red moscow

Chapter 2581

Before leaving Zhukov's office, Sokov thought of the double imprisoned in the basement, so he stopped and asked, "Comrade Marshal, I want to ask, what do you plan to do with the people imprisoned in the basement?"

Zhukov did not answer Sokov's question, but waved his hand and said: "From now on, this person's life and death has nothing to do with you and me. How to deal with him will naturally be decided by General Sokolovsky, who will take over my position."

Sokov didn't say anything, but he knew in his heart that it wouldn't take long before the double who was being closely guarded would disappear from the face of the earth. But the life and death of that person had nothing to do with him, so it was better to stay out of his business. He raised his hand to salute Zhukov, turned around and walked out of the office.

After returning to the hotel from the headquarters, Sokov locked himself in the room, turning a deaf ear to what was happening outside, and busying himself with writing novels.

Before he knew it, it was getting dark. The light in the room made it difficult for Sokov to see the words on the paper. He stopped writing and looked at the time. It was already six in the evening. He hadn't eaten all day and his stomach was growling with hunger. He sorted out the manuscript on the table, put it away, and walked out of the room to go to the restaurant for dinner.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked into the hall, he saw three familiar figures, not only Hosenfeld, Ernst but also Bayer. He hurried over when he saw them.

"Comrade General," the three men saw Sokov walking towards them and quickly stood at attention and raised their hands to salute him.

After Sokov raised his hand to return the greeting, he asked curiously, "Why are you here?"

"Comrade General," Ernst, the only one of the three who knew Russian, said, "You helped my cousin find his wife and children. He came here to thank you."

Sokov waved his hand and said, "Captain, if you want to thank someone, it should be Officer Shebeil. During our time in Nuremberg, it was him and his son Zorda who were asking around for your wife's whereabouts. If it weren't for them, it would not be easy to find your wife and children."

"Comrade General, I have already thanked him," Hosenfel said, "but if you hadn't taken him to Nuremberg, I'm afraid I wouldn't have had the chance to see Leonie and the child. So when I learned that you had returned to Berlin, I came here specifically to thank you."

"We are all so familiar with each other, there is no need to say polite words." Sokov asked the three people: "Have you had dinner?"

The three of them shook their heads, indicating that they had not had dinner yet.

"That's great. I'm going to the restaurant for dinner. You guys can come with me."

Sokov led the three to the restaurant, and a waiter immediately came up to them and asked politely, "Comrade General, what are you planning to eat tonight?"

"Just follow my usual menu and bring four servings."

As soon as the waiter left, Sokov said to the three people: "I heard that the security team has started to carry out patrol missions. How is it? Have you encountered any difficulties?"

"No." Hosenfeld shook his head and said excitedly, "Since the end of the war, the streets have been filled with Soviet troops patrolling. The residents of the city suddenly saw their own army appearing on the streets, and naturally felt a sense of familiarity. Some residents even stopped our patrol team and asked us about the whereabouts of their relatives."

"Their relatives either died in the war or were imprisoned in prisoner-of-war camps." After Ernst finished translating what Hosenfeld said, he continued, "I don't know how to answer the questions asked by the residents."

"Of course we should answer truthfully so that they can understand the situation." Sokov said, "But I estimate that it will take several years for the prisoners in the prisoner-of-war camps to be released."

Although before coming here, Hosenfeld and the others knew that the comrades imprisoned in the prisoner-of-war camp would have to wait a long time to be released, they did not expect that this time would be several years. So after the three of them looked at each other, Hosenfeld asked again: "Comrade General, can this time be shortened?"

"No," Sokov shook his head and said, "You should know that although my military rank is high, I do not hold any position here in Berlin, so even if I want the prisoners in the POW camp to be released early, I have no say."

Sokov's words caused the three to fall into silence.

After a long time, Ernst was the first to break the silence: "Comrade General, we came to see you today to ask for something."

"What's the matter?" Sokov asked.

"It's like this, my cousin has a neighbor who wants to join our guard team." Ernst said hesitantly, "We want to ask if it's possible?"

"Is he also a member of the Wehrmacht?"

"Yes," Ernst answered the question, then realized that he had not expressed himself accurately, and quickly added: "But he left the army long after the Night of the Long Knives."

Hearing Ernst's "Night of the Long Knives", Sokov remembered that this was a purge of the SA led by Rohm by the mustache. Could it be that Hosenfeld's neighbor was a member of the SA? With such a question, he asked Hosenfeld: "Captain Hosenfeld, your neighbor was a member of the SA under Rohm?"

After listening to Ernst's translation, Hosenfeld was stunned at first, then he realized that Sokov had misunderstood his meaning, and hurriedly explained to him: "Comrade General, you misunderstood. My neighbor was expelled from the army not because he was a member of the SA, but because he was a Jew."

"What, a Jew?" Sokov's eyes widened in surprise. He had not expected that after the Night of the Long Knives, the Jews in the army were also purged. "As far as I know, the Jews in Germany were either expelled or died in concentration camps. How did he survive?"

"Comrade General," Hosenfel explained to Sokov, "my neighbor is called Bachner. Before he was expelled from the army, he was a second lieutenant in the Wehrmacht. When the country began to liquidate Jews on a large scale, he was also arrested and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. Because he was in good health, he was not immediately sent to the gas chamber, but was engaged in heavy labor in the camp."

Hearing about the Auschwitz concentration camp, Sokov couldn't help but frown. He thought that this was a notorious death camp where almost no one survived. How did this former Wehrmacht second lieutenant named Bachner survive? "Captain Hosenfel, as far as I know, the Jews who entered the Auschwitz concentration camp in the early days were basically massacred. How did he survive?"

"Comrade General, I didn't express myself clearly just now." Hosenfel continued, "In fact, a few kilometers away from Auschwitz, there is another concentration camp called Auschwitz II, also known as Birkenau. Bachner was sent to this concentration camp."

Hosenfel's words aroused Sokov's great interest. He looked at him and asked, "Captain, then tell me, how did Bachner escape?" "Bachner was doing hard labor in the concentration camp at first. After a while, he was transferred to the corpse transport team, which was to drag the bodies of the poisoned Jews out of the gas chamber, put them on flatbed trucks and drag them to the incinerator to burn." Hosenfel said, "But this job is not permanent. The guards will replace a new batch of prisoners every three months, and the original prisoners will be dragged to the nearby area and shot.

When it was their turn to be shot, due to the large number of people, the execution was divided into three groups, and Bachner was assigned to the third group. When the guards shot the first batch of prisoners and began to clean up the bodies, he took advantage of the inattention and secretly escaped to a nearby public toilet and hid in a cesspool. He endured the stench and hid in the cesspool for three days. The feces pouring down from above submerged his neck. But in order to survive, he gritted his teeth and persevered.

On the evening of the third day, it rained heavily. He climbed out of the manure pit and ran to the barbed wire. He dug a passage under the barbed wire with his hands that could accommodate one person and escaped from the Birkenau concentration camp. After escaping, he walked along the railway towards Germany. When he passed a farmhouse on the way, he was found by a kind farmer. He not only changed him into clean clothes, but also hid him in his cellar until Poland was occupied by the Soviet army.

After Hosenfeld finished his story, Sokov asked, "When did he return to Berlin?"

"Just the other day."

"What? He just came back a few days ago?" Sokov frowned. "Even if he waited until the war was completely over before leaving Poland and returning to Germany, it's impossible for him to arrive now."

"That's right, Comrade General," Hosenfel said, "He was captured by a Soviet sentry when he was crossing the Polish-German border. They thought he was a German soldier who had escaped, so they put him in a prisoner-of-war camp. It wasn't until last month that he met a general who was inspecting the prisoner-of-war camp. He revealed his identity to the general and showed him the prisoner number brand printed on his wrist. Only then was he released from the prisoner-of-war camp."

"Oh, so that's how it is." After Sokov figured out what was going on, he nodded slowly and asked Hosenfeld, "Captain, if he joins the guard, what position do you plan to let him take?"

"I can let him be my deputy." After Hosenfeld finished speaking, he saw that Sokov's expression was a little unnatural, so he quickly added: "He has been away from the army for too long and is not suitable for a specific position, so I think it's okay to keep him in the guard to assist me in my work. Comrade General, are you willing to meet him? If you agree, I can bring him to see you."

Sokov immediately thought of the scene where the other party was covered in feces, and suddenly felt something in his stomach rushing directly to his throat. He quickly covered his mouth to avoid vomiting in public and damaging his image. After his emotions stabilized a little, he released his hand covering his mouth and waved to Hosenfeld: "Captain, since you don't assign him a specific position, if you are willing to keep him, then stay."

Sokov agreed so readily because he was about to leave Berlin. As for the people in charge and the personnel arrangements for the guard team, it had nothing to do with him. He would just do a favor and leave a good impression on Hosenfeld and others.

The news that Sokov was leaving Berlin was known to only a limited number of people, so Hosenfeld and others naturally didn't know about it. When he heard that Sokov agreed to keep Bachner, he quickly stood up and saluted Sokov to express his gratitude to him.

After they finished their dinner and chatted for a while, they went their separate ways.

Sokov returned to his room and planned to finish the rest of the novel, but for some reason he just couldn't concentrate.

Seeing that he couldn't concentrate on writing the novel, Sokov simply threw his pen on the table, lay down on the bed, and began to rest with his eyes closed.

Soon, he fell asleep without realizing it.

In his dream, he dreamed that he followed Zhukov back to Moscow. The first thing he did when he arrived in Moscow was to rush back home and reunite with Asia.

Asiya was also very happy to see Sokov's return. She went up to him and gave him a hug. She also asked him with concern: "After you come back this time, you won't leave again, right?"

"No, no." Sokov answered very straightforwardly: "I will not leave your side until our child learns to walk."

Unexpectedly, Asia frowned and said unhappily, "When you stay with me, will you miss the woman far away in Berlin?"

When Sokov heard what Asiya said, he was immediately frightened and broke out in a cold sweat, wondering if Asiya knew about what happened between him and Ajelina?

Just when he was getting anxious, Asiya pointed at the door and said to him, "Go open the door! The woman you're thinking about is here to see you!"

The next moment, there was a loud knock on the door.

Sokov woke up suddenly from his dream, sat on the bed and gasped heavily to relieve his nervous mood.

Soon, Sokov's mood gradually stabilized, but the knocking sound he heard in his dream did not stop, and it was still knocking rhythmically. Sokov looked at the door with horror on his face, wondering if he was dreaming or awake, why didn't the knocking sound stop?

He calmed himself down and realized that he had woken up. The knocking sound was not an auditory hallucination, but someone was indeed knocking on the door.

He got out of bed, and without even having time to put on his boots, he walked barefoot to the door and asked outside, "Who is it? Who is outside the door?"

"Misha!" A familiar voice came from outside the door: "It's me, I'm Ajelina!"

After hearing clearly that it was Ajelina's voice, Sokov opened the door without hesitation, and sure enough, he saw Ajelina standing outside.

Behind Adelina was Vaserigov. When he saw Sokov opening the door, he quickly raised his hand to salute and respectfully reported: "Comrade General, I have brought Adelina back safely and I am reporting to you specially."

"Thank you, Comrade Major." Sokov nodded to Vaserigov and said in a grateful tone: "Thank you for sending Adelina back."

After Vaseligov left, Sokov pulled Adelina into the room and closed the door with his heel: "Adelina, shouldn't you be in Berlin tomorrow morning? Why are you here so early?"

Adelina stood on tiptoe and kissed Sokov on the cheek, then said, "After you left, Major Vaseligov said that you would be in danger if you returned to Berlin without anyone to protect you, so we set off overnight. Except for stopping twice for meals on the way, we didn't stop at all, and finally returned to Berlin half a day ahead of schedule."