The One Man Read Online Free PDF Page A

together,” Alfred instructed Marte and Lucy, tightly clutching their bags. They were separated for a moment by people charging to the front, cursing and showing their discredited papers in fits of rage. The crowd began to surge. The guards closed in, using their rifle shafts like cattle prods. The white-bearded rabbi and his wife still refused to move; a German guard had now taken over and was screaming at them like they were deaf. “Aussen.” Out. “Get up! Now.” Fights began to break out. Some faces were bloodied, struck by rifle shafts. A few old-timers fell to the ground, and the crowd moved over them despite desperate pleas and shrieks from those who stopped to help.
    But family by family, there was no choice but to go. Worried, everyone grabbed their things. The milice herded them with their sticks and rifles in the direction of the front gate. Some prayed, others whimpered, but all, except the rabbi and his wife, went. Guards infiltrated the crowd, kicking along luggage. “Is this yours? Take it, or it stays!” Moving them like cattle through Vittel’s makeshift wire gate, dogs barking, pulling on their leashes, amid outraged shouts everywhere, wails, cries, everyone giving themselves over to their worst fears.
    â€œPapa, what’s happening?” Lucy said, afraid.
    â€œCome on, stay close,” Alfred said, clutching his and Marte’s valise along with his briefcase. “Maybe it will just be another detention center like this. We’ve lived through worse.” He tried to appear as positive as he could, though he knew in his heart it would not be. Now they had no papers. And Marte’s health was growing worse. They moved through the front gate, the first time in eight months they were beyond the wire.
    A cargo train waited for them on the tracks. At first, people assumed it was not for them. More for cattle or horses. Then everyone was startled by the sudden rattle of the doors being flung open. The French guards remained behind. The soldiers along the tracks were now German, which sent terror into everyone’s heart.
    â€œHere are your fancy carriages, Jews,” one of them cackled. “Please, let me help you.” He cracked a man in the head with his rifle stock. “Everyone up and in.”
    There was resistance at first, people objecting, fighting back. This was transport fit for swine, not people. Then there were two short bursts of machine gun fire from behind them and everyone turned. The white-bearded rabbi and his poor wife were now lying on the ground in a pool of blood next to their luggage.
    â€œOh my God, they’re going to massacre us!” a woman screamed.
    Everyone headed for the trains. One by one they hurried in, pushing the old and young, dragging their belongings with them. If it couldn’t be carried, or if someone stopped to load another article first, their bags were torn from them and tossed aside, clothing and pictures and toiletries spilling over the platform.
    â€œNo, those are my possessions!” a woman yelled.
    â€œGet in. Get in. You won’t need them.” A guard pushed her inside.
    â€œThere are no seats in here,” someone said. Alfred helped Marte and Lucy up and someone pushed him up from behind. When they all thought the car was filled, they pushed more in. In minutes, you could barely breathe.
    â€œThere’s no room! There’s no more room! Please…” a woman wailed. “We’ll suffocate in here.”
    They filled it even more.
    â€œPlease, I don’t want to go!” a man shouted over the wailing.
    â€œC’mon, do you want to end up like them?” another urged him onward, glancing back to the rabbi and his wife in the courtyard.
    â€œMy daughter, my daughter. Sophie …!” a woman cried. A young girl, forced by the crowd into another car, cried out from afar, “Mama!”
    The guards kept loading and packing people in with whatever