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

[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?

How much have you been told prior?

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

[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.

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.

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

The early thirties, I think.

What we call the Holocaust, now—that started in 1941. The camps began as prisons for political opponents, and weren't heavily used until the late thirties.

[There's a slight pause, and then:]

The camps you're thinking of, where people were killed on a massive scale... those were largely implemented at the beginning of the war.

I don't know how much detail you want.

[He's in charge of this conversation, as far as she's concerned.]

"All of it" is a lot. I'm not sure where to start. Ask me specific questions and I'll answer them as well as I can.

[Natasha doesn't shy away from it. He deserves honesty, and she goes into detail where he asks. It's awful, of course, and hard to talk about, but she tells him the truth.

It takes a while, too. She feels like she's talking forever, but when they're finally a lull and his questions slow down, she exhales.]

Is there anything else I can tell you?

I understand.

[She pauses.]

The Soviets liberated quite a few of the camps, as did the Americans and the British. I know it doesn't change anything, but it might be worth something.

Tens of thousands.

[It's not much compared to the deaths, but.]