Life And Fate (Orange Inheritance)
5
The American colonel had an individual cell in the special block. He was allowed to leave the hut during the evening and was given special meals. Rumour had it that the King of Sweden had intervened on his behalf, at the request of President Roosevelt himself.
This colonel had once given Major Nikonov a bar of chocolate when he was ill. He was very interested in the Russian prisoners-of-war and was always trying to start up conversations with them about German tactics and the causes of the disasters of 1941.
He would often talk to Yershov. Sometimes he looked into his bright, thoughtful eyes and forgot that he couldn’t speak English. He found it hard to believe that a man with such an intelligent face could fail to understand him – especially when what they were saying was of such consuming interest.
‘I can’t believe it!’ he would say. ‘You really don’t understand?’
And Yershov would answer in Russian: ‘The old sergeant had a fine command of every kind of language – except foreign ones.’
Nevertheless, in a language composed of smiles, glances, slaps on the back and ten or fifteen words of atrociously mangled Russian, French, German and English, the Russians were able to discuss comradeship, solidarity, fellow-feeling, love of one’s home, love of one’s wife and children, with people from dozens of different countries.
Kamerad, gut, Brot, Suppe, Kinder, Zigarette, Arbeit and another dozen words that had originated in the camps themselves, Revier, Blockälteste, Kapo, Vernichtungslager, Appell, Appellplatz, Waschraum, Flugpunkt, Lagerschütze,fn1 were enough to express everything of real importance in the simple yet bewildering life of the prisoners.
There were also several Russian words – rebyata, tabachok, tovarischfn2 – that were also used by other nationalities. As for the word dokhodyaga – meaning a prisoner who was on his last legs – this had been accepted by all fifty-six nationalities.
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The Soviet prisoners-of-war were unable even to agree among themselves: some were ready to die rather than betray their country, while others considered joining up with Vlasov.fn4 The more they talked and argued, the less they understood each other. In the end they fell silent, full of mutual contempt and hatred.
And in this silence of the dumb and these speeches of the blind, in this medley of people bound together by the same grief, terror and hope, in this hatred and lack of understanding between men who spoke the same tongue, you could see much of the tragedy of the twentieth century.