The Forbidden Six

September 1st, 1939

Augustine brought the newspaper into the house before going to school. He gasped and called out his sister's name.

"Liese?" he yelled. He waited for a response, walking to the bottom of the stairs. "Liese!" No reply. He searched the house for his sister. She was nowhere to be seen. He groaned and glanced at the clock. Right. They were already at school since it started earlier than his high school.

He set the newspaper down on a small table in the hallway. The headline glared at him everytime he walked down the hall. He ripped it in half and threw it into the fireplace. It would change his life and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

At the University of Kassel, the entire school had been called to the auditorium. As the school made their way to the auditorium, Liese looked through the crowd for Mena. She saw the class Mena was in and searched for a girl with tan skin and fluffy brown hair. She spied her best friend in the crowd. She was soon quickly lost in the crush and Liese jumped to get a better view.

"Mena," she yelled. "Mena Thurman!"

The girl turned and saw her friend. Liese wove through the crowd and started to walk next to Mena.

"What do you think they're going to announce?" Liese said over the clamor.

"Ich weiß nicht," she replied. "What if it's something bad?"

She grimaced and matched Mena's quick pace to the auditorium. "It probably won't be that bad. Maybe we're just getting a new head of school?"

They took a seat and watched as someone stood on the stage. Mena recognized it as the head of school. She exchanged a worried glance with Liese. The school quieted down and the head of school started speaking.

"Today at around four AM, our Führer invaded Poland," he said.

Mena's mouth fell open. She glanced at Liese. Her eyes were suspiciously narrowed and her gaze didn't shift from the head of school. The students shifted in their seats, both nervous and excited. The war had begun. They all knew that this was coming; they hadn't thought it would be so soon.

"Our nation, Germany, is fighting to take Poland for ourselves," he continued. "The invasion began around five forty-five this morning and the fighting had been going on ever since. We don't expect Poland to be hard to take..."

His words were drowned out by Liese's thoughts. It was bad enough that Werner, Otto, and eventually Augustine were going into the army, now they would be leaving as well? What if they never came back? What if they died while they were there? She couldn't live with herself if her brother died.

"Elise?" Mena whispered to her. "Are you alright?"

"Uh, jap," she murmured.

Mena cast Liese a worried glance. A thought overcame Liese and she gasped, putting her hand over her mouth. She slowly turned to Mena.

"What if he's already gone?" Liese whispered.

Mena's mouth turned into a small 'o'. She regained her composure and shook her head. "They would've told us. They would've gotten leave. Right?"

Liese twisted her blouse in her hands. "Poland is allied with England and England is allied with America so Poland is going to get help from England and England would—" She noticed she was wrinkling her blouse and let go of it, smoothing it out. The wrinkles didn't disappear. "England would...."

"Liese," Mena interrupted. "It'll be okay."

Liese nervously swallowed. The two girls looked at each other. Mena gave her an encouraging smile. Liese bounced her leg as the auditorium buzzed with excitement.