'The Killing of Gentle People' by Michel Henri (book club books .txt) 📕

Just remember l still have friends in the Nazi party! You will pay for this and so
will your Jewish family, mark my words!”
The two guards rushed to the cage in order to deal with the Inspector, but the Sergeant interjected
saying: “Leave it! His reign of hate is over and he knows it. He’s just acting out.”
Sergeant Gold looked at me for what seemed an age. She smiled a sympathetic smile. She knew what l was all about.
Then the Sergeant and the two officers left, leaving the mess the monster made where it fell on the
floor, and disappeared up the stone steps and away.
My body started to shake again. That shouting match had confirmed to me that this Inspector was
truly the monster SS Commandant from the killing camp in Poland, Auschwitz-Birkenau.
I knew this man! It was coming back in abundance.
Finishing my coffee, l sat down on the wooden bench and put my hand onto the gun butt in my belt.
Then l stood tall and calm, turning my body to face the monster of the killing camp.

“I know you, Inspector! Or should l refer to you as SS Commandant Victor Mercedes of the
Auschwitz-Birkenau killing camp in Poland?”
The monster turned to face me, his face twisted out of shape with hate.
“I was your personal slave, along with my friend Heinz Stein. We sorted the money for you, the
money you stole from those gentle people, the bits of gold from their teeth, the little personal
treasures secreted in their clothing. And the cash, loads of cash.”
He shook his head vigorously.
“You don’t remember because you don’t want to remember, do you? But your time has come today
SS Commandant! As l am your personal executioner!”
My body started to shake again. My arms and hands were moving on their own. The pain was
terrible, but the memories in my mind were more painful than the pain in my broken old body.
The Commandant rushed to the side of the cage, trying to get at me. His eyes and face were red with rage; gripping the wire cage with his big hands, his knuckles turned white as he shook the bars. I thanked God that the wires were keeping us apart.
Then l said “Patience, SS Commandant Victor Mercedes! Your moment is very near now! And do you know what? A Jew is about to put you down, slowly and very excruciatingly!”
I said it in a very passive tone. Then l took the pistol, fitted with its silencer, from inside my belt so
that he could get a clear sighting of it.
My body had stopped shaking and l was calm and still. I stood up straight, straighter than l had in
all the years when l had been taking my retribution.
“This, Commandant, is the time and place my retribution ends! Both my friend at the library Heinz
Stein and l will be safe. No one knows of our association with the killing of gentle people. Heinz
and his family will be safe and alive and l, Abraham Golden: Well, l will be with my beloved
family. You! Yes, you! You blood-spattered ogre, you will putrefy in the tormenting fire of eternal
damnation. But before you go l would like you to experience just a little of the horrendous pain
you arranged and dished out yourself to the gentle inmates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing
camp.”

Lifting the gun with the silencer to shoulder level, with no pain in my body, l stood as solid as a
rock. I felt no fear. I was excited! I shot him in the shoulder blade. I heard the bone shatter; it was a
wonderful sound! He screamed out loud like a baby: “Help! Help me! Someone help me!”
Sergeant Gold had ordered the guard to shut and lock the door at the top of the stairs in order to
keep the ranting and ravings of their frenetic Inspector from spoiling their evening dinner break.
SS. Commandant Victor Mercedes looked at me in disbelief from his kneeling position on the
concrete floor. His mouth had dropped open.
“I was only obeying orders! Do you hear me? Orders!”
I lifted the gun again. I was not shaking at all and my hand was still, and he could see it. He could
see where l was aiming the next shot. Slowly l took careful aim and the bullet hit his other shoulder
blade, and once again l heard the bone shatter. ‘Dr. Mengele was quite right’ This time, leaning
closer to him and smiling into his distorted face, l shot both his hip joints. He was now lying on his
back, crying and sobbing for help, and repeating: “I was only following orders, that’s all!”
Taking careful aim, l hit him with a bullet in the left knee joint. That made a terrible noise. Then l
made a cracking noise by hitting his left ankle, creating pain l hope would last him all his life.
I had learned from the death camp doctor, Jose Mengele, that shattered bones never completely
heal. Standing over my prey like a vulture, l sensed he thought his punishments were now over.
I said in a soft and very caring voice:
“So sorry, Commandant! I forgot your right leg! I do apologise!”
Lifting the gun once again, l pointed it at my target. He mouthed something which resembled
‘Jewish Bastard’ The bullet shattered his right knee cap, then another bullet splintered the bone in
his right ankle.
Then, quite exhausted, l sat down on the wooden bench, looking at the Monster who had been
determined that he had the right to persecute and abuse innocent children, women and men with his
gruesome crimes.
“Well, it’s goodbye from me,” l said, “one of the gentle folk! And hello to him who will be your
next keeper for all time: The Devil!”

I took a moment to congratulate myself on the gentle way l had delivered the justice l had just meted out, then thought to myself:
Well, if he doesn’t die from loss of blood and from shock and pain, my work will at least give him reasons to remember how lucky he was.
Every time he moves it will be pain, pain, pain for the rest of his impossible life. Or just maybe, this big man will have to live with his pain, stuffed into a wheel chair for the rest of his life. Neither way sounded good enough to me.
Standing again up straight, tall and young, l laughed over my prey. Yes! For the first time since
entering Auschwitz-Birkenau killing camp l laughed out loud! It was a wicked, curdling laugh
which echoed around the white tiled cell walls. Nothing like the cries from the victims, in the gas
chamber! No! Theirs were gentle cries from broken hearts. And mine was a cry from the heart and
soul of my very being; an uncontrollable cry to tell the world that once again David had taken down
Goliath.
Then, with tears of happiness freely running down my face, l acknowledged to myself that the days of retribution were at last over and done with.
No one would ever know that my dearest friend Heinz Stein had been involved with the killings of
gentle people. He and his family would be safe from harm.
I sat on the bench, took the last two bullets from my trouser pocket, and placed them into the
Luger. This was the trick the Nazi guards told me about. They said. “Just in case!” I now know
what that statement meant!
To guarantee that my dearest friend Heinz and his family would be safe forever l put the pistol to
SS Commandant Victor Mercedes’ head and blew his brains out.

The End.
My eyes dried. At first l thought l was seeing an apparition. But standing there outside my
Cage were my family.
My dearest mother, my father and my little sister.

“No, it just cannot be!” l shouted aloud.
“But it is!” said the voice of my invisible Guardian Angel to whom l had been talking in the café at lunch time. The beautiful voice was the same.
I quickly put my hands over my eyes and then very, very, slowly opened my fingers one at a time,
and like an excited child l peeped through the small gaps. Yes, they were standing there in front of
me; my dearest parents, mother and father; and my little sister.
They stood smiling and radiant, with their arms out stretched towards me, waiting to welcome me
back into the bosom of their underlying love.
Looking at my family l could see that they hadn’t changed. They were the same now as l
remembered them in my home as a child.
They were happy; it was all over them. They smiled at me with love, the love l remembered and
never forgot during my tormented lifetime.
My family were not a figment of some distorted imagination; they were real!
The voice continued:
“Abraham! This is your family! They have come to take you to a much kinder world than you have
so far experienced. Go with them when you are ready!
There was my family, standing in front of my cage, arms out stretched, beckoning me to come to
them. They smiled at me and l willingly smiled back.
I was going to be with my family. We would be as one again! Finally my nightmare was over!
I held my body straight, then lifted the pistol with the one last bullet in the chamber. Putting the end
of the silencer happily into my mouth and resting it on my rough tongue, half smiling, l ……….


The world said…


“Never Again”


Six Million Times too Late


“This Must Not Become a Distant Memory”


All articles by Michel Henri are copyright ©Michel Henri and should not be reproduced without the author's prior written consent.


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