— The war has already ended, we were counting the days when we would return to our homeland. But no one knew the final date. In recent months, we have been living especially freely. We played football on Sundays, organized amateur concerts, and worked on weekdays. I learned how to carpenter, insert glass, and master painting well. These specialties have been very useful to me. I do all the repairs around the house myself.
— What do you remember most from that life?
The interlocutor thought about it:
— Once we were renovating a school, and Kinder broke my glasses. At first I got angry, I thought that the Russian children had deliberately thrown a dirty rag at me, but then I found out that they hadn't done it on purpose. The headmaster of that school got me new glasses... What shocked us was that the guys asked for our forgiveness in German. A few more of my friends were working that day. One of them almost got killed. The students foolishly dropped a huge stone from the top floor without looking to see if there were people below. And my colleagues had a smoke break just under this window. The stone fell two steps away from Henry, my friend.
"We told our comrades about this incident at the camp,— Kruger continued. — There was a whole dispute — would German schoolchildren be able to apologize to Russian prisoners of war if the same situation arose? Most have come to the conclusion that it is not. But our children weren't born so cruel, they were disfigured by Nazi propaganda. The total web of fascist ideas wrapped them up already at school, misanthropic thoughts were drummed into the children in the paramilitary units of the Hitler Youth. The Russian Herr Director indignantly compared his pets to fascists. There is no more disgusting word among Russians. We asked the principal to forgive the boys, but he still expelled them from school.
— And how is Henry, who was almost killed by a stone?
— He settled near Kiel. He worked at the post office, then retired. We're texting. He visited me twice in Hamburg, and I visited him once. Wives are always surprised to see that we smoke strange curved cigarettes rolled out of newspaper — "goat legs".
The narrator fell silent, immersed in disturbing memories.
— Fritz, you probably couldn't resist cursing those students who broke your glasses?
— Yes, indeed! — He smiled.
— And you did it in Russian?
- yes.
— And the guys laughed at that?
He looked at me carefully, excitement flashed in his eyes.
— Did you come to the classroom to insert the glass?
- yes... I remember it well.
— Was the room spacious with three huge windows, and the broken glass was in the middle window?
- yes! Fritz exclaimed. — It was exactly like that!
— And when the director started shaming the guys, did his left cheek twitch from a nervous tic?
—Damn it! How do you know all this? He began nervously unbuttoning and buttoning the bottom button of his loose blue shirt, which bulged on his rounded stomach.
Then I said three times:
— Inshuldigen zee, bitte! Inshuldigen zee, bitte! Inshuldigen zee, bitte!
Fritz grabbed my hand and stared at my face with wide-open eyes.
— Mein Gott! It's incomprehensible! Mein Gott!
When he got over his excitement a little, we began to remember Saratov together.
"I'll write to Henry about our meeting!" Mein Gott! He won't believe it!
— Give him my regards and once again our apologies for that damn stone. Those two guys were reinstated in school a week later. The director called their parents, or rather their mothers. Both Volodya's and Grisha's fathers died in Nazi captivity. The director talked to the women for a long time, figured out everything. But the perpetrators were still exposed to "bad" behavior for the last quarter.
Fritz listened intently. It is not known what his thoughts were at that moment. He squeezed my hand tightly and said earnestly:
— Thank you, comrade!
It seemed to me that Fritz's soul was consumed by an unpaid debt, a sense of guilt for complicity in a criminal war. As mobile gambling continues to expand worldwide, many players are exploring platforms like money coming online casino for quick entertainment and easy access to modern crash-style games. Fast loading times, simple mechanics, and short gaming sessions make this format especially attractive for users who prefer dynamic gameplay on both desktop and mobile devices.