Rope Burns
Lieutenant Keller looked at the girl and turned his head to the collaborator who brought her in. "Is she the one?" he asked. "Yes sir," the man answered, swallowing nervously.
Keller's eyes drilled the girl. She seemed fragile, but there was a strength in her. Good looking, pretty even. Good face, king gray eyes, dark hair tied in two braids, grayish old dress, light jacket, old boots… A typical youngster who dashingly dared to defy the German occupation forces trying to slip poison into the food of the Luftwaffe pilots.
Such hatred in one so young was difficult to understand. And the girl was young. Keller could barely see her breasts. Twelve, thirteen at the most.
Keller sighed and lit a cigarette, studying the girl. The girl for her part studied him with equal curiosity, looking at Keller's medals and hard face, which was a face of the enemy. "I will now interrogate, "Keller said leaning forward. "Translate for me Herr Rubkov."
"Yes sir," the collaborator answered, turning toward the girl.
"What's your name?" Keller asked.
"Natasha," the girl answered easily.
"How old are you?"
"Just turned 13."
"Who ordered you to do it?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know?" Keller leaned forward, his eyes hard and cold.
"Don't lie to me you little bitch. You were caught red handed. I ask again, who ordered you to do it?"
"Partisans," Natasha blurted out.
"And you are such a good little partisan yourself," Keller smiled, leaning back. "And an incompetent one. I am not a cruel man, but if you don't answer my questions, I will have no choice but to execute you. Do you understand?"
Natasha's face paled and Keller saw her swallowing nervously.
"For the last time Natasha, who gave you the poison?"
The girl turned away, her lips trembling.
"Well?" Keller demanded.
"I don't know," Natasha managed with difficulty. "Filthy Nazi bastard."
Keller heard the translation and stood up. "Hans!" he yelled into the next room.
A big soldier with rolled up shirt sleeves entered and clicked his heels.
"Jawohl," he barked smartly.
"Get this girl into a barn. Let the boys have fun with her. After you done, find a tree and hang her. Get Miller and his camera too. I want this on film. Something to send our girlfriends back to the Reich. And make sure she dies slowly."
"Yes sir," Hans said glancing at Natasha with lust in his eyes. "That will be something to remember."
Keller turned to Natasha. "I sentence you to death by hanging for the crimes against the German army. I know you are scared Natasha. But hanging will not be as bad as what will come before it."
He turned to Hans. "Take her out of here."
The big soldier walked up to Natasha and pushed her toward the door. "Let's go."
Natasha gave Keller a hard stare before she was escorted out. The collaborator smiled shyly and said, "Can I watch the hanging Herr Keller?"
"But of course," Keller said offering the man a pack of cigarettes. "Tomorrow we will hang the little partisan, but today there is another hanging I want you to see." Another partisan?" the collaborator asked excitedly.
"Not really," Keller shrugged. "Just a couple of women caught with fake German ID papers. Some school teacher and a medical nurse. I am told the nurse is very good looking."
"When will that happen?" the collaborator asked.
"In an hour or so at the old barn," Keller smiled. "Follow me. Do you like your picture being taken with them? Now its your chance."
When Keller and collaborator and the soldiers arrived at the barn, there was already a platoon of soldiers waiting, including several SS officers and war reporters.
One of barn's beams held two ropes with slipknot nooses hanging above the two empty wooden crates from artillery shells. The two young women stood together, their hands tied behind their backs, their faces calm and showing no fear. The school teacher was black haired, skinny and tried to avoid eye contact. The nurse, a pretty blonde with big gray eyes, was looking at the ropes as if trying to find out how long can she resist death. Keller knew that look very well. Polish, Serbian and Greek women partisans all had that defiant and mystical look about them before they were suspended by the neck. And each woman died differently. Some died fast, others slow. One Polish girl peed herself even before the soldier kicked the box from under her feet.
"Heil Hitler," Keller saluted the SS men. "Looks like we are just in time for the party. "It's a good party," the SS man said pointing at one of the soldiers with a motion picture camera. "Every female hanging in the field must be recorded. The order came from Himmler himself."
"So," Keller said. "Which one will you hang first?"
"That one," the SS officer said pointing at school teacher.
Keller moved closer to the place of execution. Two soldiers pointed at school teacher and ordered her to climb on the crate. They helped to steady her, and one of the soldiers pulled the rope over her head, tightening the noose. The SS officers posed beside the woman, ordering the soldiers to back away.
Keller watched the woman's face and felt his heart beat faster. This is it, he thought. The heavy boot of the soldier kicked the crate from under the woman's feet.
A gurgling moan escaped the woman's throat, and she spun slowly on the creaking rope. The soldiers cheered, then felt silent. They wanted to hear the sounds she was making. Keller heard a rasping noise, then loud wheezing. And suddenly the woman began to kick. For about a minute her feet were moving back and front, causing her body to swing like a pendulum. Her pale face became blue and she jerked hard several times, before her feet began twitching. Blood ran out of her mouth from the bitten tongue and with a final convulsive jerk she was still.
Once more the SS men posed before the hanged woman. Keller saw the Nurse step forward and say in passable German:" I am not afraid. Go ahead, hang me fascist devils."
"This one has the spirit," one of the SS officers laughed. As the nurse mounted the crate, Keller took his own camera out and snapped two photos of her. "This woman belongs in bed, not on gallows," he heard one of the soldiers say to another.
At that moment Keller thought of Natasha. The young partisan at this moment was being raped by Hans and the others. Natasha's first sexual experience had to come at the early age under exceptional circumstances. Keller felt guilty about ordering to rape her. But now it was too late.
The choking sounds of the hanged nurse made him look up. She lasted five minutes longer than the other woman, but by the time she stopped kicking, her swollen face turned almost black. The nurse urinated in a steady stream on the dry ground, which quickly absorbed the water of her body.
Keller snapped two more pictures and left the area, going back to his headquarters. He poured himself a glass of shnapps and ordered a private to fix him a sandwich. Then he took a nap, asking to be awakened before Natasha was hanged.
In the barn, Natasha was sucking Hans off making slurping noises as she tried to accommodate the man's organ in her mouth. Hans's dick was huge, warm and moist, trembling inside her like a living thing. The soldiers for the most part did not hurt her as she thought they would. However, they mercilessly fucked her mouth and massaged her sweaty neck, knowing that they would hang her. In the end, Hans ejaculated, and Natasha's mouth overflowed with white froth. Natasha coughed and thick gob of white rolled out of the corner of her mouth on the heap of hay. Satisfied, Hans buttoned his trousers and threw her a towel. "Wipe yourself off," he said.
Natasha took the towel and wiped her face and neck and then between her legs.
They left her alone for about two hours, during which she rested and thought about her incoming death. She saw people being hanged before, but actually experiencing the hanging herself mystified her.
The door opened and three soldiers entered accompanied by Keller.
"Its time," Keller said to Natasha.
Natasha stood and allowed the soldiers to tie her hands behind her back. The rope was coarse and hurt her wrists, but she did not complain. She decided not to show weakness in front of the enemy.
They went out into the spring sunlight, walking to the edge of the village, where a lone tree stood with high branches jutting off from the thick trunk. The soldiers threw the rope over one of the branches and tied the noose at the end of it. Two of them picked Natasha up and the third placed the noose around her slim neck. At Keller's command, the soldiers released Natasha.
The rope went taught and the girl began to jerk. Her gurgling wet sounds soon stopped, but the young body continued to twitch and kick her feet as soldiers snapped one photo after another. Natasha's swollen tongue rolled out of her mouth and the soldiers saw brown streak running down her smooth leg, soiling her socks and left boot. When her body finally went limp in death, Keller steeped up to the hanged teenager and looked into her glazed eyes. He realized that even after humiliating and painful death, she still possessed the strength and beauty. Keller ordered her taken down after twenty minutes and removing rope from her neck placed it in the pocket as a souvenir.
Then he turned to the soldiers and threw over his shoulders: "Bury her."
Original Author: Oleg S. (2002).
Translation: Romulus (2002).