Il Dottore

The shining black Mercedes touring car slowly approached the main gate of the most feared and notorious concentration camp in all of Europe. Inside the vehicle in the backseat sat Hauptsturmfuhrerrik Kramer and Dottore Leonardo Goncalo. Despite the car’s heater being set on the high level, Leo sat shivering in his seat. He looked over at Kramer, who maintained a muted face, an impassioned look. The ride to the camp had been one of virtual silence; Kramer was not one to engage in any kind of verbal discourse, with the exception of military or camp matters. As to conversing with this pretentious Italian doctor, forget it. The Mercedes finally came to a stop. Leo looked out and upward from his rear seat window. He struggled to make out the words located atop the gate, Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Makes You Free), almost as if denoting a department store. Not one announcing a death camp; one where thousands of individuals: men, women, children were being put to immediate death, or slowly being worked to a slow and agonizing expiration.