dull and my eyelids closed over my bulging eyeballs.  I let out a small choking grunt.  Not terrible last words, if I do say so myself.  With my vision gone, I began feeling the world around me unlike I had ever felt it.  The cold wind soothed my burning body, not freezing it in a nipping frost.  The tree rustled and groaned an incredible orchestra of life, twitching and cracking in the cool winter wind.  The snow felt chilly, but like the wind, still soothing…

The snow…  It felt wet.  It felt hard.  It felt like it was covering the ground.

My eyes shot open, revealing the barren field of snow and craters that I had once been given the unfortunate job of tending to after the tide had turned.  I didn’t realize it until I could see blood that I had been coughing uncontrollably.  My neck ached and burned worse than it had before, but it still felt as if a load had been lifted.  I writhed on the ground, unable to catch my breath as the snow cooled my fevered face and body.

I was free.

My sight became fixed on the sky as I lay on the ground, panting like a dog.  Above me, the tree branch where I was hanged snapped at the trunk, falling to the ground and dropping its heavy load into the snow.  For a few moments, I wanted to shriek in joy.  To jump up and down, even if I knew it would be short lived.  I had been so accepting of death, but when it came I was frightened.  It hurts a lot more than you would think.

My breathing slowed and I tilted my head sideways to my fellow soldiers.  They lay sleeping in the snow, unaware of the gracious deed they have done for me.

“Thank you... my friends…”  I called out in a hushed tone.  My voice sounded shrill and barely a sound escaped my lips.  They could hear me though, I was sure of it.

“Hey!”  A voice screamed.  I flipped my head towards the voice.  Two chubby men were waddling towards me, one with his hands flailing about, and the other with his hands grasping a small gun.

That was all the incentive I needed.  My muscles burned as I commanded them to bring me upright.  Before I knew it, I was on my feet, drunkenly hobbling away from my captors.  There was no way I would let them put me in that tree again.  I ran and ran, my hands still bound together in the course rope that left burn marks around my neck.  My feet lost feeling as the blistering cold was replaced by numbness.

Bang…