FREEDOM?..

FREEDOM?
REDMOND QUINN
I’ve been seeing things lately, so I’ve been playing games to try and keep sane down here.

An easy game for me was a quick pop quiz – what could I remember from when I could teach? I started off easy – “Richard of York gave battle in vain” helped me picture the sky. I could smell the rain and feel the sun on my skin as I repeated it with my eyes closed. Mnemonics seemed to help so next I tried “my very easy method just speeds up naming planets” and it helped me remember there was a universe so much bigger than me out there. I smiled as I thought about the stars aligning and the right time coming for me to be free, but when I looked around the stars had extinguished and darkness was all I could see.

And when I realised that silly word games no longer worked my quizzes became as dark as my surroundings. I recalled facts about the Nazis, hoping that anything I could remember might help me escape from this hell. It was more than hoping: it was begging silently, tears staining my face.

I thought about the forced workers, and how I was a effectively a Militärinternierte – a military internee – in this crusade that Wolfgang has against my people. I thought about the many who lost their lives as part of Hitler’s evil. People know about the Holocaust because it was outright genocide, but the truth is a lot darker. The Nazis also literally worked people to death. Any polish Jew older than twelve could be set to work in camps that promised freedom to those who worked hard but instead left them toiling on an empty stomach until they were no longer of use. Then if the slaves were lucky they would be put out of their misery. If they weren’t so lucky they would be left to slowly starve to death.

I had to stop thinking about it after that, but then I remembered a name, suddenly.

Georg Elser.

A German who hated the ideologies of the Nazis so much that he single-handedly, without support from resistance movements, attempted to assassinate Hitler. He knew where Hitler would be delivering a rally on the 8th November 1939 and so he concealed a bomb in the speaker’s podium the evening before. Hitler only survived due to pure dumb luck. Hitler, under pressure because of the war efforts, made a shorter speech than usual, and left the venue 13 minutes before the bomb detonated, killing innocents.

Just like Georg with Hitler, Wolfgang, I know exactly where you’ll be come Frostbite, and you’d better believe that I am ready to drop a bomb on your plans. I thought you had broken me beyond repair, but you had just dented my spirits, and now I know what needs to be done. You need to be taught the ultimate lesson. Unlike Georg, I will not fail. I have faith that you will fall and I will be free. I’ve been waiting for so long. I need this.

You CAN NOT WIN. You MUST NOT WIN.