“I didn’t say that’s all I do. When I was separated from Eliasz and Izaak and sent to Block 11, I suspected execution was next. Protz pulled me aside and would have taken what he wanted anyway, so I suggested a deal. Myself in exchange for my life and whatever goods I request.” She took a slow drag and gave a mirthless chuckle. “You’d be surprised how often they overlook their so-called ‘race defilement’ laws.”

I shivered in disgust, so she offered me the cigarette, but I shook my head in refusal. “You warned me about taking risks, yet you’re sleeping with a guard? You’ll be severely punished if you’re caught, and so will he. Don’t you know that?”

“Of course, but Protz’s family is heavily involved in the Nazi Party. He has uncles, brothers, and cousins fighting, and his father is a high-ranking Waffen-SS officer who played a key role in some German victories. He stays here, evading the real danger, stealing whatever he pleases from transports, and using his family name to avoid trouble. We’re careful, of course, but if we’re caught, he’ll protect me.”

“Right, trust the man who considers us untermenschen.” I spat out the German term.

“If staying alive for my brother and children means crawling into bed with a schmuck, so be it. Besides, he enjoys having a subhuman to call his own. He won’t let anyone take that from him.”

Though I could hardly fathom such bizarre logic, the overwhelming pity I felt after learning about her family returned, twice as strong.

Every moment came flooding back. Protz’s tight hold on my wrists, my own helplessness, his sweeping, lascivious gaze. A stroke of sheer luck was the only thing that had prevented him from following through with his intentions. My experience had been repugnant enough, but the idea of agreeing to his demands was beyond my comprehension, particularly when the agreement could prove detrimental.

Hania was a female Jew, even lower on the hierarchy of untermenschen than I. No amount of intelligence or skill changed her religion or the blood running through her veins. Appealing to man’s carnality was all she could utilize to gain some perverted form of leverage, and even that could be insufficient. Although she’d found a man salacious enough to overlook the dangers of the forbidden exchange, the arrangement hung by a thread that could be cut the moment he gave the word.

She was in check. One wrong move, and it was checkmate.

Hania tossed the last of her cigarette onto the floor and stared deliberately at my arms across my chest. I removed them. Something glimmered in her eyes, something akin to concern or perhaps sympathy—or maybe I imagined it. The only thing I saw now was a knowing, macabre gleam.

“Gave you a warm welcome during registration, did he?”