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5
There was nothing to do at home.Jan wasn’t accustomed to being cooped up inside their small apartment all day long.He longed to be outside.To be doing something.Anything other than staring at the workmen outside building the brick wall directly through the middle of their courtyard and listening to his sisters bicker about inconsequential things.
“You can’t wear the blue.It needs mending,” said Jadzia to Danuta.They held a blue woollen skirt between them.
Danuta tugged at it, her mouth grim.“I don’t care.I want to wear it.”
“You’re going to worsen the tear.”
“No, you are.”
“Give it back to me,” hissed Jadzia between clenched teeth.
“It’s my only warm skirt.Do you want me to freeze to death?”
“It’s a tempting idea,” replied Jadzia with a grin.
Danuta squealed.She’d done it since she was small.It was her only weapon against an older sister who was bigger and stronger than her.Her squeal pierced the eardrums of anyone within shouting distance, and she used it freely to get her way.
Jan huffed in disgust as he covered his ears.“Stop it.You both sound like babies.There are more important things to worry about than which skirt you wear.Get your coats.We’re going out.”
Jadzia released the skirt and looked at him with a frown.“Out?We’re not supposed to go out.”
“Mama said to stay here,” agreed Danuta.
He jumped to his feet and headed for the coatrack by the door.“I’m going for a walk.You can either stay here and keep fighting, or you can come with me.I want to see what’s going on out there.”
Jan waited impatiently for his sisters to wrap themselves in shawls and coats before stepping outside.He stamped his feet for a few moments and blew into his hands while he stood there.Finally, they were ready, and he took off at a clipped pace with them straggling after him.
“Slow down,” whined Danuta.
Jadzia shushed her and took her younger sister’s hand.Jan could tell Jadzia was nervous about venturing out of the apartment, but he was curious, and there was no better way to satiate his curiosity than to see for himself what was happening.Besides, he was certain Mama would need his help at the market.It was too much for her to do alone.He’d always been her support in the past, and he should be there now.It was silly for him to babysit his sisters instead.They were young, but capable of taking care of themselves, and Mama knew that.
The street outside their apartment usually bustled with activity, automobiles, pedestrians and cyclists.Today it was quiet, with only the occasional truck trundling along or man striding down the side of the road, head bent and hat pulled low.
It was when they got to the first intersection that he understood.The entire street to his left was filled with lines of people.They all trudged slowly forward, unable to move far because of the gridlock.German soldiers stood around them, shouting.While he watched, one soldier yelled at an older woman for taking too long, then hit her on the head with the butt of his rifle.She crumpled silently to the ground, and a younger woman rushed forward with a cry.She knelt by the older woman, lifted her head from the ground, and cradled it in her arms as tears streaked down her cheeks.
The soldier watched for a moment, then turned his rifle around and shot the young woman in the head.She fell on top of the older woman, and the crowd rushed away from the women like a wave.
Jan’s heart skittered in his chest.He gaped at the sight of soldiers beating men, women and children.Everyone carried suitcases or cloth bags.Some pulled wooden wagons loaded with valuables and food behind them.All oscillated between sad apathy and rending fear, depending on where in the lines they stood.More shots rang out.
Several men and women took off at a run, heading for a nearby alley.They were shot in the back and fell to the ground.Screaming and wailing broke out nearby.One group of soldiers had a row of men and women kneel in front of them, then each shot their victim.One man only tipped to the side, so a solider kicked him to the ground in disgust.All of them were then pulled away by their feet and loaded into waiting lorries.
A sound at his side, like the mewing of a cat, drew Jan back into himself and he looked down at his two sisters, holding tight to one another beside him.Tears welled in Jadzia’s eyes.Danuta was already sobbing.He leaned down to meet them at eye level and looked into Jadzia’s red-rimmed eyes.
“Go home.Now!”he said.
She hesitated, her gaze flitting over his shoulder to the chaos beyond.
“Jadzia,” he whispered.“You have to take Danuta home and stay there.Lock the doors.”
“But what about you?”sobbed Danuta.
“I have to find Mama and make sure she’s okay.”
Jan pressed himself to the wall of the nearest house and watched his sisters run headlong down the street and back to their house.He saw them close the door, then turned his attention to the soldiers.They’d moved further into the ghetto now.He could see the partially built wall.The lines of Jews crushed around the wall and into their new enclosure.Hunched shoulders, long, dark coats and puffs of white breath in the still, cold air.
Each person wore a white armband with a blue Star of David.It’d been an entire year since the invading Nazis had required every Jew over the age of ten to distinguish themselves in that way.Jan had asked Antoni why he did it—why he conformed to their rules.He’d said, in a tremulous voice, that it was a small thing.It’d been done before, and if it meant they would be left alone, it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.
