The Rape of Juni
Part 2:
Matthew and Juni Strauss (he had married her after Sarah was born in 1940) had spent 66 years of happiness together in Berlin, traveling through Europe with their baby (sometimes leaving her with their parents and her grandmother) and enjoying the nightlife in postwar France and England. However, Berlin was always their home.
On her 90th birthday though, Matthew had a special surprise for his wife-two tickets to the United States. He presented them to her on her birthday, and she was absolutely thrilled.
“Oh, vielen dank schatz!", she squealed and hugged him.
“Bitte schoen,” he said-and they kissed.
“When should we go?", she asked.
“How about next week?”
“Okay, but where exactly are we going?”
“Well, we can visit the Grand Canyon or California-whatever you’d like to do. After all, they are your tickets.”
“How about California?", she asked, “a friend told me it’s nice.” “Okay, California it is,” he said-beaming.
The next week the two boarded a plane to California, and they arrived in Los Angeles. It was still early morning, so they decided to walk around and enjoy the fresh air-holding hands. Everyone was bustling around, and Asian restaurants were everywhere. Since the two were hungry, they went into a Vietnamese restaurant and sat down to eat. A waiter came by and asked, “Hi, what would you like?”
“Um, we’d like some hot tea for now. Liebling, was moechtest du?”
“I’d like some tea also,” he said.
“Tea it is. Would you like something to eat with that?”
“Ja, bald”.
The waiter was confused and Matthew said, “My wife said, ‘yes, soon’.
“Oh, okay,” the waiter said and left.
After he left, she said, “This menu is confusin, Matthew. When we were growing up, I never ate foods like this. I can’t even pronounce these Vietnamese words. It would be a lot easier if this menu was in German, but thankfully it’s in English.”
“Well, honey when we were young, there were no Vietnamese restaurants...only German ones.”
“I know, but this is kind of a shock to me. I can’t even speak my ancestral language, but I’m thankful my parents taught me a wonderful one.”
“Als bin ich,” Matthew said-holding her fingers from across the table.
“Ach!", she said-grinning, “the last time you did that was..”
“1939,” he said-beaming.
flash
Berlin, 1939
“Juni, do you remember when we were three and I grabbed your hair onstage?”
“Yes, and I yelled for you to stop. Our parents and my grandmother were laughing.”
“My parents still have that photo of me kissing your cheek when we were three, but I did love you.”
“I love you too,” (to Matthew-who held her fingers from across the table.)
flash, 2006
“Honey? Our tea’s here,” Matthew gently said.
“Oh, okay,” she said-coming out of her daydream.
The young Vietnamese waiter brought their cups of tea and asked, “What would you like to eat?”
“This please,” she said, and pointed to the item.
“Ah..pho. Excellent choice.”
“I want the same,” Matthew said.
“Fine,” the waiter said, and left again. He headed to the kitchen to give the order to the cook.
While the meal was being prepared, the two sipped their tea. Finally, the pho came but the two were confused on how to eat it. Although it was traditional to eat it with chopsticks, the two ate it with forks. A little Vietnamese girl saw what they were doing and rushed to their table. She spoke to Juni in Vietnamese on how to eat it properly, but the old woman didn’t quite understand, though she and Matthew were quite amused. The girl’s mother rushed over in dismay and said, “I’m sorry. Was my daughter bothering you?”
“No, not at all,” Matthew said, “but my wife didn’t quite understand what your daughter was saying. Please don’t punish her though, she was just trying to be helpful.”
The woman looked at her daughter and said, “Okay. well, bye.” Then the two left.
“Bye,” he said, and laughed lightly.
“That girl reminds me so much of Sarah when she was little,” Juni said. “Well, Sarah’s just as sweet as that one,” he said.
After the meal, they continued walking around L.A. before going back to their hotel. L.A. was a nice city, but they wanted to travel to other places in the U.S.
And so they did. Two days later, they flew to Arizona to visit the Grand Canyon, and they flew back to California to visit Disneyland and the Golden Gate Bridge. Their trip had never been so much fun. The two were enjoying sunset dinners and walks on the beach.
The two returned to Germany a week later, refreshed and invigorated from their trip. However, a month later in a shopping mall, she felt a tingling sensation in her arm and said, “Honey, my arm is tingling and I feel dizzy.”
“Bist du in ordnung?", he said with concern.
“Nein, denk ich nicht so,” she said.
“Juni, come here. Sit down,” her husband said.
flash
Berlin, 1939
Mengele: “Ah Juni, so glad you’re here. Have a seat.”
“Ohh!", she said, recalling the bad memory.
“Was ist es?", Matthew asked.
“Dr. Mengele said something like that to me on the day he raped me.”
“Honey, please don’t worry about that. Just sit down and relax.”
“Is this woman okay?", a man asked.
“Ich weiss nicht. She complained that her arm was tingling, and that she’s dizzy.”
“Should I call a doctor?”
“Ja, bitte! Es ist dringend!", he exclaimed.
The man called a doctor and Matthew said, “Honey, a doctor is coming. Please hold on.”
She began breathing shallowly and felt lightheaded. The scene attracted a crowd, until finally a doctor came. He examined her and said, “This woman needs to go to the hospital. She’s having a stroke. I’m calling the paramedics.” He called the paramedics, who came and got her immediately. Matthew went to the hospital with them, riding in the ambulance with her. He said, “Juni, please hang on.”
“Vielen dank, liebling,” she said weakly.
“Ich liebe dich, Juni.”
“Ich liebe dich auch, Matthew.”
The ambulance got to the hospital and Matthew got out while a couple of the paramedics grabbed the stretcher his wife was on and rushed her to the emergency room. Afterwards, she was transferred to a private room and Matthew managed to see her. He stood by her bed and held her hand, praying that she’d be alright but the worst happened. Juni had died of the stroke an hour later, but at first her husband wasn’t aware of it. Thinking she was asleep, he nudged her but she didn’t wake up. Alarmed, he went outside in the hall and found a doctor, telling him, “Please tell me my wife isn’t dead.”
The doctor came in and solemnly said, “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid she is.”
“Nein!!", he exclaimed-crying. He took her hand and cried, asking why, why was this happening to him-losing his love of 66 years. The doctor sympathized with him but said, “I’m sorry, sir...I wish I could bring her back, but I can’t. She’s passed on.”
Matthew was angry, and he exclaimed to the doctor “Get out!”
“Entschuldigen Sie?”
“Get out! I want to be alone with my wife.”
“Sir, I told you..your wife is dead.”
“Are you going to get out or not?", he asked-to the point of shouting.
“No, I’m going to call security and have YOU removed. You’re disturbing other patients and disrupting this hospital. Besides, you have no right to speak to me that way. I can understand that you’re upset, but you’re also being very disrespectful.”
“Call security. I don’t care,” he snapped.
“Gut dann,” he said-and left for his office. The doctor contacted security and within minutes they came and led Matthew out of the hospital, without a problem.
A week later, Juni was buried in Berlin and Matthew came to visit her. Crying, he took a photo from his pocket and placed it beside her headstone. It was the photo of him kissing her cheek when they were three.
“Aufwiedersehen, suess engel,” he said through tears.
His daughter, Sarah Schonbein was with him and said, crying, “I really miss her too, dad.”
“Ich weiss, liebling,” he said.
The two left the cemetary in tears, as 66-year-old Sarah drove her father back to the nursing home. Matthew thought he’d never find love again...until he met HER.
A month after Juni was buried, Matthew met Imogen Rey, a white German woman with over-the-shoulder white hair, who was his age, at the nursing home. They didn’t meet by conventional means: Imogen was always watching Matthew-not in a suspicious way, but in a curious one. Finally, she approached him.
“Hallo, ich heisse Imogen,” she said-extending her hand.
“Ich heisse Matthew,” he said-shaking it.
“Wie geht es ihnen?", Imogen asked.
“Nicht gut,” he said.
“Warum nicht?", Imogen asked with concern. “My wife Juni died a month ago. 66 years of happiness ended.”
“Ach, es tut mir sehr leid. Was kann ich fuer Sie tun?”
“Nicht viel,” he said.
“I’m a widow myself,” she said, “I can relate to what you’re going through. How old are you?”
“I’m 90,” he said.
“So am I. How about that?", Imogen said-laughing.
Matthew tried to smile but he couldn’t. Imogen felt sorry for him and said, “If you need to talk about anything, I’m here.”
“Vielen dank, Imogen.”
“Bitte schoen,” she said-patting his shoulder. Matthew appreciated her touch.
“So how long have you known Juni?”
“Since I was three. I really did love her.”
“Do you have any photos of her?”
“Ja, hier,” he said-and pulled out a photo album. He opened it and there were all sorts of childhood photos. Imogen saw a photo of little Juni with her parents Rachel and Ethan.
Juni was laughing.
“Oh, she’s so sweet and cute!", she exclaimed.
“Ich weiss,” he said, “and she was wonderful.”
“Oh, here’s another photo. Is that you with her?”
“Ja.”
“How old were you both?”
“We were five or six.” Then he said, “Juni was raped in 1939 by Dr. Josef Mengele.”
Imogen was shocked and said, “Please tell me that’s not true!”
“Es ist, leider,” he said.
Imogen’s granddaughter Sabrina arrived to take her to lunch, and she said, “Es tut mir leid, Matthew, aber ich muss jetzt gehen. Maybe we can meet tomorrow in the dining room for coffee.”
“I’d like that,” he said.
“Gut. See you tomorrow then.”
“Sehr gut,” Matthew said in return.
The next afternoon, Matthew and Imogen met in the dining room for coffee, and they talked and laughed. They were definately enjoying each other’s company. He took her to the opera house, where his father, Elijah, had been the conductor and his mother Nell had been the pianist-and they watched a delightful opera together. Within six months, he asked her to marry him, and she said yes.
They were married in June of 2006, the week after what would’ve been Juni’s 91st birthday. Sarah, Ethan, and their great-grandchildren, as well as Imogen’s children and grandchildren attended the ceremony, which was a beautiful one. Imogen and Matthew remained married for 10 blissful years until his death at age 100 of natural causes. Imogen survived but never remarried, but in accordance to her late husband’s wishes, he was buried with Juni.