Making Bombs for Hitler

After work, Lida finds Juli alone in the washhouse, scrubbing at her bloodstained cuff. The other children have not yet returned on the train. With no one else around, Lida asks again about the younger children at the hospital. Juli tells her not to think about them anymore but finally admits that although different things happen to them, mostly doctors drain the children’s blood into bottles. The blood goes to wounded Nazi soldiers on the Front who need infusions. The children typically die in their sleep.

Lida feels sick and worries if the same thing has happened to Larissa. Lida believes the Nazis see them as tools, rather than humans. Overcome, she falls down crying, and Juli cries with her. Juli’s job is to clean up when the doctors are finished. Juli tries to put the children at ease by singing to them and offering water. Lida feels horribly guilty. She thinks about a girl she met named Tatiana who lied about her age, pretending to be younger. If she hadn’t lied, she might have been forced to go with the older children and would still be alive. Lida sobs for the dead children, the living children, and for everyone’s lost and dead family members.

Zenia’s appearance startles Lida when she returns. Zenia works at a factory sanding metal seams on pipes in an unventilated room: She is covered in gray metal dust and looks like a ghost. Seeing the empty bunks in her barracks, Lida prays for the souls of the young children and sends positive thoughts to Larissa. She worries whether Larissa made herself useful. Three new girls arrive to fill the bunks, which initially makes Lida angry. Oksana and Marta are Ukrainian, and Natalia is Polish, though all three wear “P” badges. All the girls take turns washing each other’s clothes, scrubbing them with rocks and bleach powder. Lida meets Mary, a teenager whom Lida mistakes for an old woman.

Months pass with the same routine: Twelve-hour workdays, half-days on Saturdays, and Sundays off. On weekends, “higher-class” prisoners work outside camp as housekeepers or field hands and are paid in food. Juli risks smuggling food into camp. Marta and Oksana barter crafts that the girls make in exchange for food. On Sundays, the prisoners occasionally hold concerts, singing and playing homemade instruments, proving again to Lida that beauty is everywhere.

Luka, who also works at the metal factory, tells Lida that his father was a pharmacist who continued doctoring people after his store was appropriated by the Communists. He was sentenced to 10 years of prison in Siberia. Luka’s mother was taken as a German enslaved laborer. Both could be alive—or dead. Luka thinks of Lida as a sister, and they pledge to help each other. Inge now trusts Lida with repairing Inge’s personal clothing and the officers’ clothes, though Inge refuses to let Lida wash her dress in the laundry with Germans’ clothes.

In October, a bomb strikes near the camp, hitting the metalworks factory in town. The Nazi in charge, Officer Schmidt, orders Inge to gather workers and stretchers to meet the train returning the injured workers to camp. Lida and Juli prepare beds in the hospital.

In one hospital room, Lida notices a corpse-like man and woman lying in bunks. They are Germans who are being starved. The woman was a warden who developed cancer, and the man was a policeman who suffered a head injury: The Nazis believe they are no longer useful. Lida tries to understand how a hospital, which should be a place of healing, is a place of killing. She worries again about Larissa being useful and empathizes with Juli, who must work helplessly in such a terrible place.

Nurses treat superficial wounds of the returning workers while the doctor sends more serious cases to the hospital. Zenia has deep cuts on her arm but tries to look useful. Luka, covered in blood, goes to the hospital. Lida wonders if he will be treated or killed.

Lida sews a piece of her own dress to Zenia’s tattered garment. Inge’s husband, who is fighting in France, sends her a package of beautiful clothing. Lida knows it is stolen and remembers how the Nazis stole irreplaceable valuables from her own church and her friend Sarah’s synagogue. Inge wants Lida to remove the previous owner’s monograms from the clothes and put her name on them. Lida wonders about Madame Fortier, whose name is on the labels. The intricate stitching will be difficult, but Lida tells Inge she can do it.

Lida meticulously unpicks the first monogram and restitches it with Inge’s name, greatly pleasing Inge. Lida sits with Juli and Zenia at lunch. Zenia is working in the kitchen until she recovers. Her dress is even more shredded. Juli tells Lida that doctors stitched a cut in Luka’s leg and are giving him injections to prevent infection. Lida, worried about Luka, sneaks into the hospital while the medical staff is at lunch. She peeks into rooms and finally finds Luka. He tells her that if they are separated, he will find her when the war ends. Lida kisses him on the forehead: She is thrilled Luka is okay and relieved that she did not get caught.

Lida finishes the monograms. Inge is so pleased, she rewards Lida with half of her hearty lunch. Lida is tempted but instead asks for a new dress, which she will give to Zenia. Inge is surprised Lida wants nothing for herself. She gives Lida one of her husband’s old blue flannel shirts. Lida is happy and hopeful at this first evidence of Inge’s kindness. Officer Schmidt accuses Lida of stealing the shirt, but Inge defends Lida vigorously. Lida overhears Inge praising her patience and precision. Lida excitedly gives Zenia the shirt, and the two use the fabric to make new dresses for themselves. There is enough fabric left for each girl in Barracks 7 to patch their clothes. Lida’s happy dream of her mother morphs into a realistic dream of Luka telling her to be safe.