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[redrooms]

"You've reached Natasha Romanov. Please leave a message."

Comments

[redrooms]

I don't. I'm sorry. I'm sure England could give you far more detail on questions like that than I can.

[devoutish]

I've thought about it. Chose you instead.

[redrooms]

Why is that?

[devoutish]

Process of elimination.

[And that's all he's going to give her.]

What happens in Russia?

[redrooms]

[Natasha pauses at that. This is far more personal, for obvious reasons. Even decades out, what happened in Russia still affects her. Thank god for spy training and a fantastic ability to hide her emotions.]

The Soviets suffered more casualties during the war than anyone else. They signed a non-aggression pact with Germany that Hitler broke, and tens of millions of people were killed when Germany invaded.

[devoutish]

[Alfie is absolutely doing the same. His hand might seek out Fiona's at some point, but no matter what, he's determined to sound calm and collected.]

Soldiers or civilians?

[redrooms]

Both. The Nazis had "task groups" created specifically to kill civilians in occupied territories. The rest died in the fighting. Millions from starvation.

cw: Holocaust talk

[devoutish]

I was told about their camps. Millions died there, but I wasn't told how many exactly.

[redrooms]

[Now, Natasha's voice gets a little softer.]

There isn't a solid number. Around six million Jews. More, counting the other people that were sent to the camps.

[devoutish]

[Six million. It's fewer than he'd feared, but - he realizes now - more than he'd expected. His nails dig into Fiona's palm.]

Tortured, and then killed with poison gas.

[redrooms]

[There's no sugarcoating it.]

Yes.

[devoutish]

What else?

[Still calm, still collected. His voice is just a little more tight, but that's all.]

[redrooms]

Alfie. If I tell you any of this, you won't be able to unknow it. It will stick with you.

[devoutish]

[He doesn't raise his voice at all, but:]

Are you imagining I don't already know that? It's stuck with me since my first day, when I was first told. Since a few days after that, when I worked up the nerve to ask if at least England was safe. The least I can do is find out what really happened, so my head will stop making up details on its own.

Don't fucking patronize me, yeah?

[redrooms]

[Natasha doesn't bother apologizing, but on the other side of the tablet, she shifts in place. She understands, to a point—his desire to know far outweighs any desire to protect himself. She's felt the same in the past, even if it was never about anything on this scale. If he wants facts and nothing else, she can give him that. No coddling, she reminds herself, and her tone turns businesslike.]

What do you want to know? Everything I can tell you?

[devoutish]

Yes.

[He's just as businesslike. The subject matter deserves gravitas, but he's not willing to show emotion to her right now.]

[redrooms]

How much have you been told prior?

[She doesn't want to repeat what he already knows when there's no need.]

[devoutish]

What I told you already. Camps, torture, poison gas.

[redrooms]

[She's not sure how much detail he wants, so she eases in.]

Hitler rose to power in Germany in the thirties. In Germany, for years, there was rising antisemitism and increasing government sanctioned discrimination. The Nuremberg Laws were passed around 1935. At their most basic, they made it illegal for Jews to marry non-Jews, prevented them from being considered German citizens, and stripped them of their civil rights. Non-Jews stopped associated with most German Jews, stopped going to Jewish business, started distancing themselves. It became a steady escalation—by the time the war started, Jews were being sent to concentration camps and killed or massively displaced. It started in Germany, then spread to German occupied territories.

[devoutish]

How far did the territories reach? Not England, but--

[He doesn't know where else.]

[redrooms]

Most of Western Europe. Some countries were neutral—Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Ireland, a few others. The Soviet Union pushed the Nazis back eventually, as well.

[devoutish]

How many years was it?

[redrooms]

Four. The system of camps itself was around much longer. But four, for the brunt of it.

[devoutish]

Right. How much longer?

[redrooms]

The early thirties, I think.