Photographer: Kyogrexu
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November 24th, 1943.
An afternoon in an officer’s house in Hamburg, Germany.
It’s not easy being a cat. We. Are. Never. Fed.
My pan scattered to the floor with a jarring noise that jolted Marie out of her chair. “Muschi!” she shouted at me. I stood and purred like a German sports car in the morning. My name has been shouted; it must have time for attention, or so I thought.
Marie ignored me and took the pan away. She scooted the old, dry, unsuitable food into the pan before dumping it all out and washing it. In a few moments I am loaded up with fresh tuna, happy and content. “You’re lucky to be an officer’s cat. Otherwise it would be kibble for you!” Marie looks irritated. Her words are not something I understand; I mewl for attention, but she seems to be caught up in the papers that were in her hands. Her face was tense; she looked worried. “Mein Gott, what are the air defenses doing?”
I returned my attention to the bowl; unsatisfied, I pawed at the food. It smelled more metallic than usual; I ate some but not much. After licking my lips I sat down gently and took in the room. Marie was cleaning. Horst is absent. I hear the shrill sound of children! Fritz and Gerda are here! Marie’s nieces and nephews were playing by the fireplace. Children. I loved children, and children loved me. I leaped down to the floor and padded my way over to their area, rumbling with satisfaction.
The kids were playing a game on the floor with pegs and dice. It was noisy, but it didn’t bother me; I sat down nearby and watched the dice scatter. Their clothes were smelly, but that didn’t bother me either. These were Marie’s niece and nephew. They had been living with us for several days at the time.
Suddenly that annoying whine filled the air again. Shrill. Loud. Marie cried out in a panic, and the children leapt to their feet. In a moment I was being scooped up and down again; to the basement we went. Marie was more upset than the children, but we all were. “I’m so sick of these raids!”
The ground rumbled and shook with thunder. Horrible thunder. Gerda held me tightly as the noises grew louder. I could hear bowls and glasses crashing to the ground upstairs, shaken by the sky. And just as quickly as it came, it subsided. Marie cried loudly in fear, tears streaming down her eyes. I could hear her heart beating from the lap I was sitting on.
Gerda rushed to her auntie’s side to care for her. Suddenly I was being dumped onto the ground, but I was more than just a kitten by then. I landed on my feet, of course.
Fritz whined, “Can I go upstairs, Auntie? I want to play.”
“Not yet; it’s not safe.”
“I want my mommy, I want my mommy!! My mommy would let me go!”
“She…” Marie returned to crying.
Hearing a squeak I turned my head, seeing a mouse run by with a scrap of food. Quickly I gave chase around several boxes and bins until I had it cornered. It dropped its food and stood on both legs with its arms wide, unsure of what to do. Its mouth was open; it was breathing rapidly. I could hear its heart beating extra hard.
“Was Marie a mouse?” I thought. As quickly, I lost interest in chasing the mouse. I sat down, and after a moment of abject fear, it saw an opening and ran away. I saw no reason to chase it. After a few minutes Marie and the children went back upstairs. I followed carefully. And hissed at what I saw.
The room was a mess. Broken dishes everywhere. Marie cried and cried and cried. I sat down by the old stove and watched them clean for the rest of the day.
That same evening in the same house…
Marie had been sleeping at the table since the thunder came earlier. A wine glass was lying sideways on the table with a small wine stain from where it lay on the white linen. Suddenly the door flew open, and Horst walked in. “Honey! Honey! I have news!”
“What!” she stumbled out of her chair, half asleep. “What’s happened?”
“We have transfer orders! We can get out of Hamburg!”
“Really? Where?”
“I’ve been ordered to coordinate with Unit 731 in Japan. We can coordinate our research! Best of all, Japan isn’t getting bombed! The allies will never get there!”
“Baby, how did you pull it off?”
“Kurt pulled some strings for me.”
“When do we go?” Marie looked ecstatic.
“Next month, but we need to finish up our papers on tuberculosis. They’re going to bring in a new round of subjects for this month, so we have to put all of them through outpatient.”
“Well, they’re spent, no matter.” Then her face turned with genuine concern. “Honey, we don’t feel safe here. The Americans keep bombing. They’re getting closer to our neighborhood.”
“I know, I know. Listen, there’s a guest room at the laboratory. Bring Hilda’s children. Once the month is up we’ll go to Japan.”
“Are you sure that’s safe? That work is contagious.”
“It will be fine as long as the children stay where they are told. Can’t you manage that?”
Marie looked ruffled. “Of course I can manage that.”
Over the next hour the adults wove to and fro in the house, putting together suitcases of clothes. As I was finally getting interested in that tuna, I was scooped up and placed in a soft carrier. I was rushed quickly to a waiting car, and we drove off into the night towards my next living space. My family was happy to leave the destruction.
The laboratory was a strange and scary place. It reeked of chemicals, and it felt off. The shadows danced out of the corners of my eyes. Humanoid shapes looking at me from all angles. I mewled in awe and fear, but the humans could not see what I could see.
Most of my days I stayed with the children, and they loved my company. They weren’t allowed outside of the room we stayed in, so I would often fall asleep next to them while they played games. Some days Horst would take me to work with him. I met his brother, Kurt, while we spent an afternoon in his office together. He worked on his paperwork, and I sat next to the radio wagging my tail.
“Officer Heissmeyer!” The other men leaped to their feet. Horst was slower because they were related. They would have long talks while I would listen about science, specimens, and weapons research. I understood absolutely none of it at the time, but things had a tendency to stay in my brain even then.
One day during their long talks Kurt failed to close the door. As they talked, I wandered the hallway content to control my own destiny for a time. I came across large panes of glass in a room I could not access. I could feel souls on the other side of the glass. The shadows that sometimes flickered for my attention were afraid to come here.
I jumped up onto the ledge and peered inside. Children. Dozens and dozens of children, but they were not lively like Fritz and Gerda. They were sad. Bald. They all wore the same black and white clothes. I could feel their misery through the glass. I mewled and padded the pane, but the children didn’t look up to see me. They were coughing and moving slowly. They were sick; I longed to comfort them the way I comforted Gerda when she was sick. After mewling pitifully for a long time, Horst found me and took me back to the family.
The rest of my days at the facility sped by quickly. I was never taken to the facility again; every day was a repeat of the last. The children hated being cooped up as much as I did, but we didn’t have a choice.
At the end of the month we packed up again, though this time more restfully. At first we rode a train, heading for the airport. It was a small plane but well supplied for officers. Horst was nervous. Our destination had changed. When he whispered in Marie’s ear that they were headed for Harbin, China, she was none too pleased.
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