THE RAZOR

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 53, 15 May 1942, Page 5

THE RAZOR

A SHORT STORY FROM RUSSIA At daAvn two Red Army men brought into the major's cottage an old, bent man. Without a Avord the men placed on the major's table a passport, straight razor, and. a, shaving brush —all they found on the old fel/OAV. Then thej- reported that he had. been detained in Gully near Well. The old man Avas questioned. He gave, his name as Avetis Akorov, Armenian barber employed by the Mariupol Hhcatre. The barber hadn't been able to get out of Mariupol before the Germans entered the toAvn. He hid in the cellar of the theatre along Avith the two small sons of his JeAA'ish neighbour. The younger boy began to cry loudly and insistently. The barber soothed him and he quieted! down. Then the barber took a bottle of water from his pocket and the child drank loudly, greedily gulping down the Avater along Avith his tears.

On the second day a Nazi corporal and two soldiers pulled the children and the old man out of the cellar and took them to their chief, Lieut. Friedrich Colberg, who lived in an abandoned flat that belonged) to a dentist. The smashed windows were boarded up. It was cold and dark in the rooms. An icy storm was sweeping over the Sea of Azov. "What have you got there?" he asked, when, the soldiers and captives halited at the door. "Three of them, Herr Lieutenant," the corporal replied,. "Not exactly," the lieutenant replied softly. "The brats are Jews but that old freak is a typical Greek nabite descendant of Hessenites, I wager. What's that? You are Armenian? How can. you prove it to me, you old ape?" The barber didn't reply. Kicking the last piece of frame into the stove, the lieutenant ordered the prisoners removed to a vacant apartment next door. Toward evening the lieutenant came in with his pal, a fat flyer named Irli. Under their arms they carried large bototles. The lieutenant sat the boys at the table, opened up the bottle, and poured out four full tumblers of vodka. 'I Avon't give you. any, Achilles," he said to the barber. "I want you to shave me this evening. Going to pay a visit to your local) belies."

The lieutenant forced open the boys' mouths and poured a full glass of vodka down their throats. The children choked ami spluttered;. Tears streamed from their eyes. Colberg clinked glasses with the flyer, drained his and said, "I always favoured the humane way, Erli." He poured another glass of the fiery liquid down the throat of each child. The boys resisted as best they could, but the lieutenant held their hands and made them swalilow every drop. The. smaller boy began to vomit. His eyes grew red and inflamed and he slipped from the chair on to the door, but the flyer put him on the Hiair again. Then the older boy -creamed a loud, piercing scream. He stared at his tormentor with eyes round with horror. Then he toppled off the chair and crawled over to Hie wall;, obviously searching l for the floor, but blinded by alcohol he struck his head against the door iamb, uttered a. groan andl fell silent.

"By night they were both dead," the barber saidi. "Their little corpses were black as if lightning had struck them." "Yes, go on," said the Red Army major, reaching for the document on the table. Thei paper rustled loudly. The major's hands were trembling.

"You want to hear the end? As you please. The lieutenant ordered me to shave him. He was very drunk otherwise lie would never have done anything so foolish. The flyer had left. I Nighted a candle in an iron candlestick, heated water on the stove, and began to lather his face, i put the candlestick on a chair beside the mirror. Then I thrust the soapy shaving brush right into the lieutenant's eye. He hardly had time to cry out when I struck him a heavy blow on the temple with the candlestick." "Kill him?" interposed the maior. "Outright. Then I made my way over to you. It took me two days." The major g'anced nit the razor, "f know what you are thinking." the ohl man sa ; d. "Von are wondering why 1 didn't use the razor. That would have been mare certain, of course. But to tell you the truth 1 couldn't bring myself to use my razor for that job. 1 worked with it for ten years."