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Of course, it meant no such thing.They were exposed to more violence and hatred than ever before.However, he’d noticed some people would doff their hats in the street at those who wore the stars on their arm.A silent rebellion against the occupying forces and an acknowledgement of their humanity.
Herded like cattle, the men sported wool fedoras, the women leaving their heads exposed or covering them with hoods and scarves.Some were dressed in the very best overcoats with the most stylish skirts and silk blouses beneath them.Others wore soiled rags and crept forward on bare feet.Some carried bags and satchels.Others held carefully wrapped babies or nothing at all in their desperately clenched fists.A crush of humanity surging away from the guns and into the ghetto.Each with fear etched on panicked faces.
Jan turned away from the mass of people and jogged towards the market.He had to find Mama.It was the only thought that kept spinning through his mind.
Find Mama.Find Mama.
As he ran, he noticed smoke coming from the windows of a nearby house.A group of soldiers stood around outside it.One held a jerry can.The others talked and laughed together.He jogged on.Find Mama.It was all that mattered in that moment.What if they’d found her?What if they knew about the family’s connection to the Wierzbicka family?
After the Nazi invasion in 1939, the Jewish people of Warsaw had seen a surprising increase in harassing behaviour and attacks.Jan had been shocked by the sudden animosity shown by people he’d considered friends to their neighbours.Catholics and Jews had always lived side by side in Warsaw.But after the Nazis arrived, there were some in the community who joined them in their hatred of the Jewish residents of Warsaw.Others simply watched on in horror, peeping through curtained windows, unable to process what was happening and with no idea what to do.
Terror over what he’d seen stole Jan’s breath, and he found himself gasping for air.He slowed to a walk and bent at the waist, resting his hands on his knees as his head spun.He couldn’t deal with it now—he had to find his mother.Using the back entrance, he snuck into the market and wound his way through the almost-empty building to Mama’s stall.She was there, packing dry goods away in the large wooden hand wagon she took everywhere.
“Mama,” he whispered, coming up alongside her.
She gasped, pressed a hand to her heart.“Janek, my boy, you startled me.What are you doing here?I told you to stay at home.”Her brown eyes were bloodshot, and her eyebrows drew into a single peak above them.
“Mama,” he said again, trying to find his breath.“They’re burning buildings.They’re shooting…”
She shushed him, tugged him into her arms, and pressed his head to her shoulder as she cupped his cheek.“I know.Hush now.We can’t talk about it here.The walls have ears.Let’s go home.I’m finished for the day, and there’s no one about anyway to buy from me.”
They took back roads home.Several times they had to hide from the Wermacht in alleys or behind shrubbery.They were jostled by people running for their lives.One man knocked Mama to her knees as he barrelled past.He didn’t stop.Jan helped her to her feet again, emotions numb.She wiped the blood from her torn stockings and shook her head, but didn’t say anything.
The German military burned and killed indiscriminately, but Jan had seen enough of their work already to know that it was more than that.They were an organised enemy.They kept lists of every person, every resource, and every building.They were meticulous in their planning.There was a clear strategy to their madness.Only Jan couldn’t understand why Hitler and his army would show such targeted hatred for a people who had done nothing to deserve it.
It took forever for them to make it the short distance back to their apartment.Inside, they shut and locked the door behind them.Jan kicked off his boots, soles thick with mud, and set them neatly by the door in line with his mother and sisters’ boots.He padded across the kitchen floor in woollen socks and slumped into a chair at the kitchen table.He rested his head in his hands.
“My girls,” said Mama, coming into the kitchen to kiss his sisters’ cheeks.Jadzia was kneading bread and Danuta was stirring a pot of stew on the stove.“How good it is to see you.”
There was a red spot on each of Jadzia’s cheekbones.Otherwise, her face was pale.She chewed on her lower lip after accepting Mama’s kiss.
“I didn’t think I’d see you again,” she whispered.
Mama squeezed her shoulder.“We’re fine, my darling girl.I’m glad to see you stayed at home as I instructed…unlike some.”
Jadzia and Jan exchanged a look.There was no need to tell Mama he’d convinced his sisters to go out onto the street with him.That they’d witnessed the kind of brutality he’d never imagined possible.They were safe at home now, and Mama had enough to worry about.
Danuta set the spoon down beside the pot.“Dinner is ready.”
“Thank you,kochanie.We will eat soon.I need a moment.”
Mama walked to the living room and stared out a gap between the curtains, one hand resting on the windowsill.She sighed.
Jan went to her and peered around her at the empty courtyard.The workers were gone.Between their apartment and their neighbours’ stood the finished brick wall with two strings of barbed wire pulled taut along the top of it.
“So, it’s finished,” he said.
She nodded.“They’re so close, but we can’t go to them.I wonder what they’re doing.”
He rested his head on her shoulder.“We’ll see them again, Mama.”
She inhaled a quick breath.“I worry…will they have enough to eat?Antoni can no longer trade at the market.How will they survive?”
Jadzia and Danuta came up behind them.Jadzia shuffled into place in front of Mama to sit with both hands pressed to the window.Danuta slipped in beside her and lay against Jadzia, who immediately began to stroke her sister’s hair back from her face.
“It’s horrible, Mama,” said Danuta, wrinkling her nose.“I want to see Nacha.”
“Me too,” agreed Jadzia.“What will happen now?”
Mama wrapped an arm around Jan and rested a hand on Jadzia’s shoulder.“I don’t know, my children.But whatever happens, we must stay together.And we must do what we can to help.We cannot give in to this evil.”
