War Girl Anna (War Girls Book 3) Read online

  Anna

  War Girl Series

  Book 3

  Marion Kummerow

  War Girl Anna

  Marion Kummerow

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright © 2017 Marion Kummerow

  This book is copyrighted and protected by copyright laws.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, and places in this book exist only within the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons or locations is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design by http://www.StunningBookCovers.com

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  It tells you the story of Tom Westlake, British RAF Pilot story, before he met one of the Klausen sisters – Ursula – and fell in love with her.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Epilogue

  Author’s Notes

  Contact Me & Other Books

  Chapter 1

  January 1944, Ravensbrück Germany

  Anna buttoned up her blouse, her body aching and her soul weeping. She didn’t dare look at her tormenter – the man who’d viciously violated her, time and again. The sight of his smug expression made her itch to wring his neck with her cold, bare hands and watch his useless life slip from his body. Either that, or vomit all over him.

  In her mind she called him T the devil. Every single unfortunate soul in the camp would agree with her verdict that he was the devil incarnate. Doctor Tretter, head physician at the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp, liked to inflict pain and horror. And he did it with a smile.

  Sobs threatened to bubble up, but she swallowed them down. Like she always did when the sheer horror of what her life had become threatened to overwhelm her. She’d struck a bargain with the devil.

  And she’d gotten the short end of it. But then again, it really wasn’t a deal at all.

  Her body at his beck and call in exchange for her sister’s life.

  She summoned the gaunt face of her beloved baby sister Lotte and her emaciated body, skin stretched over protruding bones, and suppressed a sigh. It had been the right thing to do. Lotte wouldn’t have survived the horrors of being a concentration camp inmate much longer. No matter how horrid Anna felt right now, she knew she would make the same bargain again if it meant saving her sister.

  Anna would find a way to rescue herself from the clutches of T. One day.

  “Nurse Anna,” Doctor Tretter’s nasal voice sent a shiver down her spine. He was finished, wasn’t he?

  “Yes, Doctor Tretter?” she said with a weary voice, turning around to face him, because she knew he disliked her not looking into his eyes when he gave her a command. She held his gaze and blanked her obvious hatred for him from her eyes.

  His lips curled up. “You look beautiful, Nurse Anna.”

  “Thank you,” she managed to say with a subdued voice, casting her eyes downward as if the compliment delighted her.

  “You will be the perfect escort for my evening event this coming weekend.” A viselike grip squeezed her heart tight. So far, he’d been adamant in hiding their relationship. Keeping the sordid details of his regular rape of one of his nurses sealed under lock and key. Anna’s cheeks flamed hot at the thought of everyone believing that she actually liked this monster, that her constant capitulation to the head physician of Ravensbrück happened by choice.

  “With your perfectly straight blond hair, flawless light complexion, and…” Doctor Tretter took a step towards her and put a finger beneath her chin, which caused her eyes to flutter closed in disgust. “Haven’t I told you to look at me when I talk to you?” His other hand landed on her cheek with a stinging slap.

  “Of course you have. I’m sorry, Doctor Tretter. It won’t happen again.”

  “Good. Because as I said, you will be my escort for the soirée at Professor Scherer’s house. Do your best to look pleasing and make sure I am not disappointed in your behavior.”

  All blood rushed from Anna’s face. Professor Scherer was one of the most renowned scientists in the Reich, a man even Hitler consulted. The head of the medicine and human genetics studies carried out at the prestigious University Clinic Charité in Berlin. His one-of-a-kind human biology work catapulted his research light-years ahead of everyone else’s. She’d followed his work since the moment she had decided to become a biologist one day. Under any other circumstances she would have given her right arm to meet him, but with T the devil by her side?

  She shivered.

  “You said…you said you didn’t want anyone to know about our…arrangement.” Anna’s voice stumbled.

  He looked at her and then smirked. “And nobody will find out. I have a reputation to protect.” His beady eyes roved her body from head to toe as if she were a pesky insect he wanted to stomp on. “What they will see is a grateful nurse who loves spending time with the doctor she so admires for the greatness of his work.”

  “You expect me…” Anna felt the bile crawl back up and she took some shallow breaths, hoping he wouldn’t notice her rising panic. “…to tell everyone how much I admire your work?” Work that comprised torturing innocent prisoners with sadistic medical experiments.

  “Exactly. I am applying for a professorship at the Charité, and Professor Scherer’s esteem of my person and my scientific research is of the utmost importance. You will gush about my work or face the consequences,” he said with a cruel smile.

  Anna knew the consequences all too well. Execution. Or worse, becoming a prisoner in the camp where she worked as nurse. Every day she saw with her own eyes what that fate entailed.

  “I will not disappoint you,” she said and turned to leave.

  “Wait,” came his sharp voice the moment she put her hand on the door handle. She obediently turned and stared into his grayish-blue eyes. Eyes she longed to scratch out of his face. “Take this, and buy a dress to impress. I don’t want to be seen with you in that dull nurse’s uniform.” He tossed a few clothing ration cards in her direction.

  “Thank you,” Anna pressed through tightened lips and bent down to pick them up. She’d just stooped even lower, accepting payment for her services.

  Anna clenched her hands into fists as she fled his apartment, running like crazy until she stumbled across the threshold to her own solitary room in the nurses’ dormitory.

  Chapter 2

  Anna undressed and scrubbed her entire body with a wet cloth at the sink in the kitchenette of her room, as if rubbing her skin raw could eradicate T the devil from her life and her memory.

  She wished she could take a real shower and
cleanse herself of Doctor Tretter’s lingering stench, but this late at night the communal showers in the dormitory were already closed.

  She hated Doctor Tretter with every fiber of her being, but there was at least one thing she had to give him credit for: he always took precautions not to impregnate her. Probably not out of consideration for her, but to avoid the scandal for him. Just the thought of bearing the devil’s child sucked all the energy from her bones, and she had to hold onto the sink in an attempt not to crumple to the floor. Her delicate body convulsed fiercely for several moments before she found her control again.

  She slipped into her nightgown and then sank into the only chair with a cup of hot tea and a heavy sigh. Deliberately shutting her mind down to all unpleasant thoughts, she surveyed the small room she called her own. It had a single bed in the far corner, a small side table with a lamp, an open wardrobe area, and a chest of drawers. A threadbare rug occupied the middle of the space, along with the chair she sat on and a metal tray she used as a makeshift table. The kitchenette consisted of a tiny hotplate, a kettle, and a sink.

  Nurses at the camp didn’t have need of a real kitchen. Since they were expected to take their meals in the canteen, they didn’t even receive ration cards.

  Anna wrapped her hands around the hot cup, glancing around the sparsely furnished room and longing for the day when living here would be merely a sad memory. As accommodations went, it was sparse. But each night she returned to it from her horrific work, thinking it was paradise on earth.

  A place where she could block out what lay beyond the door. Death. Sickness. Humiliation. Terror. Pain. Where intolerable cruelties had become the norm.

  Her glance fell on the phone on her nightstand. Lifting the receiver, she placed a call to her home in Berlin, where her mother and her older sister Ursula lived. Ursula had been the epitome of the good girl, never once getting into hot water during her entire childhood and adolescence.

  Anna still couldn’t fathom how much her sister had changed in the past year. After her husband had died, she – being a prison guard at Plötzensee – had let an escaped British airman run away. I wonder how he’s doing? Is he still alive?

  “Ursula Herrmann,” her sister answered. Anna’s heart jumped with relief at hearing a friendly voice. She pictured Ursula with her long, wavy blonde hair and the sky-blue eyes whose color she shared with Anna and their younger brother, Richard.

  “It’s me,” Anna said, hesitating for a moment, tears pooling in her eyes. “How are you?”

  “Anna, darling, don’t ask me how I am…how are you?”

  Anna took a shuddery breath and then felt the tears begin to roll down her cheeks. “I…I’ve been better.”

  “Is…you know…is he still visiting?” Ursula’s voice was a mere whisper.

  “Almost every day. I don’t know how much longer I can take this. I feel so dirty,” Anna said with a sob.

  “Shh. Anna, isn’t there anything you can do?”

  “You know, when Elisabeth told me about her job here, I never once believed a word of it. I thought she was exaggerating to make herself more interesting.” Anna remembered how Elisabeth had first come to the hospital in Berlin where Anna worked. They’d become friends and Elisabeth had confided to Anna under the pledge of secrecy why she had requested a transfer from Ravensbrück to a normal hospital.

  Elisabeth had been lured into becoming a camp nurse by the comparatively stellar pay, and the special perks like extra days off, leather boots, and a warm winter coat – things normal citizens fought hard to obtain. But the sweet girl hadn’t been able to stomach the abominable things she’d witnessed in the camp.

  “Can’t you ask for a transfer like she did?” Anna asked.

  “And risk T’s wrath?” Anna heard a distant roar in the line and added for good measure, “Besides, I’m thankful for the opportunity to learn as much as I can while helping the Reich to rid herself of our enemies.”

  “I can sympathize.” Ursula picked up on Anna’s code. “My work at Plötzensee prison is so important for the war effort. I wish I could do more to help. But some days I feel overwhelmed.” Ursula’s voice conveyed so much misery that Anna felt guilty for burdening her sister with her own problems.

  “How is Mutter?” Anna changed the topic, drying the remainder of her tears.

  “Despondent. She’s all but given up hope for Richard. Since the news that his unit was annihilated in Minsk, there’s been no further word. Neither to confirm his death, nor that he’s still alive.”

  “Did you tell her about T…?” Anna asked.

  “God forbid, of course not. Do you really think I would tell our mother that…?”

  Of course Anna hadn’t thought Ursula would bring up such a delicate topic with Mutter, but their mother was very intuitive where her children were concerned. It wouldn’t be the first time that she cornered one of her children with assumptions and coerced them into telling the truth.

  “She’s not asking either,” Ursula said, finishing Anna’s thought.

  “I wish we could give her some good news. Like that the war has ended and Richard and Vater will come home soon.”

  “Actually, there is good news,” Ursula said.

  “Tell.”

  “Aunt Lydia is eligible to receive the Cross of Honor of the German Mother.” Aunt Lydia was Mutter’s youngest sister. At seventeen, she’d married the son of a farmer and moved with him to rural Bavaria. Since then, almost every year without fail, she’d given birth to another child. The youngest one, a girl called Rosa, was born last fall.

  “That is good news for her. It will raise her appreciation amongst the leaders of the district,” Anna said carefully. After what happened to Lotte, the entire family had feared repercussions on Lydia and her children. But the fact that her husband – albeit at the front – was well connected and esteemed in the farmer’s community had saved her.

  “Yes. Lydia called Mutter to let her know that she’ll be awarded the Second Class Silver Cross for mothers with six or seven children in a formal ceremony planned on Mother’s Day this May. She has invited us to visit,” Ursula said and gave an almost inaudible sigh.

  “Wouldn’t it be nice to travel to lower Bavaria and visit Lydia and our cousins? For me, I could use a few days off from work.” And from T the devil.

  “I was thinking the same. It’s much safer in the country with all those bombings going on in Berlin,” Ursula said.

  “Since when are you so concerned about your safety? Haven’t you told me once and again how important your work as a prison guard is?” And not in the way a wiretapper might think.

  “You are right, Anna. I should keep up my spirits and not fail our country by being disheartened.”

  Anna almost giggled at the way Ursula formed her sentence. Most phone calls were tapped and it was never a good idea to oppose Führer and Fatherland. The silly mood made her remember that not all was bleak in her life. “Oh, there’s another bit of good news. I was invited to a soirée at Professor Scherer’s.”

  “Professor Scherer? Should I know him?” Ursula asked.

  Anna sighed. “He’s only the most respected scientist Germany has in the areas of medicine and genetics.”

  “Anna, darling, that’s wonderful,” Ursula said with a voice that showed she didn’t quite get what was so amazing about this invitation. “I love talking to you, sister, but I have to work the night shift and being late is not an option.”

  “I know. Take care of yourself. Please?”

  “I will, and you do the same. Try to ask for a few days off and come to visit. Mutter would be delighted to see you.”

  “Goodnight.” Anna pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at the gray wall, trying not to think about her disgraceful work, or the man who forced himself on her.

  Chapter 3

  Anna stood in front of the mirror, applying mascara to her eyelashes. As she glanced up to appraise her work, the gaunt skull of a woman stared back at her, the sunken bl
ack eyes full of accusation. Anna blinked. Once, twice. But the images of emaciated prisoners kept haunting her. Murderer, one of the ghosts called out. Betrayer of humanity, another one chimed in. Scum.

  Anna stepped back from the mirror and slipped on the simple but elegant black two-piece suit Doctor Tretter’s ration cards had bought her. The A-line skirt ended mid-calf and showed off her beautiful calves in the new pumps with a sturdy two-inch heel. The jacket was tailored, with shoulder pads and peplums, making her waist look impossibly tiny.

  She did a turn, and was satisfied with the way the suit fit her like a glove. Dressed for the occasion! Prostitute! The images in her head continued to haunt her. Today had been another repulsive day at work. Anna had become a nurse to help people, not murder them. Although she technically didn’t kill anyone, she was part of the system designed to annihilate large parts of the population. She didn’t have the slightest idea why the Nazis even employed nurses in the camps. There was nothing she could do for the prisoners, besides giving them a smile, when nobody was looking, and a day off from work in the hospital ward – with reduced rations.

  I never wanted to work here. I had to do this to save Lotte.

  At least the gruesome medical experiments had stopped, because T the devil was busy writing his conclusion to the gangrene research he’d done on those poor Polish women. Anna’s breath froze in her chest as she remembered the high-pitched, soul-wrenching cries of the condemned prisoners. After a tense shake of her head, she blocked the memories out. There was nothing she could do.

  Satisfied with the way she looked, she smoothed her perfectly straight blonde hair one last time, and applied bright red lipstick. Makeup articles were hard to come by these days, but Doctor Tretter’s ration cards had not only sufficed for the new suit, but also to buy much-wanted mascara and a red lipstick to replace the ones she’d treasured for years until she’d used up the last morsel of color.