The Soviet soldiers came into her cell and gently picked her up and took Vera outside into the sun light. She squinted hard against the brightness of it, while at the same time basking in its small warmth. The soldiers helped her to a bench where they told her that she was being transferred to a hospital as soon as the trucks got there.
Soon an officer and three soldiers carrying submachine guns walked over to her. “Who are you? Present your papers,” he ordered rather severely; she thought.
“My boot, please, take off my boot,” Vera raised her hands to show the burns and gestured toward her uninjured leg where her medals and papers were stashed.
The officer nodded toward one of the soldiers to take her boot off.
The soldier handed his submachine gun to one of the other soldiers, reached
