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Hanna Schindel Blog Entry |
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July 19, 2024, 12:00:33 AM 7/19/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's characters from my anthro WWII storyline are Rebekkah Schindel, without head covering and with head covering, and Hanna Schindel. They're the wife and young daughter of Isaak Schindel, who I never posted here but he's in my art blog (1/27/23). Rebekkah is pregnant when her husband is imprisoned for defending them so he doesn't get to meet Hanna until much later. There'll be more about them later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding their design: Rebekkah is a German spaniel and always wears the head kerchief out in public. Hanna is nearsighted and wears really oversized, secondhand spectacles since they're poor; Isaak is a boxer (uh, the dog, not the profession), so Hanna takes after both parents. Her design's a bit iffy but she's kind of an awkward-looking kid so maybe it fits. TUMBLR EDIT: Most of Rebekkah's and Hanna's part of the story has already been outlined in Isaak Schindel's entry; Schindel himself is the primary character of the trio, so their background details are mostly undeveloped. The rest of this entry will be written individually to avoid repetition. Not much to say about Hanna, she's just a little kid. I'm unsure of her age as I'm unsure how long her father spends in the labor camp, though she's likely older than I had originally envisioned, as it seems Schindel ends up in the camp not long after(?) Dannecker takes over, which is pretty early on, and remains until Reinhardt orders the gates opened as Allied forces are taking the city. Given the extended timeline of the war in my story, this could be up to around ten years or so. (I know inmates of camps often didn't survive beyond a few weeks to a few months. Schindel remains alive for as long as he does as he serves as kapo, so he isn't starved (too much), beaten, or worked to death, or executed.) My brain doesn't picture Hanna as that old, so, maybe, as I mentioned, this is partly due to her just being awkward looking. I originally imagined her as blond, but that makes no sense, perhaps my mind just conflated her with another Jewish child character who IS young and blond, Gabriele Zweifel. In any case, no matter what her age, Hanna is half German spaniel, half boxer, though takes largely after her father Isaak. Her boxer features are prominent, including a bit of an underbite, a snubbish nose, more rust/tan-colored fur, black hair, and a short, chunky build. (Schindel is stocky and short, shorter even than Rebekkah, but physically strong.) The features she inherits from her mother, meanwhile, are her lack of black facial mask, somewhat longer fur on her ears and maybe tail, and her curly hair. Her eyes are sort of halfway between her mother's golden-brown and her father's hazel, though closer to the latter. Her hair isn't very long, and she wears these big, goofy-looking spectacles as she's quite nearsighted (her mother frets over her odd behavior when she's still barely more than a baby, until a doctor friend determines that Hanna simply can't see well, and gives her an old pair of adult spectacles to use until the family can come out of hiding and get a proper checkup), so she's definitely not very feminine or girlish; she might even be a bit of a tomboy. Still, when Rebekkah invites her estranged husband back home to stay (see HER ENTRY), and Hanna hugs her father for the first time, Schindel rubs tears from his eyes and tells Rebekkah that she's beautiful and "takes after you," to which Rebekkah tearfully smiles and says, "I thought she takes after you." "Doesn't matter," Schindel replies, "she's beautiful." Obviously, both mother and father care for her deeply, and endanger their own lives to keep her safe. Schindel takes increasingly shady and dangerous jobs to provide for his pregnant wife while they're still living in the ghetto, accidentally kills a ghetto policeman while defending Rebekkah and is caught while she escapes, and then assumes the detestable role of Lagerälteste, or kapo, while in the camp--keeping his fellow prisoners in line, and often intimidating or even beating them--on the orders of the commandant, Ernst Dannecker. (This job entitles him to a better bunk, food, clothing, and treatment from the SS, yet doesn't quite excuse him from Dannecker's psychological torture.) His antagonistic duties lessen under Dannecker's replacement, Hasso Reinhardt, who often puts him to work running errands within the administration building, and treats him so much more favorably than Dannecker did that Schindel remains behind when a wounded Reinhardt orders the gates opened, and tries to protect him from the arriving Allied troops. Reinhardt ends up having to vouch for Schindel, as the soldiers can't believe an inmate would stick around to try to help the commandant; Schindel actually bursts into tears when Reinhardt is taken into Allied custody as a war criminal and taken away. He's soon set free after it's determined that he's indeed a prisoner, yet it's a while before he can return to Rebekkah and Hanna, due to the harsh stigma against him for his own wartime activities; he nearly commits suicide, yet decides instead to find a job and try to keep going until he might get a second chance to reconcile with Rebekkah. Rebekkah, meanwhile, is the brains who helps plot out her and her husband's half-successful escape from the ghetto--at Schindel's request, as he knows she's "the smart one"--and, near term, she has to go on the run without him, and then into hiding with extended family, throughout the war. Acquaintances on the outside help provide for her and Hanna, once she's born, and keep the family informed; through them Rebekkah learns of Schindel's "promotion" in the camp. She's overjoyed to learn that he's alive, yet distraught to learn at what price; similar to Schindel, the thought of Hanna needing her is largely what keeps her going, so both parents, despite the distance between them, keep their daughter in mind as their motivation. Rebekkah manages to keep Hanna safe until the war's end, when friends provide her with funding and the two move into a tiny house in a newly constructed neighborhood near the city's edge. After she reconciles with her husband, he moves in and provides for the little family with his typesetting job. Hanna is active and curious, doesn't talk much (another reason I imagined her as a lot younger), but is quite affectionate and emotionally demonstrative with her parents; i. e., she's a hugger. Loves hugging. I guess this is how she best communicates. Perhaps she has some sort of mild(?) learning/developmental issue (a thought just struck me, she reminds me somewhat of children I've encountered with Down syndrome--they were always the nicest, sweetest kids I met, just utterly accepting, unlike most of my peers); she's not stupid, but she's not bright, either. Yet she's very sweet, loves exploring the world around her, and hugs her parents frequently, including her mother while she's preparing supper ("Liebling, you have to let me work!" Rebekkah protests), and her father when he leaves for work early every morning (Schindel never, ever protests, just hugs her as tight as he can in return--"My sweet little Hanna! Be good to your Mutter, ja?"). She's definitely a daddy's girl, and Schindel doesn't mind that at all, no matter how odd looking or acting she is, he adores her to bits. I don't think the Schindels ever have any other children; I'm pretty sure Hanna is an only child. I imagine Rebekkah feels wistful about this, having wanted a big family no matter how impoverished they may have once been (they're better off after the war than before, but are never well off), though Schindel is happy and content as they are: "We have the perfect daughter, the perfect family, what more do we need...?" And indeed, when Hanna pops back into the room, hands dirty from digging in the dirt, and soils both parents' clothes while throwing her arms around them--"Ah!--Hanna Liebling!--my dress!" Rebekkah exclaims, trying, and failing, not to laugh, while Schindel hugs her back and gets ink on her--they have to agree, their family, while small, is just perfect. [Hanna Schindel 2024 [Friday, July 19, 2024, 12:00:33 AM]] |