A Walk Down Amper River

The wind blew along Amper river, raising goosebumps on the skin of the two people that walked beside it. Just two people in the quietness of fall. The two were silent for a long time. They were neither friend nor foe, but their paths would cross and words would be said. As the two looked at each other, they waited for the other to speak. One was a small girl with a necklace that bore the star of David. The other was a short man with a square mustache and his hair parted to one side. Finally, the girl spoke.

“This is wrong, Herr Hitler… You know it, but you need someone to blame,” the girl said, her voice wise beyond her years.

“I…I know…But I can’t stop this now…It’s too late in the game,” he said, gazing down at her with eyes of sadness and self-hatred.

“It’s never too late, Herr Hitler. Never,” she said. “You can stop this pain, this destruction. Children, women, men. Are all dying, little girls like me,” she continues, her hair blowing in the wind as it kicked up and the sky darkened, a storm brewing around them.

“But it’s all for my country…” he began, before trailing off.

“It’s my country, too, Herr Hitler. It’s my father, Max’s, country. It’s my mother’s country. It’s every German Jew’s country. We were born here,” she said, unmoving, unaffected by the sudden rain that came down at first as a light sprinkle but grew to a heavy drizzle.

“You couldn’t possibly understand. You are just a child,” he told her, moving to go around. She stepped in front of him.

“You can’t just walk away, Herr Hitler. You can’t leave this country to rot,” she said as her form began to waver and disappear. “We’re dying, Herr Hitler. Our deaths will be on your conscious for however long you may live and forever after.”

She disappeared, but her voice echoed around the dictator. “I may die but you will live with it and die with it.”
These were the last words to cocoon around him before his dream shattered. He wasn’t beside amper river, but within his own bed. The girl was right. This all would haunt him until the day he died and thereafter.