Leather Straps…
- The midnight-to-6am guard on duty is Bernard Mengel.
- Mengel's a tough cookie: he saved his own life playing dead, and the German soldier who pulled out three of his teeth in search of gold fillings never suspected Mengel wasn't a corpse. Gruesome? Yes. Humbling? 100 percent.
- According to Mengel, Campbell tosses and turns all night in his sleep. He thinks this means Campbell feels remorse.
- Unlike Rudolf Franz Hoess. That guy was a piece of work. He was in charge of the gas chambers at Auschwitz, but he slept soundly.
- Mengel helped hang the dude. Not by filling out paperwork or sharing testimony, Campbell informs us. Nope. Mengel was the guy to tie the leather strap around his ankles. (No, er, death-kicks from Hoess.)
- What was going on in Mengel's mind when he stepped up to the proverbial plate? Campbell wants to know, too:
- Campbell: Bet that felt good, huh? Getting to help hang him in the end?
- Mengel: Meh. I felt what everyone felt by the end of the war.
- Campbell: Translation?
- Mengel: I felt nothing. His legs needed tying with a leather strap. I did that. Later, my suitcase was broken; tied that with another leather strap. Tying leather straps is all about the same.
- Gulp.