GERMAN ALIENS
There was one event at the Chelyabinsk orphanage that I remember in particular. Somewhere around the November holidays, they began to pack us together. Every one of our already crowded wards had two or three more bunks put in it, practically liquidating the passageways. Metal beds were placed in the two wards that had been emptied. The corridor by the exit to the staircase was blocked by a wall covered with plywood, with a door in it. For a long time, we didn’t know why such serious preparations were being made. Then rumors began to spread that German prisoners of war, of childhood age, were being sent to our orphanage, like us, only little fascists. I remember that we didn’t like these rumors at all. Why were our wards being given to enemies? Why did we, the victors, have t
