JOSEF'S FORGE - 10
Copyright 2006 by Carl Mason with Ed Collins
All rights reserved. Other than downloading one copy for strictly personal enjoyment, no part of this story may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, except for reviews, without the written permission of the authors. However based on real events and places, "Josef's Forge" is strictly fictional. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. As in real life, however, the sexual themes unfold gradually.
If you would like to read other Mason-Collins stories, please turn to the listing at the end of this chapter. Comments on all stories are appreciated and may be addressed to the authors at carl_mason@comcast.net.
This story contains descriptions of sexual contact between males, both adults and teenagers. As such, it is homoerotic fiction designed for the personal enjoyment of legal, hopefully mature, adults. If you are not of legal age to read such material, if those in power and/or those whom you trust treat it as illegal, or if it would create unresolvable moral dilemmas in your life, please leave. Finally, remember that maturity generally demands that anything other than safe sex is sheer insanity!
CHAPTER 10
(Revisiting Chapter 9)
In late February of 1955, Lieutenant Sedov delivered a message to Josef. On the next night, the Squad should remain at home. Droog had said that he wanted to speak with them.
(Concluding Our Story - Preface)
By the war's end, the USSR held 3.4 million German soldiers prisoner. Under the provisions of the Yalta Agreement, the U.S. and U.K. had agreed to the use of German POWs in the Soviet Gulag as "reparations-in-kind." Thus, rather than repatriate them to their homeland, Stalin began incorporating this captive human booty into the work camps. Between 1941 and 1952, almost a million German POWs, other Axis soldiers, and Polish POWs died in the camps. The last of the surviving POWs (10,000 men) were released from the Soviet Union in 1955, after a decade of forced labor. Approximately 1.5 million German soldiers from the Second World War are still listed as missing in action. Of an additional 875,000 German civilians abducted and transported to the camps, almost half perished. This number, of course, does not include the tens of thousands of Volksdeutsche [ethnic Germans] whom the Soviets scooped up in the Baltic states, in Eastern Europe, and in the Balkans and sent into slavery in the gulags. Few ever saw their homes again...or Germany, either one.
Of the approximately 95,000 German soldiers who surrendered at Stalingrad, only 5,000 ever returned home. This total included the former German POWs Josef (by birth a Latvian Volksdeutcher), Gerd, Heinz, Thomas, and Wolf, plus the ethnic Germans Erich (a Baltic German from Estonia) and Bernhard (a Hungarian Volksdeutscher) who realized they would not be welcome in their former homelands that were now part of the Soviet Empire.
The German Democratic Republic (i.e., the DDR [Deutsche Demokratische Republik] or Communist East Germany) was founded in 1949 on the foundation of the Soviet Occupation Zone. The Soviets closed the border between eastern and western Germany in May of 1952, but Germans could still escape by simply taking subways and regional trains into West Berlin. (By 1953, nearly 37,000 East Germans were "voting with their feet" each month, thus draining the DDR of much of its educated manpower.) In 1954, the Soviet Union granted the DDR sovereignty. In 1961, the DDR with the concurrence of the Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall, thus completing the separation of the two Germanies. The East German state lasted until 1990 when it, like many of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, collapsed.
(Home Again)
As the long train from Moscow crossed the Oder River, thus returning the young Germans to their native land after an absence of twelve years, their good-looking, twenty-nine-year-old sergeant looked pensively out of the window. Dear God, he had been only seventeen when he last crossed this river as a replacement for the Sixth Army that was fighting far to the east. He had done his best, giving of his blood and energy, refusing to allow himself or his men to be shaped in the brutal forge of the gulag. He had promised them that they could return home as decent human beings if they would but stand together for something more than fear, hatred, and survival at any cost. They had stood together, shoulder to shoulder, and here they were. Here they were, their humanity shaped and hardened, yes, but in a forge whose fire was pure and freely chosen by proud, humane men.
Nervously, he fingered the thick set of papers that Droog had given him on that last night in Moscow. Their travel documents were there, including special NKVD passes. So were records of their confinement in the camp in the great taiga forests north of Tyumen and west of the Irtysh River. Josef had noticed that Droog had included several laudatory evaluations of their conduct, both as human beings and as German soldiers. Surprised, he asked why. "Well, Josef," the Major had answered, "you always called me 'Drug' [pronounced 'DROOG', meaning 'friend']. I thought I'd return the favor. Hopefully, you'll receive a warmer welcome from your people than Russian POWs returned to us at the close of the war received from ours." In addition to a small amount of Soviet and German currency, he also received some instructions from Droog that had not been committed to writing.
It wasn't long before the train pulled into a great train station. Banners were everywhere, most reading "Herzlich Wilkommen in Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR!" [Welcome to Berlin, capital of the German Democratic Republic]. A giant DDR flag hung over the entrance to the station; an Army band vigorously played German and Russian marches. Large posters provided by the Socialist Unity Party welcomed the returning German service men. An official welcoming committee, numerous Red Cross personnel, and long tables of refreshments stood on the platform.
"Ready to go, men?" Josef inquired sharply. Quiet, determined nods met his words. Allowing about half the car to empty before detraining, the men entered into the massive confusion as if into the rapids of a raging river. Informally, trying not to call attention to themselves, the seven men merged with the crowd...but kept going, right off the platform and into the station. Naturally, they were asked for the papers, but the NKVD passes were accepted without question. As if he were following a map (which, of course, he was, albeit one committed to memory), Josef led his little party out of the station and to a nearby U-Bahn (subway) station. Without problem, they caught a train that entered West Berlin within approximately twenty minutes. All that was then necessary was to secure directions to the nearest Bundesrepublik (West German) offices and present their papers. Several days of examinations followed, but by the end of the week they were flown into the Federal Republic. They were home.
(Postscript)
Nearly three years later, the year 1958 found Josef serving as the Assistant Chief of a major German automobile manufacturer's "quality control" office. His partner in life, Erich, had completed his university degree and was working in a translation bureau that served both the business and governmental communities. They had established a home in the town where they lived, kept in contact with their comrades, and recently had jointed the newly-organized reserves of the Federal Republic's armed forces as privates.
Josef had been surprised when both Erich and he received official summonses to Bonn, the capital of West Germany. Arriving at the Chancellor's offices, they were greeted politely and shown into one of the conference rooms. Josef almost broke out laughing with pleasure when he spied Thomas, Wolf, Gerd, Heinz, and Bernard who had arrived before them. It was the first time that the members of the Squad had seen each other for three years. Their enthusiastic greetings were as if they had never been apart. It seemed so...right, so good!
After only a few minutes had passed, a well-dressed official entered the room and asked them to sit comfortably around the table. Looking directly at Josef, he said quietly, "There is business that we did not complete when last you were here. Thanks to your colleagues who petitioned the Chancellor and our own investigations, your Country is now able to thank you properly. Sergeant, if you will please stand." Rising with some embarrassment, his face flushed, Josef stood, facing the official.
"Sergeant," he began, reading from prepared notes, "Shortly after the surrender of the Sixth Army at Stalingrad in 1943, your Squad's sergeant was killed. At the age of seventeen, you assumed the mantle of leadership, guiding your men in the hard days that followed. At the holding camp east of Krasnoslobodsk and on the long road to Siberia, you not only saved their lives, but the lives of other German soldiers. At the Siberian labor camp, you exhibited the finest qualities of the German soldier, helping those under your command to fight apathy and to resist the efforts of the enemy to mold them into mindless, soulless robots. Over a period of eleven years' captivity, you again saved German lives at the danger of losing your own life, as well as the lives of Soviet guards. You guided your men to freedom. Your actions won not only their respect, but the respect of the enemy and, most assuredly, the respect of your Country.
"I am ordered to present you with this special medal of honor, marking your contributions both as a German soldier and as a human being. I am also ordered to inform you that you are receiving a commission as a Sergeant in the Bundesheer (Army) reserves. We thank you, Sergeant; we honor you."
The ceremony soon gave way to a wild celebration that lasted well into the night. Organized by Thomas with the assistance of the rest of the Squad, it was a time of feasting, drinking, and recalling so many times of joy...and sadness. Comrades for a lifetime gathered 'round, though it surely would not be the last time!
THE END
DATES OF LAST POSTING IN NIFTY
Archived in Gay/Historical Unless Otherwise Noted
OUT OF THE RUBBLE (32 Chapters): 10-22-04. CASTLE MARGARETHEN (9 Cs): 12-24-04. THE PRIEST & THE PAUPER (12 Cs): 3-10-05. HIGH PLAINS DOCTOR (12 Cs): 4-25-05. FOR GOD AND COUNTRY (9 Cs): 6-13-05. HOBO TEEN (12 Cs): 8-23-06. YOUNG JEREMY TAYLOR (9 Cs): 9-25-06 (posted in Sci-Fi/Fantasy). STREETS OF NEW YORK (10 Cs): 12-06-06. JOSEF'S FORGE (10 Cs): Posting. PROFESSOR KENYON (10 Cs): In queue.