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| Bombed out Munich, 1945 |
He was shown his cell and given instructions about meals and the toilet. There was no running water. Each cell had two buckets of water, one for flushing the toilet and another for drinking and washing. Blankets were in short supply.
The cell door closed behind him.
“What are you charged with?” asked the man in the next cell.
“I don't know. I'll find out at the hearing.”
The man laughed. “When is your hearing?”
“I don't know. Why is that funny?”
“Franz! Leave him alone,” someone called from another cell.
Ralph turned back toward Franz.
“Why is it funny?”
“There aren't any hearings,” Franz said. “Not until they rebuild the courthouse.”
“Allied bombs,” another prisoner called.
Ralph soon learned what had happened. The courthouse had been badly damaged in an air raid about a month earlier. Trials had been suspended. Bombing raids were now common in the area.
“The bombs don't know we're here,” said a man in a cell across the corridor. “Nobody knows we're here.”
Ralph looked at him. The man sat hunched forward on his bunk, staring at his hands.
“Pssst.”
Ralph turned.
Franz raised his chin toward the other prisoner.
“Don't pay attention to him.”
Franz was from Bavaria. Ralph never quite understood what he had done to end up in jail, but the man was friendly and tried to help him understand how things worked.
“There is a library,” Franz told him. “You can ask for books. Reading is a good way to pass the time. Do you read?”
“People who don't read are no different from animals,” Ralph said. The news about the library improved his mood.
Late that afternoon there was a noise at the end of the corridor. The food cart had arrived. Two uniformed Germans brought each prisoner a small plate of potatoes. Ralph looked at the portion and wondered how long he would have to live on meals like this.
One of the Germans noticed Ralph's limp. The man's name was Martin.
Ralph spoke to him in German. “Any news from outside?”
“Nobody believes what they hear on the radio anymore,” Martin said. “The only thing we know for certain is that there will probably be more Allied planes tonight.”
“And less food tomorrow,” said the other guard.
His name was Steffen. He was a large, broad-chested man.
The following day Ralph received his first stack of books from the jail library. Among them was Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. Before the week was over, Ralph began asking for another book: a German-English dictionary.
Within his first few days in jail, Ralph learned more about where he had been placed. The previous occupant of his cell had died there. The prisoners around him were awaiting trial, but the bombing of the courthouse meant that no trials were being held. Food was rationed. Everyone was hungry.
“Essentially, we've been forgotten,” Franz said one morning through the bars.
Ralph's breakfast was another small serving of potatoes. He ate everything, including the skins.
Ralph continued studying the German-English dictionary he had obtained from the jail library. One of the evening guards noticed and began making fun of him for trying to learn English. Ralph ignored him and kept studying.
He also read whatever books he could get. He returned again to Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, a book he had read before the war. Ralph particularly liked Mann's references to music and Beethoven.
Music occasionally found its way into the jail as well. Some of the prisoners sang in their cells. Certain guards allowed it. The evening guard usually stopped them.
Then one night, during a blackout, a prisoner in a nearby cell hanged himself.
The following day Franz told Ralph what little he knew about the man. “He said he had a family in Munich. Nobody knows why he was here. He kept to himself.”
Ralph had thought the man unfriendly. Now he wondered about the family in Munich. He also thought about his own mother. If Ralph died in the jail, would she ever find out what had happened to him?
After the suicide, the evening guard continued mocking Ralph's attempts to learn English. “You're never getting out of here,” he told him one night. “You might as well do what he did.”
Ralph went back to his dictionary and continued studying.
One day several German soldiers entered the cellblock. They began unlocking doors and ordering prisoners into the corridor. Ralph heard shouting. One prisoner resisted and there was a brief struggle. Then word began moving from cell to cell.
Ralph turned toward Franz. “What is happening?”
Franz had heard it too. “We're being released.”
CONTINUED HERE
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UPROOTED: Intro and Part One
UPROOTED: Part Two
UPROOTED: Part Three
UPROOTED: Part Four
UPROOTED: Part Five
UPROOTED: Part Six
UPROOTED: Part Seven
UPROOTED: Part Eight
UPROOTED: Part Nine
UPROOTED: Part Ten
UPROOTED: Part Eleven
UPROOTED: Part Twelve
