Page 43 of The Watchmaker of Dachau

Then, he saw her – really saw her – a young woman, and he an ageing man, and his smile faltered for a moment until he saw her return the gesture, allowing it to reach her eyes.

They fell into a matching stride, their shoulders touching, Schmidt a few steps behind, humming his annoying tune and smoking his cigar, not realising that Isaac was glad he was making them walk slowly, glad of the extra moments with Anna.

‘How was your day?’ he asked her, his tone the same as if he were asking Hannah when he returned from the workshop.

She looked at him, then bit her lower lip as if she were about to cry.

‘What is it?’

‘I just want to go home,’ she said, a tear tracing down her cheek.

Without thinking, he took her hand in his, briefly, and gave it a squeeze as if he were hugging her with all his might.

Shocked, she looked down at her hand.

‘I’m sorry,’ Isaac whispered, then moved away from her.

They walked in silence, only the crunch of their footsteps on the ground, and the rustle of leaves and undergrowth as night-time visitors sought food.

Then, her arm was back against his and a slight brush of her fingers on his fingertips, so fleeting that he wondered if he had imagined it.

As they reached the gates, quietly she said, ‘Thank you,’ and disappeared towards the women’s block, the spotlights from the watchtower illuminating her as she walked.

Three bunks were empty in the bunkhouse when Isaac reached them. All three belonged to brothers, aged between eighteen and twenty-two.

‘Where are they?’ Isaac asked Jan as he washed his face.

‘Where do you think?’ Jan said, then pushed past to his own bunk.

Isaac followed, the coughing and quiet murmurs echoing around the bunkhouse.

‘Where?’

‘Are you really going to ask me that? Do you not see the chimneys, not smell the burning?’

‘I’m at the house,’ Isaac said dumbly.

‘Ah yes, that you are. At the house. Lucky you.’

‘I didn’t ask for it. They asked for me.’

‘Well, whilst you are at the house, at the pleasure of our guards, men are taken away every day to the buildings with chimneys. Do you know what happens in those rooms? They are gassed, all together in one room, and then their bodies are burned.’

‘How do you know?’ Isaac’s throat was dry.

‘How can I not know? They make us burn the bodies. They make some of us march them to the room in which they will die. We tell them they are going for a shower.’

A chill ran down Isaac’s spine as he remembered the shower room from his first day, the iced water running over his body, the men pushed together, frightened. Was that how it was?

‘I – I didn’t know.’

‘Like I said, you are lucky.’ Jan lay down and turned his back on Isaac. Then, his head turned briefly. ‘You said before, to Elijah, that you would get out of here, that the Americans and British would save us. I didn’t believe you, but I do now. They are coming, you can see it in the guards’ faces. They are forgetting things; they talk amongst themselves more. But more of us are dying – so I’d say you’ve got a fifty-fifty chance of getting through this. Maybe more so because you’re at the house.’

‘You think we will survive?’

‘I’m telling you this so that you make sure you do. Keep your head down, don’t get into trouble.’

‘Thank you,’ Isaac said.