The Faceless Babe

It was around 1939 when I joined the army. I joined on my father's whim, for he was an admired soldier in his own right. I guess you could say I was following in my father's footsteps, but I just felt like I was finding my own destiny. Joining the army was a way for me to see the world. I joined the army as a nurse. I remember at the time, I saw posters encouraging women to take on new roles in society, and so I did. At the time, I thought being a nurse in the army was an extremely safe thing to be. America had declared its neutrality of the war in Europe at the time, and I believed that we would stay away.

It was November 15th when everything changed. President Roosevelt decided to send aide to Europe, to help our allies. Aide came in the form of nurses, and I was on one of the first planes to the warring countries. I remember my last night on my beautiful homeland of Hawaii. My father had made us a special little luau, which included a small roasted pig, delicious roasted garlic potatoes, and a thick and aromatic gravy which still makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Before I went to bed, my father and I went to our little garden to view our special stars one last time. The night was particularly clear that night, maybe the Gods were trying give me one last glimpse of heaven before I was sent into the hellish lands of Europe. We were sitting there for about an hour, when my father pulled out a small little chain from his pocket. He gently placed the chain around my neck and spoke softly, "My Maria. My dear dear Maria. You have made your father so so proud. The next few months will be scary, but just remember that wherever you go, a little star will always be with you." My father pulled his hands away from the chain which now hung limply from my neck and I saw a perfectly beautiful little gold star. It nestled right next to my heart, and I felt the tears starting to fall from my eyes. My father started to cry also, and we both wept into each other's shoulders.

I woke up the next morning, surprised I was in my own bed. My father must have carried me into it last night. I was eighteen years old, his back must be broken. My internal joke kept me light that dark morning, and I found the time ticking faster than it had in my entire life. Soon I was in front of a large green plain, waving goodbye to my father. I took the star out of my breast pocket and fastened it around my neck. Then I was off to war.

My first night in Berlin, Germany was cold and bitter. The winter came early in this region, and I had no blanket. I remember asking everyone for a blanket, but they just laughed at me and shrugged me off. I was so cold that night, my teardrops turned to ice, and I felt my soul turn even colder. That first night proved to be a great introductory to what my stay in Germany was going to be like.

The very next morning, I found myself on an hellish twenty mile hike to a nearby town. There was snow, bitter snow at the time. Tons of the white stuff covered the landscape like a blanket of bitter white. Every step sent a new chill of frost into my spine, I cried again that night. It was only night two.

Every day after that was about the same. The nurses and I walked about twenty miles every day, and every night we slept in the bitter cold in anticipation of getting to our undetermined destination. I felt myself desperately longing to get to the town we were marching to.

By the fourth day we made our way to a sleepy little town called Ravun. The town was nothing more than maybe twenty houses and a large church which loomed in the background. We were greeted into the town by the howls of misery which were coming from the thousands of people zig-zagging the town in agony. I didn't know where to begin, as I was only trained in basic medicine. I started with a nice jewish man, which proudly had his star of david displayed on his front jacket pocket. Now that I think of it, most of the people in the town had stars on their clothing. Yet, at the time, I didn't know what the stars truly meant. The man I was helping had a huge laceration on his foot. The blood from the foot stained the purity of the freshly fallen snow. I tried to first put alcohol on the wound, but the second the strong-smelling liquid touched his wound, he yelled out with pain. I tried to calm him, but nothing worked. So I took out a small syringe from my purse, filled it with a medicine labeled sleep, and stuck it in his arm. Seconds later, the man fell unconscious into the snow with a soft thud. I then wrapped his wound up in faded white cloth and proceeded to my next patient.

The rest of that week was spent healing the incurable. We nurses just gave them more time and less pain, but their death was certain. It was my fifth night in the hellish city when I discovered her. When I say her, I guess we can name her Eliza. The first time I saw her, I thought I was looking into a mirror. My eyes caught hers, and I instantly gasped at our similarities. Her hair was red, mine was brown, but other than that we could have been sisters. Another huge difference between us was the fact that the woman was heavy with child. I tried to speak broken German to her, and I was glad to know she spoke a little English. We soon became fast friends, until the night Hell reined down on the small city of Ravun.

The warriors came into the town as silent and deadly as death, and they took as many prisoners as they could get. I woke up that night to the cries of hundreds of women all screaming a familiar word, "Camps." They were of course referring to the ghastly concentration camps, which I came to know in this new warren world. Eliza was the one who woke me first. I fell asleep on her shoulder, and she fell asleep leaning on me. She cried out in pain, "Baby My". I knew she was worried about her baby, but there was nothing I could do. I felt bad, but I felt relieved at the same time. I knew the Nazi's would not take me, for I was not Jewish. I took out my army papers, and held them at the ready. I was prepared to fight for her also, telling them that she was heavy with child.

The men came into the house in a bombardment of gunshots. They peppered Eliza's little wooden door and made it vulnerable. One of the men knocked down the door with a single kick, and they rushed into the house. I held up my papers, and said loudly, "Sei est mein! She is Mine!" But the men knocked me aside and took my pregnant friend forcefully. In the force of the blow, I fell to the ground. Unnoticeable to me, my star necklace fell out of my blouse. One of the men saw the star and immediately accused by of being jewish by saying, "Die Judin!". At first I thought he was ordering my execution, but he was just alerting them that I was jewish, which I was not. The very necklace my father had given me, was the necklace which brought me the Ravensbrück concentration camp. One of the men must have deemed me too spirited, so they sent the hilt of a gun crashing to my head. Bright white light filled my sight, as a horrible pain erupted in my head. Then all of a sudden, I faded then went out completely. I became unconscious.

I woke up in a brightly lit room. At first I thought I was in the room alone, but I soon heard the whimpering of a woman. I looked across the room, and I noticed my poor Eliza wincing in pain. I instantly knew she was going through childbirth. Looking around my surroundings, I found that the nazi's had not taken away my medical bag. I took out a few supplies and rushed to Eliza. Putting her in the proper position, I started to deliver her child. Scarlet blood starting pooling at my feet, and I instantly knew something was wrong. Something was very wrong. The child would not budge from Eliza's limp body. I then figured that the woman had gone unconscious. I tried to hurry the operation, for I knew too much blood was coming from Eliza. Grasping the baby in my hands, I tried to pull the child out of the mother's womb. As I pulled, I began hearing the cracking of the woman's bones. The child was cracking the woman's pelvic bones. With a huge effort, I finally released the child from its bloody prison.

The next events are hard for me to describe, for even myself, I can't even believe it was real. For the sake of my humanity, I will do my best to recall that night's horrors. The second the child came from the mother's womb, I noticed an absence of face. The child had no face. His pale skin covered the entirety of his face. He had no eyes, no nose, no mouth, and no ears. The child was wiggling frantically, and I vomited on the skirt of Eliza. I threw the child down in horrible disdain, and I tried to make my way to Eliza's body. Yet, when I put my finger's over the dying woman's wrists, I felt no heartbeat. I was alone with this abomination of a hell child. I didn't know what to do. I took a syringe of undiluted sleep medicine and poured it into three syringes. I then grabbed one to place into the child's heart. I needed to rid the world of this demon babe.

Before my hands even brought the syringe close to the child's wriggling body, a man rushed into the room and grabbed the syringe from my hand with inhuman speed. In three precise and fluid motions, he brought all three syringes into my back. Like a ton of bricks, I fell to the ground with a thud. For the second time that night, I was unconscious.

I awoke to the sounds of excited murmur. I first felt icy metal on my bare skin. I then realized I was stark naked on an operation table. Looking frantically for the source of the voices, I found a group of four men with hell-like red eyes. The men were abnormally large and menacing. Panic swept through my body, as one of the men proceeded to me with a sharp blade. The man was even more sinister looking than I originally noticed. His face was etched with tribal markings, and his eyes were red as blood. His arms were huge, yet he had such dexterity. Then the demon man grabbed the blade closer. He brought it to my skin ever so precisely and began his incision. Without any sort of numbing medicine, I found the nerve ends in my face exploding. Such pain came from the cuts of the man. I couldn't even scream because I was in so much pain. I fell out of consciousness, which was a relief, only to be brought back into it by another bout of incisions. Soon I felt myself an inch from death. With each cut, came a new source of infinite misery. Soon, the pain subsided, and I felt the men take something off of my face. Then I looked to see what it was. The men were not taking something off of my face, they were taking OFF my face. I looked in horror struck panic as I felt myself fainting from a combination of the pain and the disgusting surprise.

I woke up one last time that morning. The doctor must have left me to die of my own devices, for they dumped my naked body into a small patch of snow on the far boundary of the camp. I woke up in such bitter cold and pain, I knew I was hours, if not minutes, from death. Grabbing a stick from a nearby yew tree, I made my way north. I had no idea where north was, but I had a mission. My mission was clear.

Before I made my way to the resting place, I looked up at the sky once more. I noticed the stars were finally out in Germany. My friends were back, I was about to finally meet them personally. In the bitter coldness, the stars warmed my soul and reached out to me. The brilliant light wrapped around me.

Then I died.