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15
23rdJuly 1942
Jan watched his mother pacing up and down the length of the living room in their cozy apartment.She wrung her hands together and her nostrils flared.Then she paced again.
“Did you hear the news?”
“What news?”
“Himmler has come to Warsaw.”
The sound of the man’s name sent a tremor through Jan’s body.He didn’t know much about Himmler other than that he wasReichsführerof theSchutzstaffel, the dreaded SS.Jan had seen enough of the SS to know that their leader was an evil and dangerous man.
“What is he doing here?”
“They say he’s overseeing the operation of Treblinka.The camp where they’re sending the people on the transports from theUmschlagplatz.Poles, Jews, Gypsies…they’re all being sent away to a camp we know little about.I’ve heard rumours that there is something worse still, another secret camp beyond Treblinka.Even the guards aren’t allowed to enter.But that’s where they send the Jews.It’s where Antoni and his family will go if they get on that train.”
Jan’s heart thudded.Would the Nazis stop at nothing?What did they have against the Jews in the ghetto?They’d done what they’d been asked to do.They’d kept the peace and had been compliant.Why was this happening?
“We have to get them out.It’s the only way.”She stopped to look at him.“Is it possible?”
“Maybe.But where would they go?”
“I don’t know.”Mama strode across the room again.“We will find a place for them.But there is a glaring issue.”
“What’s that?”Jan could think of a dozen glaring issues, starting with the fact that they had no actual plan.He could smuggle the family out of the ghetto—he was fairly certain of that, although the Nazis had stepped up their activity as they undertook what the Jews were callingThe Great Deportation.
This made movements into and out of the ghetto more problematic than they usually were.They knew the ghetto residents would try to escape and had round-the-clock surveillance sites set up along the wall.Still, Jan wasn’t worried about getting them out so much as he was about what to do with them once theywereout.
“There are so many of them,” Mama replied.“We might be able to squeeze three or four into our apartment without anyone noticing, but there are ten adults to hide.Besides that, Fela is eight months pregnant.I’m not sure she could manage climbing over the wall, let alone whatever else she’ll have to do to get to a hiding place.Plus, Jakob will not pass as a Gentile.”Mama chewed on a fingernail.“If our neighbours see him…or any of them…”
“They’ll report him,” Jan added.“We can’t trust them not to.”
“No, we can’t trust anyone.”
“So, what should we do?”Jan would do whatever Mama decided.The risks were clear; there was no way to escape what the Nazis had planned.He knew his future was dire no matter what.
He’d already risked his life every single day of the occupation.He was more hesitant to do so since his arrest, but he also didn’t want to risk Nacha’s life, or the lives of her family, by doing something stupid or thoughtless.
“If we’re going to get them out, we have to plan it first.”
Mama agreed.“You should talk to Antoni.See what he thinks.”
Antoni could help decide the issue of how many they should attempt to smuggle out of the ghetto, or if they even wanted to try it.They may not want to take the risk.
Perhaps he should tell Antoni about that last night with Edek, or what’d happened in the Gestapo headquarters.So far, he’d managed to keep those things to himself.Mama had pried a little, but when he hadn’t wanted to talk about it, she’d left him alone.It was time to share what he knew.It might help Antoni make a better choice.
Jan slipped through the wall and into the ghetto.He was almost discovered by a Gestapo officer who caught him donning his armband and chased him into a group of Jews headed for the train station.He melted into the group and pulled his cap down over his eyes.The Gestapo officer looked for him, but couldn’t pick him out from the crowd.
It was bedlam in the ghetto.Bodies lined the streets.Jewish Police rounded people up in small groups and shepherded them in the direction of the train station.Gestapo officers watched on, occasionally pulling out their pistols to shoot any who were too slow or failed to comply.Families huddled together, each member carrying a small suitcase and wearing layers of clothing despite the heat.
The crowd carried him with them, finally ending up at theUmschlagplatz.Jan ducked out of the crowd and found a space behind a pile of garbage to hide as he watched through the fence.Families huddled on the platform, joining the thousands who were already there.Guards chased them onto open cattle cars, beating the recalcitrant or elderly with batons and shouting obscenities at them.
His stomach roiled at the sight of children shoved into the open carriages until they were fairly bursting at the seams.Each car had bars over the windows and hands protruded, grasping for air.He could only imagine how stifling it must be in those metal carriages as they boiled beneath the summer sun, packed to the brim with humanity.
The train finally full, the doors were pulled shut and the train chugged away from the station.There were guards seated on the roof of the train, armed with shotguns.
As the train left the station, a man slipped from one of the barred windows to the ground below and sprinted away from the train.One of the guards seated on the roof of the train raised his gun and shot the man in the back.He fell to the ground.
