Chasing Colours

Epilogue

Majdanek in Poland became the first Nazi camp to be liberated by the Soviet army on 23 July 1944 followed by many other camps and subcamps across Poland including Auschwitz on 27 January 1945. Buchenwald, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen and many more in Germany were liberated in the following days of 1945 by the American and British troops.

On 30 April 1945, out came the news of Adolf Hitler who had suicided by shooting himself along with Eva Braun in his Fuhrerbunker in Berlin. Defeat had seemed inevitable with the Allies overrunning German lands, With the death of Hitler, the axis powers were broken and the war with Germany had come to an end.

Further, to bring the war to a quick end, despite efforts to make Japan surrender, on 6 August 1945, the US would drop world's first atom bomb on the Japanese manufacturing city, Hiroshima, 500 miles from the capital city of Tokyo. Three days later, on 9 August 1945, the US would drop the second atom bomb, a plutonium bomb over the second city, Nagasaki. With the utter devastation and defeat, the Japanese emperor Hirohito would announce Japanese surrender, officially ending the Second World War on 2 September 1945.

(Edith)

It had been over six months since the war had ended. The Soviet army had taken us, prisoners along with them and fed us properly.

It had taken us over a month or more to be able to walk without fear. The first bite that we had taken after the camp had been liberated had caused us to vomit it out unable to digest it. The army had provided us with first aid and much needed medical assistance. Arno's hand would shiver while taking his food in while I would try to help him with it. Over the course of three months, Arno and I along with many others had been fed, given shelter and medical assistance.

Arno stayed close to me most of the time. I would get agitated if he went out of my sight even for a few minutes. It was tough for us to completely put our trust in the Russians. It was saddening how used to we had gotten to the screamings and beatings for a simple piece of bread. First few days were spent in cautious nights of sleep where Arno and I would take turn sleeping trying to get used to the newfound freedom. With time, we had let it sink in that we had nothing to be scared of anymore although that didn't stop the dreams. Over a period of days, we had learnt how to be happy again with no fear.

As we felt healthy and stable, Arno and I had moved out of the refugee camp of the Soviets and had tried going back inside Germany. We had decided to move inside the city of Berlin perhaps. Arno thought that the idea of moving into the capital would help him get some quick work to earn a livelihood.

We planned our lives ahead. Perhaps now we could get married and maybe someday leave Germany and travel west.

One day, I approached Arno asking him if we could visit our street back in Munich before we moved to start our new lives. At first, he was hesitant and so was I when the thought had crossed my mind. However, Arno had understood and said if we really have to move on then we had to accept the past as it was. The numbers tattoed to our forearms would always be there to remind us of that but now, we were survivors and fighters.

We had then visited the city of Munich where both of us had spent our childhood and had found each other; our street which had million hidden tragedies and happy moments buried in its soil. Most of the structures had laid in ruins from the air attacks for over five years of the timeline. However, the city was fast to recover. The buildings, roads, the government, everything was being rebuilt. Germany was recovering.

As we walked into the street we had once called home Arno turned to me, kissed my forehead and said he was going to take a stroll around and be back. I nodded and let him leave me alone in my peaceful silence.

I walked over to the remains of once a flamboyant street. There were a few houses that still stood weakly among the destruction. There were police and workers counting and recounting numbers and planning the place, It had been a long and excruciating process to register the number of civilian deaths and destruction through the course of the war. I walked to the place where once my house stood. Barely a wall or two stood in place of the home my mother and father had built with their for little children. I bent down and started putting the rocks of the rubble aside. Pieces of my bed, distorted form of Albert's old trombone, my mother's prized broken lamp which my father had hidden when I was eleven years, burnt ribbons, photo frames with blackened pictures and millions of memories were stacked within that rubble.

I wondered if my family had made it out alive. I wanted to ask one of the officers there who was measuring damages nearby but I was scared to hear the answer. It would be heartbreaking to hear of their deaths but at the same time, what was I to say to father or Albert or Ingrid even if they were alive and I found them? With that, I got up, dusted my skirt and started walking, taking in the elements around that I had grown up with.

I walked towards the forest which was now covered with charred trees and soot-covered dead grass with a few new greens growing. I turned my head to Arno as he walked up to join beside me. He looked at the forest and smiled.

"The cake that began it all," Arno said with a grin on his face, looking straight ahead at the singed forest. "I hope you remember the recipe of your mother's Apfelkuchen. It'd be tough to live with you otherwise, Edith Fischer."

Chuckling, I put an arm around him, stating, "Well, you have no other option other than getting used to however I make the Apfelkuchen, Herr Weber."

Arno smirked and sighed dramatically, "As you say, my lady."

Suddenly I turned my head behind us as I felt a familiar presence. My eyes scanned the area confusingly to find an answer.

Arno looked at me questioningly, "Edith?"

Still, in my trance, I just mumbled to myself, "I thought I saw Ingrid."

Unable to catch what I said, Arno shook his head and brought his ears closer, "What? I didn't catch you."

I turned my attention to him and gave him a smile saying, "It's nothing."

I hurriedly pecked him on the lips. Dragging the confused Arno with our locked arms, I said with a wide grin,

"We have a train to catch."

-----x-----x------

Edith and Arno shifted to West Berlin where Arno found in a small job as a helper at a construction site. Edith helped out the priest in the church who gave them a small place to stay; the small place which the two later made into a home with smiles.

A year and a half later, on 2 June 1946, Arno and Edith got married in the same church and planned to shift soon to New York to start their own bakery.

Life had seemed just enough for the moment.