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The prisoners in uniform who’d already been processed were marched off into the distance to do some other form of work.She knew her time for that would come just as soon as the SS managed to wade through the enormous amount of administrative work required to keep their meticulous accounts.
She’d heard Braunstein complain to one of the other female guards that the camp was full to bursting and they’d have to give more of the prisoners special treatment soon or they’d have nowhere to put the new arrivals.
From where she worked, Jadzia could see the entire camp.It covered almost three square kilometres of land and was surrounded by two curled rows of electrified barbed wire fence.
There were six fields, each separated from the others by barbed wire, a guard room at the entrance, and twenty-four barracks per field that each accommodated over three hundred prisoners.
Dotted throughout the fields were warehouses, workshops and three large buildings from which a constant stream of smoke emitted.The smell was sickly, and there was a steady rain of ashes that came down on the prisoners’ heads when the wind turned.
All around the camp, tall watchtowers looked out.And in each of the towers was stationed a pair of machine-gun-armed sentries.Throughout the camp was a large contingent of SS troops to guard the prisoners at all times, as well as over two hundred German Shepherd police dogs and a contingent of auxiliary police, theKampfpolizei, who seemed to Jadzia to be mostly comprised of lowlifes and criminals with a fetish for violence.
The dogs were particularly frightening to Jadzia and the other prisoners.She’d already seen them tear apart several prisoners who’d made a run for the camp entrance when it was opened to allow a transport through, or had upset the SS guards in some other way.They were well-trained and vicious.
Around eleven a.m., the guards brought the two hundred and fifty women in Jadzia’s bunkhouse back to the camp for dinner.The striped prisoners returned as well from wherever they’d been taken.The ones who’d left in the backs of trucks, however, were nowhere to be seen.
The trucks had returned earlier, their beds empty and freshly washed, and were parked alongside the entrance to the camp.When Jadzia passed through the open gates, she felt as if she might be sick at the sight of three guards standing beside the empty trucks.They were joking and laughing as they harassed a prisoner with one of their dogs, and the woman, on her hands and knees, cried, streaks of dirt mixing with the tears in rivulets down her cheeks as the dog growled in her face, its teeth bared and saliva dripping from its chin.
They lined up outside their barracks and were treated to a cup of coffee made of roasted turnips, a mug of soup made from grass, and a chunk of bread, adulterated with sawdust.Jadzia and Hanna sat side by side, their backs against the barracks walls.
They ate slowly.The meal was meagre, but it was all they’d get until suppertime and they didn’t intend to waste a crumb.Jadzia had already lost weight since their arrival; her clothes were loose on her thin frame.And Hanna’s cheekbones protruded, making her look austere.
“We have to get out of here,” said Hanna as she studied the bread in her hand.
“I know, but how?They’ll shoot us if we try to escape.And the dogs…”
“Yes, but we can’t stay.Why hasn’t anyone come for us?Where are our parents?”
“I’m sure they’re trying.Mama will do everything she can.”
“Do you think so?”
Jadzia nodded.“I know she will.And I’m sure your parents are working to free you as well.”
“But they haven’t succeeded.”Hanna’s face fell.“We might die in here.”
Jadzia tried not to think about it.She’d held onto the hope that her family would do something to get her out of this hellhole.But she should face facts—it’d been four weeks and she was still there.Hanna was right—it was likely they’d die in thevernichtungslager, just like so many of their fellow prisoners did every day.
Just then, the prisoners in striped uniforms lined up.Their guards walked down the lines and tapped several of them on the shoulder.Those prisoners they tapped walked forward.Jadzia’s stomach curled into a knot.She hated this time of the day.Any prisoners the guards regarded as slacking in their work were punished before the afternoon shift.It was sickening and horrifying all at the same time.And soon, Jadzia would be processed and would be part of the striped crews.
When they brought out the whips, she turned away, preferring to look up at the sky and make a game of guessing the animal shapes she saw there.She and Hanna could play the game together for the rest of lunchtime and never see the punishment meted out on their fellow prisoners, many of whom had grey hair and were so thin, she thought a gentle breeze might bowl them over if they turned sideways.
But she couldn’t block out the sound of the whip as it slapped across bare skin, or the wails of the prisoners as they lay in the dirt, dying.
Jan was frustrated.They’d been looking for apartments for months now and hadn’t found anything suitable.Every place was either too exposed and likely to result in them being reported to the SS, or too expensive, too small or too mouldy.
Mama rubbed both hands over her face, then set her hands on her hips to survey the room.The apartment they were inspecting was old and the walls were full of holes.The unit next door had been bombed in the siege and there was a breeze blowing from somewhere through the living room.Not only that, but the owner wanted a small fortune for the place.It was more than they could afford.
“We’re never going to find anything suitable,” Mama said, her shoulders slumping.
Jan sighed.“I can’t think about it anyway.Not with Jadzia still locked up in Majdanek.”
Mama faced him.She had dark rings beneath her eyes and a look of defeat on her face.“I know.I can’t either.But we have to—we’ve got to find somewhere before Otwock is emptied and all its inhabitants are sent to Treblinka.”
“I don’t know why we’re even doing this.We have to rescue Jadzia.”Jan slapped the wall in frustration.
Mama began to cry.“I know we do.I’m working as hard as I can to get her released.”
“We can’t think about anyone else now.She’s our priority.I shouldn’t have been sneaking into the ghetto—I should’ve been with her instead.If I was there with her, this wouldn’t have happened.”Jan’s entire body burned with anger.
