JOSEF'S FORGE - 6
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 6
(Revisiting Chapter 5)
Walking from his office to a nearby barracks, Voroshilo had been shot and killed. (He, too, had apparently forgotten that there's no such thing as a free lunch!) A guard in one of the watchtowers - a man who had previously worked in the Records Office - was arrested. Subsequently, a court martial refused to convict him. The word was "Insufficient evidence"...or something like that. Rumor had it that the Commandant had him immediately transferred to an NKVD unit on the liberated Crimea. "Nice beach duty - and it's warm," a straight-faced Josef had grunted enviously, though Erich was almost positive that he had seen the beginnings of a grin! When the Squad entered the Office on the next day, a new lieutenant was in charge. Although it took him several months to warm up to his young German staff, he knew his business and he was a fair man. Who could ask for more?
(Continuing Our Story - "Meet the New Boss . . .")
One might think that there'd be few differences between the NKVD guards who were assigned to the camp. After all, as The Who maintained in their album, Won't Get Fooled Again, "Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss." Or we might generally follow Shakespeare and note that the rain (and snow) fall equally on everyone, that the mosquitos bite everyone - in short, that Siberia is no paradise for anyone. Solzhenitsyn spoke of "the Bluecaps whose training required only a willingness to carry out orders exactly and be impervious to suffering. Motivated by a greed for power and a greed for gain..." He also admitted, however, that "among . . . camp jailers it was possible to find some human beings. Every prisoner encountered more than one in his career. In an officer, it was virtually impossible." The human beings among the officers had simply had too long a time to be identified and removed.
All things told, the experience of Josef and his squad was not all that different. True, the Major had proved to be something of an exception. Nevertheless, such exceptions were probably few and far between. On the other hand, most of the guards posted to this wilderness over the years were in it for what they could gain - the good food available for personal consumption and/or theft and sale, avoiding being posted to the front, and the like - and ALL of them were motivated by a need to exercise power over other people.
Any guard (or officer) who desired to use prisoners sexually could satisfy himself - as long as he wasn't blatant or didn't push it too far as had Lieutenant Voroshilo. To be sure, Josef and his squad members were occasionally singled out by guards due to their being younger and their being in better physical condition due to their program. (Inasmuch as homosexual activity in the NKVD was officially punishable by death, this did not happen often or openly.) When it did happen on rare occasion, they submitted and, after the Voroshilo incident, were able to rationalize their submitting. It was also the case, of course, that homosexual activity was at least psychologically possible for half the group - Josef, Erich, and Heinz - as long as it wasn't forced on them.
Life in the Records Office had taken on a comfortable pattern. The German boys did their work, and they did it well. At times, they even suggested improved procedures to Lieutenant Kuznetsov, their new superior - and, as he became more comfortable with them, he often implemented them. In return, previous "benefits" were continued - with the exception of the shorts that were replaced by gray trousers and shirts captured from the Germans. By design, everything that went on in the Records Office was designed to make the Lieutenant look good. An intelligent human being, he gradually came to realize this and life in the Records Office became more easygoing. For instance, a terrific uproar took place in the camp on the seventh of May 1945. Guns were being fired; every signaling device in the camp was sounding; horns on trucks in the vicinity were blasting; Russian soldiers were literally dancing in open places. The Lieutenant went to a window, but could see no reason. He shrugged and signaled to Josef that he could take a look. Josef understood enough of what he heard to realize that Germany had surrendered, a fact that he transmitted to his superior. A great smile crossed Kuznetsov's face and he even took a little hop step. Josef simply barked, "Achtung!" When his squad had snapped to attention, he said, "Germany has surrendered." With a remarkable show of self-control, the Lieutenant returned to his usual bland "accountant's" demeanor, saying, "Well, men, shall we get back to work?" Within days, it became widely known that no one was going home in the foreseeable future. The Russians saw Germany's blood debt to be too great. It would have to be reduced before the first combatant returned to the West. After the first few weeks of wishful thinking, Germans realized that most of the men would never see their homes again, and a deep depression settled over the camp.
It wasn't long before the depression began to turn into something extremely ugly and dangerous. Where before there had been grudging obedience based on the hope that it might lengthen their lives and their chance to return home, now there was a generalized atmosphere of rebelliousness. The Major immediately cracked down, increasing supervision and enforcing the letter of the law. More Germans were punished during that month than had been punished during all previous months of the Major's administration. Needless to say, as production dropped appreciably, the Commandant realized that it would not be long before Moscow would be taking action. He wracked his brain, trying to come up with something that might reverse the direction of events. During the second week of June, he called Josef into his office. Quietly he summarized where things were now and how vulnerable they were to a return to more typical NKVD administration of the camp. Though he sketched a few possibilities, his basic message was that if Josef could work with him (to the extent possible for a loyal German soldier), he would be most grateful. The sergeant said that he would talk with his men.
(The New Project)
Josef quickly sketched the Major's analysis of the situation - with which he and Thomas basically agreed. Were the situation to change appreciably, the attention of the men would have to be diverted from their feelings of hopelessness to the excitement and rewards of a new project. Were the new project sufficiently in line with its perceived needs, this would also divert Moscow's eyes from that which the Major believed was a temporary drop in production. Any workable project would have to restore the provision of building materials to those involved in repairing the terrible destruction in European Russia. Josef also mentioned one possibility suggested by the Commandant. Namely, since he had arrived, Moscow had been screaming that the production of many camps west of the Irtysh river in the West Siberian Lowlands was unacceptably slow in reaching European Russia. The first part of an answer seemed to lie in building a heavy railroad freight line between Tyumen on the south and Tobolsk on the north. Thus far, the project had resulted in utter failure. As they had observed on reaching the camp from the rail siding on the Trans-Siberian, the low, marshy land presented immense problems.
The squad agreed that inasmuch as the war was over, there was no defensible reason for trying to slow production. Going back to the old NKVD approach to camp administration was definitely not in their interest! Conversely, the Major had proved throughout his stay at the Camp that he was a fair man and, more, that his reforms gave hope to many men that they would see their homelands again. This project might allow them to leverage even better conditions for all the men. Wolf had experience in surveying that might be of service; Thomas had actually worked for the railroad that provided international service across northern Germany into Berlin. When they informally surveyed the Germans at the camp, they found that a fair number had railroad and engineering experience. Thus, they decided to share their findings with the Major and to offer their services to the project were the decision to go forward.
When Josef next saw the Commandant, he was a happy and an excited man. The railroad project had obviously been an albatross around the NKVD's neck, and the career of many an officer had died with its several failures. Moscow was DELIGHTED that someone would agree to take this burden from their hands. They even shared the news that a German railroad had been taken for war reparations. Complete with rolling stock, it was at that very moment being shipped east. (The Soviet idea of "war reparations" was not only to take the contents of the factory, but the bricks of the buildings in which they were housed! On more than one occasion, they even scooped up the workers - including workers who lived in Central and East European countries that had not supported Hitler.) The current NKVD officers, labor teams, and supplies currently at the railhead were put under the Major's control. He was told to move and that he would be watched closely by those in Moscow. Even Comrade Stalin, he was told, was interested and promised resources.
Within days, the Major, an NKVD guards detachment, an older German Colonel who had been one of von Paulus's chief engineers arrived at the rail siding that stood at the southern terminus of their road. The Squad (which, for some reason, the Commandant seemed to regard as his "good luck" charm) accompanied them. All was in chaos. Many of the supplies had been picked through and/or stolen; the few Russians who were around, including their commanding officer, were drunk; the foreign labor teams simply waited miserably in the rain. Where was there to go - and who would not shoot them on sight if found wandering across the countryside?
The Major immediately took firm control of the situation. The drunken office in charge was detained. (He was later shot in Moscow, as were his staff members. Many of the lower ranks were sent to prison, although a few were reassigned.) The foreign workers were fed and given what shelter was available. Wolf and the Colonel engineer, supported by several handpicked NKVD guards, were charged with finding a route that would avoid the worst of the marshes. When they returned in a week's time, the news was not good. Most of far-western Siberia, i.e., that portion between the Urals on the west and the Yenisey river on the east appeared to have been a great inland lake that had an outlet into the Black Sea - and not too many thousands of years ago. The major rivers flowed north from the mountains of Central Asia into the Arctic seas. At that time, however, mammoth glaciers prevented their water from reaching the sea. The Colonel and his party found this great mosquito-infested basin to be a land of vast marshlands, slow-flowing rivers, and mixed evergreen forests - with an admixture of deciduous forests as one moved south. It was also the largest expanse of peatlands in the world. The Colonel engineer added that only God knew the extent of the mineral wealth and, perhaps, more that lay beneath the surface. In any case, the consensus was that building a railroad through this morass would be hideously difficult and unbelievably expensive - but it could be done.
Comrade Stalin ordered that the railroad project be put into high gear as soon as possible. He again promised the German railroad, first labor call on the 900,000 ethnic Germans (Saxons and Swabians) whom the Red Army was moving out of the Balkans, any NKVD supervisory personnel needed, necessary funds, and support for other needs as they developed. "I think we have diverted Moscow's attention from our recent troubles," the Commandant chortled quietly and with a wink.
To Be Continued
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): Now posting. PROFESSOR KENYON (10 Cs): In queue.